"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)     

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)     

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)     

Thematic Apperception Test: An empirical examination of some indices of homosexuality.

2studies were done to explore the effectiveness of some TAT signs of homosexual tendencies. "Although these indices of homosexuality have functioned more effectively than equivalent indices for other variables, there still seems ground for serious doubt concerning their utility. Not only does the general clinical rating appear to function more effectively, but also the nature of the indices implies that they could easily be subjected to voluntary distortion or inhibition, thus minimizing their usefulness in many diagnostic settings." (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)     

Illusory correlation as an obstacle to the use of valid psychodiagnostic signs.

Practicing psychodiagnosticians (N = 32), when surveyed, failed to report observing Wheeler-Rorschach Signs 7 and 8 as accompanying male homosexuality although research evidence indicates that these are valid. They instead reported observing Wheeler Signs 4, 5, 16, 19, and 20, which research literature indicates are invalid. These signs were found to have much stronger rated, verbal associative connections to male homosexuality than the unpopular valid signs. 693 undergraduates (divided among 13 conditions) viewed 30 Rorschach cards on each of which was arbitrarily designated a patient's response and his 2 symptoms. The Ss "rediscovered" the same invalid Rorschach content signs of homosexuality as the clinicians reported, although these relationships were absent in the experimental materials. They did so regardless of the degree to which the clinically valid signs were valid in the contrived task materials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Orality as a factor in interpersonal yielding.

30 male undergraduates, designated high-oral on the basis of the number of oral and dependent Rorschach responses provided, were paired with 30 low-oral male undergraduates and were asked to reach a consensus regarding a neutral topic on which they had previously disagreed. In contrast to earlier studies on orality and group conformity, the low-oral Ss deferred to the judgment of the high-oral Ss in 20 of 30 dyads. A replication of this study with 20 high- and 20 low-oral male undergraduates confirmed these findings. (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)     

Expectancies, alcohol, and sexual arousal in male social drinkers.

Randomly assigned 40 undergraduate males, all social drinkers, to 1 of 2 expectation conditions in which they were led to believe that the beverage they were administered contained either vodka and tonic or tonic only. For half of the Ss in each expectation condition, the beverage contained vodka; the others drank only tonic. After their drinks, measures of penile tumescence were taken from Ss using a penile strain gauge during 2 erotic films, 1 depicting a heterosexual interaction, the other a male homosexual interaction. Although analyses of variance failed to reveal any effect of alcohol per se, there were significant effects of expectation on penile tumescence during both the heterosexual and homosexual films. Ss who believed that they had consumed an alcoholic beverage manifested significantly greater sexual arousal than those believing they had consumed a nonalcoholic beverage, regardless of the contents of their drinks. Although no consistent effects were observed on additional measures of sexual arousal, including the TAT, the Word Association Test, and forehead skin temperature, there was a significant positive correlation between self-report measures of sexual arousal and penile tumescence. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personality and IQ change.

"For a group of 140 boys and girls in the Fels Research population on whom continuous Binet IQ data were available, a distribution of IQ change was obtained by subtracting each S's smoothed IQ at age 6 from his smoothed IQ at age 10. This distribution of differences was divided into quartiles, and the Rorschach and TAT protocols of the upper (maximum increase in IQ), and lower (maximum decrease in IQ) quartiles were analyzed and compared. The results showed that in comparing the Ss who showed IQ increases with those showing IQ decreases, the former head, on the TAT, significantly more (a) achievement imagery… and (b) themes of curiosity… . [It is concluded] that high need achievement, competitive striving, and curiosity about nature are correlated with gains in IQ score." From Psyc Abstracts 36:01:1HD61K. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Empirical test of the "levels" hypothesis with five projective techniques.

Tested the "levels" hypothesis that there is an inverse relationship between the degree of stimulus structure in a test and the level of personality impulse-control system being tapped by the test, for 20 normal and 20 psychiatric Ss. As predicted, an inverse relationship between pathology and stimulus structure over 5 tests (from low-high structure Draw-a-Person, Rorschach, TAT, Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank, and Bender-Gestalt) was found for normals. Contrary to hypothesis, no such relationship appeared for psychiatric Ss. Other hypotheses that psychiatric Ss manifest more projection and more pathology than normals, and that there is a significant correlation between pathology and projection for every test for each group were confirmed. A new theory of projection of pathology as a function of the stimulus structure of tests is proposed. (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)     

Psychometric detection of schizotypy.

Genetic studies of typical schizophrenia require accurate means for the detection of carriers of the heritable diathesis. Psychometric methods have been developed, often for studying psychosocial transmission of schizophrenia, that might be useful for genetic studies. Studies of schizotypy detection using the Goldstein-Scheerer Object Sorting Test, Rorschach technique, TAT, and MMPI are reviewed. Most studies suffer from serious conceptual and methodological flaws that have made replication a rarity. Recent approaches emphasizing clinical signs and symptoms that bear a close content relationship to the typical schizophrenic syndrome are asserted to be more likely to bear fruit. (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Background factors, sexual experiences, and attitudes toward treatment in two "normal" homosexual samples.

Administered a questionnaire, the MMPI, and the Family Adjustment Test to a total of 60 male and 11 female nonpatient self-labeled homosexuals (mean age = 27.5) in 2 experiments. Differences between males and females were found in the proportion of homosexual marriages, the number of homosexual partners, and expressed satisfaction with the homosexual role. Comparisons are made with other samples of "normal" homosexuals, and implications of the present data for constructing a general theory of homosexuality are discussed. (18 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessment of annihilation anxiety from projective tests

This report details procedures to measure annihilation anxiety, a concept derived from Freud's 1926 formulation of traumatic anxiety. A 25-item pencil-and-paper inventory administered to patient and to nonpatient samples is described, along with a brief summary of earlier findings. The delineation of nine interrelated experiential components of annihilation anxiety provides the background for the construction of Rorschach and TAT measures of the concept. Findings comparing the pencil-and-paper inventory and the projective test measures are presented as well as examples of responses judged to reflect annihilation anxiety from Rorschach and TAT protocols.     

Sexual disturbances, Rorschach sexual responses, and mediating factors.

Developed and demonstrated reliability for a list of Rorschach sexual responses. Sexual offenders (n?=?40) and child abusers (n?=?40) took the Rorschach to investigate differences in these responses. These adult male Ss were randomly assigned to either a permissive or neutral instructional set, and hypothesized differences between groups were found to exist only within the sexually permissive instruction set. Post hoc analysis suggests that subtle and gender-confusion Rorschach responses, rather than those that are obviously sexual, discriminate best between groups. Results support a 2-step model of sexual responses on the test. Gender of the examiner was not related to the results. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Illusory correlation and subjective judgment.

Conducted a study with 120 male college students to extend L. Chapman and J. Chapman's (see record 1969-13004-001) finding that judges report popular invalid signs (illusory correlates) on the Rorschach as being valid indicators of homosexuality. As predicted, when Ss were tested both before and after 2 different kinds of training, in which various relationships between cues (Rorschach responses) and symptoms were presented, extremely strong a priori expectations were found for the illusory relationship between anal responses on the Rorschach and the symptom of homosexuality. In cue-symptom conditions where both the illusory and nonillusory cues were paired randomly with the symptom of homosexuality, a substantial decrease in illusory correlation occurred as a result of training. Little change occurred either when both the illusory and nonillusory cues were paired validly with homosexuality, or when illusory cues had a random relationship but nonillusory cues had a valid relationship. Different modes of feedback and different symptom base rates did not produce differential effects in posttraining estimates of the illusory relationship. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Projection of hostility on the TAT as a function of stimulus, background, and personality variables.

The effects of stimulus, background, and personality factors on the TAT were examined. Stimulus was measured by scaling the TAT for hostility and background by use of 2 instructional sets, "look your best" and "impersonal," and personality, by selecting via pooled rankings, 96 college men and women from an initial sample of 802 who were extremely hostile or friendly (group judgments) and who thought of themselves as hostile or friendly. Hypotheses that hostile persons would not project more hostility than friendly persons, but persons with hostile self-concepts would project more hostility than persons with friendly self-concepts were confirmed. The stimulus was the most important determinant of response, and low and medium hostile cards better than highly hostile ones in discriminating groups. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The clinical interpretation of the Thematic Apperception Test, Rorschach, and other clinical data: A reexamination of statistical versus clinical prediction.

Discusses the validity of statistical vs clinical prediction via interpretation of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), Rorschach, and other clinical data. It is frequently (falsely) stated as axiomatic that statistical prediction is more accurate than clinical prediction. This belief is sometimes used as the rationale for not valuing the understanding of complex conscious and unconscious personality functioning. Thus, H. N. Garb's (see record 1998-11734-018) discussion of the recommendations of E. D. Rossini and R. J. Moretti (see record 1997-04849-016) for clinical training in the TAT (H. A. Murray; see record 1944-01759-000) in graduate programs correctly asserts that "to integrate science and practice, a course on the TAT should should clarify which interpretation techniques are supported by empirical research" (p.622). The believed statement that actuarial (or statistical) prediction methods have almost always been more accurate than clinicians' is true only for a specific subset of studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)