Discriminant Analysis of Clinical Outpatients and Public School Children by TEMAS: A Thematic Apperception Test for Hispanics and Blacks

This study investigated the utility of the minority version of the Tell Me a Story (TEMAS) test, a thematic apperception technique for minorities and nonminorities, by discriminating public school and clinical Hispanic and Black children. The test is composed of 23 stimuli, depicting minority characters interacting in urban settings, and is scored for nine personality functions (e.g., aggression and anxiety). The subjects were 100 outpatients at psychiatric centers and 373 public school students, all from low socioeconomic (SES), innercity families. All subjects were tested individually by examiners of the same ethnicity. Results indicated that TEMAS profiles significantly, p < .001, discriminated the two groups and explained 21% of the variance independent of ethnicity, age, and SES. Classification accuracy, based on the discriminant function, was 89%. The TEMAS profiles interacted with ethnicity; better discrimination was evident for Hispanics than Blacks. Results are discussed in terms of the need to develop and validate culturally sensitive personality tests for ethnic minorities.