Projective Personality Test

1. THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT)
Presented By
Donna Suneeth
M.Sc. Psychology
Mount Carmel College

2. PROJECTIVE PERSONALITY TESTS
• Projective personality tests are based on the assumption that people will
“project” their personalities if presented with unstructured, ambiguous stimuli
and an unrestricted opportunity to respond. (Tuber & Meehan, 2015)
• The most widely used tests are Rorschach ink blot test, Thematic
Apperception Test and Sentence Completion Test
• The lack of objectivity in scoring and interpreting is the most cited shortcoming
of projective personality tests.

4. TAT
• Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan
• 31 cards ( 30 cards of ambiguous stimuli and one blank)
• TAT cards feature interpersonal scenes
• Individuals are asked to consider not only what is happening at the
scene in the moment but also what happened before and what may
happen after the scene. They are also asked to describe what the
characters may be thinking and feeling. (Bellak, 1993)
• Analysis of TAT can focus on both the content (what clients
describe) and structure (how clients tell the stories) of TAT stories.

5. THEMATIC
• Derived from Thema
• Thema is defined as the interaction of Need (within an organism) and
Press (force in the environment).
APPERCEPTION
• Refers to a clear perception involving definite recognition or
identification.
• Different from perception which may be vague or indistinct.
• The thema is apperceived (i.e.) the examinees not only perceive but also
recognize the implications of the stimulus situation of the card.

6. • The standard number of cards to be administered to one individual is 20
• TAT has no utility for children below 4 years.
• The more unusual, dramatic and bizarre cards are used in the second
session.
• Murray has provided separate instructions to adults and children under 14.
• The responses of the examinee are recorded verbatim.
• The average length is 300 words. (Less than 140 indicates lack of
cooperation and is not worth scoring)
• The purpose of TAT is to reveal the contents of the personality such as
drives, needs, fantasies, complexes and conflicts.

7. INTERPRETATION
• No fixed or formal scoring is generally used.
• Two commonly used formal scoring methods include Defense Mechanisms
Manual (DMM) and Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS),
which analyzes different dimensions of the psyche in its environment.
• Murray’s 2 basic assumptions are :
1. The characteristics of the Hero broadly represents the tendencies of the
examinee’s personality
2. The situation of the Hero represents the various facets of the examinee’s
life.

8. DERIVATIVES OF TAT
• Children’s Apperception Test (CAT)
• Senior Apperception Test (SAT)
• Tell-Me-A-Story (TEMAS) Apperception Test

9. APPLICATIONS
• Personality Assessment
• To help people express their feelings
• To explore the themes related to a person’s life experiences
• Psychopathological Assessment
• To evaluate crime suspects in forensic examinations
• To screen candidates (especially for high stress jobs)

10. CRITICISMS AND LIMITATIONS
• A client’s story may be interpreted in different ways by different Psychologists.
• There is no consistency across clinicians in terms of the number of cards used,
the order of presenting the cards, instructions, scoring and Interpretative
principles.
• There is no single dominant scoring system and no norms are available for the
measure.
• The validity and reliability of TAT are less well established due to lack of
uniformity in administration, scoring and interpretation.
• Murray himself stated that the conclusions must be regarded as good leads or
working hypotheses to be verified by other methods.
• It is quite difficult to learn to use the TAT.

11. REFERENCES
• Hunsley, J. & Lee, C.M. (2014) Clinical Psychology
(3rd
ed) Canada: Wiley
• Kramer, G.P., Bernstein, D. & Phares, V. (2014)
Introduction to Clinical Psychology (8th
ed) USA:
Pearson
• Pomerantz, A.M. (2017) Clinical Psychology (4th
ed) London: Sage