Irving B. Weiner

Some observations on the validity of the Rorschach Inkblot method

Current literature reflects a persistent inclination in some quarters to denigrate the Rorschach Inkblot Method as an invalid and useless instrument for assessing personality functioning. Although perhaps warranted to some extent in years past, such harsh criticism of the Rorschach runs counter to abundant contemporary data demonstrating its psychometric soundness and practical utility. This article offers some observations concerning the kinds of information that are necessary to validate assessment instruments and provides examples of lines of research that document Rorschach validity and utility for various purposes.

Father-daughter incest: a clinical report.

SummaryFive cases have been briefly presented of men who have had overt incestuous sexual relationships with their own daughters. Of particular note was the striking similarity evinced by these five men on psychological testing. The role of the wives and children in these “family neuroses”, was also discussed, and comparisons were made with previously reported clinical data.

What the Rorschach Can Do for You: Incremental Validity in Clinical. Applications

Psychological assessment instruments vary in how much structure they provide and the extent to which their meaning and purpose are apparent. The Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) is a relatively unstructured instrument whereas the MMPI-2 is a relatively structured instrument: People respond to these two instruments at different levels of conscious awareness concerning the possible significance of their responses. Because of its relatively unstructured nature, the RIM is less susceptible than the MMPI-2 to impression management. This complementarity makes it possible for Rorschach findings to enrich clinical assessments, especially when efforts to fake good result in MMPI-2 protocols that provide little reliable information. There is solid conceptual basis in psychology for employing multi-method assessment, and clinical applications in which Rorschach data contribute to fuller or more accurate formulations than would otherwise be possible attest the incremental validity that can derive from including relatively unstructured measures in a test battery.

Using the Rorschach Properly in Practice and Research

Proper use of the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) in practice and research requires (a) well-founded expectations concerning what the RIM should be expected to do, and (b) appropriate methods for examining its validity in achieving the purposes for which it is intended. The RIM is a personality-assessment instrument, and its validity should be judged from its substantial correlations with observed behaviors that are conceptually linked to personality processes. Knowledge about personality functioning gleaned from Rorschach data may contribute to diagnostic formulations, but associations between Rorschach indices and psychometrically shaky DSM diagnostic categories have little bearing on the utility of the instrument for achieving its intended purposes. Adequate conceptual formulation of this kind is as necessary as solid empirical verification in the development and use of psychological assessment instruments.

Making Rorschach Interpretation as Good as It Can Be

This article delineates six guidelines for enhancing the quality and utility of interpretations derived from the Rorschach inkblot method. These include (a) using all of the available structural, thematic, and behavioral data in arriving at interpretations; (b) focusing interpretive statements primarily on personality processes and drawing clinical conclusions and recommendations secondarily on the basis of identified personality processes; (c) addressing interpretations to both personality strengths and personality weaknesses to attend equally to adaptive capacities and maladaptive tendencies; (d) formulating and conveying interpretations at appropriate levels of certainty to distinguish clearly between probable fact and possible conjecture; (e) pursuing and expressing both nomothetic and idiographic implications of interpretations to the fullest possible extent, recognizing that personality is best described by considering both how people resemble and how they differ from each other; and (f) grounding the implications of interpretations in each respondents cultural context to take adequate account of the mediation of cultural relativism between personality characteristics and their adaptive consequences.

Considerations in collecting Rorschach reference data

Recent Rorschach research with nonpatients has yielded reference data that differ in several respects from nonpatient normative data published for the Comprehensive System (Exner, 1995). Conclusions concerning the implications of these new findings are premature, however, pending careful consideration of appropriate guidelines for collecting Rorschach reference data. In proposing guidelines for future research of this kind, I note (a) that the relatively unstructured nature of Rorschach assessment may complicate obtaining useful data from nonpatient volunteers, (b) that normative studies should include various types of patient as well as nonpatient samples, and (c) that identification of psychological disturbance from Rorschach protocols may be guided more accurately by how closely a record resembles the records of patients with certain disturbances than by how much the record differs from the records of nonpatients.

Contemporary Perspectives on Rorschach Assessment

Summary: In the last 20 years the advent of the Comprehensive System has developed the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM) into a standardized and psychometrically sound personality assessment instrument with numerous indices that can be reliably coded, show considerable test-retest stability, and have abundant valid corollaries. Rorschach assessment has demonstrated utility in contributing to clinical diagnosis of psychopathology, providing guidelines for treatment planning and outcome evaluation, and identifying adaptive and maladaptive features of how people attend to their experience, use ideation, modulate affect, manage stress, view themselves, and relate to others. The RIM can also be effectively integrated with more structured self-report inventories in a complementary way that describes personality functioning in greater depth than would otherwise be possible. The RIM remains at present a widely used and extensively researched measure in many parts of the world. Although the inkblot method is essentia...

Monitoring Psychotherapy With Performance-Based Measures of Personality Functioning

In this commentary, I review a meta-analysis and three original research reports concerning the Rorschach (Exner, 2003; Rorschach, 1921/1942) and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) assessment in psychological treatment planning and outcome evaluation. The information in these four articles bears witness to the potential utility of performance-based personality assessment measures for this purpose. The strengths and limitations of the articles suggest several guidelines for future research designed to examine this Rorschach and TAT application including an emphasis on effectiveness studies, longitudinal data, integrated independent variables, observable dependent variables, sophisticated data analysis combining nomothetic and idiographic presentation, and the incremental contribution of performance-based measures to psychotherapy-related personality assessment.

DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS IN AMPHETAMINE PSYCHOSIS.

SummaryThis paper summarizes the literature on the effects of using the amphetamines and reviews published clinical findings in cases of amphetamine psychotic reaction. Problems of differentiating this illness from paranoid schizophrenic reactions are discussed, and it is suggested that heightened emotionality and well-retained realitytesting capacity may prove helpful in the differential diagnosis.

Psychodiagnostic testing in forensic psychology: A commentary

ABSTRACT This article comments on five articles in a series designed to provide some current guidelines concerning the forensic applicability of five widely used psychological tests: the Bender Gestalt Test (BGT), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III), the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), and the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM). The authors observations and recommendations make a valuable contribution to enhancing the quality and utility of forensic psychological testing.