Rorschach Test Research Paper

A. Can inkblots tell us about people’s personalities?
B. The Rorschach test was invented by Psychologist Hermann Rorschach, in the 1960s, with the intentions to record and then analyze a subject’s perceptions of inkblots. Inkblots are spots that vary in shapes, sizes, and color. Psychologist say the interpretation of inkblots can detect a person’s personality, characteristics and emotional functioning. Even though this has yet to be proven, Psychologist still believe this is an accurate way to assign a diagnosis, or change how a therapist understands a client. In an article by Damion Searls, a psychologist gave a Rorschach test to a suspicious potential employee named Norris. Norris’ answers were extremely shocking, the article described what he saw as ‘violent sexual scenes with children; parts of the inkblots seen as females being punished or destroyed.’ The Rorschach test revealed a side of Norris he did not want to others to see. The Rorschach test has a history for getting information out of people they would normally

In the book ‘50 GREAT MYTHS OF POPULAR PSYCHOLOGY’ the test is described as ‘subjective in its scoring and interpretation and that almost none of its supposed personality correlates held up in careful research.’ Which goes against everything the test is supposed to find. In the book it also says ‘Yet controlled research offers virtually no support for these assertions. James Wood and his colleagues found that the overwhelming majority of Rorschach scores are essentially unrelated to personality traits’ and ‘Moreover, the evidence that the Rorschach contributes to the detection of psychological characteristics above and beyond simpler methods —what psychologists call “incremental validity”—is weak. In fact, a few studies demonstrate that when clinicians who already have access to questionnaire or life history information examine Rorschach data, their predictive accuracy decreases.’ Based on these quotes the book does not comply with the