Rorschach assessment of annihilation anxiety and ego functioning.

This work illustrates the development, validation, and application of the Rorschach Content Scale (RCS; M. Hurvich et al; see record 1994-15961-001) for annihilation anxiety. Annihilation anxiety is defined here as the fear of one's impending psychic or physical destruction. Results reflected adequate RCS interrater reliability, content validity, construct validity, criterion validity, and divergent validity. Patient groups scored significantly higher on annihilation anxiety measures than did controls. Findings also demonstrated that certain aspects of RCS annihilation anxiety appeared more frequently than did others and may be more central to the construct. Results supported the contention that annihilation anxiety is associated with compromised ego functioning, when both are measured on the Rorschach. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rorschach and TAT indices of homosexuality in overt homosexuals, neurotics, and normal males.

Rorschach and TAT protocols of 20 male overt homosexuals, 20 male neurotics, and 20 normal male students were compared in order to determine whether proposed homosexual signs were discriminative. The homosexual group gave a significantly greater mean number of the Rorschach and TAT signs than did either nonhomosexual group. "Within the homosexual group, correlation between the number of Rorschach signs and number of TAT signs produced by each S proved significant, serving as a check on the validity of both schemes and indicating the consistency of these 2 diverse measures of homosexuality." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Rorschach and TAT indices of homosexuality in overt homosexuals, neurotics, and normal males": Erratum.

Reports an error in the original article by Anthony Davids, Mark Joelson, and Charles McArthur (Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 1956[Sept], 53, 161-172). In the section on TAT results, under the heading of Signs suggested for further confirmation (p. 168), it states incorrectly (line 15) that the sign of a strong unresolved attachment to a father or father figure was scored in stories composed for Card 8. The sign was in fact scored in stories composed for TAT Card 7. (The following abstract of this article originally appeared in record 1958-02891-001). Rorschach and TAT protocols of 20 male overt homosexuals, 20 male neurotics, and 20 normal male students were compared in order to determine whether proposed homosexual signs were discriminative. The homosexual group gave a significantly greater mean number of the Rorschach and TAT signs than did either nonhomosexual group. "Within the homosexual group, correlation between the number of Rorschach signs and number of TAT signs produced by each S proved significant, serving as a check on the validity of both schemes and indicating the consistency of these 2 diverse measures of homosexuality." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychodynamic changes through systematic desensitization.

Attempted to integrate psychoanalytic theory and the data from behavior therapy, specifically systematic desensitization. It was found that snake phobics could be significantly discriminated from a group of normals on a measure of castration anxiety. Following systematic desensitization of the fear of harmless snakes, (a) 10 treated snake phobics were significantly lower on manifest anxiety than 10 nontreated snake phobics, but not as low as 10 normals; (b) treated snake phobics were significantly lower than nontreated snake phobics on a TAT measure of castration anxiety, but not as low as normals; and (c) treated snake phobics were not significantly lower than nontreated snake phobics on a Rorschach measure of castration anxiety, and both were significantly higher than normals. (20 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obesity, level of aspiration, and Rorschach and TAT measures of oral dependence.

Obese Israelis and controls were administered the Rorschach, TAT, and a level-of-aspiration task. The obese Ss scored higher on oral dependence than the control Ss on both the Rorschach (p = .01) and TAT (p = .02). There were no differences on either test for oral sadism, although the Rorschach subcategories of overwhelming figures and burdens and TAT themes of deprivation discriminated significantly between the groups. The most sensitive oral dependence subcategories were nurturers, supplicants and food organs (Rorschach), and themes of passivity, optimism, and helplessness (TAT). When only those Ss who scored above or below the median on both tests were considered, predictions regarding obesity were 90% accurate. Contrary to expectation, the obese Ss set level-of-aspiration goals more realistically than the controls. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of test order upon Rorschach human content.

A projective battery was administered to 22 graduate theological students. One group received the Rorschach first followed by the TAT and the DAP. The other group was administered 9 TAT cards and 2 DAP drawings first after which they took the Rorschach. Both groups were matched on the variables of sex, age, IQ, R, and examiner. The group receiving the Rorschach last produced significantly more human content than the group receiving the Rorschach 1st. These findings, if independently confirmed, would indicate that, although previously overlooked, test order may be an important factor in modifying certain projective test scores. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Quantified judgments of mental health from the Rorschach, TAT, and Clinical Status Interview by means of a scaling technique.

Meaningful measures of mental health derived from clinical instruments such as the Rorschach, TAT, and Clinical Status Interview (CSI) are not ordinarily quantifiable without sacrificing the subjective, clinical, and global nature of the data. A practical technique for scaling clinical judgments is described. Judgments of 35 schizophrenic patients yielded intrajudge reliabilities from .79-.96, and interjudge reliabilities from .87-.95. Days hospitalized during the subsequent 6 mo. correlated -.63 with the TAT scale, -.58 with the Rorschach scale, and -.71 with the CSI scale. Days hospitalized subsequent to a later testing, correlated -.64, -.49, and -.64 with scales determined from that later testing. The scaling technique thus was found to be reliable and valid for measuring mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological evaluation of clinical disturbance in children at risk for psychopathology.

Evaluated children of 1 schizophrenic or 1 manic-depressive parent for clinical disturbance in the St. Louis risk research project between 1967 and 1971. The investigation employed a psychological battery using the WISC or WAIS, figure drawings, the TAT, the Rorschach, and the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Form Sequence, plus blind clinical disturbance ratings from the test batteries. Tests were administered individually to 339 6–20 yr old children from intact families with 1 schizophrenic, manic-depressive, or physically ill parent, or 2 normal parents. Children of psychiatrically ill parents were found to be more disturbed than children of nonpsychotic parents. Children with a schizophrenic parent demonstrated peformance on psychometric evaluation that was in some ways continuous with that of adult schizophrenics. Children of schizophrenic and manic-depressive parents differed from one another and from controls on 2 measures. In the aggressive content of their TAT stories, children with a schizophrenic parent showed less aggression than normals, and children with a manic-depressive parent showed more aggression than normals. On the Rorschach, children of schizophrenics gave more primitive responses than children of manic-depressives, and the children of normal parents gave an intermediate number of such responses. (2 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predictive validity of an implicit association test for assessing anxiety.

The Implicit Association Test (TAT) was adapted to measure anxiety by assessing associations of self (vs. other) with anxiety-related (vs. calmness-related) words. Study 1 showed that the TAT-Anxiety exhibited good internal consistency and adequate stability. Study 2 revealed that the IAT-Anxiety was unaffected by a faking instruction. Study 3 examined the predictive validity of implicit and explicit measures and showed that the TAT-Anxiety was related to changes in experimenter-rated anxiety and performance decrements after failure. Study 4 found that several behavioral indicators of anxiety during a stressful speech were predicted by the TAT. Taken together, these studies show that the TAT-Anxiety is a reliable measure that is able to predict criterion variables above questionnaire measures of anxiety and social desirability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Aggression in thought and action of emotionally disturbed boys.

Studied relations between signs of aggression on the Rorschach and the TAT and ratings of behavioral aggression in 63 7-12 yr. old institutionalized boys. The majority of individual Rorschach signs did not differentiate between high and low aggressive groups but scores based on a cluster of 7 signs correlated significantly with behavior ratings. Of 4 scoring systems applied to TAT stories, 2 were completely ineffective in predicting behavioral aggression, and 2 led to significant findings, but the magnitude of these associations was not particularly impressive. Psychologists' clinical evaluations of aggression, based on comprehensive psychological assessment of individual cases, were highly associated with the overt behavior ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Patterns of psychological test usage in the United States: 1935–1982.

Presents findings from a survey mailed to 10% samples of psychologists in psychiatric hospitals, community mental health centers and community clinics, schools for the mentally impaired, counseling centers, and VA hospitals that assessed the frequency of psychological test usage. The survey sought to update findings from a similar survey conducted in 1969 by B. Lubin et al (1971). Results show that among the most often used projective measures were the Rorschach, TAT, Sentence Completion Test, and Draw-a-Person Test. The MMPI was the most popular objective measure, while the WAIS, WISC, and PPVT were the most frequently used measures of intelligence and conceptual ability. Factors affecting test usage are discussed. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality characteristics of mental health professionals who have engaged in sexualized dual relationships: a Rorschach investigation

This study is the first to empirically investigate the psychological characteristics of mental health professionals who have engaged in sexualized dual relationships. Twenty mental health professionals were administered the Rorschach as part of a comprehensive evaluation to assess rehabilitation potential during or after a disciplinary hearing. The Rorschach protocols were scored according to Exner's (1993) Comprehensive System. Results included a total of seven scores that differed by more than 3 standard deviations from the normative mean. These included measures of distress (especially interpersonal longing, helplessness, and generalized dysphoria), primitive sexualization, and idiosyncratic reality contact. Other indicators differing by 2 standard deviations from the normative mean included measures of vulnerable self-boundaries and long-standing, characterological dysphoria. These characteristics and vulnerabilities are consistent with previous observations emphasizing long-standing conflicts involving interpersonal longing and deprivation, anxiety regarding body integrity or self-boundaries, primitive sexualization of anxiety-provoking issues, and depression (Celenza, 1995b). Awareness of such vulnerabilities may represent useful guidelines to supervisors and educators as a focus of concern in an individual's training and personal development.     

The Rorschach Human Experience Variable, interpersonal relatedness, and object representation in nonpatients.

W. Perry and D. J. Viglione (1991) combined human representational variables from J. E. Exner's (1993) Comprehensive System in their Ego Impairment Index to create the Human Experience Variable (HEV). To validate the HEV, 105 nonpatient women completed the Bell Object Relations Inventory (M. Bell, 1991) and the Rorschach. Their spouses also rated the quality of these women's interpersonal relatedness by completing a modified Bell Object Relations Inventory and the Emotional Maturity Rating Form (H. Bessell, 1984). The HEV was significantly related to the quality of interpersonal relatedness, after considering Rorschach measures of psychopathology and "nonhuman" Rorschach images. Results indicate that representations of self and other accessed through the Rorschach account for unique variance in the prediction of the quality of interpersonal relationships, thus supporting the validity of the Rorschach and the concept of object relations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nightmares and annihilation anxiety.

Evaluated the relation between self-reported frequency of nightmares, a number of saliency measures of the nightmare experience, and a self-report measure of annihilation anxiety (appended) for 1,357 undergraduates from 2 independent populations. A significant positive relation was found between nightmare frequency and salience and annihilation anxiety. Findings were cross-validated across both samples. Results are discussed within the context of object relations and ego psychology theory utilizing an ego boundary model and are consistent with previous research (e.g., E. Hartmann, 1991) demonstrating boundary impairment in Ss with self-reported frequent nightmares. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Traumatic moment, basic dangers and annihilation anxiety.

It is contended that the fear of being overwhelmed or annihilated is a correlate of Freud's traumatic moment, constitutes a basic danger, and should be included in the series of fear of loss of the object, loss of love, castration, and superego censure. Traumatic and signal anxiety are conceptualized as two points in a series of potential responses, and it is assumed that mental representations of the early state of helplessness (originally preverbal) can later be anticipated. Major implications of annihilation anxiety noted by Freud and later psychoanalysts are reviewed, and are found to reflect fears of disintegration of the ego and of the self. Though it has been cited many times, the concept is relatively undeveloped. Key factors which increase the likelihood of annihilation anxiety are identified as traumatic experiences, ego weaknesses, and threats to self-cohesion. The prevalence of annihilation anxieties at various levels of psychopathology, as compared with other anxiety contents, is reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Annihilation anxiety in schizophrenia: Metaphor or dynamic?

Chronic high levels of disruptive anxiety (terror) related to annihilation fears have been observed as a pathognomonic finding in schizophrenia. It has been hypothesized that annihilation anxiety in schizophrenia is related to early traumatic interpersonal experiences and patterns of relationship that are internalized in the formation of pathological models of the world, the self, and others. The internalized traumatic experiential models of reality lead to a set of conditioned expectations that make internal and external existence painful and terrifying in relation to others. The dynamics of the compulsive schizophrenic's suicidal intent are considered in relation to helplessness and victimization, persecutory annihilation anxieties, and compliance with and escape from fantasies of annihilation. Case examples illustrating these phenomena are presented. Therapists must establish a protective and gratifying therapeutic relationship to contain the schizophrenic's annihilation anxiety or suicidal intent. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Boundary disturbances in schizophrenia.

Studied 4 types of index associated with the concept of "boundary" with 171 psychiatric inpatients who were tested with the Rorschach and independently assessed on other aspects of psychopathology (e.g., measures of depersonalization, stimulus overinclusion, and derealization). Contaminations and fabulized combinations were correlated with indices of pathology from Rorschach and with other psychopathology measures. Penetration scores were related to some indices of psychopathology, while barrier scores were unrelated to pathology. Contaminations were more frequent in schizophrenics than in any other diagnostic group. Fabulized combinations were more frequent among schizophrenics and latent schizophrenics than in depressives. Penetration responses were less frequent in depressives than in any other group. Support was found for the hypothesis that schizophrenics give certain types of responses considered indicative of boundary disturbance such as contamination responses. (35 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counselor trainee emotional responses to initial counseling-interview stress.

Changes in emotionality as measured by the Multiple Affect Adjective Check List and physiological measures (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse rate, and digital sweat index) were obtained from 37 prepracticum graduate students in 4 different classes during prestress, stress, and poststress periods. Stress was measured immediately prior to the initial interview of a client in a supervised laboratory setting. Significant differences were found on 6 of the 7 dependent measures across conditions. Intercorrelational matrices showed (a) consistently high correlations between pencil-and-paper measures, (b) consistently low correlations between the various physiological measures, and (c) consistently low correlations between pencil-and-paper measures and physiological measures of emotionality. The counselor trainees reported that they were most anxious because of the idea that they had to do a good job, concern over what the client might think about them, the probability that they might do poorly, and the consequence of doing a poor job. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Criterion-related validity of Rorschach analogues of dissociation.

The validity of Rorschach indicators of dissociation was evaluated using scores on the Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) as the standard. Results indicated that participants with Rorschach indicators of dissociation scored significantly higher on the DES than did those without the indicators. Also, incremental changes from 0 to 1 and 1 to 2 Rorschach indicators were associated with increased dissociation as measured by the DES. Viewed from DES measurement of dissociation, Rorschach analogues of dissociation identified a distinctive group that is characterized by strong dissociative tendencies and did not tap the less intense dissociative phenomena common to general psychiatric populations and to nonclinical samples. The Rorschach indicators of dissociation were able to be scored reliably and remained stable at retest. As indirect measures, Rorschach indicators are less subject to distortions stemming from defensiveness or tendencies to manipulate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Rorschach validation study of the ego regression theory of psychopathology.

Gave a psychiatric interview (to determine clinical status) and the Rorschach Test to 33 schizophrenics 4 times during a 20-mo period. Test-retest changes in 10 Rorschach indices of ego regression were then correlated with concurrent measures of clinical status change. F + %, R, Perseveration and Scorability were significantly related as predicted. Moreover, Ss not receiving medication showed more evidence of regression and recovery as their clinical status either declined or improved than did Ss receiving medication. Thus, there are certain treatment conditions under which the concept of ego regression accurately describes the pathogenic process, whereas there are other conditions under which regression is not as clearly demonstrable. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)