What Are Ink Blot Tests?

Although there are many "Rorschach" and inkblot tests available on the Internet, and some of them humorous, these psychological tests are highly complex and specialized. A computer program cannot gauge your answers. It requires training and expertise to interpret a subject's responses to an inkblot test.

History

• Herman Rorschach conceived the first inkblot test when he observed children playing the game "blotto" and he noticed that they kept coming up with diverse interpretations of certain images. Rorschach developed his inkblot test as a psychological diagnostic tool, but he had a difficult time publishing it due to its initial complexity. The House of Bircher finally bought his publication in 1921, but the publisher asked Rorschach to scale the test back from its original 15 images to 10 images. The test became a preeminent tool used by clinical psychologists through the 1940s and 1950s.

Study Method

• Inkblot tests are a projective technique for determining a subject's innermost thoughts. Presented with images of various, random shapes that carry a wide range of interpretations, patients project their thoughts and feelings when they identify what they believe the image is supposed to be. A psychologist then infers meaning from their responses.

Tools

• Rorschach's version of the inkblot test with 10 images included half of the inkblots in black and white and the other half in colors. Wayne Holtzman revised this years later to include to include 45 inkblots that could more specifically categorize subjects' responses. Both versions of the inkblot test remain in use in 2011. The Holtzman version is on display at the Smithsonian Institution.

Scoring Systems

• After Rorschach published his 10-blot version of the test, a flurry of different techniques evolved regarding how best to score the results. By 1969, five separate techniques were widely in use. John Exner stepped forward to compare the five systems, and he discovered that the scoring systems were so widely divergent they might have been five different inkblot tests. Exner created a new master scoring system in response. Exner's "Comprehensive System" has been continually upgraded and now includes four editions.

Interpretation

• Exner breaks down a subject's response to an inkblot image into three segments. First, the brain encodes or absorbs the blot figure and comes to conclusions as to what it is. The average subject will then discard impressions that he believes are "wrong." Finally, he will reveal one of the remaining impressions to the analyst. Exner's theory is that if a subject responds immediately, his mind is not going through the second and third stages, and therefore he is not projecting his innermost thoughts. If he then begins to add to his answer, however, he is projecting and telling the analyst something about himself.