Current status of the Rorschach Inkblot Method

The current scientific, clinical, and professional status of the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) is reviewed with respect to its psychometric properties, the applied purposes it can be expected to serve, the extent of its use, and the nature of prevailing attitudes toward it. Available evidence indicates that the RIM is a psychometrically sound measuring instrument that provides valid assessments of personality characteristics and can facilitate differential diagnosis and treatment planning and evaluation. The RIM continues as in the past to be widely used by both clinicians and researchers. However, the esteem in which it is held by practitioners, who are generally agreed that clinical psychologists should be competent in Rorschach assessment, is not universally shared by academicians, many of whom presently question the future place of Rorschach training in graduate education.     

REFLECTIONS ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION GOALS IN PSYCHOLOGY ADMISSIONS

Four goals of affirmative action in higher education are described as they relate to psychology admissions. Broadly conceived, these goals are compensating for past injustice, correcting present inequity, promoting intellectual diversity, and enhancing the presence of role models. It is argued that the four goats differ in their underlying assumptions about the purposes of affirmative action and that these differences can result in disparate admission decisions. Data from three experiments on decision making in graduate psychology admissions are presented to illustrate the analysis. In these studies, academic psychologists rated the admissibility of hypothetical graduate student applicants who varied on a number of characteristics (e g., ethnicity, social class, interest in minority research) pertinent to affirmative action. A consistent pattern of ethnic group differences in admissibility ratings was documented, illustrating that compensation for past injustice can be interpreted as a salient affirmative action goal in graduate admissions decisions. Implications of the analysis for clarifying admissions decisions guided by affirmative action goals are discussed.     

Some determinants of task preference and the desire for information about the self

This research examined the influence of task difficulty and diagnosticity (ability information) on task choice and preference. It was found that males preferred diagnostic over non-diagnostic tasks, but among females significant preferences along this variable were not exhibited. Furthermore, the desire to obtain ability-relevant information decreased as a function of prior knowledge about one's ability. Both high and low ability self-perceptions, induced through prior experiences of success and failure, decreased the attraction toward diagnostic in formation. There was no indication that individuals with high ability self-concepts are especially avoidant of further ability-relevant information, as recent literature has suggested. In addition, and contrary to prior findings, difficult tasks were most preferred rather than easy or intermediate tasks, given that diagnosticity is held constant.     

An operant analysis of human altruistic responding

Human altruistic responding (called give responding), which delivered a reinforcer to someone other than the responder, was compared to responding where the responder was the recipient of the reinforcer (called earn responding). The same type of response (button pressing), the same reinforcer (a point representing a penny), and the same reinforcer contingency (a 40-response fixed-ratio schedule) were used for both give and earn responding. Since points representing pennies were used to reinforce give and earn responding, responding for points not worth money was also assessed. Give, earn, and point responding were arranged as concurrent incompatible operants. Lowest rates were obtained for point responding. Compared to earn responding, give responding occurred at lower rates, was more susceptible to cessation when point responding was possible, extinguished more rapidly in the absence of money, and produced less responding during reconditioning compared to conditioning when reconditioning followed a period of nonreinforcement. Give responding was less when it reduced the giver's opportunity to earn. Finally, histories of getting reinforcement from others were shown to determine give responding.     

The effect of aversive consequences upon persistent behavior

It was hypothesized that if a behavior is freely engaged in with the expectancy that an aversive consequence will follow, the intrinsic motivation to perform that behavior will increase when the aversive consequence is no longer present. Subjects either worked on a list of anagrams while receiving electric shock on a VR schedule, while being threatened by electric shock, or in the absence of shock. The experimenter then left the subject alone for 10 minutes with a new list of anagrams. Subjects in the shock condition solved more anagrams on the posttest than subjects in the threat-of-shock and noshock conditions. Subjects in both the shock condition and the threat-of-shock condition reported that they spent more of their free time on the anagrams than subjects in the no-shock condition.     

The effects of pre- and postweaning rearing conditions on latent inhibition and partial reinforcement extinction effect in male rats

Male rats were either handled daily or left undisturbed (nonhandled) during the first 21 days of life. At weaning (Day 22) animals in each early treatment condition were assigned to two housing conditions, isolated or grouped, creating four early/late treatment conditions: Handled-Grouped (HG), Handled-Isolated (HI), Nonhandled-Grouped (NHG), and Nonhandled-Isolated (NHI). At maturity, all animals were tested in the latent inhibition (LI, Experiment 1) and the partial reinforcement extinction effect (PREE, Experiment 2) paradigms. In LI, animals receiving prior nonreinforced preexposure to a stimulus (PE) show subsequently retarded conditioning to that stimulus as compared to nonpreexposed (NPE) controls. In the PREE, partially reinforced (PRF) animals exhibit higher resistance to extinction as compared to continuously reinforced (CRF) controls. LI and PREE were obtained in the HG condition, but were impaired in NHG and HI animals. The pattern of impairment was different in the two conditions. The absence of LI in NHG males was due to increased suppression in the PE group, whereas in HI males, was due to decreased suppression in the NPE group. Likewise, the attenuation of the PREE in NHG males stemmed primarily from decreased resistance to extinction in the PRF group, whereas in HI males, it resulted from increased resistance to extinction in the CRF group. The combination of nonhandling and isolation led to the reinstatement of both LI and PREE: normal LI and PREE were obtained in the NHI animals. These results demonstrate that early rearing experience interacts with later experience differentially depending upon the later experience.     

Monitoring psychotherapy with performance-based measures of personality functioning

In this commentary, I review a meta-analysis and three original research reports concerning the Rorschach (Exner, 2003; Rorschach, 1921/1942) and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) assessment in psychological treatment planning and outcome evaluation. The information in these four articles bears witness to the potential utility of performance-based personality assessment measures for this purpose. The strengths and limitations of the articles suggest several guidelines for future research designed to examine this Rorschach and TAT application including an emphasis on effectiveness studies, longitudinal data, integrated independent variables, observable dependent variables, sophisticated data analysis combining nomothetic and idiographic presentation, and the incremental contribution of performance-based measures to psychotherapy-related personality assessment.