Dr Manju Antil (Counselling Psychologist and Psychotherapist)

Evaluation of the structure, functioning, and pathology of personality has traditionally been an essential and challenging psychological assessment component. Various assessment methods have been used for the realization of this aim, such as subjective, objective, and projective. Each of these methods has some strengths and weaknesses (Blais and Baity, 2008). There has been controversy regarding the projective methods’ nomenclature, whether these should be labelled as a projective tests or projective techniques. Many scholars preferred to call these devices as projective techniques because most of the projective instruments lack the psychometric properties possessed by an objective test. Projective techniques compared to the subjective and objective assessment methods in which assessment is made either in terms of given by others information (case history, interview) or based on the direct  description of themselves (inventories), are based on fundamentally different assumptions; people can project their personality dispositions if presented with unstructured ambiguous stimuli and provided the liberty to respond.

Projective techniques have a long and rich history, William Shakespeare wrote about the projective usefulness of clouds, and William Stern used cloud images as test stimuli before Rorschach's use of inkblots. Galton suggested the use of word Association Methods, and Kraepelin used these methods for clinical diagnosis and categorization. Binet and Henry (1896) initially used pictures and inkblots as the projective indices of intelligence and other mental abilities, i.e., Creativity and Imagination. Adler also used the Recall The method as a kind of projective approach in which the subject was asked to recall his first memory. Even in ancient epics like Upnishads, Bible, and stories in Sufism, there are references of the importance of interpreting narratives information (Groth-Marnat, 1992). Utterances of Greek oracles like inkblots were open to varying interpretations. Interpretations of artistic works have also been considered to reveal something about the artist and his or her subject (Hammer, 1958).

However, the original impetus for projective techniques can be attributed to Herman Rorschach's classical monograph entitled Psycho-diagnostic in 1921, in which he stated the use of inkblots as an important and effective method of psychopathology. In the later 1920s, David Levy started using inkblot testing in the USA, which led to the start of teaching Rorschach courses by Beck, Klopfer, and Hertz. In 1935 Morgan and Murray introduced TAT and subsequently in 1938, Murray conceptually described the projection process. The term projective became popular after Frank (1939) coined and discussed in a paper on projective methods. Frank conceptualized projective methods/techniques as psychological assessment procedures in which the subjects attribute their inner needs and feelings to ambiguous stimulus situations. The assessment stimuli in projective techniques are relatively unstructured material or tasks, which the subject is required to describe,  tell a story about, complete or respond to in some or other way.

Compared to other personality assessment methods, particularly objective tests, i.e., inventories and rating scales, projective techniques are usually less evident in intent, making them less vulnerable to faking, motivated distortions, and response sets. As the test material in projective techniques are relatively unstructured in content and open-ended in terms of responses yielded, it is assumed that the test material's mental structure reflects the projection of the subject's personal perception of things. It is also assumed that the more the test material unstructured, the greater the probability of revealing important implicit facets of personality. A Group of these assumptions is called  ‘projective hypothesis’.

The Freudian psychoanalytic framework has strongly influenced the early conceptualization of projective assessment. The projective techniques were defined in terms of the Freudian notion of unconscious processes and ego defence mechanisms, particularly projection. It is reflected in that the most excellent development and reliance on projective tests occurred between 1930 to 1960, when Psychoanalysis was the most dominating force in Psychology. Some expert does not intend to stick Freudian definition of projective techniques with the assertion that a relationship between projection as conceptualized by Freud and projective techniques cannot be ascertained in all cases. So, the projective techniques are called so for another reason: because these are constructed so that the subject can project into his responses a significant component of his personality. The responses to the stimuli of projective techniques are determined not only by the stimuli to which he is responding but by his personality.

Many definitions of projective tests/ techniques have been offered over the years (Anderson and Anderson, 1951; Landzey, 1961; Murstein 1963; Semenoff, 1976; Freeman, 1962). Perhaps, the pragmatic one can from a Psychological Dictionary (English and English 1958) which defines projective techniques as a procedure for discovering a person’s characteristic modes of behaviour by observing his behaviour in responses to a situation that does not elicit or compel a particular response.

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 a stimulus situation, providing him with an opportunity to impose upon it his personal needs and his specific perceptions and interpretations.