Studies of Rorschach Content; A Review of Research Literature Part II; Non-Traditional Uses of Content Indicators

This paper deals with the extension of research on Rorschach content to new modes of scoring and classifying test reponses that lie outside of the conventional classification scheme. Four avenues of going beyond the traditional content categories are presented and reviewed: study of subdivisions within the units of the generally used scoring system, exploration of the symbolic meaning of Rorschach responses, investigation of constellations of content signs, and development and validation of content scales. Little systematic work has been done in the first two areas of endeavor. As far as the latter two research topics are concerned, the evidence accumulated suggests that, at best, scales and signs derived from content yield overlap, and not correspondence, with their respective real-life referents. The study of mediating variables that act to magnify or reduce the extent of this relationship has merely begun and remains the major unfulfilled task in Rorschach content research.