Facts, basics, statistics, tests

part of the experiment. Regardless, behavioral psychologists were
able to derive many important insights from Watson and from the
results of the Little Albert experiment that have continued to shape
the field.

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HERMANN RORSCHACH
(1884–1922)
Personality through inkblots
Hermann Rorschach was born on November 8th, 1884, in Zurich,
Switzerland, and was the oldest son of a failed artist who made a
living as an art teacher. Even as a young child, Rorschach was
fascinated with inkblots (probably the result of his father’s artistic
endeavors and his own passion for art), and in secondary school, he
went by the nickname “Klex,” which literally meant “inkblot.” When
Rorschach was twelve years old, his mother died, and when he was
eighteen years old, his father died.
Following high school, which he graduated from with honors,
Rorschach went to college to earn a medical degree. In 1912,
Rorschach earned his MD from the University of Zurich and began
working in various mental institutions.
In 1911, while training at the University of Zurich, Rorschach
performed experiments on schoolchildren using inkblots to see if
those children that were more gifted artistically were also more
imaginative when it came to their interpretations of the inkblots.
This would prove to not only have a dramatic impact on Rorschach’s
studies, but also on the entire field of psychology. While Rorschach
was not the first to incorporate inkblots into his work, this
experiment was the first time inkblots were significantly used in an
analytical approach. The results of this experiment have since been
lost, but for the next ten years, Rorschach conducted research in an
effort to create a consistent method that would lead to the
understanding of personality traits by simply using inkblots.
Because he was employed at a mental hospital, Rorschach had
easy access to patients. Along with using mentally and emotionally
stable and healthy individuals, Rorschach was able to create a
systematic test using inkblots that could analyze a person and give
significant results on their personality traits.
In 1921, Rorschach presented his work with the publishing of his

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book, 
Psychodiagnostik
. In his book, Rorschach also goes over his own
theories of personality. One of his main arguments is that all people
have a mixture of introversive and extratensive personalities—they
are motivated by both internal and external influences. Rorschach
believed that through the inkblot test, the relative amount of these
personality traits could be measured, which could help reveal any
mental abnormalities or strengths.
When Rorschach’s book first came out, it was largely ignored by
the psychiatric community because the common belief at that time
was that personality could not be measured or tested. By 1922,
psychiatrists began seeing the benefits of Rorschach’s test, and
Rorschach discussed improving the test at a meeting of the
Psychoanalytic Society. On April 1st, 1922, after a week of suffering
from abdominal pains, Rorschach was admitted into the hospital for
appendicitis. On April 2nd, 1922, Hermann Rorschach died. He was
only thirty-seven years old and never got to see the success of his
inkblot test.
THE RORSCHACH INKBLOTS
The Rorschach test consists of ten inkblots in total: five are black
ink, two are red and black ink, and three are multicolored. A
psychologist will present each card in a very specific order and then
ask the patient, “What might this be?” Once the patient has viewed
all of the inkblots and has given his or her thoughts, the psychologist
will then show the inkblots to the patient again, one at a time. The
patient is told to list everything he or she sees, where they see it,
and what in the inkblot makes them say that. The inkblot can be
rotated, tilted, turned upside down, or manipulated in any manner
of ways. The psychologist should record everything that the patient
says and does, as well as time each of the responses. Responses are
then analyzed and scored. Through a series of mathematical
calculations, a summary of the test data is produced and interpreted
using empirical data.
If you have no initial reaction or you can’t seem to describe the
card you are looking at, this may mean that you have a block in the

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subject that the card is representative of, or the card deals with a
topic that you don’t want to confront at that point in time.
Card 1
The first card is just made up of black ink. Because this is the first
card a person will see, this can provide insight into how the patient
will take on a task that is new and stressful. People will often
describe this card as looking like a bat, moth, butterfly, or the face
of some kind of animal, like an elephant or rabbit. This card
generally reflects the person.
While a bat can mean something unclean or demonic for
some, for others it can mean navigating through darkness and
rebirth.
Butterflies can symbolize transition, transformation, as well
as the ability to grow, change, and overcome.
Moths can symbolize feeling overlooked, ugly, as well as our
weaknesses and annoyances.
The face of an animal, in particular an elephant, can
symbolize the ways in which we confront problems, and a
fear of looking into our inner issues. It can also symbolize
“the elephant in the room,” and comment on an issue that is
being tiptoed around.
Card 2
This card consists of red and black ink, and is often perceived as
sexual in nature. The parts that are red are usually interpreted as
blood, and the way a person responds can reflect the ways in which
he or she manages feelings, physical harm, or anger. People will
often describe this card as resembling praying, two people, a person
looking in the mirror, or four-legged animals like a dog, bear, or
elephant.
Seeing two people can symbolize codependency, an obsession
with sex, ambivalent feelings about sex, or a focus on bonding
with other people or relationships.

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Seeing a person looking at their reflection in the mirror can
symbolize self-absorption or self-reflection. Either can be a
negative or positive trait, depending on the person’s feelings.
Seeing a dog can symbolize an affectionate and loyal friend.
If the patient has just seen something negative, this could
indicate that they need to face their fears and acknowledge
inner feelings.
Seeing an elephant can symbolize thoughtfulness, memory,
and intelligence; however, it can also symbolize a negative
physical self-image.
Seeing a bear can symbolize aggression, competition,
independence, resurrection, and can even be a play on the
word “bare,” which may mean feelings of vulnerability, being
unprotected, or feeling sincere and honest.
This card is extremely sexual, so seeing a person praying may
symbolize a person’s beliefs about sex within the context of
their religion. The blood can also indicate that a person
associates physical pain with religion, that the person turns to
prayer when undergoing challenging emotions such as anger,
or that the person associates anger with religion.
Card 3
The third card features red and black ink, and symbolizes how a
person relates to other people in social interactions. Common
responses to this card include seeing two people, one person looking
into a mirror, a butterfly, or a moth.
Seeing two people eating with one another symbolizes that
the participant’s social life is nourishing. Seeing two people
washing their hands can symbolize insecurity, a sense of not
being clean, or paranoid feelings. Viewing two people