Thematic Apperception Test

The thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a projective psychological test. Historically, it has been among the most widely used, researched and taught of such tests. Its adherents claim that it taps a subject's unconscious t0 reveal repressed aspectsof personality, motives and needs for achivement, power and intimacy, and problem-solving abilities.

History

TAT was developed by the American psychologists Henry A. Murray and Christiana D. Morgan at Havard during the 1930s to explore the underlying dynamics of personality, such as internal conflicts, dominant drives, interests and motives. According to Melville scholar Howard P Vincent, that the TAT came into being when the two pshchologists adapted the implicit lesson of Melville's [Moby Dick] "Doubloon" chapter to a new and larger creative, therapeutic purpose.

After World War II, the TAT was adopted more broadly by psychoanalysts and clinicians to evaluate emotionally disturbed patients.

Later, in the 1970s, the Human Potential Movement encouraged pschologists to use the TAT to help their clients understand themselves better and stimulate pesonal growth.

Procedure

The TAT is popularly known as the picture interpretation technique because it uses a standard series of provocative yet ambiguous pictures which the subject must tell a story. The subject is asked to tell as dramatic a story as they can for each picture presented, including: 1.what has led up to the event shown 2.what is happening at the moment 3.what the characters are feeling and thinking 4.what the outcome of the story is

If these elements are omitted, particularly children or individuals of low cognitive abilities, the evaluator may ask the subject about them directly.

There are 31 picture cards in the standard form of TAT. Some of the cards show male figures, some female, some bothy male and female, some of ambiguous gender, some adults, some children, and some show no human figures at all. One is completely blank. Although the cards were originally designed to be matched to the subject in terms of age and gender, any card may be used with any subject. Most practitioners choose a set of approximately ten cards, either using cards that they feel are generally useful, or that they believe will encourage the subject's expression of emotional conflicts relevant to their specific history.

Scoring system

The TAT is a projective test in that, like the Roschach test, its assessment of the subject is based on what he or she projects onto the ambiguous pictures. Therefore, to complete the assessment of each story created by a subject must be carefully analysed to uncover underlying needs, attitudes, and patterns of reaction. Although most clinical practitioners do not use the formal scoring systems, several formal scoring systems have been developed for analyzing TAT stories systematically and consistently.

Criticisms

Some critics of the TAT cards have observed that the characters and environments are dated, even 'old-fashioned', creating a cultural or psychological distance between the patients and these stimuli that makes identifying with them less likely. Also, in researching the responses of the subjects given phtographs versus the TAT, researchers found that the TAT cards evoked more 'defiant' stories (i.e., more negative) than phtographs, leading them to conclude that the differnce was due to the differnces in the characteristics of the images used as stimuli.

Contemporary applications

Despite crticisms,the TAT remains the most widely used tool for research into areas of psychology such as dreams, fantasies, mate selction and their motivation to choose their occupation. Sometimes it is used in a psychiatric or psychological context to access pesonality disorders, or to screen candidates for high-stress occupations. It is also commonly used in routine psychological evaluations, typically without a formal scoring system, as a way to explore emotional conflicts and object relations.

TAT is widely used in France and Argentina using a pschodynamic approach. The Israeli army uses the test for evaluating potential officers. It is also used by the Services Board of India