Projective Measures in Psychology

Study Notes

Based on the psychoanalytic idea that people project their negative attributes about themselves onto ambiguous external stimuli
Recent evidence suggests that responses are about the person's experience and personality, not projection per se
Rorschach Inkblot Test: records subjects' perceptions of inkblots and analyzes them using psychological interpretation, complex algorithms, or both
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): participant tells a story about what they see in the picture, yielding data on needs, emotions, interpersonal relations, and conflicts within individual

Descriptive account of the client's level of functioning, considering their social and interpersonal environment
Often, different assessments/tests provide conflicting results
Case formulation: a clear hypothesis about how a problem developed and how it is maintained, offering a framework for developing the most suitable treatment approach

Aims to describe a person's presenting problems and use theory to make explanatory inferences about causes and maintaining factors
Consists of:
- Description of the presenting issues
- Factors that create vulnerability or precipitate the problems
- Factors that maintain the problems
- Factors that can help the person cope or act as resources
Benefits of case formulation:
- Provides connection between various problems
- Provides guidance on the type of treatment
- Predicts the patient's functioning with and without treatment
- Provides options if difficulties are encountered in treatment
- Indicates options outside of psychological services

Description of problems and symptoms
Events or stressors that led to the symptoms or problems
Predisposing life events/vulnerabilities
Hypothesized mechanisms that link the problems to the person's current functioning

Client factors:
- May try to under-pathologize themselves
- Difficulty recalling problem behaviors or memories from their past (retrospective recall)
- Can't assume clients are accurately perceiving/portraying reality
Clinician factors:
- Self-serving attributional bias
- Overuse of heuristics (mental short cuts)
- Biases (gender, ethnic, socioeconomic)
- Decision-making biases