Superiority of form% over Lambda for research on the Rorschach Comprehensive System.

Lambda is an important variable in the Rorschach Comprehensive System. However, because of the way it is calculated it has properties that can produce problems for parametric statistical analyses. We illustrate these difficulties and encourage the use of Form% (i.e., pure form responses/total responses) instead of Lambda in research. Form% is easy to calculate, and it is conceptually and mathematically comparable to Lambda. Because it is much more normally distributed, Form% is suitable to use in parametric analyses (e.g., t tests, analyses of variance, correlations, factor analyses, multiple regressions).

The future of Rorschach in personality assessment.

This article considers the Rorschach and its prospects for the next century in the context of two broad issues in psychology, as well as some test specific challenges confronting those interested in the Rorschach and its applications. The broad issues are the matters of personality as a topic of study in psychology, and the relation of findings about personality to treatment planning. The specific issues concern the definition of the Rorschach, research about the test stimuli, and the expansion of information concerning the interpretive usefulness of some structural variables that are poorly conceptualized or for which interpretation may be overly generalized. Some recommendations concerning collaborative research efforts are also offered.

Critical bits and the Rorschach response process.

This article reviews some of the basic elements of visual science, especially the concept of critical stimulus bits, as they apply to the Rorschach response process. Illustrations and data are presented to depict how stimulus features such as contour, position, color, and internal sets can be critical in encouraging or thwarting the selection of certain kinds of Rorschach answers. The findings are discussed in the context of detecting projected material in Rorschach answers.

Is the Rorschach welcome in the courtroom?

A survey of 7,934. recent federal and state court cases in which psychologists presented Rorschach testimony revealed only 6 in which the appropriateness of the Rorschach was challenged and just one in which the testimony was not admitted into evidence. There is accordingly good reason to believe that, despite occasionally voiced concerns to the contrary, the Rorschach is welcome in the courtroom.

Rorschach changes following brief and short-term therapy.

Two groups of 35 patients each, one treated with brief therapy, averaging 14.2 sessions on a once per week basis, and the other group, treated with a short-term type of therapy, averaging 47 sessions on a once per week basis were administered the Rorschach and the Katz Adjustment Scales-Form S three times. The first administration took place before entering therapy. The brief therapy group was tested a second time at termination of treatment and again 8 to 12 months following termination. The short-term therapy group was tested the second time at therapy termination and the third time 10 to 12 months after termination. Each group reported substantially fewer symptoms at termination and continued to report about the same level of symptom reduction at the second retest. The Rorschach data seem to provide an ample basis from which to argue that considerable improvement occurred in the psychological organization and/or operations of both groups, and this appears to have some confirmation in the self-report data.

R in Rorschach research: a ghost revisited.

As interest in Rorschach research has increased, an old issue-whether differences in R require that other scores be normalized in relation to R when Rorschach data are analyzed-has been resurrected. Most who advocate normalizing or partialing for R cite Cronbach (1949) or Fiske and Baughman (1953) as the basis for their argument. Although Cronbach offered several useful suggestions regarding this problem, the data base to which he referred and that used by Fiske and Baughman allowed for a much greater variation in R than occurs when Rorschach's standard instructions are applied. Intercorrelations between R and most parametric Rorschach variables are not significant among groups of nonpatients, schizophrenics, and depressives. Thus, although the issue of R can be critical when some variables are included in a data matrix, most analyses can proceed without partialing or normalization. When nonparametric variables are included in an analysis, partialing or normalizing is inappropriate because the resulting distributions will be distorted.

Comments on "the Rorschach M response: a return to its roots".

These comments address three interrelated issues posed in Kramer's article concerning Rorschach's definition of the M response and the criteria for M that is applied in the Comprehensive System, the possibility that M may be overscored by the criteria for the Comprehensive System, and the issue of whether the Rorschach is amenable to quantification and empirical scrutiny. Kramer has oversimplified and misconstrued statements by Rorschach, Beck, and Bohm; in reality, the criterion for the scoring of M responses in the Comprehensive System differs very little, if at all, from that suggested by Rorschach. The accumulated history of the test seems to confirm that it is amenable to quantification and empirical scrutiny.

Rorschach changes in long-term and short-term psychotherapy.

Over a period of several years, repeat Rorschach testing was done with two groups of patients receiving outpatient psychotherapy, a long-term group (n = 88) engaged in intensive, dynamically oriented psychotherapy and a short-term group (n = 88) involved in behavioral or gestalt therapy. Rorschach protocols were obtained at the beginning of the treatment and on three subsequent occasions, 1 year, 2 1/2 years, and 4 years later, when most of the long-term and all of the short-term patients had completed their therapy. The findings demonstrate generally beneficial effects of psychotherapy, greater change in long-term than in short-term therapy, and the validity of the Rorschach for measuring these effects and changes.

Searching for projection in the Rorschach.

The issue of assumptions concerning projection and the Rorschach is discussed in relation to the Rorschach response process and the process of projection. Some data suggest that some minus answers may evolve because of projection, but the limited nature of the findings indicate that these types of projected answers will be difficult to identify in most cases. Findings concerning passive and aggressive movement responses, morbid content responses, and movement answers, coded using a new special score for positive cooperative interaction (COP) in human and animal movement responses, suggest that most projections will manifest in responses that depart from and/or embellish the stimulus field. Caution is recommended about attempting to interpret single answers tht appear to be projections, because most any might be the product of simple stimulus classification.

Some Rorschach data comparing schizophrenics with borderline and schizotypal personality disorders.

The Rorschach data from 84 borderline personality disorders and 76 schizotypal personality disorders, both groups diagnosed using DSM-III criteria, were compared with each other and with two sets of Rorschach protocols collected from 80 first admission schizophrenics, one being administered shortly after admission and the second taken shortly before discharge. The data indicate that the borderline group is markedly different in both organization and functioning from both other groups; however, there are many similarities between the records of the schizotypals and schizophrenics. It is suggested that nomenclatures such as borderline schizophrenia or latent schizophrenia might be more appropriate to designate the schizotypal group and that the once used, but now discarded, nomenclature of inadequate personality offers a more fitting description of the borderlines.

The reliability of Rorschach variables for inpatients presenting symptoms of depression and/or helplessness.

Fifty newly admitted patients presenting symptoms of depression and/or helplessness were recruited to participate in a study concerning depression and randomized into two groups. Rorschachs were administered shortly after admission and then three or four days later. The subjects in the experimental group were instructed to give responses different than they had in the first test. Approximately two-thirds of the responses given by the experimental group in test 2 were different from those in test 1, whereas the control subjects repeated 66% of their test 1 answers in test 2. Retest correlations for 28 variables critical to interpretation show that the two groups differed significantly for four. The retest correlations for four of five variables often used as indices of depressive features were significantly high for both groups. Unusual findings are noted in the retest correlations for FM and m for the Control group and questions are raised concerning the modest retest correlations for CF and C + Cn versus the more commonplace summation of CF + C.

Schizophrenic, depressive, and nonpatient personality organizations described by Rorschach factor structures.

Rorschachs of 155 schizophrenics, 102 depressives, and 186 nonpatients were collected and scored using the Comprehensive System. Twenty-seven Rorschach variables considered central to interpretation were selected for study. Factor analyses and partial correlations controlling for number of responses, R, were generated in order to investigate the personality organization of each of the three groups. A three factor solution was found to be optimal for each group. Patterns of personality organization were discussed within the three groups and factor structures were compared and contrasted. While similarities occur between the three groups, each group also manifests a unique personality organization. These findings support the hypothesis that schizophrenics and depressives differ from nonpatients in kind, rather than degree of disorder.

Responses of schizophrenics and nonpatients to a tachistoscopic presentation of the Rorschach.

Three groups of 36 subjects each, two of nonpsychiatric subjects and one of first admission schizophrenics, were administered the Rorschach tachistoscopically. Each group was subdivided into three subgroups to permit a variation in exposure times for the blots. Intervals of 200ms, 400ms, and 600ms were used; however, the differences in exposure times did not produce significant differences within any of the groups. Thus, the data were compared by groups. The results indicate no significant differences across the groups for accuracy of from (X + %). The schizophrenic group did give significantly more Special Scores related to cognitive slippage. They also gave a much higher proportion of pure form responses and substantially more card rejections than either of the nonpsychiatric groups. The results are discussed in the context of research on information processing and the early operations in the Rorschach response process.

Children's Rorschachs: description and prediction.

The temporal consistency for 23 Rorschach variables was examined in an 8-year longitudinal study which involved testing 57 subjects at 24-month intervals, beginning when the subjects were age 8 and administering the fourth retest when they were age 16. The objective was to compare these data with norms for the various age groups and to study the features of development as manifest in the Rorschach. Only one variable, the X+%, appears relatively stable from age 8 to age 16, and the majority do not manifest consistency until the interval between ages 14 and 16. The data suggest that long term descriptive predictions of children can only be formulated with great caution except when conditions of severe pathology exist.

Relationships between Rorschach variables as relevant to the interpretation of structural data.

The protocols of 100 adult nonpatients who had been administered the Rorschach twice in a long term temporal consistency study were used in this study. Separate intercorrelational matrices were calculated for each testing with R partialed. Means of the pairs of partial correlations were calculated, the square root of which is considered the best available estimate of the correlation between each pair of variables. Fifteen of the 120 partial correlations are considered to be significant. The findings are discussed in terms of their potential relevance for configurational interpretation of structural data.

The effects of state anxiety and limited social-evaluative stress on the Rorschach.

It is generally assumed that Rorschach shading responses (Sh) are related to anxiety, especially state anxiety. To test this hypothesis, 60 nonpatients were administered Rorschachs, 30 under high social-evaluative stress and 30 under minimal stress. The high stress group reported more state anxiety but no more Sh than did the other group. These negative findings were interpreted as suggestive of the test's lack of sensitivity to mild, laboratory social-evaluative stress.

The Rorschach EA-ep variable as related to persistence in a task frustration situation under feedback conditions.

Eighty nonpatients, subdivided into four levels based on the Rorschach EA-ep variable, were randomized into two groups and subjected to a frustrating pursuit rotor task. Extrinsic feedback was provided by a noticeable sound that would occur whenever the tracker was off target. Results indicate that where ep is significantly greater than EA a greater persistence occurred even though the extrinsic feedback signaled no substantial improvement in performance. Two of the three elements contributing to the ep, inanimate movement (m) plus the grey-black and shading answers (T, Y, V, C,), and one variable unrelated to ep, white space (S), account for much of the variance in persistence. The findings are discussed in terms of an overload state that interferes with appropriate processing and mediation in a complex situation.

But it's only an inkblot.

The nature of the Rorschach is discussed using data from three temporal consistency studies with children of different ages, plus two other studies in which the retest reliability question was approached by experimental manipulation. It is postulated that the test response reflects the basic psychological styles or response tendencies that have developed within the personality, plus representations of the more private world of the person. The challenge for interpretation and research is to differentiate which of the test elements reflect each of these features, and to determine how they merge to create the response during a very brief time interval.

The temporal stability of some Rorschach features.

One hundred nonpatient adults, screened for evidence of personality disorganization, were retested after a three-year interval to study the temporal consistency of the Rorschach. In general, the correlational analysis for 19 basic variables studied, and a directionality analysis for five ratios, illustrate a considerable sturdiness over time. It is postulated that these variables can be separated into situational related indices (state variables), and more stable scores indicative of durable response styles (trait variables), based on the assumption that variables with lower correlations would identify state variables, while the higher correlations would signify the trait features. Nine of the 19 variables yield retest correlations in excess of.