The Relationship Between Suggestibility and the Rorschach Test

Abstract

One of the most popular projective devices in the clinician's armamentarium is the Rorschach test. As a projective device, the Rorschach test differs from the inventory-type of personality tests. The Rorschach technique is a method of studying the total personality, or aspects of the personality in terms of the whole. The individual is presented with a relatively unstructured stimulus-situation and is encouraged to describe his reactions to it. In this manner the individual reveals his personal way of organizing experience. In order to interpret the psychological patterns, objectivity is sacrificed in an attempt to get at the dynamic aspects of the individual's personality. The psychogram factors of the Rorschach test are dynamically and uniquely united to form a pattern. The obtained picture which represents the individual's personality is determined by physical factors and the psychological “structure” of the individual at the time, depending upon his experiences, emotions, intelligence, and attitudes. Many Rorschach workers feel that a single f actor lifted from the context may violate Rorschach' s basic principle, that the obtainable picture is a function of the configuration. For example, Piotrowski insists that a "logical interdependence" exists between the various factors of the Rorschach test, and that no reliable and clear conclusions can be drawn from any single factor. Sargent holds that it is not the absolute amount of one Rorschach factor that counts but the relationship of the factor to the configuration which gives it significance in the individual protocol. The relationship of the Rorschach factor to the configuration can be studied by introducing changes in the factor. The variation of the factor may give rise to a new configuration. A difference between the Gestalt patterns can be noted, and the differences may be attributed to the variation of the Rorschach factor. Beck suggested that human nature could be passed through a prism and analyzed into component parts. He wrote that, insofar as the individual Rorschach factors are judged with quantitatively established frames of reference, it is possible t o make an analysis of these psychological processes independently of the whole personality . The significance of these f actors is determined, however, by their relationship to the whole personality. According to Beck, the impersonal Rorschach factors which represent psychological processes can and must be subjected to experimentally controlled observation. The Rorschach test is based on a number of assumptions, many of which have not been experimentally verified. There are two excellent reasons for examining the implications of some of the Rorschach assumptions: (1) since many of the premises have not been tested, the possibility exists that some of them are invalid, and (2) many of the premises cannot be found among the established facts of experimental and research psychology.