The Ups and Downs of TAT Card 17BM

The frequency with which a normal population (N = 65) designates the man on Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1938) Card 17BM as climbing either up or down was studied and correlated with measures of optimism and self-efficacy. Thirty-four participants (52%) specified the direction as up, 21 (32%) as down, and 10 (15%) did not designate a direction. Designating the climber as going up or down was not related to optimism or self-efficacy. However, goal specification and attainment within the TAT story-as-a-whole was correlated with both optimism and self-efficacy.