Mihika Poore
Rorschach’s inkblot test is one of the famous tests among personality tests. It enables a therapist to look into the person’s unconscious mind. The test was created by Hermann Rorschach who was a Swiss Psychologist. It gained extreme popularity as it reveals hidden aspects of the individual’s personality and distinguishes between psychopathic and non-psychopathic dispositions. The test is primarily used in psychotherapy and counseling (Cherry, 2019).
Rorschach was a big fan of a popular children’s game, Klecksographie which involved associating meaning to the inkblots. It later inspired him to make his own symmetrical and abstract designs to solicit conceptual answers from the subject and use it as a psychological tool (Rossen, 2018). In the inkblot test, a person is shown an ambiguous, meaningless image. The subject then has to describe whatever s/he feels the image looks like. This is done by the mind which works hard at imposing meaning to the image (2012). The test is afterward scored which interprets the modes of perception and their relation to the subject’s personality (Lal, 2011). It was used in many countries to study a person’s behavior and thought processes. For instance, The United States used the test exclusively to examine a child, conduct assessments, etc.
Despite being one of the most famous projective tests, it’s value has been highly questioned leading to controversies. The use of the test in the present psychological fields has reduced drastically. In my opinion, the inkblot test is not a credible measure to diagnose a person with any mental disorder.
The test was meant to predict the subject’s psychological pathologies. It lacked validity as it usually was unsuccessful in measuring what it claimed to measure. For instance, the list of what it fails to diagnose includes depression and anxiety disorders. It cannot detect sexual abuse in children even though it is used for that purpose (Staff, 2010). I also regard the critics’ true when they say that the inkblot lacks reliability. The test has different interpretations by different therapists, the conclusion, therefore has less or no uniformity. Lack of standardization, inadequate norms and indefinite criteria of the test lead to the chances of experimenter biasness (Lal, 2011). I further assume that the therapists translate the results in their way not realizing that their unconscious mind also influences the subject’s results. For example, if the person being tested sees a bra, a male psychologist might classify this as a sexual response, whereas a female psychologist may classify it as clothing (2012).
Alongside other weaknesses, the cultural factor is one of the most debated issues of the inkblot test. The test is said to be misleading for minorities: Blacks and Native Americans as they are all likely to score abnormally on the inkblot test (Staff 2010). I acknowledge that deciphering test data can have a huge amount of cultural influence as certain aspects of a particular culture can be considered absurd in other cultures. Personal cultural beliefs of therapists can therefore affect the results of the test. Likewise, language is a similar barrier that creates blockades in coding and decoding the information shared between the therapists and the subjects.
Adding on, the blots were initially published by Rorschach in 1921, since then they have never undergone any kind of facelift. Lack of modifications has caused the test to be outdated which makes me question its relevance in today’s world.
After listing the limitations of the test, I ponder why is the inkblot test still used. The test said a lot about the internal world of the person by producing a scarily accurate profile of a person’s personality. It could also have higher reliability and validity if certain conditions were met like getting test results interpreted by trained therapists and evaluating scores using a defined rating scale. Before generalizing the use of the test, if the right population was examined and the larger sample size was kept in mind then the test would also have been used more efficiently. Not ignoring the fact that countries like Japan still use the test.
Drawing things to a close, the inkblot test has been used so that people get to know about their unconscious thoughts which they never knew existed because they had suppressed them to forget about their problems. However, the construction of the test is ignorant of the barriers mentioned above and one cannot disregard the fact that that the test has been unsuccessful in coming up with accurate judgments.
References:
1. Cherry, K. (2019, April 22). Does the Rorschach Inkblot Test Really Work? Retrieved from https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-the-rorschach-inkblot-test-2795806.
2. Lal, E. (2011, July 6). An Analysis of Rorschach Inkblot Personality Assessment Tests. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/1315365/An_Analysis_of_Rorschach_Inkblot_Personality_Assessment_Tests.
3. Rossen, J. (2018, November 26). 9 Revealing Facts About the Rorschach Test. Retrieved from http://mentalfloss.com/article/560942/facts-about-rorschach-test.
4. Staff, N. (2010, July 1). The Problem With the Rorschach: It Doesn't Work. Retrieved from https://www.newsweek.com/problem-rorschach-it-doesnt-work-81507.
5. What's behind the Rorschach inkblot test? (2012, July 25). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-18952667.
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