Methodological considerations in Rorschach research.

Abstract

Research with the Rorschach Inkblot Method should be conducted according to the same general principles of research design that guide other investigative efforts in psychological science. However, the nature of the Rorschach as a relatively unstructured measure of personality functioning calls for special attention to certain aspects of selecting research participants, choosing variables, and collecting and analyzing data. The present article delineates how such methodological considerations can enhance prospects for obtaining statistically significant and substantively meaningful results. The Rorschach is a multidimensional, relatively unstructured instrument for measuring personality functioning. This description diverges from some commonly held notions about the instrument. The Rorschach is sometimes regarded as if it were a single scale and as if it were therefore appropriate to speak in general terms of its reliability and validity. In fact, however, like other multidimensional measures, the Rorschach yields many different scores and indices, each having its own psychometric properties. Hence, the reliability and validity of the instrument in general can be addressed only as an impressionistic or mathematical averaging of the reliability of its individual scores and the validity of its individual indices. Sometimes the Rorschach is regarded as an entirely subjective measure involving ambiguous stimuli and an unstructured task. In fact, however, the inkblot stimuli have some definite features (such as being black, red, shaded, or shaped like a bat); Rorschach examinees are given some specific instructions (e.g., Show me where you saw it and tell me what made it look like that to you); and the examining process includes considerable objectivity in coding and interpretation (e.g., the use of the whole blot for a percept is coded as W, and numerous W responses are taken to indicate a global style of attending to experience). Hence the lack of structure in the Rorschach is by no means absolute but rather is relative, as compared, for example, to a yes-no checklist. Commonly, the Rorschach is regarded as a test when, in fact, it can more appropriately be considered a method of generating data. Tests measure whether something is present and in what quantity. A test of intelligence measures how much intelligence a person has, for example, and a test of depression measures whether and to what extent a person is depressed. The Rorschach, on the other hand, is not used to measure whether individuals have a personality or how much personality they have. Instead, the Rorschach provides information about perceptual and associational processes from which numerous personality characteristics can be inferred. Accordingly, the suggestion has

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