David E. Silber

Personality of rape survivors as a group and by relation of survivor to perpetrator

Adult survivors of rape were compared to controls on 34 scales of the Apperceptive Personality Test and Draw-A-Person Questionnaire. They also reported on present or past weight problems, alcohol or drug problems, and psychotherapy. They differed on 12 scales and on alcohol, weight problems, and therapy. These survivors more frequently reported problems or therapy and differed on personality scales in the direction of assigning fewer positive or more negative attributes to their characters. Those raped by relatives, dates, or acquaintances were more negative than those raped by strangers on four scales, but did not differ on alcohol or weight problems or participation in psychotherapy.

Relationship between the Apperceptive Personality Test and Verbal Intelligence in a University Sample

This study examined the relationship between verbal intelligence and the Apperceptive Personality Test/Brief Adult in a university sample. The recently developed test is a picture-story assessment technique and, as with its parent test, the Apperceptive Personality Test/Comprehensive Adult, combines both projective and objective features. Research to date with both tests has focused on some 19 (objectively scored) questionnaire variables selected for intensive study. The relationship of questionnaire variables to verbal intelligence has not been directly studied. To examine this question, a sample of 149 undergraduates (108 women, 41 men) took the personality test and the Shipley-Hartford Vocabulary Scale. As expected, results generally confirmed the expectation that personality variables would show minimal or no relation with verbal intelligence.

Prediction of depression with the Apperceptive Personality Test

This study examined the relationship between depression and the Apperceptive Personality Test (APT), a picture-story assessment device with an objective scoring system. Subjects were 206 undergraduate volunteer females who completed the APT and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Multiple regression analysis showed significant APT predictors for the BDI. Results are discussed and directions for future research are proposed.

PREDICTION OF MMPI CLINICAL SCORES FROM THE APPERCEPTIVE PERSONALITY TEST

Eight independent scores from a new objective/projective personality test, the Apperceptive Personality Test (APT), were validated against eight clinical scores of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). In parallel studies of 150 male and 150 female college volunteers given both tests, weighted combinations of the 8 APT measures significantly predicted MMPI raw scores in 15 of 16 analyses (Ma scores could not be predicted for men). Of 84 predicted zero-order correlations between APT and MMPI measures, 50 (60%) were confirmed, 74% for women and 45% for men; however, the vast majority of these correlations were below .30.

Assessing the validity of the semantic differential portion of the Apperceptive Personality Test.

This study investigated the validity of the semantic differential portion of the Apperceptive Personality Test with 225 undergraduates who completed the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability scale, actual-self and ideal-self semantic differential scales (e.g., Actual-self and Ideal-self), and either the Apperceptive Personality Test or a modified version. A projected-self score was calculated using the semantic differential ratings of the hero(ine) character on the test, e.g., Projected-self. A strong negative correlation indicated that, as the difference between the Ideal-self and Actual-self decreased, the difference between the Actual-self and Projected-self increased. Discriminant analyses indicated that highly guarded participants, e.g., high Social Desirability scores, showed more congruency between Ideal-self and Actual-self and less congruency between Actual-self ratings and Projected-self on the APT than did less guarded participants. When the difference scores incorporated only those semantic differential items that loaded on an Evaluative factor, the same result of discriminant analysis was found when participants who completed the modified version were included. These findings support the validity of the tests semantic differential items and suggest that guardedness tends to promote more similarity between Actual-self and Ideal-self and less similarity between Actual-self and Projected-self.

Personalities of women reporting incestuous abuse during childhood.

Previous studies of adult females reporting incestuous sexual abuse in childhood, using the Apperceptive Personality Test and Draw-a-Person Questionnaire, indicated abusees attributed more negative traits to their characters than did controls. No differences were found by type of abuse or relation to the abuser. In these studies abusees and controls were obtained from different sources, although matched on several characteristics. The present study compared 79 incestuous abusees to 79 matched controls all drawn from the same subject pool. Multivariate analysis of variance identified significant differences between the groups. In contrast with earlier studies questionnaire scores distinguished rape victims from those abused without rape and distinguished those abused by older relatives from those abused by peers in two additional multivariate analyses of variance.

Recommendations for the Clinical Use of the Apperceptive Personality Test

The Apperceptive Personality Test (APT) is a new technique that combines the traditional story-telling method with a questionnaire about the characters in the story, to be filled out by the person being tested. The resulting information is tabulated, and a variety of scores are generated which yield information about the persons personality. The identified clinical signposts indicated by such scores are summarized in this article, along with two illustrative protocol fragments showing how to usual interpretive method is supplemented by the information from the questionnaire.

Validity of the Megargee-Bohn MMPI Typology with Women Incarcerated in a State Prison

This report describes a study of the validity of typing inmates from their MMPI scores using the system developed by Megargee and Bohn. The subjects were female inmates of a state prison. The typology was not a strong predictor of either current or subsequent prison behaviors as derived from inmate records. When the various types were ordered for degree of deviance, however, the resulting validity of the typology appeared to increase. As currently used, the typology appears of limited usefulness with female prisoners of state institutions.

The Adult Personality of Childhood Incest Victims

This is a further report on a group of 30 incest survivors we wrote about in 1994. Here, we report on measures of personality derived from the Apperceptive Personality Test, which contains many variables similar to those on the one we reported in 1994. On both measures, incest survivors can be characterized as having more negative perceptions and self-descriptions than the comparison group.

The Place of Behavior Therapy in Correction

This paper reviews some of the behavior therapy techniques used to correct antisocial behavior. Descriptions of aversive conditioning and positive reinforcement techniques are given. It is probably only a matter of time before these techniques are extended to prisons or other institutional settings. Behav ior techniques must be carefully regulated, lest they be used as punishment. Advantages and objections can be classified as questions of ethics, longevity of effect, and economy of use. With careful and thoughtful control, behavior therapies hold promise for the future of correction.