Psychology2016

Theories of Personality 535

There are some problems, however. The validity scales, for example, are a good
check against cheating, but they are not perfect. Some people are still able to modify
their response patterns and respond in what they feel are more socially appropriate
ways (Anastasi & Urbina, 1997; Hicklin & Widiger, 2000). Despite the best intentions of
the test creators, individual responses to specific questions may also vary, as questions
may be interpreted in different ways by different individuals (Lilienfeld et al., 2015), and
are very likely to be subject to cultural influences (Kagan, 2010). Other problems have
to do with human nature itself: Some people may develop a habit of picking a particu-
lar answer rather than carefully considering the statement, whereas others may simply
grow tired of responding to all those statements and start picking answers at random.

THINKING CRITICALLY

Should employers require prospective employees to take a personality test? Why or why not? Would
such a requirement make more sense in certain professions, and, if so, what professions might those be?

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Projective Tests

13.15 Identify the advantages and disadvantages of using projective
personality tests.

Have you ever tried to see “shapes” in the clouds? You might see a house where another per-
son might see the same cloud as a horse. The cloud isn’t really either of those things but can be
interpreted as one or the other, depending on the person doing the interpretation. That makes a
cloud an ambiguous stimulus—one that is capable of being interpreted in more than one way.
In just this way, psychoanalysts (and a few other psychologists) show their clients
ambiguous visual stimuli and ask the clients to tell them what they see. The hope is that
the client will project unconscious concerns onto the visual stimulus, revealing them to
the examiner. Tests using this method are called projective tests. Such tests are perfor-
mance based and can be used to explore a client’s personality or used as a diagnostic tool
to uncover problems in personality.

projective tests

personality assessments that present

ambiguous visual stimuli to the client

and ask the client to respond with

whatever comes to mind.

Rorschach inkblot test

projective test that uses 10 inkblots as

the ambiguous stimuli.

THE RORSCHACH INKBLOTS One of the more well-known projective tests is the
Rorschach inkblot test, developed in 1921 by Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach

Watch the Video Projective Tests

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