Understanding Psychology (10th Ed)

projective personality test 
A test in 
which a person is shown an ambigu-
ous stimulus and asked to describe it 
or tell a story about it.
Study Alert
In projective tests such as the 
Rorschach, researchers pres-
ent an ambiguous stimulus 
and ask a person to de-
scribe or tell a story about 
it. They then use the responses to 
make inferences about personality.
FIGURE 3
This inkblot is similar to the type used in the Rorschach personality test. What do 
you see in it? 
(Source: Alloy, Jacobson, & Acocella, 1999.)
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466 Chapter 
13 
Personality
behavioral assessment 
Direct mea-
sures of an individual’s behavior used 
to describe personality characteristics.
Rorschach test 
A test that involves 
showing a series of symmetrical visual 
stimuli to people who then are asked 
what the fi gures represent to them.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) 
A test consisting of a series of pictures 
about which a person is asked to write 
a story.
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The best-known projective test is the Rorschach test. Devised by Swiss psychia-
trist Hermann Rorschach (1924), the test involves showing a series of symmetrical 
stimuli similar to the one in Figure 3 to people who are then asked what the fi gures 
represent to them. Their responses are recorded, and people are classifi ed by their 
personality type through a complex set of clinical judgments on the part of the exam-
iner. For instance, respondents who see a bear in one inkblot are thought to have a 
strong degree of emotional control, according to the scoring guidelines Rorschach 
developed (Weiner, 2004b; Silverstein, 2007). 
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is another well-known projective test. 
The TAT consists of a series of pictures about which a person is asked to write a 
story. The stories are then used to draw inferences about the writer’s personality 
characteristics (Weiner, 2004a; Langan-Fox & Grant, 2006). 
Tests with stimuli as ambiguous as those used in the Rorschach and TAT require