Comparing power imagery in TATs written by hand or on the computer

Two barriers to the use of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in motivation research were addressed: its low internal consistency and its time-consuming coding system. Sixty males and 60 females wrote five stories to TAT pictures either on the computer or by hand. Half of each group were timed and half untimed. The writing of stories was guided by four sets of questions, and stories were coded for need for power (n Pow) by the corresponding four paragraphs. Cronbach’s alpha for the five stories was .46; for the 20 paragraphs, Cronbach’s alpha was .65. We conclude that, to the extent that measuring internal consistency is appropriate for a thought-sampling instrument like the TAT, internal consistency should be calculated by paragraphs. Significantly more words were produced in the untimed condition, but n Pow did not differ by gender, hand-written versus computer-written, or timed versus untimed conditions. The five pictures elicited significantly different amounts of n Pow. It is recommended that researchers who give the TAT on the computer use the untimed condition. Suggestions are made for increasing the scoring validity and for using the computer to decrease the time required for human coders.     

Instructional Set and Thematic Apperception Test Validity

The strong controversy over the Thematic Apperception Test's (TAT) validity may be partly due to the divergent results critics and advocates have obtained in their own research. It is noted that conditions of test administration are closely associated with quality of TAT research results. To demonstrate a cause of TAT invalidity, 199 adolescents were given the TAT following one of four instructional sets: neutral, following a personality test, emphasizing that the TAT is a personality test, and in a nonthreatening but structured setting. As expected, stories written after neutral instructions were valid predictors of need for achievement, affiliation, and power criteria; whereas other stories yielded nonsignificant and sometimes negative validities. It was concluded that the instructions are crucial to the quality of TAT results, and suggestions were offered to help ensure validity.     

Patterns of transactional style deviance in the TAT's of parents of schizophrenics

Parents of schizophrenics show more transactional style deviance in diverse situations than do other parents. In a sample of families of nonschizophrenic outpatient adolescents, a manual for scoring such deviance on stories told for seven TAT cards was developed. This scoring system was shown to be composed of six meaningful factors. When this system was applied to the TAT's of parents of offspring with a variety of psychiatric diagnoses, a total deviance score did not discriminate among the parents. High scores on two particular factors were found only in parents of hospitalized schizophrenics, but four factors were nondiscriminating. Parents of young adults with schizophrenia spectrum disorders were more likely to show high scores on at least one of these six factors than other parents. Considering the scores of mothers and fathers together yielded the best discrimination of parents of schizophrenia spectrum disorders from other parents.     

Story Sequence Analysis of Family TATs

One hundred twenty-six three-member families were asked to produce conjointly three TAT stories based on nine cards, which were scored by the Arnold system of Story Sequence Analysis. There were 50 families with normal children, 44 with emotionally maladjusted, 16 with schizophrenic, and 16 with delinquent children. Analysis of the results revealed that the Arnold score successfully differentiated normal from abnormal families, but that the three abnormal groups did not differ from each other. The last set of TAT cards given was the most effective.     

Fantasy as a medium for the reduction of trait versus state aggression

In the first phase of an experiment reducing hostility through fantasy, 203 first and second-year high school students completed a daydreaming scale, Rotter ISB, and a sociometric scale designed to ascertain which of their peers behave aggressively. The students of the upper and lower quarters of the daydreaming scale were classified as high and low fantasy, and as aggressive or nonaggressive subjects. The second phase, two weeks later, consisted of 94 subjects forming three groups: a trait aggressive group, a nonaggressive control group, and a group of nonaggressive subjects experimentally manipulated for aggression. Half of the subjects composed stories to four high-cue aggressive TAT cards; the other half read neutral stories. All the subjects then again completed the Rotter ISB which was scored for aggression. Analysis of covariance of the scores indicated that a reduction in hostility occurred only for the group experimentally aroused to aggression in the TAT condition. The scores of the trait-aggressive subjects, tested in a before-after analysis, showed an increase in their hostility level. Fantasy capacity did not influence the scores.     

Comparing diagnostic validity of the TAT and a new picture projective test

Diagnostic validity of the TAT and a new picture projective test, the PPT, were compared for normal, depressed, and psychotic subjects. Generally, the PPT elicited more positive emotional tone, more activity, and fewer thematic deviations than the TAT. The PPT and TAT were essentially equal in the capacity to discriminate between stories of normal and depressed subjects; however, the PPT was superior in differentiating psychotics from normals and depressives. On the PPT, depressives told stories with gloomier emotional tone and psychotics made more perceptual distortions, thematic and interpretive deviations. None of these differences were apparent on the TAT. The PPT pictures seem to have more diagnostic validity than the TAT stimuli.     

Rorschach Measures of Posttraumatic Stress in Persian Gulf War Veterans

Imaginative stories written in response to either 6 or 10 different Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) pictures by over 1,500 college students in two studies were scored for intimacy motivation (McAdams, 1980), and a subset were scored for fear of intimacy (Pollack & Gilligan, 1982). The intimacy motive is a recurrent preference or readiness for experiences of warm, close, and communicative interaction with others, and it is assessed by coding the quality of the interpersonal interaction exhibited by characters in a TAT story. Fear of intimacy, on the other hand, is assumed to reveal itself through images of violence displayed in affiliative and intimate situations in TAT stories, for example, when one lover kills another. In both studies, women scored significantly higher than men on intimacy motivation, especially with respect to the intimacy themes of Relationship Produces Positive Affect, Relationship Transcends Space-Time Limitations, Surrender of Control in Relationships, and Connection to Outside World. This sex difference in intimacy motivation was most pronounced in stories written to pictures portraying possible heterosexual romance. Contrary to findings obtained by Pollack and Gilligan, however, men did not write more stories with themes of violence in intimate relationships than did women, providing little support for Consistent sex differences in a general fear of intimacy.     

TAT Validity: Congruence with an Inventory

To explore what aspect of personality the TAT taps, the TAT responses of 122 healthy, white adults were compared with their scores on the Cattell Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. In Part I major dimensions of the stories were compared with inventory scores. The number of significant correlations were less than expected by chance. In Part II a cross-validation procedure was used with test signs. Half the cases were used to find story characteristics that coincided with an inventory trait score. When these were checked for presence in the second half of the cases, signs held up for the traits of Introversion, Emotional Maturity, Surgency, and Social Sophistication. In Part III inventory scores were predicted from the global study of the TATs of thirty cases, with better than chance success. The Happy-Sad dimension repeatedly had the best inter-test congruence. Intensive case analysis indicated that the TAT shifted in “depth” so that faulty correlations occurred with shallow, conventional stories or overly deep, “ego alien” stories.     

Exploring fantasies of TAT reliability

It has been argued that low TAT stability estimates are an artifact of retest instructions to be original and creative. This view was supported in a recent study by Winter and Stewart (1977) who found that test-retest reliability was higher when subjects were told on the second occasion to write the same stories than when they were told to write different stories. This study attempted to replicate Winter and Stewart's results and also to determine whether the similarity of stories did vary as hypothesized. The replication was only partially successful. More importantly, it was concluded that while instructions to write similar stories did improve reliability, the increase reflected only subjects' memory capabilities and not greater stability in motive expression. While true TAT stability may still be commonly underestimated, altering retest instructions to improve reliability does not appear to be the solution.     

Formal characteristics of Thematic Apperception Test stories as indices of emotional disturbance in children

Formal characteristics of stories told about picture cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) were defined as reflecting the storyteller's ability to accomplish the task and were distinguished from content that expresses the unique concerns of the individual. It was argued that increased emphasis on formal aspects of TAT responses is warranted, because these characteristics can be determined more objectively and are more suitable for direct group comparison. Therefore, the variables included in our study consisted of an integration and expansion of formal characteristics previously developed with adults, which showed promise in differentiating disturbed and normal groups of children. Based on these formal characteristics of TAT stories, 95% of the comparison group members and 85% of the disturbed group members were correctly classified. Emotionally disturbed boys (n = 40) differed from a comparison group (n = 40) on seven formal scoring categories which were hypothesized to differentiate the groups.     

Linking sexual and aggressive motives: contributions of "irrelevant" arousals

One hundred thirty-two male and female college undergraduates were randomly assigned to three different arousal conditions-sex, anxiety, laughter-and a nonaroused control, as a test of the hypothesis that aggressive and sexual imagery would appear only under conditions of sexual arousal. The subjects wrote four TAT stories, two to male-dominant pictures and two to female-dominant As predicted, the sexually aroused subjects wrote stories higher in sexual and aggressive imagery than did those in the other two arousal conditions, and the scores of those in the anxiety and laughter conditions were not significantly different from the controls'. The results are discussed in terms of a connection between sex and aggression. Hull's theory of drive level and Schachter and Singer's nonspecific arousal are rejected as explanations for the results. Support is also given to earlier findings in the area.     

Identification and its relation to identity development

Two meanings of identification-as a developmental process and as a mechanism of defense-were investigated as they relate to identity status. Identification with parents was assessed by comparing participants' "ideal self" Adjective Q-sort (Block, 1978) with the same Q-sort done for either mother or father. Defense identification was assessed from TAT stories using Cramer's (1991a) Defense Mechanism Manual. Marcia's (1966, 1980) categories of identity status were determined from Mallory's (1989) prototypes based on the California Adult Q-sort (Block, 1961/1978). The results indicated that the four identity statuses are differentially predicted by parent identification, by defense identification, and by an interaction between the two types of identification. Further, the nature of these relations differs by gender. Caution should be used in applying these findings to other populations.     

Formal Characteristics of Thematic Apperception Test Stories as Indices of Emotional Disturbance in Children

Formal characteristics of stories told about picture cards from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) were defined as reflecting the storyteller's ability to accomplish the task and were distinguished from content that expresses the unique concerns of the individual. It was argued that increased emphasis on formal aspects of TAT responses is warranted, because these characteristics can be determined more objectively and are more suitable for direct group comparison. Therefore, the variables included in our study consisted of an integration and expansion of formal characteristics previously developed with adults, which showed promise in differentiating disturbed and normal groups of children. Based on these formal characteristics of TAT stories, 95% of the comparison group members and 85% of the disturbed group members were correctly classified. Emotionally disturbed boys (n = 40) differed from a comparison group (n = 40) on seven formal scoring categories which were hypothesized to differentiate the groups.     

Test Sophistication and Faking in the TAT Situation

This study investigated the effects of conscious altering of response (faking) and test sophistication on TAT performance. Thirty-six naive undergraduates and 36 TAT-sophisticated graduate students and clinicians wrote stories to all 20 TAT cards under one of two conditions: standard, and instructions to “fake” hostility. The four groups were then compared by Analysis of Variance on a number of quantitative response measures. Effects of the two experimental variables, sophistication and faking, varied with the response measure, but, in general, faking instructions led to response changes, and sophisticated subjects performed differently than naive ones. Some sex differences were also apparent. It was concluded that sophistication is a factor in how a subject fakes, the sophisticated subjects generally doing a better job of it. The implications for the effect of stimulus pull were discussed and it was concluded that the pull value of the stimulus is not affected by a peripheral response set but is affected by sophistication.     

A measure of time perspective with the TAT and some issues of reliability

In an effort to duplicate high interrater reliability coefficients reported in the use of Epley and Ricks' (1963) time orientation scoring system with the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), two pairs of judges and two different training procedures were employed. Reliability coefficients considerably lower than those quoted by other researchers were found. One method of using the system was to have judges discuss scoring differences during training and at various times during a research project until perfect agreement was reached. When used as an adjunct with periodic assessment' of reliability as judges scored a large number of stories, reliability coefficients within a range acceptable for research purposes were obtained. This procedure is presented with correlational evidence for the presence of the time factor that the scoring system purports to measure.     

Parental communication deviance and schizophrenia: a cross-cultural comparison of Mexican- and Anglo-Americans

Levels of parental communication deviance (CD), as measured on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), were compared among families of schizophrenic patients in two culturally distinct groups. Spanish-speaking Mexican-American parents of schizophrenics completed the TAT in their native language, and CD was coded from their stories by a Spanish-speaking rater. Mexican-American parents had levels of CD that were nearly identical to those of a carefully matched sample of English-speaking Anglo-American parents. Factor scores that measure distinct subtypes of CD also did not differ across groups. The data suggest that levels of CD, despite discriminating between parents of schizophrenics and nonschizophrenics, do not vary across different languages and cultures.     

时间距离、封面故事和概率对框架效应的影响

研究一以时间距离和封面故事为变量考察对认知相关性的影响, 结果发现时间距离、封面故事及二者间的交互作用显著。坏封面故事中, 人们对1年后发生的事件要比1周、5年与50年后事件的认知相关程度都高, 即最重视; 好封面故事中, 4个时间距离间的认知相关程度差异不显著。研究二在1周、1年、5年和50年四个时间距离下, 探讨封面故事、框架和概率对风险偏好的影响, 结果表明：仅当时间距离为1周时, 不同概率在坏封面故事中风险倾向的差异显著。同时, 大概率下, 封面故事、封面故事与框架的交互作用对风险偏好的影响达到显著水平, 表现出在坏封面故事中, 与负面框架相比, 正面框架下风险回避的比例更高, 符合框架效应。结合研究一、二发现框架效应正发生在认知相关程度最低时。     

Separation anxiety in mothers of latency-age fearful children

The hypothesis that mothers of children who have symptoms indicative of separation anxiety are themselves separation-anxious was tested by scoring mothers' TAT themes for separation concerns. The stories of 15 mothers of fearful children were compared to the stories of 26 mothers of children manifesting behavior disorders and 21 mothers of children having had no psychiatric contact. Different kinds of separation concerns were found to differentiate the groups of mothers. The stories of mothers of fearful children expressed significantly more concerns about abandonment and rejection and more often expressed a desire to stay near the loved one; the mothers of children with behavior disorders were found to tell significantly more stories with nurturance-succorance themes. The results lend support to the theory of anxious attachment in that mothers of fearful children seem to share the same concerns that have been ascribed to their children. On the other hand, it seems that separation anxiety may not be a unidimensional construct as different components seem to be more relevant to some symptom clusters than to others.     

Hostility of asocial youth as measured by the TAT and Rorschach.

23 boys and 13 girls, aged 13 to 17 yr., from two homes for delinquents were given the Thematic Apperception Test. Girls were also given the Rorschach. The 1960 Hafner and Kaplan TAT and Rorschach hostility indices were related to the 1977 Luukkonen indices (aggression-inward, aggression-outward, fantasy-aggression, oral, anal and phallic content), to the Pruitt and Spilka empathy index, and to the Neiger reality index. The TAT hostility index for boys was significantly higher than that for girls; boys expressed more physical and girls more verbal hostility in TAT stories. On the Rorschach, aggression outward and inward correlated significantly with Rorschach hostility, phallic and oral themes.