24 Projective Techniques

S. Gayatridevi

Introduction

Projective is derived from the word Projection, it means that the process of attributing an individual’s feelings, attitudes, wishes and emotions to another person. The word Projection was started to be used before 1895.

Frank (1939) coined the term Projective Techniques and it originated from dream analysis and free association from Psychoanalytic Techniques and Gestalt Therapy.

In the Projective Techniques ambiguous stimulus is presented to the subject. Unconsciously the subject tries to project his real motivation or attitudes, as the subject perceives and interprets the stimulus without being aware of what he is revealing.

Projective Techniques have two important but distinctive characteristics. They are

1.It is disguised because the real purpose of the testing is not revealed to the subject to prevent him from withholding vital information from the experimenter. The subject is allowed to reveal unconsciously his/her true attitudes and motivation.

2.It is unstructured. The subject may respond in unlimited number of ways according to the interpretation of the stimuli.

The success of the techniques lies in the process of projection from which the word projective technique is derived.

In traditional psychology, projection occurs when an individual confronted with unacceptable impulses or attributes within himself, defends against the conflict or anxiety and try to reduce it by displacing it on another person. For an example, if an individual hates his family members suppose to love them leads to conflict with the ego or superego. S/he may try to repress the hatred but it will be there unconsciously. Therefore, s/he tries to convince himself/herself through projection that the hatred person hates him/her. Now, the hatred is justified. Now, s/he can release the tension by hatred which s/he could not do before. This unconscious and pathological process is termed as classic projection.

An individual given an ambiguous stimulus and asked to make sense out of it, will do so by making use of his own needs, emotions, feelings and knowledge. When an individual’s inner state of qualities influences his/her perceptions and interpretation of the outer world is termed as generalized projection.

Freud’s book on “The Interpretation of Dreams” (1900) marked the beginning of Projective Techniques. He developed a new technique of dream analysis and included the statement of a general theory that provided the background from this many other Projective Techniques emerged. Psychologists developed different kind of Projective Techniques at different times. Lawrance K. Frank published a influential paper on “Projective Hypothesis” which unlashed a torrent of research, test construction and clinical speculation. He suggested the name “Projective Methods” be applied to the various tests already existed such as Word Association, Rorschach Ink Blot Test, Thematic Apperception Test, Sentence Completion Test and contributed to the research.

Frank’s ideas and concepts were enthusiastically received by Clinical Psychologists, Social Workers, Psychiatrists, Psychoanalysts and Anthropologists. The Projective Techniques were gained popularity as a revolt against the more rigid tests developed by Binet, Terman, Thorndike and Thurstone and it emphasized careful quantification, repeatability, efficiency and exact specification. Measurement of Intelligence, Social Attitude, Aptitudes were successful as a standardized tool but unsuccessful in dealing with emotions, motivations and values. Projective Techniques provided a strong lure and most of the clinics are well equipped with it.

Projective Techniques were incorporated in Marketing Research in 1940’s. It has been used in attitudinal and opinion studies, company brand image, brand name studies and consumer motivation. It was mainly used in automobiles, soaps, detergents, cigarettes, food products etc. which was similar in quality, performance and price.

Projective Techniques are used to identify the inner self of the individuals such as needs, unfulfilled desires, achievement etc. projective techniques are very widely used techniques by the Clinical Psychologists to diagnose the inner cry and help the individuals through Psychoanalysis, Cognitive Therapy, Behaviour Therapy as well as Counselling. Let us know more about the Types of Projective Techniques, Advantages and Disadvantages.

Projective tests are open ended examinations that invite people to tell stories about pictures, diagrams or objects. The idea is that because the test material has no established meaning, the story a person tells must say about his/her needs, wishes, fears and other aspects of his/her personality. In other words, the subject will project his/her feelings into the test items. Projective test is otherwise known as Objective Test or A Self Report Test.

Classification of Projective Measures

Lindzey (1959) proposed a five way classification of Projective Methods based on types of responses, such as

1. Association Techniques
2. Construction Techniques
3. Completion Techniques
4. Choice or Ordering Techniques
5. Expressive Techniques

Association Techniques

In this technique the subject will be responding to the stimulus the first thing that comes to his/her mind. The most famous and important technique is Rorschach Ink Blot Test developed by Swiss Psychiatrist, Hermann Rorschach. The test consists of 10 cards, 5 cards are in Black and White and 5 cards are colour cards. The subject should be seated comfortably and the cards should be administered one by one and the responses should be noted down. Based on the subjects responses the Psychologists should try to obtain which portion of the pictures elicits the responses.

There are a number of methods to score the Rorschach responses. Some are very specific and concrete. For an example, according to one method a subject who mentions human movement more often than colour in the ink blot is probably Introvert while an Extravert will mention colour more than movement. The other methods are far more intuitive, for an example, simply noting whether the person taking the test is open or hostile. Many researchers have criticized the Rorschach, charging that scoring systems are neither reliable nor valid. But it continues to be widely used by therapists.

Word Association Test is formerly known as Free Association Test. It was used in the laboratory. Carl Jung contributed significantly to the systematic development of the word association.

The test consists of a list of carefully selected words read aloud one at a time and after each word the respondent is asked to reply as quickly as possible with the first word that comes to mind. The most well known Word Association Test was developed by Kent and Rosanof (1910). It consisted of 100 common neutral words and the test tends to evoke the same association for people in general. The Researcher proved that there was a marked difference in the responses of normal and mentally disordered people in

• Content
• Time lapse and
• Reaction to the responses

Construction Techniques

In this technique the focus is on the product of the subject. The subject is required to produce, to construct, something at direction usually a story or a picture. The stimulus can be simple, like asking children to tell a story about what happened yesterday or what is happening today or what will happen?.

The second most widely used projective test is Thematic Apperception Test introduced at Harvard University in 1935 by Henry Murray. This method used for

investigating the fantasy of normal individuals. The total number of cards is 30 and based on the subject’s age and gender, twenty cards will be selected and the subject will be administered with 10 cards for two sessions for one hour each session. The subject looking at the pictures to write a story about the picture what has happened? What is happening? and what will happen?. It can be administered either individually or group. If it is administered individually the administrator will write down the stories, if it is administered in the group the respondents will write the stories. Based on the stories the Psychologists will interpret the subject’s hero, wants and needs. The second most used test after Rorschach Ink Blot Test.

Picture Frustration Test

Picture Frustration Test is formerly known as Picture Association Study. It is devised by Saul Rosenweig. It consists of 24 cartoons like pictures with each picture showing two principal characters in some form of social interaction to assess about the reaction to frustrations. One is involved in a mildly frustrating situation of common occurrence; the other person is saying something which either gives rise to the frustrating circumstances or calls attention to the frustrated person. The speech balloon for the frustrated person is left blank and the respondent is asked to fill in the first thought that occurs to him which would be appropriate for the character. The types of frustrating situations are

1.Ego Blocking – there will be some obstructions, personal or impersonal, impede disappointments, deprives or otherwise thwarts the character directly.

2.Super Ego Blocking – the character is insulted, accused or otherwise discriminated by another character

It is designed to provide scores for a number of variables that describe the individual’s characteristic mode of dealing with frustration. Each response is scored for

a.Direction of responses such as extra punitive, intro punitive or impunitive

b.Type of mode of responses (obstacles dominant, need persistence, ego defensive)

The instrument is designed to provide scores for a number of variables that describe the individual’s characteristic mode of dealing with frustration.

Completion Techniques

Complete Projective Measures provide the subject with a stimulus that is incomplete, the subject being required to complete it as he wishes or stimulus may be loosely structured. The responses of completion techniques are simpler than those of Association and Construction Measures, thus simplifying the tasks of scoring and interpretation. The famous Sentence Completion Test is the best known of such techniques but other types of completion measures such as Story Completion, Discussion Completion and others are being developed.

Choice or Ordering Techniques

These methods require simple responses: the subject chooses from among several alternatives, as in a multiple choice item test, the item or choice that appears most relevant, correct, and attractive etc. For an example, if a researcher would like to measure need for achievement or attitudes toward minority, this test will be an apt method.

Expression Techniques

Expressive Projective Techniques are similar to construction techniques: the subject is required to form some sort of product out of raw material. But the emphasis is on the manner in which he does this – the end product is not important. With the construction methods, the content and perhaps the style of the story or other product are analyzed. With say, finger painting or play therapy, it is the process of the activity and not the end product that is important. The subject expresses 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.

• The principal expressive methods are
• Play
• Drawing Painting
• Finger Painting Role Playing

Levin and Turgeon (1957) used doll play to measure aggression. Aggression is defined by the acts that hurt, irritate, injure, punish, frustrate or destroy the doll or equipment.

Finger painting is a particularly rich expressive method. The subject is given pots of a special type of paint and told to draw what he likes with the paints, using his fingers and hands. Variables can be measured by counting numbers of certain kinds of manipulative and approach behaviour or by rating subjects on the variables, using predetermined criteria.

Role playing is the acting out of an assigned personal or social situation for a brief period by two or more individuals who have been assigned specific roles. It holdsconsiderable promise as an experimental method and as an observation tool of behavioural research, though its research use has been limited. Group Processes, Interpersonal Interaction, Hostility, Authoritarianism, Prejudice and many other variables can be measured. Role playing is generally brief; the time limit ranges from 3 to 15 or 20 minutes. The best timing for role play is 10 minutes.

Theories of Projective Tests

The assumption is that humans have conscious and unconscious motivation and attitudes.

1. It maintains Conscious and Unconscious Constraints: An individual has various needs which can be both conscious and unconscious and that can be measured by Projective Tests.

2. It results in Spontaneous Outcomes: The need of the person comes out spontaneously and there is no editing in it. It is the actual picture about the thought process of a person. Moreover, it clearly pictures all the needs and wants of the person in middle of some sort of emotional roller coaster rides.

3.It depends upon Non Verbal Communication: The results are confirmed on the basis of what the person tells spontaneously while conducting the tests. It is one of the most non verbal communications where in which people present their non verbal communication and that might depend upon behaviour, reaction and attitude.

4.Motivational Barriers: This study understands all the results of personality reactions. And most importantly, all the motivations, beliefs and attitudes are detectable quickly.

Advantages

Projective test has proved to be positive to a large extent. Psychologists are able to help the clients to change his behaviour and take a positive attitude in life. The assumptions needs to be followed are

1.  It is easy to assess personality
2.  It is assumed that the projection is greater than the stimulus which is almost same to the respondent.
3. Each and every response given by the subjects explains the benefits of personality
4. The subject’s unconscious mind will be studied
5. Projective Test can be used in Marketing
6. It is beneficial for Advertisements
7. It is useful in Business

Disadvantages

1. It needs Highly Qualified and Experienced Professionals
2. It is expensive
3. Risk of Interpretation Bias
4. Respondents engage in Unusual Behaviour
5. Unstructured techniques

Problem in the Application of Projective Techniques

The problems encountered in the application of Projective Techniques are

1.      Design of the tests

2.      Administrative problem

3.      Sample size

4.      Interpretation of the results

5.      Standardization

6.      Ethical problems

7.      Reliability and validity

Conclusion

I hope it is made clear as to why Psychologists use Projective Techniques very widely and why an untrained person should not use this tool rather not misuse it. It is a wonderful tool where it is appropriately used and helps individuals only by trained professionals. It is like chakra view in Mahabharata, Abimanyu was not able to come out of it. Similarly, untrained people may find it difficult to manoeuvre through the stages and come out of it by not hurting the clients.

REFERENCES

1. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (1986). Understanding Psychology. The Fourth Edition, Glencoe/McGraw Hill, Mission Hills, California
2. Kerlinger, F. N. (1973). Foundations of Behavioral Research. Second Edition, Holt, Rinehart and Winston Inc., New York.
3. https://www.thefreedictionary.com
4. www.minddisorders.com
5. www.yourdictionary.com