The Secret Life of Pronouns_ What Our Words Say About Us - James W. Pennebaker [43]
In the early 1920s, a young German psychoanalyst, Hermann Rorschach, expanded on this idea. He developed a method in which people looked at ambiguous pictures of inkblots and then described what they saw. The Rorschach test was based on the idea that people’s deepest emotions and concerns would be projected onto the inkblots. For example, a person who lived in constant fear of an abusive parent might see one of the inkblots as a ferocious bear, whereas another person in a happier family might see the same inkblot as a butterfly. Since Rorschach’s early work, thousands of therapists have relied on the Rorschach test to explore people’s psychological states. Many researchers question the Rorschach because people’s responses are not reliable and vary a great deal depending on the therapist who administers the test. I can’t help wondering if the method might be improved by administering and scoring the Rorschach by a computer.
In the 1930s, another projective test—the Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT—was created by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan at Harvard. Instead of requiring people to blurt out the first thing they saw in inkblots, the TAT encouraged people to make up stories based on a series of ambiguous drawings. The stories that come from the pictures were said to reflect a variety of underlying psychological issues in the participants’ lives. The drawing above is one of the standard TAT stimuli. People are typically asked to look at the picture for a few seconds and then describe what they think is occurring in the scene.
Try it yourself. If you would like to take this test before it is discussed below, go to www.SecretLifeOfPronouns/TAT. In the online version, you will receive computerized feedback based on an experimental method we are developing. Even if you don’t go to the website, look at the picture and make up a brief story that describes what is happening. What is each person thinking and doing? What has happened in the past and what will likely happen in the future?
One application of the TAT has been to examine basic psychological needs. Influenced by Murray, David McClelland developed a model that assumed we are all driven by three basic needs: a need for achievement, a need for power, and a need for affiliation. Using different TAT pictures, McClelland determined the strengths of each of the needs in influencing behavior. The picture you just saw is relevant to all three needs but was initially selected for assessing the needs for achievement and power. The online experimental test of the TAT has attracted thousands of people from around the world. Here are two responses to the drawing:
This is a story of the clash between Shirley, the conservative supervisor, and her new employee who has been with the firm for just a short time. Shirley is not happy with the enthusiasm that Sonia puts into her work as it tends to show her up and that is not a situation she enjoys as a supervisor … Shirley’s body is not relaxed showing where her concentration lies, not on the experiment but on the person she has come to despise because of the threat she is to her entrenched position. Sonia successfully completes her task … and she is rewarded with a position of experimental scientist in a new department … Shirley has never been recognized for the … loyal person that she has proved to be over the years with the organization.
—64-year-old male
Julie woke up early this morning knowing that it would be a hard day at the lab. Her mother was the one in charge and she was very strict, old fashioned, and thought that none of Julie’s ideas were ever worth her time … After a few moments of mixing chemicals … the beaker melted and the chemicals started foaming up all over the place, ruining everything they touched. Her mother screamed at her … but this time Julie was done taking that crap from her mom … She finally decided to tell her mom how she