Tolerance of ambiguity: text analytic vs self-report measures in two nonclinical groups.

Avoidance of ambiguity can be examined by both text analytic and self-report methods. In previous studies using text analytic methods, clinical groups showed a higher avoidance of ambiguity than nonclinical subjects. In nonclinical subjects, however, higher avoidance of ambiguity did not correlate with emotional processes. In these studies, higher avoidance of ambiguity was assessed by a text analytic method (DoTA), which was applied to the Holtzman Inkblot Technique. However, the Inkblot Technique may not activate those cognitive-affective structures in nonclinical subjects required to elicit higher avoidance of ambiguity. Thus, the following discrepant results can be predicted: in nonclinical subjects, DoTA indicators of higher avoidance of ambiguity based on Holtzman Inkblot Technique do not show correlations with self-report measures of higher avoidance of ambiguity such as the Ambiguity Tolerance Questionnaire, the Inventory for the Measurement of Tolerance of Ambiguity (Reis inventory), or self-report measures of related traits of personality such as the Giessen Test. Self-report measures of higher avoidance of ambiguity should show such correlations. Two studies were carried out to test these hypotheses. In Study 1, 80 nonclinical subjects (48 women, M age = 34.5 yr.) were examined using the DoTA text analytic method, the Ambiguity Tolerance Questionnaire-14 and the Giessen Test. In Study 2, 82 nonclinical subjects (43 women, M age = 34.0 yr.) were tested using the Reis inventory. The results obtained in these subjects are consistent with the hypothe-

Over half a century of playing with inkblots and other wondrous pursuits.

This invited autobiography focuses on the highlights in the career of a psychologist who has devoted over a half century to personality assessment, among other lifetime pursuits. Beginning with an introduction to my early years growing up in Chicago, the story continues through World War II when, as a naval officer, I developed a late-blooming interest in coping behavior and reactions to stress. As with many other post-war graduate students, inkblots held a particular fascination for me as an indirect means of assessing personality and psychopathology through perception. A successful dissertation followed by fellowships and grants over several decades made possible the development of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT). Published in 1961 by the Psychological Corporation, the HIT consists of two parallel forms containing 45 test blots each. It has been used in hundreds of research studies and in clinical practice as an alternative to the Rorschach throughout the world. In addition to work on the HIT, I describe my efforts to expand personality assessment and psychological research into the international arena and provide a summary of activities in administration and public service.

[Dimensions of bizarre, idiosyncratic thinking. Relationship between thought disorders and affect]. / Dimensionen bizarr-idiosynkratischen Denkens. Zusammenhänge zwischen Denkstörungen und Affekten.

In the present study disorders of thinking were studied in normals, patients with neurotic disorders, borderline patients and both acute and chronic schizophrenics. Disorders of thinking were assessed by the Holtzman Inkblot Technique. By a factor analysis, different dimensions of disordered thinking characteristic of the different diagnostic groups could be identified. Among others two dimensions of schizophrenic thought disorder and one of borderline thought disorder could be identified. This latter dimension showed high correlations with anxiety and hostility. This was true for a dimension of productive schizophrenics thought disorders, but not for a dimension of negative schizophrenics thought disorders.

The effects of violent media on adolescent inkblot responses: implications for clinical and forensic assessments.

Two experiments were conducted to assess the degree to which violent media stimulate violent fantasy as depicted on inkblot responses. In Experiment I, 41 gifted high school students were exposed to a bucolic or violent film clip and then were asked to produce inkblot responses. In Experiment II, a second sample of 43 additional students were exposed to a verbal description of the bucolic or violent scene to assess whether the "hot" or "cooler" media (McLuhan, 1964) had different effects on the inkblot responses. In both experiments, the media exposure led to increased levels of violent responses, and in both cases males produced more violent responses. There was no sex by media interaction effect. Implications for clinical and forensic assessments are presented.

Primitive defense mechanisms in schizophrenics and borderline patients.

In this study, patients with neurotic disorders, borderline patients, acute schizophrenics, and chronic schizophrenics were studied with regard to primitive defense mechanisms. Primitive defense mechanisms were assessed by means of the Lerner Defense Scale (LDS). In this study, the LDS was applied to the Holtzman Inkblot Technique. With the exception of primitive idealization, borderline patients used all primitive defense mechanisms significantly more frequently than patients with neurotic disorders, that is, splitting, projective identification, primitive denial, and primitive devaluation. Compared with both acute and chronic schizophrenics, borderline patients used primitive devaluation at a significantly higher degree of frequency. Both acute and chronic schizophrenics differed from patients with neurotic disorders by using splitting and projective identification significantly more frequently. However, there were differences concerning primitive devaluation and idealization. The defense structure of chronic schizophrenics was heterogenous. Except for primitive idealization, all primitive defense mechanisms correlated significantly with self-report measures of identity diffusion and impaired reality testing, which is consistent with theoretical assumptions. By a discriminant analysis, 90% of the borderline patients, 80% of the patients with neurotic disorders, 76% of the acute schizophrenics, and 92% of the chronic schizophrenics were classified correctly.

Body image in adulthood: a projective approach.

A sample of 210 persons varying by age (young adults, middle-aged, older adults), gender, and relationship status (single or involved) were administered the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) and Geriatric Draw-A-Person (G-DAP) to ascertain projectively assessed aspects of body image in adulthood. Results suggested that both the HIT and G-DAP were sensitive to the effects of age and gender, wherein young adults scored higher on both HIT Barrier and Penetration than both middle-aged or older adults. In addition, G-DAP scores favored young adults. HIT Penetration scores varied by both age and relationship status.

[Symptom complex, prevalence of trauma and body image of psychiatric patients with self-injury behavior]. / Symptomkomplex, Traumaprävalenz und Körperbild von psychisch Kranken mit selbstverletzendem Verhalten (SVV).

Within the group of in-patients the patients exhibiting self-injurious behavior (SIB) have a significantly more disturbed body image--as assessed by the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT)--than the patients who do not have this symptomatology. The more disturbed the body image, the higher the frequency of SIB. The method of self-injury most frequently reported is cutting the skin of the extremities, followed by burning the skin with cigarettes or open flames. This behavior serves the purpose of alleviating diffuse internal tension, of directing aggression inward, i.e. toward the self, and of terminating depersonalization states. During the act of self-mutilation, the perception of pain is lessened appreciably or inactivated. 48 percent of the female patients in this group suffered sexual abuse during childhood.

An empirical study of Freud's penis-baby equation.

One hypothesis of traditional psychoanalytic theory holds that a cardinal aspect of the "natural" development of femininity involves the woman's substitution of the wish for a baby in place of her original wish for a penis. The current study modified and extended earlier research examining the validity of Freud's this "penis-baby" theory. College-aged women and men were presented with either subliminal or supraliminal auditory messages concerned with either pregnancy or penetration themes. Subjects' written responses to Holtzman ink-blots, obtained both before and after exposure to an auditory message, were content-coded for phallic imagery and sexual imagery. Consistent with Freud's speculations about the phallic significance of pregnancy for women, female subjects who were exposed to the subliminal pregnancy message produced significantly more phallic imagery responses to ink-blots than did women in any of the other experimental conditions (p < .01). The phallic imagery production of males did not vary significantly as a function of message condition. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of modern revisions to Freud's psychology of women and the current psychoanalytic conceptualization of penis envy as a highly condensed mental product with many layers of meaning.

[Reducing ambiguity: semantic statistical studies of "normal" probands, neurotic patients, borderline patients and schizophrenic patients]. / Reduzierung von Ambiguität: sprachstatistische Untersuchungen an "Normalen", Neurotikern, Borderline-Patienten und Schizophrenen.

The present study tries to answer three questions: 1.) Do patients with neurotic disorders differ from normals by a stronger tendency to avoid or reduce ambiguity? 2.) Does the tendency to avoid or reduce ambiguity increase with increasing ambiguity of the stimulus? 3.) Does the avoidance or reduction of ambiguity increase with affects of anxiety and hostility? In order to answer these questions, Ertel's dogmatism-dictionary was applied to the answers of 30 normals, 30 patients with neurotic disorders, 30 borderline-patients, 25 acute and 25 chronic schizophrenics in the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT). According to the results, (1) patients with neurotic disorders do not differ from normals by a stronger tendency to avoid or reduce ambiguity. 2.) The tendency to avoid or reduce ambiguity increases with measures of increasing stimulus ambiguity of the HIT cards in all diagnostic groups studied with the exception of chronic schizophrenics. As far as response ambiguity (variability of interpretation) is concerned, only in chronic schizophrenics the tendency to avoid or reduce ambiguity decreases with increasing response ambiguity. 3.) The avoidance or reduction of ambiguity increases with affects of anxiety and/or aggression assessed by HIT-measures in all diagnostic groups studied with the exception of normals and chronic schizophrenics. In both normals and chronic schizophrenics, the reduction of ambiguity decreases significantly with increasing anxiety, in chronic schizophrenics the reduction of ambiguity decreases significantly with an increase of low levels of aggression.

The viability of an abbreviated version of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique with older adults.

Multiple regression analyses of Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT; Holtzman, Thorpe, Swartz, & Herron, 1961) factor scores were conducted to empirically determine the viability of a short form of the HIT with older adults. Although R2 values were acceptable, the contribution of individual cards to total factor scores was dubious at best. These data suggest that the development of a short form of the HIT for use with older adults is premature and requires more systematic research to justify its viability.

Toward the equivalence of the HIT and HIT 25 in community-residing older adults.

In a study by the first author wherein 102 community-residing older adults were administered the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT), data collected were analyzed regarding the equivalence of the HIT and the HIT 25. Although alpha coefficients and split-half correlations were low when single-response-per-card data were analyzed, corrected Spearman-Brown coefficients were more supportive of the use of the HIT 25 with older adults. These data suggest that although a shortened form of the HIT may be useful with aged persons, research exploring the substantive bases for creating a shortened version of the HIT is nevertheless necessary.

Body-image correlates of anxiety in a sample of male alcoholics.

Body-image testing of 10 male alcoholics with and 7 without anxiety disorders showed those with panic disorder had low barrier scores. Those with phobias emphasized their hearts and those with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder emphasized their backs. The barrier score correlated positively with both intensity of physical symptoms and with sense of blocked body openings.

Primary process thinking, primitive defensive operations and object relationships in borderline and neurotic patients.

In the present paper Kernberg's hypothesis concerning the connection between primary process thinking on the one hand and primitive defense mechanisms and modes of object relationships on the other hand were tested empirically in a sample of 30 hospitalized borderline and 30 hospitalized neurotic patients. The diagnoses of the patients were given according to the 'Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines' of Gunderson and Kolb, the functions mentioned above were assessed on the basis of the Holtzman Inkblot Technique applying scoring systems of Lerner and coworkers for primitive defense mechanisms and of Urist for the scoring of object relationships to the Holtzman Inkblot Technique. According to the results the hypothesis derived from assumptions of Kernberg could be corroborated. Primary process thinking in borderline patients seems to be closely connected with high levels of anxiety and hostility, projective identification/projection, primitive denial and sadomasochistic relationships. A model for the coming about of primary process thinking in borderline patients is proposed.

Discriminating schizophrenics from borderline patients: study with the Holtzman Inkblot technique.

The present study tried to discriminate acute (n = 25) and chronic schizophrenics (n = 25) from borderline patients (BLP; n = 30) on the basis of deviant verbalizations as assessed by the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT). A 30-card version of the HIT was used. It was possible to separate BLPs and schizophrenics with quite good results: 77% of the BLPs, 80% of the acute schizophrenics and 92% of the chronic schizophrenics could be classified correctly based on the less severe deviant verbalizations (DVs) which were more frequent in the BLPs and based on the most severe forms of DVs, i.e. Incoherence, neologism and Perseveration (which were more frequent in the schizophrenic patients). Furthermore, it could be demonstrated that BLPs can be separated from neurotics using the 30-card version of the HIT, the resulting scores being nearly as high as those on the basis of the 45-card version. In another comparison, neurotics (n = 30) were discriminated from normals (n = 35) using the less severe DVs, which were more frequent in the neurotics: here, 74% of the normals and 73% of the neurotics could be classified correctly.

A technique to simulate human interaction: relational styles leading to a schizophrenic communication pattern and back to normal.

This article describes an attempt to use a theoretical model of human interaction called the elementary pragmatic model to determine which communication style leads from a normal subject's interactive pattern to a schizophrenic's and, conversely, from schizophrenia to normality. Results of this experimentation reveal a clear correspondence with the data published in the literature on communication deviances and family therapy. The computer simulation indicates preferential ways of therapeutic intervention.

Análisis de la variable color en la técnica de Holtzman / Analysis of the colour variable in the Holtzman technique

Los objetivos son estudiar si el color y el afecto están relacionados y si este determinante puede reflejar el tipo de emocionalidad en las distintas personas. Se consideraron tres subhipótesis: 1) si el color refleja algún aspecto de la personalidad, los extremos de sus valores deberían asociarse con distintos perfiles de la misma: 2) las diferentes edades influirían en la percepción del color por un principio evolutivo de maduración afectiva: 3) también el sexo estaría relacionado con la percepción del color, dado que la afectividad evoluciona de distinta manera en varones y mujeres. Se seleccionaron 325 Holtzman inkublot technique (HIT), de niños de 10, 11, 12 y 13 años de una muestra total de 633, dividiéndolos en alto color y en bajo color a partir de la norma percentilar 75 y 25, respectivamente. Se hicieron 22 análisis de varianza: 1.11 anova simples, dividiendo a la población total en alto color vs bajo color como variable independiente y cada una de las variables significativas. 2. 11 anova complejos con edad, sexo y alto y bajo color como variable independiente y cada una de las variables significativas (localización, forma definida, forma apropriada, sombreado, integración, humano, animal, ansiedad, hostilidad, barrera y penetración). Los resultados muestran que aparentemente las distintas maneras de percibir el color es indicadora del tipo de emocionalidad del sujeto. No parece asociarse con los patrones cognoscitivos intelectuales como basicamente se creía sino de manera secundaria

Contingent reinforcement effects on movement responses of prison inmates to the Holtzman Inkblot Technique.

Prison inmates were administered the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) under conditions of either verbal or nonverbal reinforcement of movement responses. Overall, there were no differences among the verbal, nonverbal, and control groups. Inmates charged with violent crimes were found to give the fewest movement responses. With crime category controlled, more movement responses were given under nonverbal conditions. There were no sex differences for movement responses but testing time increased significantly when administered by the female examiner.

Discriminating borderline from neurotic patients. A study with the Holtzman Inkblot Technique.

The present study tried to separate 30 hospitalized borderline and 30 hospitalized neurotic patients by indicators of deviant thinking. Kolb and Gunderson's diagnostic interview for borderlines and the Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) were applied as diagnostic instruments. It was possible to separate the two groups by the more severe degrees of deviant thinking with relatively high values for sensitivity and specificity (83 and 93%). If these results can be corroborated in cross-validations with independent samples, the HIT would be a very useful instrument for the discrimination of the two diagnostic groups.

[Primary and secondary process thinking in normal probands, neurotic and borderline patients]. / Primär- und sekundärprozesshaftes Denken bei Normalen, Neurotikern und Borderline-Patienten.

In the present paper normals, neurotics and borderline patients were compared with respect to primary and secondary process thinking. The Holtzman Inkblot Technique was used to assess the different modes of functioning. As it was expected, normals had more indicators of the most severe levels of primary process thinking than neurotics, but less than borderline patients. On the other hand it could be demonstrated that in normals the reality testing ability and synthetic functioning were not impaired compared to neurotics. In the contrary, the normals exceeded the neurotics concerning indicators of abstractive abilities. The results are discussed with regard to the hypothesis of a continuum of normal and deviant thinking and with regard to the concept of adaptive regression in the service of the ego.

[Aspects of object relations in borderline and neurotic patients: an empirical study using the Holtzman Inkblot technic]. / Aspekte von Objektbeziehungen bei Borderline- und neurotischen Patienten: Eine empirische Untersuchung mit der Holtzman-Inkblot-Technik.

In the present study hospitalized borderline and neurotic patients were compared concerning certain aspects of object relations. The diagnosis of a borderline disorder was given on the basis of the "Diagnostic Interview for Borderlines" (Gunderson u. Kolb 1978). Certain aspects of object relations were assessed by applying the 7-point scale developed by Urist (1977) to responses in the Holtzman Inkblot Technique. According to the results the two diagnostic groups differ with regard to 5 of the 7 scale levels which are connected with the following interpersonal themes: Being supplied and guided; controlling; sucking out, devouring and damaging; engulfing and overwhelming. The results are interpreted referring to object relation theory. Furthermore hit rates were assessed on the basis of the Urist scale data with relatively good results for sensitivity and specifity.