Presented by :-Reena Rawal 2015 HS2D

Projective techniquesProjective techniques should be used when the

required information cannot be accurately obtained by direct methods.

Projective techniques, originally developed for use in psychology, can be used in an evaluation to provide a prompt for interviews.

In psychology, a projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by the person into the test.

This is sometimes "objective test" or "self-report test" in which responses are analyzed according to a presumed universal standard (for example, a multiple choice exam), and are limited to the content of the test.

Projective tests have their origins in psychoanalytic psychology, which argues that humans have conscious and unconscious attitudes and motivations that are beyond or hidden from conscious awareness.

Projective techniques

A test that provide the subject with a stimulus situation giving him an opportunity to impose upon on it his own private needs and his particular perception and interpretation

1. Association In association techniques, participants are given a stimulus

and are asked to respond with the words, images, or thoughts that come to mind.  It is critical that these thoughts are immediate and unfiltered.  Vocabulary list, facial reaction or non-reaction, physical movement, drawings, and photos are some useful cues. 

 Example:  Rorschach test and Word Association test

TYPES OF PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUES

The test is named after its creator, Swiss psychologist Hermann Rorschach.

The Rorschach testis a psychological test in which subjects' perceptions of inkblots are recorded and then analyzed using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both.

Some psychologists use this test to examine a person's personality characteristics and emotional functioning.

In the 1960s, the Rorschach was the most widely used projective test.

In a national survey in the U.S., the Rorschach was ranked eighth among psychological tests used in outpatient mental health facilities.

Rorschach test

The tester and subject typically sit next to each other at a table, with the tester slightly behind the subject.

This is to facilitate a "relaxed but controlled atmosphere". There are ten official inkblots, each printed on a separate

white card, approximately 18x24 cm in size Each of the blots has near perfect bilateral symmetry.

Five inkblots are of black ink, two are of black and red ink and three are multicolored, on a white background.

Method

After the test subject has seen and responded to all of the inkblots , the tester then presents them again one at a time in a set sequence for the subject to study: the subject is asked to note where he sees what he originally saw and what makes it look like that .

The subject is usually asked to hold the cards and may rotate them. Whether the cards are rotated, and other related factors such as whether permission to rotate them is asked, may expose personality traits and normally contributes to the assessment.

As the subject is examining the inkblots, the psychologist writes down everything the subject says or does, no matter how trivial. Analysis of responses is recorded by the test administrator using a tabulation and scoring sheet and, if required, a separate location chart.

Word association test :-

The subject is presented with a list of words. Half of them emotional tones or conflictual associations and

others half comprising neutral words. Subject is required to respond to each word by offering the

first word that comes to his mind. In evaluation word association test , two factors are noted:-

reaction time response word

The focus is in the product of the subject. It require participants to produce, to construct, something at

direction, usually a story or picture from a stimulus concept.  This technique requires more complex and controlled intellectual activity. 

   Example:  vision board collage Thematic apperception test (TAT ) Tomkins – Horn picture arrangement test                             

2. Construction techniques

TAT, is a projective measure intended to evaluate a person's patterns of thought, attitudes, observational capacity, and emotional responses to ambiguous test materials.

In the case of the TAT, the ambiguous materials consist of a set of cards that portray human figures in a variety of settings and situations. The subject is asked to tell the examiner a story about each card that includes the following elements: the event shown in the picture; what has led up to it; what the characters in the picture are feeling and thinking; and the outcome of the event

. Because the TAT is an example of a projective instrument— that is, it asks the

subject to project his or her habitual patterns of thought and emotional responses onto the pictures on the cards— many psychologists prefer not to call it a "test," because it implies that there are "right" and "wrong" answers to the questions. They consider the term "technique" to be a more accurate description of the TAT and other projective assessments.

Thematic Apperception Test

It is new technique and it is designed for group administration and machine scoring.

Consist of 25 plates, each containing three sketches that may be arranged in various others ways to portray a sequence of events.

Subject is asked to arrange in the most reasonable sequence and which make the best sense .

Write a sentence for each of three pictures to tell the story.

Tomkins – Horn picture arrangement test

In which the subject is asked to finish a partially developed stimulus, such as adding the last words to an incomplete sentence. 

Completion techniques are similar to word associations but often considered easier to administer because they better indicate subject's attitudes and feelings and give good insight into a participant's need value system (kassarjian, 1974). 

    Examples:Perfectly cooked pancake is   ___________________________The best ting about this place is _________________________ I can never go out without   _____________________________

3. Completion techniques

In expressive techniques, respondents are presented with a verbal or visual situation and asked to relate the feelings and attitudes of other people to the situation.

It is similar to construction technique but emphasis is on the manner in which he does this ,the end product is not important.

The subject express his needs, desires, emotions ,and motives through working with , manipulating ,and interacting with materials ,including other people ,in a manner or style that uniquely express his personality.    

4. Expressive techniques

In this the child is brought into the presence of a verity of toys ,he may be told that a set of dolls is a family and that he should play with them and tell a story about them. Or he may be put into a planned situation with one or two children and told to play with them.

Doll play seems well situated to research with young children , probably be cause it seems so easy and natural for children to project themselves into the dolls

Doll play expressiv technique

Role playing It holds considerable promise as an experimental method and an

observation tool of behavior research . Respondents are asked to play the role or assume the behavior of

someone else.

Third-person technique

The respondent is presented with a verbal or visual situation and the respondent is asked to relate the beliefs and attitudes of a third person rather than directly expressing personal beliefs and attitudes. This third person may be a friend, neighbor, colleague, or a “typical” person.

It is a rich expressive method . The subject is given post of a special type of paint and told to

draw what he likes with the paints, using his finger and hands

Finger painting

These method require simple responses: the subject chose from among several alternatives , as in multiple choice item test, the item or choice that appear most relevant , correct, attractive ,and so on.

Frequently used in quantitative studies, this technique is also used

informally in qualitative research.

The subjects have to explain why certain things are most important¨ or least important¨, or to "rank" or order¨ or “categorize” certain factors associated with a product, brand or service.

5. Choice Ordering

They may elicit responses that subjects would be unwilling or unable to give if they knew the purpose of the study.

Helpful when the issues to be addressed are personal, sensitive, or subject to strong social norms.

It may be useful for young children ,illiterate and person with

language handicaps or speech defects.

Helpful when underlying motivations, beliefs, and attitudes are operating at a subconscious level.

Advantages of Projective Techniques

Require highly trained interviewers.

Lack of test reliability and validly of projective technique.

Skilled interpreters are also required to analyze the responses.

There is a serious risk of interpretation bias.

They tend to be expensive.

May require respondents to engage in unusual behavior.

Disadvantages of Projective Techniques

It allow the researcher to obtain such information without influencing answers in the process and to find out things about the respondents that could be unwilling to reveal.

In social science researchers devise more structured and less ambiguous tests because mostly they want to access the attitude that presumably are more available in the individual consciousness and that could express if it were not this reluctance to reveal them openly to others.

Application of projective techniques in social sciences