The Thematic Apperception Test

The Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a projective psychological test.
Historically, it has been among the most widely researched, taught, and used of such
tests. Its adherents assert that the TAT taps a subject's unconscious to reveal repressed
aspects of personality, motives and needs for achievement, power and intimacy, and
problem-solving abilities.
[edit] Procedure
The TAT is popularly known as the picture interpretation technique because it uses a
standard series of provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which the subject is
asked to tell a story. The subject is asked to tell as dramatic a story as they can for
each picture presented, including the following:
• what has led up to the event shown

• what is happening at the moment
• what the characters are feeling and thinking
• what the outcome of the story was
If these elements are omitted, particularly for 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 the TAT. Some of the cards show
male figures, some female, some both male and female figures, some of ambiguous
gender, some adults, some children, and some show no human figures at all. One card
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 and situation.[1]
[edit] Scoring Systems

The TAT is a projective test in that, like the Rorschach test, its assessment of the
subject is based on what he or she projects onto the ambiguous images. Therefore, to
complete the assessment, each narrative created by a subject must be carefully
recorded and analyzed to uncover underlying needs, attitudes, and patterns of
reaction. Although most clinical practitioners do not use formal scoring systems,
several formal scoring systems have been developed for analyzing TAT stories
systematically and consistently. Two common methods that are currently used in
research are the:
• Defense Mechanisms Manual DMM.[2] This assesses three defense

mechanisms: denial (least mature), projection (intermediate), and
identification (most mature). A person's thoughts/feelings are projected in
stories involved.
• Social Cognition and Object Relations SCOR[3] scale. This assesses four
different dimensions of object relations: Complexity of Representations of
People, Affect-Tone of Relationship Paradigms, Capacity for Emotional
Investment in Relationships and Moral Standards, and Understanding of
Social Causality.
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[edit] History
TAT was developed by the American psychologists Henry A. Murray and Christiana
D. Morgan at Harvard during the 1930s to explore the underlying dynamics of
personality, such as internal conflicts, dominant drives, interests, and motives.
Howard P Vincent was a noted scholar of Herman Melville, the American author best
known for his novel Moby-Dick. According to Vincent, the TAT was inspired by the
lesson implicit in Moby-Dick Chapter XCIX - THE DOUBLOON: that morality is not
what users think it may be. Vincent writes that the TAT
"... came into being when Dr. Henry A. Murray, psychologist and Melvillist,
adapted the implicit lesson of Melville’s “Doubloon” chapter to a new and
larger creative, therapeutic purpose.”[citation needed]
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 psychologists to use
the TAT to help their clients understand themselves better and stimulate personal
growth.
[edit] Criticisms
Declining adherence to the Freudian principle of repression on which the test is based
has caused the TAT to be criticized as false or outdated by some professional
psychologists[citation needed]. Their criticisms are that the TAT is unscientific because it
cannot be proved to be valid (that it actually measures what it claims to measure), or
reliable (that it gives consistent results over time, due to the challenge of
standardizing interpretations of the narratives provided by subjects).
Some critics of the TAT cards have observed that the characters and environments are
dated, even ‘old-fashioned,’ creating a ‘cultural or psycho-social distance’ between
the patients and the stimuli that makes identifying with them less likely.[4] Also, in
researching the responses of subjects given photographs versus the TAT, researchers
found that the TAT cards evoked more ‘deviant’ stories (i.e., more negative) than
photographs, leading researchers to conclude that the difference was due to the
differences in the characteristics of the images used as stimuli[citation needed].
In a 2005 dissertation,[5] Matthew Narron, Psy.D. attempted to address these issues by

reproducing a Leopold Bellak [6] 10 card set photographically and performing an
outcome study. The results concluded that the old TAT elicited answers that included
many more specific time references than the new TAT.
[edit] Contemporary applications of TAT
Despite criticisms, the TAT remains widely used as a tool for research into areas of
psychology such as dreams, fantasies, mate selection and what motivates people to
choose their occupation. Sometimes it is used in a psychiatric or psychological
context to assess personality disorders, thought disorders, in forensic examinations to
evaluate crime suspects, 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.[7]
TAT is widely used in France and Argentina using a psychodynamic approach.
The Israeli army uses the test for evaluating potential officers.[citation needed]
It is also used by the Services Selection Board of India.[citation needed]
David McClelland and Ruth Jacobs conducted a 12 year longitudinal study of

leadership using TAT and found no gender differences motivational predictors of
attained management level. The content analysis, however, "revealed 2 distinct styles
of power-related themes that distinguished the successful men from the successful
women. The successful male managers were more likely to use reactive power themes
while the successful female managers were more likely to use resourceful power
themes. Differences between the sexes in the power themes were less pronounced
among the managers who had remained in lower levels of management" [8]
[edit] TAT in popular culture

• Thomas Harris' novel Red Dragon includes a scene where the imprisoned
psychiatrist and serial killer Dr. Hannibal Lecter mocks a previous attempt to
administer the test to him.
• Michael Crichton included the TAT in the battery of tests given to the
disturbed patient and main character Harry Benson in his novel, The Terminal
Man.
• In the novel Sphere, the protagonist Norman Johnson, a psychologist himself,
mentions the Thematic Apperception Test while in the underwater deep-sea
habitat.
• In the MTV cartoon Daria, Daria and her sister Quinn are given a test that
appears to be the TAT by the school psychologist on their first day at their
new school. Daria and Quinn are shown a picture of two people. Quinn makes
up a story about the two people having a discussion about popularity and
dating. Daria states that she sees "a herd of beautiful wild ponies running free
across the plains." The psychologist tells her the picture is of two people, not
ponies. Daria states, "last time I took one of these tests they told me they were
clouds. They said they could be whatever I wanted." The psychologist
explains, "That's a different test, dear. In this test, they're people and you tell
me what they're discussing." To which Daria characteristically replies, "Oh... I
see. All right, then. It's a guy and a girl and they're discussing... a herd of
beautiful wild ponies running free across the plains."[9] (Cf. the Rorschach test
administered to Charlie Gordon in Flowers for Algernon, during which Drs.
Nemur and Strauss ask him what he "sees" on a card, he replies that he sees an
inkblot, they ask him to pretend that it is something else, and he replies "I
pretend a bottel of ink spilld all over a wite card [sic]".)
• The TAT is administered to Alex, the main character of A Clockwork Orange.
• Charlie Gordon, the protagonist in Daniel Keyes' Flowers for Algernon, notes
in his "progris riport 4" on March 6 that he was given a "Thematic
Appercepton Test." As he says, "I dont know the frist 2 werds but I know what
test means. You got to pass it or you get bad marks [sic]"
• Italian poet Edoardo Sanguineti wrote a collection of poetry called T.A.T
(1966–1968) that refers to the Test.

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The Thematic Apperception Test, or TAT, is a projective psychological test.

• what has led up to the event shown

[edit] Scoring Systems

• Defense Mechanisms Manual DMM.[2] This assesses three defense

In a 2005 dissertation,[5] Matthew Narron, Psy.D. attempted to address these issues by

TAT is widely used in France and Argentina using a psychodynamic approach.

It is also used by the Services Selection Board of India.[citation needed]

David McClelland and Ruth Jacobs conducted a 12 year longitudinal study of

[edit] TAT in popular culture

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