Dr Manju Antil (Counselling Psychologist and Psychotherapist)

In general, it is considered that projective techniques are based on projection. An unconscious process in which (1) attribution of thoughts, attitudes, emotions and other characteristics are made by the individual to other persons or specific characteristics of objects in his environment; (2) attributions of his own needs, derives, and motives are made to others in his environment; or (3) individual draws inferences based on his past experience, on the basis of which test stimuli are meaningfully organized. Projection is not considered as being of personal origin as the content of projection is experienced as an external perception and of external origin. In this light, a projective test technique is one in which a subject is presented with a stimulus situation, providing him with an opportunity to impose upon it his personal needs and his specific perceptions and interpretations.

Wholistically projective techniques embodying the following distinguishing characteristics (Rotter, 1954):

1. In projective techniques, ambiguity or lack of test material structure is a prerequisite that different people perceive differently. In response to the unstructured and ambiguous stimulus, subjects are forced to impose or project their own structure, and in doing so, they reveal something about themselves such as need wishes, conflicts, Ambiguity. In tests, stimuli can be introduced by choice of stimuli, by the instructions given to the subjects, or by combining both.

2. Projective techniques, employ a -a wide range of stimuli such as inkblots, incomplete sentences, line drawings, and pictures. No matter what stimuli are selected and used, the examination procedure is set up to ensure the highest degree of ambiguity and structureless. These unstructured situations are presented to the subject for resolution with the underlying assumption that the handling of this ambiguous task will involve the various aspects of personality make-up and its dynamic structure

3. Projective techniques are indirect in the sense the subject is not aware of the purpose of the test to some extent, i.e., the purpose and intent of projective techniques are disorganized Respondents are also not aware of the relevance and significance of their responses. In the projective techniques, there is no attempt on the examiner's part to ask the subjects directly about their needs, wishes, impulses, or troubles; the route is indirect that prompts the subjects to provide more elaborated data.

4. Projective techniques, in contrast to other assessment techniques, provide more freedom in the choice of responses. It captures the uniqueness of the personality of the respondent.

5. Since there are no bindings on the respondent in projective techniques, so they yield more responses. These responses can be interpreted as dealing with more variables. Since the range of responses is broad, the examiner can interpret multiple dimensions (cognitive, conative, and affective) such as motives, adjustment, diagnostic category, defence mechanisms coping, etc. Most of the objective tests provide a single score for a disposition, whereas projective techniques can provide quantitative and qualitative multiple pieces of information about a disposition or trait, or attribute.

Controversy over the use and relevance of projective techniques has been one of the most significant controversies and debates in Psychology. Advocating scholars assert, that projective techniques provide deep information and knowledge, about various dimensions of a person’s functioning unobtainable through other assessment techniques (Growth & Marnat, 2009) So, the projective techniques are usually described as X-rays of mind or a kind of open sesame into the unconscious. Over the last four decades, a considerable amount of research has been conducted, organized, and cited in this regard references. On the other hand, critics have highlighted the weakness of projective techniques including flawed norm, subjective scoring, the vulnerability of responses to situational factors, over-reliance on impressionistic interpretations, poor inter-rater reliability, poor test-retest reliability (low-stability), unsupported research for many interpretations, subjective in interpretations, lakeability of results, poor prediction of criterion or external behaviours and general poor validity ( Camar et al.,2000, Groth- Marnat 2006)

Beyond the criticisms mentioned above, projective testing/techniques continue to be highly popular among mental health professionals. Recent surveys of practitioners of projective techniques indicate that three (Rorschach, TAT and house tree person of the 10 most widely used by clinical psychologists are projective (camara et al, 2000). Many forms of the projective method inkblot, pictures, an incomplete sentence, word association, own writings and drawings, and others have been developed oriented to elicit responses that can reveal the individual's personality, structure thought, values, motives, emotions, modes of coping and adjustment is complex. One thing common among all these projective techniques is the ambiguity or unstructured material presented to the subject.