The following examples illustrate several TAT
themes and the interpretations or analyses made
from them. They are verbatim responses from the
same 42-year-old woman described in Case Illustra-
tion 2 of the Rorschach section.
Lindzey, Bradford, Tejessy, and Davids (1959)
compiled a dictionary of interpretive generalizations
that might be made from TAT stories based on a
survey of nearly 200 publications. The sheer
volume of possible TAT interpretations from the
various story cues is tremendous. This highlights
the difficulty of assessing TAT validity—namely,
validity with respect to what? Following are a few
of the interpretive generalizations culled from the
literature by Lindzey et al. (1959):
Paranoid symptomatology indicated by:
Stereotyped phrases used throughout a
record. (Rapaport, 1946, p. 449)
Anxiety indicated by:...plots emphasizing
sudden physical accidents andemotional trauma, such as loss of wife,
mother, sweetheart, job, a house
burning down, or a stock crash.
(Rotter, 1946, p. 88)
Dependency in adolescents indicated by...
three or more references to one or
more members of the family.
(Symonds, 1949, p. 87)
Patients with sexual problems may:...
avoid the picture on the wall in Picture
#4 or refuse to discuss the nude female
in Picture #13. (Stein, 1948, p. 42)
Unfortunately, these propositions have received
relatively little research attention. Further, we are not
aware of any research suggesting that information
obtained from the TAT is significantly related to
treatment outcome. Given the TAT’spurported
ability to identify interpersonal styles that might
influence choices regarding the therapist’s treatment
approach, this is somewhat surprising.TAT Case Illustration
Card 3BM Looks like a little boy crying for some-
thing he can’t have. (Why is he crying?)
Probably because he can’t go some-
where. (How will it turn out?) Probably
sit there and sob hisself [sic] to sleep.
Card 3GF Looks like her boyfriend might have let
her down. She hurt his feelings. He’s
closed the door on her. (What did he
say?) I don’t know.
Card 9GF Girl looks like somebody’s run off and
left her. She’s ready for a dance. Maid is
watching to see where she goes. (Why
run off?) Probably because she wasn’t
ready in time.
Card 10 Looks like there’s sorrow here. Grieving
about something. (About what?) Looks
like maybe one of the children’s passed
away.
Card 13MF Looks like his wife might have passed
away and he feels there’s nothing more
to do.Card 20 Looks like a man that’s ready to rob
something. Hiding behind a high fence of
some kind. Has his hand in his pocket with
a gun ready to shoot if anybody comes
out.An excerpt from the clinician’s report offers this
analysis.“The TAT produced responses that were uni-
formly indicative of unhappiness, threat, misfortune, or
lack of control over environmental forces. None of the
test responses were indicative of satisfaction, happy end-
ings, and so on. In this test, as in the Rorschach, impover-
ished and constricted responses are evident which
probably indicate anxiety and depression....Insummary,
the test results point to an individual who is anxious and,
at the same time, depressed. Feelings of insecurity, inad-
equacy, and lack of control over environmental forces are
apparent, as are unhappiness and apprehension. These
factors result in a constriction of performance that is
largely oriented toward avoiding threat and that ham-
pers sufficient mobilization of energy to perform at an
optimal level.”PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT 243