Projective test

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A projective test, in psychology, is a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli, presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts. This is different from an "objective test" in which responses are analyzed according to a universal standard (for example, a multiple choice exam) rather than an individual's judgement.

The general theoretical position behind such a practice is that whenever you ask a "question", all you get in response is an "answer"; and, according to those who advocate projective tests, these answers, whilst providing genuine information on the matters raised by the questions, may have nothing to do with what is really on the subject's mind (and, from this position, what is really "the matter). Advocates of this approach stress that the ambiguity of the stimuli presented within the tests allow subjects to vent their inner thoughts. In many cases, however, this claim that it allows the subject to externalize whatever may be operating beneath their conscious awareness is often nullified by the testers' beliefs that certain responses have universally standard "meanings".

The best known projective test is the Rorschach inkblot test, in which a patient is shown irregular spot of ink, and asked to explain what they see; the response is then analyzed in various ways, noting not only what the patient said, but the time taken to respond, what aspect of the drawing was focused on, and how the response compared to other responses for the same drawing. If someone consistently sees the images as threatening and frightening, the psychiatrist may infer that he or she may suffer from paranoia.

Another popular projective test is the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) in which a patient views ambiguous scenes of people, and is asked to describe various aspects of the scene; for example, the patient may be asked to describe what led up to this scene, the emotions of the characters, and what might happen afterwards. The examiner then evaluates these descriptions, attempting to discover conflicts and hidden emotions within the patient, and work toward a successful psychoanalytic cure.

These tests have lost popularity as psychology has advanced. Many within the field no longer adhere to Freudian principles; the idea of repression that underlies the tests has been dismissed as false or outdated by many. Other criticisms concern the nature of the tests themselves. For example, it is observed that they can only be effective if the examiner interprets the responses correctly. Because they depend so heavily on the judgements of the examiner, some see projective tests as unscientific. However, a number of psychologists still use them as a way to get introduced to the patient in a nonthreatening manner.

Projective techniques, including TAT, are also used in focus groups for marketing research, for example to help identify potential associations between brand images and the emotions or responses they may provoke. The application of responses is different here to that in psychology, and the results from several respondents are grouped together for analysis by the organisation commissioning the research.