The document provides an in-depth overview of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) developed by Henry Murray, highlighting its theoretical basis, scoring systems, and application in psychological assessment. It discusses the concepts of needs, press, and thematic interpretation, as well as various scoring systems used in clinical psychology. Additionally, it details adaptations of TAT for mass testing in service selection boards and emphasizes its relevance in understanding personality traits and individual narratives.

1. Compiled by Col Mukteshwar Prasad(Retd),
Mtech(IITD),CE(I),FIE(I),FIETE,FISLE,FInstOD,AMCSI
Contact -9007224278, e-mail –
muktesh_prasad@yahoo.co.in
for book ”Decoding Services Selection Board” and SSB
guidance and training at Shivnandani Edu and Defence
Academy
Decoding TAT 1:
Murray’s TAT Concept

2. Introduction
 Murray (1943) describes the TAT as a “method of revealing to the trained
interpreter some of the dominant drives, emotions, sentiments,
complexes, and conflicts of personality. Special value resides in its
power to expose underlying inhibited tendencies which the subject is
not willing to admit, or cannot admit because he is unconscious of
them”
 The TAT was originally developed based on Murray’s concepts of personality.
 At the core of his concepts was a focus on
 How individuals interact with their environments?
 How people are affected by external forces? and
 How their unique sets of needs, attitudes, and values influence their
reaction to the world around them.?
 There is no clear, agreed-on scoring and interpretive system, and
controversy regarding the adequacy of its reliability and validity is ongoing.
 TAT continues to be extremely popular and currently ranks as the sixth most
frequently used test by clinical psychologists (Camara et al.,2000).

3. Original Approach
 The original approach by Murray involves assessing which
character in the story is the
 “ hero” or focal figure, and then
 Quantifying the relative intensity of each
expressed need on a five-point scale.
 Murray also includes
 Measuring the forces of the hero/ heroine’s environment
(press),
 Types of outcomes,
 Basic themes (themas), and
 Interests and sentiments of the hero/ heroine.
 “ There would seem to be as many thematic scoring
systems as there were hairs in thebeard of Rasputin” (p.
23).
 The most frequently used and updated system has been Bel-
lak’s (1975, 1986, 1993; Bellak & Abrams, 1997).
 His book on the TAT (The TAT, CAT,and SAT in Clinical Use) has
undergone six editions and is perhaps the simplest and most

4. Needs , Press and Thema
 The TAT was originally conceptualized as a means of measuring the
strengths of various needs as expressed by the designated hero in the story.
 A need can be either provoked by
 Internal processes or, more frequently,
 The result of specific environmental forces.
 Murray developed a list of 28 needs that might be expressed in an
individual’s life (or reflected in TAT stories).
 To balance and complement the presence of needs, Murray also developed
a list of possible forces in a person’s environment, which he termed press.
 A total of 24 press were identified, and the relative strength of these press
could also be scored on the TAT.
 As a result, Murray’s theory is oftentimes referred to as needs-press
theory.
 To conceptualize units of behavior that result from the interaction between
needs and press, Murray developed the term thema.
 A thema is a small unit of behavior that can combine with other
thema to form serial thema
 An individual’s unity thema is the pattern of related needs and press
that gives meaning to the largest portion of his or her behavior.
 For example, a core and overriding feature of an individual might be
rebelliousness or martyrdom.
 This may be sufficiently well organized and powerful to over-ride even primary (

5. Needs , Press and Thema
 A unity thema is derived from early infantile
experiences and, once developed, repeats itself
in many forms during an individual’s later life.
 It operates largely as an unconscious force,
and
 Murray (1938) described it as“a compound
of interrelated-collaborating or
conflicting-dominant needs that are
linked to press to which the individual
was exposed on one or more particular
occasions, gratifying or traumatic, in
early childhood” (pp. 604–605).
The TAT was designed to assess both
 Small units of thema and
 The larger, core aspects of an individual’s

6. Interpretation based on Psychoanalytic and
psychodynamic Theory
 Psychoanalytic conceptualizations easily lend them-selves to the interpretation of TAT
stories.
 The cards themselves depict many images that are highly relevant to a
psychodynamic perspective such as
 possible superego conflicts in Card 1 ( boy sitting at a table with a violin in
front of him) or
 castration anxiety related to Card 8BM (a boy in the foreground staring
into space with two men in the background performing surgery on a patient
lying down).
 Stories often relate to internal conflict and how the person deals with
this conflict.
 The Bellak scoring system (Bellak& Abrams, 1997) is organized around
classic psychodynamic domains such as the client’s conceptualization of
 Parental figures,
 Main defenses against conflicts and fears,
 Adequacy of the superego, and
 The main drives of the hero.
 Cramer’s (1996) scoring system includes scoring for the defense
mechanisms of
 Denial,
 Projection, and
 Identification.

7. Interpretation based on Subject Object Relationship
 TAT stories can also be understood as depicting the quality of a client’s object
relations.
 This is reflected in Weston’s coding system (Social Cognition and Object
Relations Scale; Weston, 1995) that focuses on understanding the following
crucial areas of psychological functioning:
 (a) the client’s internal representation of significant others,
 (b) quality of affect in relationships,
 (c) capacity for emotional investments and moral integrity, and
 (d) understanding the extent to which a person can understand
interpersonal motivation.
 The themes surrounding TAT stories can be seen as ideal sources of data to
extract and elaborate on these areas of client functioning.
 As would be expected, researchers have used the TAT to better understand
those disorders that lend themselves to poor object relations, such as
 Narcissistic,
 Borderline, and
 Antisocial personalities (Ackerman et al., 1999; Cramer, 1999).

8. Coherent Story
 One of the core activities of being human seems to be the importance of
constructing a coherent story.
 Much of therapy can be considered an interaction that helps the client to recreate
the story of his or her life in a way that he or she can more easily live with
(Narrative Identity).
 Thus, narrative can both
 Reflect a person’s current condition and
 Be used as a means of creating change (Burns, 2001; Groth-Marnat, 1992).
 Certain patterns of narrative (reflecting on self versus describing external
experiences) have been associated with better therapeutic outcomes (Angus, Levitt,
& Hardtke, 1999).
 Research has also found that the word patterns that people use over time are
quite reliable, and reflect
 Not only how people cognitively organize their world, but also
 Relevant dimensions of personality (Pennebaker & King, 1999).
 Having people write emotionally laden stories for as little as 15 minutes a day for four
consecutive days has been found to result in
 Less illness,
 Positive increases in markers of immune system,
 Higher grades, and
 Lower reported pain levels (Pennebaker & King, 1999).
 People having understood how and why an event occurred, they are
more able to deal with it the next time it occurs and can also move
beyond it.

9. Coherent Story
This area of re-search has
had a direct impact on the
TAT in the form of new
coding systems, greater
understanding to how
everyday narrative relates
to TAT stories, and the
factor structure of word
patterns on the TAT

10.  1960 – Mrs. Uma Coudhary developed Indian
Adoption of TAT
 Human Potential Movement
 encouraged psychologists to use TAT to help their
clients understand themselves better and stimulate
personal growth.

11. General Conditions:Murray’s
 to be administered in an interpersonal setting.
 TAT materials consists of 20 cards on which ambiguous
pictures are presented.
-”M” for males, “F” for females
-”B” for boys, “G” for girls
-”BM” for boys/males, “GF” for
girls/females.

12.  The selection of cards may be idiosyncratic to the
patient’s presenting problem.
SEQUENTIAL NUMBERING SYSTEM (SNS)
a) administered to females and males in exact
order : 1, 2, 3BM, 4, 6BM, 7GF, 8BM, 9GF, 10, 13MF.
b) administered to any males: 1, 2, 3BM, 4, 6BM,
7BM, 11, 12M, 13MF.
c) administered to any females: 1, 2, 3, 3BM, 4,
6GF, 7GF, 9GF, 11, 13GF.

13.  Research purposes : Keiser and Prather (1990)
specified Murray’s frequent cards.
- 10 most frequent cards : 1, 2, 3BM, 3GF, 4, 5,
6BM, 6GF, 8BM and 8GF.
 During administration, the subject should be seated
beside the examiner with his or her chair turned
away.

14. TAT in SSB
 Murray’s TAT theory has been adapted for mass testing as
against one to one testing by giving a sequence of 11 impulse
adapted to service atmosphere followed by 12th as blank
 Subjects are shown each impulse for 30 seconds and then
they are given 4 minutes to write a story all in continuation
 This test is a mass test in which a group is given common
instructions and common display of Pictures
 There is bank of 11sets of pictures which generally
 Problem oriented
 Social oriented
 Solution oriented
 As against diagnostics SSB TAT abstracts personality traits to
find candidate’s suitability for services
 Methodology for interpretation by and large remains same
except Examiner is looking at evidence in Stories to confirm
presence or absence of 15 Officers Like Qualities.
 Hence understanding of Murrays TAT and its interpretation
would go a long way both for assessors and Candidates