Rorschach Ink Blot Test

Paper Summary:

The paper looks at the stages of the Rorschach test and at the numerous methods to score the test. The paper relates that there has been controversy surrounding this scoring system due to its subjectivity and then looks at the Exner Comprehensive System, the most modern improvement on the Rorschach system. The paper discusses how this test's administration and interpretation rely heavily on the psychologists and this may result in error if the psychologists are unable to conduct the test well, but the paper also notes that the ambiguity and the less rigid structure of the Rorschach test make it an ideal tool in exploring the underlying personality in a patient.

From the Paper:

"The Rorschach ink blot test was devised by Hermann Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist in 1921. It is a type of projective test that is individually administered to assess information about the person's emotional functioning (Jacobson & Jacobson, 2001). Projective tests make use of unstructured, ambiguous, open-ended situations or stimuli to identify patient's response and perception on the matter. This test is governed by the idea that these stimuli invoke a reaction that may as well reveal information about themselves. The Rorschach test provides important psychological information on the patient's cognitive, ideational and affective processes, coping styles, relationship between available resources and stimulus demands, self image and interpersonal perceptions (Levin, Lazrove & van der Kolk, 1999)."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Board of Trustees of the Society for Personality Assessment. (2005). "The status of the Rorschach in clinical and forensic practice: an official statement by the Board of Trustees of the Society for Personality Assessment." Journal of Personality Assessment, 85(2): 219-237.
• Brannick, M. (29 June 2007). Projective tests. [Online] Retrieved 18 April 2008 from the Website: http://luna.cas.usf.edu/~mbrannic/files/tnm/.
• Brunner, J. (2001). "'Oh those crazy cards again': a history of the debate of the Nazi Rorschachs, 1946-2001." Political Psychology, 22(2): 233-260.
• Daly, W.C. (2005). "Theoretical foundations of Rorschach." Education, 125(4): 669-673.
• Heshlberger, S.L. & Segal, N.L. (2004). "The cognitive, behavioral and personality profiles of a male monozygotic triplet set discordant for sexual orientation." Archives of Sexual Behavior, 33(5): 497-514.

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