When it is applied in conjunction with other evaluative tests it frequently yields information that other instruments are not geared to tap.We read, or project, our own interpretations and feelings into these objects, usually in a highly individual way.From this cue, Hermann Rorschach (1884-1922), a Swiss psychiatrist reasoned that deeper trends of the personality could be revealed through reactions to a series of ordinary inkblots.
![]() Rorschach, 1921).An inkblot of the type used on the Rorschach Test and some contain patches of color. The subject is asked to examine one blot at a time and answer the question What might this be The average individual gives more than one response to many of the blots; the total for the series of ten is in the neighborhood of 30 or 40. These responses are taken down by the examiner and usually scored according to a set of rules.The first step in the scoring process is to put the responses into three major categories. Location scores tell what part of the blot is used: (W) stands for the whole blot, (D) for a part of the blot, and (Dd) for an unusual detail. The determinant score indicates what aspects of the blot were utilized: if form was more important than color, the response is designated (FC), and the reverse if color was the controlling factor; if the object was seen as moving, the score (M) is used; if the response fits the objective form of the blot, it is rated (F plus), and if the form quality is poor it is rated (F minus). The content score indicates the category in which the response falls: (H) for human being, (Cg) for clothing, (A) for animal, and so on. All these scores are tallied, and a total profile is obtained.The next step is to interpret the scores. This is often done by comparing certain response indicators to norms obtained from large samples of the population. Rorschach theory suggests, for example, that too many original, non- popular responses indicate a disturbance of a schizophrenic nature; human movement responses are believed to represent imagination and creative impulses; and color responses are associated with emotionality. If the subject avoids using the colored portions of the blots, or gets extremely upset when he first looks at a blot containing color, his reaction is termed color shock and taken as evidence of difficulty in controlling emotion. If he does not respond to the shaded areas, he is probably a black- and-white kind of individual.The test is also believed to reveal general personality trends. Compulsive persons, for example, have a need to do everything right, and to maintain tight, rigid control over themselves and their world. On the Rorschach test, these people tend to respond to the details instead of to entire figures at once. The theory states that they must account for every part of the blots, just as they would feel compelled to do in a real life situation.Studies of Rorschach interpretations have shown that these indices vary greatly in validity. Single quantitative scores have proved practically worthless as indicators of specific personality traits and as predictors of future behavior. Many psychologists have therefore abandoned the usual scoring procedures and use the test only to obtain an over-all global impression of the dynamics of the individual. This impression is then checked against the results of a battery of other personality and intelligence tests. Rorschach Test Results Meaning Free Associations OfIn this way the therapist works with the responses in much the same way that a psychoanalyst deals with the free associations of his patient. He notes the sequence of responses and tries to find the internal forces that brought them about. Rorschach Test Results Meaning Verification Of HisHe forms hypotheses about the individual from his reactions to the first figurefor example, bat, butterfly, moth, people facing each other, or reminds me of a bat, the whole thing then he looks for verification of his hypothesis in the responses to the remaining figures. The difficulty with this approach is that it depends almost wholly on the examiners own knowledge of personality dynamics, and his interpretations are often private and unverifi- able. Furthermore, the examiner runs the risk of fitting new data into pet theories which may tell more about his own personality than that of his subject.The Rorschach technique has been tested in many areas of human behavior, and its strengths and limitations are now fairly apparent.
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