Measuring Various Psychological Instruments Thesis

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Deconstructing the Utility of the Rorschach as a Measure of Personality and Psychopathology

This paper explores the enduring relvance of the Rorschach and finds that this instrument deserves such appositeness. It examines its strengths and weaknesses, and provides a review of literature that elucidates its value. This instrument is useful in numerous fields.

The Rorschach Inkblot Test is one of the most time honored and widespread assessment instruments within the field of psychology. It has endured in numerous forms ever since its inception in the early part of the 20th century (Meyer and Eblin, 2012, p. 107). During its tenure, it has experienced substantial amounts of criticism as well as various deployments in a number of diverse vertical industries and applications (Wood et al., 2003, p. 30). However, it is worth noting that this instrument has been revised and reformed on a number of occasions to continue delivering value to researchers in various areas of psychology. Although the original Rorschach Inkblot Test is somewhat dated, its updated versions continue to provide value as a measure of personality and psychopathology for researchers.

Overview

Prior to deconstructing the limitations, strengths, and literature review pertaining to the Rorschach, it is necessary to provide a brief overview of the nature of this instrument and the yield which it delivers. The basis of the test is relatively simple and aligned with the basics of most projective tests. Subjects are presented with a series of instruments that are somewhat nebulous and certainly ambiguous in nature. They are tasked with identifying what these images represent. Their identifications are used as a means of determining their personality characteristics. The test is somewhat subjective in that it can encompass a number of different theories when interpreting the results and discerning the aspects of personality that the examiner sees within them. As previously denoted, however, it has undergone multiple revisions or reforms, most notably in the form of Exner's Rorschach Comprehensive System (Weiner, 1994, p. 500). There are multiple ways in which this particular revision of this instrument directly addresses many of the perceived limitations of its initial version.

Limitations

The criticism of the Rorschach is most succinctly summarized as thus: "The Rorschach...tends to mislabel most normal people as "sick." "the test cannot detect most psychological disorders (with the exception of schizophrenia and related conditions marked by thinking disturbances), nor does it do an adequate job of detecting most personality traits" (Wood et al., 2003, p. 30). Additionally, there have been numerous questions about the reliability and validity of this particular instrument (McGrath, 2008, p. 465). Perhaps most disturbing are the allegations that in the earliest part of the instrument's history (during the 1930's and 1940's) there were those who used utilized "tricks" (Woods et al., 2003, p. 31) to appear more perspicacious about the personality of subjects than they actually were while utilizing just the instrument. Some of these subterfuges were conducted under the guise of psychologists utilizing "blind" diagnoses in which they simply looked at the results of the Rorschach and made insightful -- and accurate -- analyses of subjects solely based on those results (Woods et al., 2003, p. 31). By the 1960's, there were multiple instances of the Rorschach misrepresenting information and failing in controlled studies (Woods et al., 2003, p. 31), which reinforced the aforementioned weaknesses. The effect of such failure during this decade helped to spur reforms in both perception and in the nature of the Rorschach, which were partly responsible for refinements in it such as the Rorschach Comprehensive System.

Refinements and Advancements

There were multiple changes to the usefulness of the Rorschach and its actual structuring which helped to further its relevance in the psychology field in the past several decades. Whereas initially this instrument was conceived of and viewed as a formal test, it has now become regularly perceived as a method referred to as the Rorschach Inkblot Method (McGrath, 2008, p. 465). The rationale for this alteration in perception of this instrument is due to the tenet that "it is a method of generating data that describe personality functioning" (Weiner, 1994, p. 498) more than it actually tests various facets of personality. In fact, there are some researchers willing to go so far as to state "the Rorschach is not a test because it does not test anything" (Weiner, 1994, p. 498). Thus, this instrument was re-purposed as a method to still discern various aspects of personality while not expressly testing them. As a method, it is useful for elucidating personality dynamics largely because it does not adhere to just one theory in particular.

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Instead, the results of this method naturally lend themselves to interpretation from any variety of theoretical viewpoints, which somewhat broadens the utility that this instrument is able to provision.

As previously indicated, the most significant advancement for the Rorschach is generally deemed to have occurred with Exner's development of the Rorschach Comprehensive System. The boons of Exener's work on this instrument are multifold and include "empirical evidence that the RIM has been standardized, normed, made reliable, and validated in ways that exemplify sound scientific principles for developing an assessment instrument" (Weiner, 2001, p. 423). In this regard, it directly addresses some of the primary limitations of the initial instrument as implemented by Rorschach himself, and which include dubious (or perhaps even tenuous) validity and reliability). The overall effect is that "the RIM works very well for its intended purposes," which are to illustrate some of the more salient personality traits that a particular individual has. The principle advantage of the Comprehensive System is that it provides a unified means of evaluating and assessing the data gleaned from this particular instrument. As such, it removes a fair amount of the subjectivity that some have associated with this instrument.

Literature Review

The Rorschach inkblot test, fortune tellers, and cold reading highlights some of the weaknesses that were associated with the Rorschach instrument. Some of the more apocryphal aspects of this instrument's history are detailed within this work, including the disparity found between the efficacy that some researchers demonstrated in blind diagnoses and the lack of such efficacy demonstrated in clinical studies (Woods et al., 2003, 30-31). The sort of slight of hand, wizadry in which the efforts of many practitioners of Rorschach were noted for is compared to palm reading and astrology, in attempts to discredit the veracity of the results produced by this instrument.

While many of the limitations of this instrument are not reinforced with statistical data or original research, Weiner (2001) takes a decidedly scientific approach to deconstructing the value of the Rorschach Inkblot Method as improved by the Rorschach Comprehensive System. A cursory literary review of five sources reveals that the instrument has stabilized its validity and reliability, as well as its normalization and standardization at levels commensurate with a trusty instrument for gaining insight into the personality of various subjects. Moreover, various aspects of coding and scoring are also unified and standardized with this rendition of Rorschach's classic instrument, which helps to give it the sort of credence for trustworthy analyses of personality components.

Weiner (1994) also analyzes the theoretical value of the Rorschach and identifies the various ways in which the multiplicity of theoretical perspectives helped transform this instrument from one expressly for testing to the Rorschach Inkblot Method. The various theories that are useful for interpreting the results make this instrument valuable for a number of different use cases -- many of which are not related. Panek utilize this instrument as one of myriad ways to evaluate "verbal expressive techniques with older adults"(Panek et al., 2013, p. 366). Such a deployment for this instrument readily reflects the fact that it supports multiple theories, and not just those expressly related to personality. In this regard, the instrument actually has utility psychopathology in general and for communication among set populations in particular. Expression takes on myriad forms, and the various images and modes of communication that this instrument conjures are a valuable form of expression and means of evaluating it.

In other instances, the Rorschach Inkblot Method can be used to identify psychological components that are closely linked to personality, such as emotions and emotional regulation. Meehan et al. (2008) utilized this instrument in this regard with school children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder to attempt to determine their emotional stability. Significantly, there was a correlation between students with more pronounced ADHD symptoms and their "lower scores on variables indicating internal resources for emotional self-regulation and stress tolerance...relative to a comparison group with fewer ADHD symptoms" (Meehan, 2008, p. 259). The most significant aspect of this article is that it suggestive of the wide range of the utility of the Rorschach Inkblot Method. The original inkblot assessment that Rorschach designed might not have been employable in such a wide range of uses. However, by reforming this instrument into a method that encompasses multiple theoretical perspectives, it is able to have enduring uses outside of those initially deigned by its creator.

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