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Is Rorschach really Reliable?

Mehak Vohra


The Rorschach Inkblot Test is a type of projective test used to assess personality in psychology. Although it seems like a simple concept of judging what perceptions people have from inkblots, Rorschach tests are known to say a lot about people from their emotional functioning to possible mental disorders they might have. Founded by Hermann Rorschach, the tests were initially intended to tell if his patients were schizophrenic or not. Over time, the test has come to be used for assessing personality characteristics and possible disorders. The inkblots act as ambiguous stimuli and what a person interprets from the inkblots, is presumed to reflect their subconscious. This test has been in use for multiple decades, however, it’s reliability still remains in question to this day.
A research study by Wood et al in 2010 attempted to do a meta-analysis on the Validity of the Rorschach Inkblot Test to discriminate between psychopaths and non-psychopaths. They used twenty-two studies which comprised 780 participants to perform a meta-analytic review of 173 validity coefficients, out of which 37 were Rorschach variables. The study found that only five out of the 37 of the Rorschach variables displayed any significant association to psychopathy and hence concluded that Rorschach is not a clinically sensitive instrument while differentiating between psychopaths and non-psychopaths. This study proves that the reliability of the Rorschach is also subjective to the context in which it is being used. While it may be efficient in identifying patients with schizophrenia, it proved to be no help in discriminating psychopaths from the general population.
Further, the responses given by one for the inkblots may not always be representative of their mental state but of external stimuli as well. For example, in the Bobo Doll Experiment by Albert Bandura on Social Learning, the group of children shown a violent movie displayed aggressive behaviours by punching the bobo doll. The show of aggressive behaviours by the children was a direct result of the movie shown to them and the ensuing social learning. Similarly, some of the answers seen in the Rorschach Inkblot Test may be a direct result of external stimuli an individual may have been exposed to and not indicative of a thought or personality disorder all the time.
As a projective test, Rorschach is also subjected to many biases, including the Interpreter’s Bias. A study conducted by Levy and Kahn in 1969 hypothesised whether a patient’s socioeconomic class affected their Rorschach interpretation. A group of trained examiners and a group of novices rated the same sets of people on 21 objective scales. The three groups of people were (a) those with a middle-class background, (b) those with a lower-class background, and (c) unknown or blind study. It was found that the accompaniment of one’s socioeconomic background visibly influenced the interpretation of their test scores. It was not only the novices who showed the bias but the experienced examiners also showed some bias.
The two forms of reliability considered while measuring personality tests is inter-rater reliability and intra-rater or test-retest reliability. Inter-rater reliability refers to the homogeneity in agreement between different raters. For a test like Rorschach which is extremely subjective and interpretative, such homogeneity is only possible when there is a well-defined rating scale being used. Test-retest reliability measures how similar the results from a test are when repeated in the same conditions over time. With the Rorschach Inkblot test, it is possible that a person may give completely different answers when shown the same inkblot at different times. 
Keeping all of the aforementioned studies and the two tests of reliability in mind, for a Rorschach Inkblot Test to be reliable, it has to be standardized with a well-defined rating scale and the set of examiners have to be rigorously trained in it’s interpretation to reduce any error on the examiners side. While it is not possible for such a subjective test to be a  100% reliable, with the elimination of all biases and by following protocol, reliability can be achieved. The Rorschach Inkblot Test may not be free of error, but it has proven to be efficient in recognizing thought, mental and personality disorders, which is why it is still widely used in testing.


References:
Levy, M., & Kahn, M. (1970). Interpreter Bias on the Rorschach Test as a Function of Patients' Socioeconomic Status. Journal Of Projective Techniques And Personality Assessment, 34(2), 106-112. doi: 10.1080/0091651x.1970.10380218
Wood, J., Lilienfeld, S., Nezworski, M., Garb, H., Allen, K., & Wildermuth, J. (2010). Validity of Rorschach Inkblot scores for discriminating psychopaths from nonpsychopaths in forensic populations: A meta-analysis. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 336-349. doi: 10.1037/a0018998
Parker, K. (1983). A Meta-Analysis of the Reliability and Validity of the Rorschach. Journal Of Personality Assessment, 47(3), 227-231. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa4703_1

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