Rorshach Tests Or, Am I Crazy?

“Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd2B6SjMh_w

Take out a piece of paper When an image appears, write down what you think it means. You will have only 20 seconds to decide.

#1

Blot Confidentiality The Rorschach ink blots are supposed to remain secret so as not to "pollute" the test population (people to whom the test is given to). However, the ink blots and the most common responses have been revealed on wikipedia, leaving the test less useful.

#2

The theory behind the test, created by Hermann Rorschach, is that the test taker's spontaneous or unrehearsed responses reveal deep secrets or significant information about the taker's personality and emotional functioning.

#3

How did Charlie respond to the Rorshach test? What do you suppose the test giver thought of Charlie’s responses? How might you have interpreted his responses? What would you say about Charlie’s personality based on these responses?

#4

What is a "good" answer versus a "bad" answer What is a "good" answer versus a "bad" answer? This is a tricky question, and even the psychologists who swear by the Rorschach test don't agree on this (although there is some agreement on what constitutes a really bad answer). Your best bet is probably to stick to "seeing" healthy, friendly images.

#5

Avoid dark or violent answers ("I see Satan eating a baby") Avoid dark or violent answers ("I see Satan eating a baby"). Butterflies, people holding hands, leaves, mountains, etc. are all generally considered to be "safe" responses.

#6

If you come up with a novel or particularly interesting answer you may get "points" for your creativity.

Being outlandish, provocative, obstinate, or oppositional will count against you. Taking an excessively long time to answer or answering immediately (not taking any time to ponder the card at all) will always count against you.

What do you think are some of the possible flaws of this method of assessing a personality? How might environment (grew up at the beach as opposed to grew up in the dessert) change a person’s responses? What effect might recent events in a person’s life have on a person’s response? Would mood have an effect? What are some other flaws in this personality test?

Rorshach believed that a person who sees movement in an inkblot reveals something different than a person who does not see movement. For example, one person might see a peacock, and the other sees a clown diving into a pool. One image is static, without movement, and the other is dynamic; involves movement.

What do you think seeing movement in an inkblot reveals about a person?

What do you suppose it said about Charlie that he couldn’t see anything in the inkblots? What does it say about him that he refused to “tell lies” about people in order to imagine images?

In order to see images in the inkblots, what must one be able to do In order to see images in the inkblots, what must one be able to do? What does it mean to “think” or to “try” to see images?

Cultural Allusion: