Historically, perhaps one of the most commonly held images of psychology is within the analyst’s office, where the client lies upon a couch and explores their problems. This may involve the use of the Rorschach technique where the client looks at cards containing ink bots and tell the analysts what they contain. This technique is categorised as ‘projective’, meaning that the client puts their own interpretation on what the cards show. This essay will attempt to describe and then evaluate this approach to personality measurement. This will be achieved by explaining the procedure and rationale behind the Rorschach Ink blot test and will give a detailed description of the cards. The method will then be evaluated using psychological research including psychometric theory and a case study

In order to answer the question the first task is to find a valid definition of ‘personality’. Generally, when this term is used by laypersons, what is being discussed is the nature or temperament of the person. This may include behaviour patterns, which if understood, allows us to make predictions about the individual’s responses. Some definitions of p

In conclusion this essay has described Rorschach’s ink blots test which in turn has allowed an evaluation of it as a method of personality testing. This has been achieved by placing the method in context using a case study and identifying issues that the test was unable to account for. Psychometric theory has also been used to evaluate the test and the conclusion is that it fails to provide evidence in terms of its reliability, validity, and more worrying stability. Perhaps support for the test requires an ‘act of faith’, and leads back to one of the most challenging issues facing psychologists today. This is that the test rests heavily in psychoanalytic theory which is impossible to support using the empirical method. The conclusion must be that if one believes in a dynamic, flexible personality, most of which exists outside of awareness then surely this method is one of the most useful methods of measurement. If, however, one believes that personality is stable, and that we have the same traits, and behaviours throughout life, then the Rorschach ink blot test is of little use. In other words it comes down to the individual’s definition of personality itself.

There are other more formal criticisms of the ink blot test, and Rorschach himself gives some of these. He states:

Those who prefer the empirical method for psychological testing stipulate that it is important that a measurement tool (i.e. a personality test) should be valid and reliable (Kline, 1993). Thus making sure a test measures what it claims to and that results can be replicated are essential. One of the means of achieving this is that the way tests are scored should be standardised.

Some topics in this essay:
Hermann Rorschach, Finally Rorschach, Rorschach Ink, Palmer Rorschach, Title Describe, Description Rorschach, Sigmund Freud, ink blot, blot test, approach personality, ink blot test, ink blots, personality measurement, definition personality, approach personality measurement, rorschach ink blot, anastasi 1981, rorschach technique, rorschach test, rorschach ink, describe evaluate approach, white black red,