Projective tests: the 5 most used types of tests

The Rorschach test, the man in the rain... an explanation of this famous mode of assessment.

Although reviled by many psychologists, projective tests such as the Rorschach test and the thematic apperception test can be very useful in assessing the personality of adults and minors.

In this article we will describe the 5 most commonly used types of projective testsincluding associative and expressive or graphic techniques.

What are projective tests?

Projective tests are methods of evaluation of the personality and other mental characteristics based on ambiguous and unstructured stimuli. The logic underlying this type of testing corresponds to the hypothesis that test subjects are more likely to project their mental processes onto a test if the material is ambiguous and stimulates the imagination.

These techniques have traditionally been framed within the psychoanalytic theoryaccording to which personality has a stable character and is largely determined by irrational impulses that escape the consciousness of individuals. However, psychoanalysis argues that it is possible to identify the contents of the unconscious by means of various procedures.

Since it is assumed that the respondent does not know the purpose of the items that make up the test, projective tests are considered less susceptible to falsification than other methods of psychological assessment, mainly those based on self-report. It is said that projective tests are masked assessment techniques.

Although this type of test has been highly criticized by psychologists of other theoretical orientations at the methodological level, the fact is that the long tradition of the use of projective tests has allowed the existence of a high degree of systematization. high degree of systematization of systematization in many of them. A particularly clear case in this sense is the famous Rorschach test. However, despite this systematization, its efficacy is seriously questioned if we are guided by the meta-analyses that have been carried out in this regard.

Types of projective techniques

There are different types of projective tests: structural tests, which are based on the organization of visual material.We will now describe the most popular projective tests and types of projective tests, including examples of all the types mentioned in the previous paragraph.

In the following we will describe the most popular projective tests and types of tests, including examples of all the types mentioned in the previous paragraph. We will leave aside refractory tests such as graphology, which aims to determine personality from the personality.The Rorschach test, which aims to determine personality from the appearance of handwriting and has not received any empirical support.

1. Rorschach test

In 1921 the psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach published a psychological test consisting of 10 sheets with symmetrical inkblots of ambiguous appearance. Over the years, the subjectivity in the interpretation of this test decreased notably; in particular, in the 1980s, Exner's evaluation system, based on scientific research, became popular.

In the Rorschach test, the person who evaluates presents the slides in a certain order to the person being evaluated; in each case, the latter must answer the question "What could I do with the Rorschach test? must answer the question "What could this be?" without receiving any further prompting. Subsequently, the evaluator shows each image again to discover which aspects of the images elicited the responses.

Among the indicators that are analyzed in the Rorschach test are the number of answers (in adults it is normal for there to be between 17 and 27 in total), the frequency of the answers given in the general population or the predominance of certain contents. This analysis may suggest psychopathologyfor example, monotony is associated with depression.

Subsequently, other structural tests based on inkblots have been developed, such as Holtzman's test, which is intended to be more reliable and consists of 45 images, and Zulliger's Z-Test, which consists of only 3 plates and is intended as a screening test.

2. Murray's Thematic Apperception Test

The Thematic Apperception Test, or T.A.T., developed by Henry Murray, is a projective test.is the most widely used thematic projective test, especially in the evaluation of elderly people. It is composed of 31 sheets of which only 20 are applied to each individual, according to their Biological sex and age.

The images are much more structured than those of the Rorschach test: they show scenes related to themes such as family, fear, sex or violence from which the subject must elaborate a story that includes a past, a present and a future. The objective is to analyze the psychological needs and pressures of the person being evaluated. of the person being evaluated.

There are variations of the T.A.T. for different age groups. The C.A.T. tests. ("children's apperception test") are applied to children of different ages, cultural levels and physical and psychological characteristics, while the Senescence Apperception Test (SAT) assesses variables typical of elderly people, such as loneliness or disability.

Two other well-known thematic tests are the Phillipson object relations test and the Rosenzweig frustration test.. The images of the former show an intermediate degree of structuring compared to the T.A.T. and the Rorschach, and the Rosenzweig test presents frustrating scenes in which the person must add a dialogue.

3. Children's thematic tests

The Blacky and Pata Negra tests, created respectively by Gerald Blumm and Gerald Blackycreated respectively by Gerald Blum and Louis Corman, are thematic tests specifically for children. Both are based on images of animals (Blacky is a dog and Pata Negra is a pig) that serve as stimuli for children to talk about their vision of themselves and their family.

The fairy tale test is one of the more recent thematic projective tests; it was developed by Carina Coulacoglou in the 1990s. In this case, the stimuli are drawings of famous fairy tale characters, such as Little Red Riding Hood and the wolf or Snow White and the dwarfs, and the child must answer several previously established questions.

4. Expressive or graphic techniques

In this type of technique, the person being evaluated has to draw certain elements under the evaluator's instructions. In comparison with the Rorschach test and the T.A.T., we can say that these tests have a low level of standardization. have a low level of standardization and their interpretation is quite subjective.However, this does not mean that they cannot be useful tools.

Within this category we find the Buck's House-Tree-Person Test (HTP), Abramson's Drawing a Person in the Rain Test, Abramson's Abramson's family drawing test, Corman's family drawing test, Koch's tree test and Machover's human figure drawing test.

5. Associative techniques

The associative techniques consist of issuing responses in relation to a given stimulus. The classic example of these tests is the word association test, used by classic authors such as Galton and Jung, in which a list of terms is presented to which the person tested has to answer with the first word.in which a list of terms is presented to which the person tested has to answer with the first word that comes to mind.

The incomplete sentences test is similar, although in this case, instead of associating one word with another, the person must finish the sentence started by the evaluator. The Zazzo desiderative (or bestiary) test analyzes fear of death and defense mechanisms based on the answer to the question "What would you want to become if you were no longer in human form?".