Although they do not mention, Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan's "Thematic Apperception Test" is based on Freud's projection theory, which he introduced in 1894.
This theory describes an unconscious psychological defense mechanism in which an individuals believe they recognize their own unacceptable traits or impulses in other persons in order to avoid accepting these traits in themselves. In a way, it is like the old saying "a thief thinks every man steals." For example, a person, who bullies another person for being anxious and insecure, may do so to avoid accepting that he himself is anxious. A wife is attracted to a male coworker but cannot accept her feelings, so she instead accuses her husband of being attracted to another woman. A man who feels insecure about his masculinity mocks other men for behaving like women.
The TAT test exploits the fact that test subjects can transfer their own unconscious tendencies to characters in their fictional TAT stories.
Freud was a doctor who wanted to use his theories to cure people with mental problems. However, Henry Murray originally described his projective TAT method as a tool in his "Deep Dive", which was a voyage of discovery into the human psyche.
However, today TAT is widely used mostly as an individual personality test in many different versions.
1. Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan
Henry Murray originally studied biochemistry at Harvard University in Massachusetts, specializing in chick embryos. But after reading Jung's "Psychological Types" in 1923, which had just been published in English, he developed a deep interest in psychology.
Til venstre: Henry Murray 1893-1988. Harvard University Archives
Til h jre: Christiana Morgan 1897-1967. Wikimedia Commons.
Left: Henry Murray 1893-1988. Harvard University Archives
Right: Christiana Morgan 1897-1967. Wikimedia Commons.
Less than a month later, a new turning point in his life occurred when, at a dinner party, he met a beautiful young woman named Christiana Morgan. She proved to be well-versed in psychology and asked him whether he preferred Freud or Jung. She encouraged him to travel to Switzerland and meet Carl Jung face to face.
While in England, he used an Easter vacation to travel to Lake Zurich in Switzerland and meet Carl Jung in person to discuss a possible career in psychology. For three weeks, Jung and Murray met daily in the town of Küsnacht on the shores of Lake Zürich. Murray recalled: "We talked for hours while sailing on the lake, and smoked in front of the fireplace in his Faustian retreat."
Shortly after his return to Harvard University in Massachusetts, USA, he succeeded in being appointed assistant professor of psychology. He quickly made a name for himself as a charismatic and dynamic psychologist, and in 1928 he was appointed director of the University's psychological clinic.
Carl Jung in his home in the town of Küsnacht on the shores of Lake Zurich in Switzerland. Photo. The Astrology Podcast.
He employed Christiana Morgan and gave her an office in the clinic.
Both Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan were married, but not to each other. They maintained an intense love affair for the rest of their lives. Henry rented a small apartment above a tobacconist's shop quite close to the clinic, and they discreetly retreated there almost daily.
"Academic psychology has contributed practically nothing to the knowledge of human nature" he wrote in a controversial article. Murray's original goal was "to understand man and human nature in all its phases" and in doing so he distinguished himself - at least apparently - from, for example, Freud, who was a doctor and wanted to cure his patients, who suffered from neuroses or other mental problems. Murray, on the other hand, was interested in normal people. His plan was to study 50 gifted Harvard students and map their personalities completely.
Morgan and Murray tried to use the Rorschach test for this purpose, but found it unsuitable.
Left: Christiana Morgan produced the TAT cards by manually copying photos and drawings from magazines and journals of the time. Photocopying had not been invented. Here is a photograph of the famous violinist Menuhin as a boy from the 1920s.
Right: The resulting TAT card 1. A boy looking at a violin.
This card is intended to provide information about the test taker's willingness to concentrate and achieve higher competence. A test taker's narrative describing the boy's reluctance to be forced to learn to play the violin will score for lack of ambition.
He often quoted the philosopher George Santayana: "In man there is imagination more fundamental than perception." He and Jung were inspired by the Englishman Francis Galton, who in 1879 created a "word-association experiment," which involved writing seventy words down on separate pieces of paper, then drawing a random slip of paper and noting the associations that this word created in the test subject. Galton wrote: "No one can have an idea until he has carefully experimented within himself with the multitude of unconsidered and half-thought-out thoughts and vague notions that flicker around in his brain and the effect they have on his conscious life."
Sketch of TAT picture 4. A man turning away from a woman, who is grabbing him by the shoulders.
This card is intended to explore the test subject's feelings and attitudes towards the relationship between men and women. It is also particularly suited to examine the test subject's relationships with other men, including rivalry between men and jealousy, as the man in the picture seems agitated about something, and the woman is trying to calm him down. Photo go2psycology.blogspot.
Carl Jung further developed Galton's idea with a list of words that he found particularly apt to evoke associations, such as "mother", "kissing", "death" and "sin".
Murray was convinced that the truth about human personality was to be found in fantasies and daydreams, laden with longing and desire. He wrote that "the key to understanding human nature is to be found - not on the surface of the body or in the full light of consciousness - but in the dark and unnoticed recesses of the psyche."
The word association test brought them closer to the truth, they believed, but they tried several other types of association tests, such as a "musical daydream test", in which the test subject sat in a comfortable armchair and listened to music by Tchaikovsky and Mozart while reporting his associations with it, and the "literary composition test" in which the test subject was given a synopsis of a not-so-well-known short story and then had to develop it into their own short story. They tried an "olfactory imagination test" in which the test subject, blindfolded, was exposed to various odors, including whiskey, perfume, aftershave, stain remover, and Worcester Sauce. After each odor, he was asked to write a short anecdote or episode about it.
A TAT test situation from the 1950s. Photo Corbis.
Murray and Morgan invented many other tests, but one test eventually stood out as the answer to their problems. It was to be called the "Thematic Apperception Test", TAT. It simply involved showing the test takers some selected - relatively ambiguous - pictures and asking them to tell a little story about each.
It is a projective test, which means that the test taker is assumed to involuntarily identify with the main character of his story and thereby project his own unconscious motives, inner conflicts and longings into him or her. The interpretation of the test material can then say something about the test taker's inner, unconscious life.
Unlike Rorschach's inkblots, the TAT pictures are real pictures that depict something - but not too much.
Murray and Morgan found motifs for their TAT test in magazines and journals such as "Womens' Home Companion", "Life", "Time", "The Sportsman" and many more. They collected about two thousand drawings and photographs. Soon the entire building was filled with old magazines and newspapers. They showed the pictures to colleagues, students, and family members to assess the ability of the motifs to evoke associations.
A boy plays the violin. This could be a TAT card.
A test taker's response to this picture could be: "The boy found an old violin in the attic and liked to play with it. It sounded terrible, the cat would run out of the house when he started, the neighbors would bang on the wall. One day the boy was out playing, his mother threw the old useless violin in the trash, and then there was peace in the house."
This answer would be interpreted as unwillingness to make an effort and lack of ambition.
Another test taker's response to the picture could be: "From a very young age, the boy was very musical. Even before he could speak, he would laugh excitedly whenever he heard music, and would sit and jump to the beat. When he got a little older, his grandfather bought him a violin. He practiced diligently for many hours every day. At an early age, he was already very talented and was accepted into a famous music conservatory."
This response is optimistic and straightforward. The test taker will be assessed as a serious and ambitious person. Photo unknown origin.
The requirements for the pictures were that they should contain a "hero" with whom the test person could identify. They should touch on some recognizable and universal human dilemmas. They should also be sufficiently unclear and ambiguous to allow room for a test person's imagination.
Together with the MMPI and the Rorschach, the TAT has become one of the most widely used psychological tests today.
2. TAT - Thematic Apperception Test
The TAT test is intended to be used only on individuals - not on groups. It consists of 20 cards with images that represent something, yet are ambiguous in their emotional content. They are presented to the test taker one by one in a predetermined order.
TAT interview in the fifties. The test taker sits incorrectly, as mentioned below, he or she should sit right next to the examiner with his or her chair facing away from him.
The cards are numbered from 1 to 20. Many of the numbers have letters added to them. Thus, 3BM means that card number 3 is suitable for "Boys" and "Males", 13MF means that card number 13 is suitable for "Males" and "Females" and 9GF means card number 9, which is suitable for "Girls" and "Females" and so on.
Depending on whether the test taker is a "boy", "male", "female" or "girl" is recommended different orders in which the cards should be presented. A test taker can expect to be presented to 9-10 cards selected by gender and age.
If the test taker is a man, the cards may be: 1, 2, 3BM, 4, 6BM, 7BM, 11, 12M, 13MF in this order.
If the test taker is a woman, she may encounter the cards: 1, 2, 3, 3BM, 4, 6GF, 7GF, 9GF, 11, 13GF.
However, the TAT is administered very differently, many new cards have been added since Murray and Morgan published their test in 1935, and many psychologists have their own individual ideas about which and how many cards they will use.
There are also TAT pictures for children that don't leave much to imagination and imagination. Photo ppt-online.
The test taker should sit right next to the examiner with his or her chair facing away. The time is measured separately for each picture. The total time for 10 pictures is 50 minutes, that is, an average of 5 minutes for each picture.
The test taker should start from four main points for each picture:
- Current situation?
- The person's thoughts and feelings?
- What has happened before?
- What will happen now?
During the test, the psychologist is only allowed to make encouraging remarks that reflect the four points shown above. He can ask questions such as: "What happened?"; "What events have occurred prior to this?", "What will happen to him (the main character) now?"; or "What will happen later?". He is not allowed to provide any actual help.
Sketch of TAT image 12F, which shows a woman being observed from behind by an older woman. It is probably intended to explore the test taker's (a woman) relationship with her mother. The younger woman is looking towards the horizon with wide eyes, perhaps she has made a big decision in her life that she believes will involve the realization of her dreams. The older woman is wiser, but does not want to interfere. Photo psylab.info.
The test taker's complete answers for each card will be recorded, presumably as a tape recording. But basically everything the test taker says and does will be recorded, including stuttering, tone of voice, posture, hand gestures, exclamations, and so on. It will be noted whether the test taker seeks eye contact with the psychologist. It will be noted if he hesitates to say anything about particular pictures.
The test aims to uncover the test taker's personality and hidden unconscious motives. It will also test the person's intellectual ability to structure a story with an introduction, a plot, and an ending.
3. Interpretation of responses
The personality that the test subject gives to the main character of the story will be interpreted as his own. The other characters will typically be interpreted as family or colleagues, and the relationship between the main character and other characters in the story will be considered the test subject's typical relationships with other people.
There is no formal scoring system for the TAT - as there is in the MMPI and Exner's system in the Rorschach - and therefore analysis of TAT responses is often more subjective.
South African version of TAT image 2. A woman holding a book in a rural landscape. In the background a man working in the fields and another woman standing passively looking towards the horizon.
The card is said to represent a group scene and is intended to explore the individual challenge of living together with other people. However, it is striking that the young woman in the foreground is neatly dressed and apparently engaged in bookish pursuits. The man, on the other hand, is doing physically hard farm work, and the other woman is standing in a position that suggests pregnancy. A story about the young ambitious woman, who turns her back on her upbringing in the countryside and the prospect of early marriage in order to obtain a bookish education is obvious. Photo Semantic schollar
If the test taker made eye contact with the psychologist and did not do any stammering or nervous movements, and did not make excuses about not being a good storyteller, it would reinforce the impression of arrogance, which means that the test taker has personal resources but is unwilling to make an effort and lacks ambition.
4.Test behavior
Compared to the MMPI and Rorschach, the TAT does not have the same - relatively objective - fixed and detailed rules for scoring. Interpretation of the test subjects' responses is left to a much greater degree to the psychologist's subjective judgment. Therefore, it is very important to make a good impression on the psychologist and his/her possible assistants or secretaries without appearing to pretende.
Talk about the traffic or the weather, say that you find psychology incredibly exciting or something similar, or try to get a smile from the secretary.
It is wise to show a positive attitude towards the test - psychology is, after all, immensely interesting - and do not criticize it or make funny remarks. Psychologists probably have no sense of humor, when it comes to their tests. This will be perceived as arrogance.
TAT 13MF, which here has been transformed into people of color, shows an apparently lifeless naked woman in a bed. A fully clothed man with a tie is touching his head. This image is intended to explore the test subject's sexual and aggressive feelings.
It could be his beloved wife, burning with fever, the man is worried because the doctor is not coming as promised.
The psychologist will encourage the test subject to compose some kind of fiction. But one must definitely be warned against making up an exciting story about the man having just raped and strangled the woman, and now he is touching his head and thinking, what have I done? Remember that the main characters of the stories are always identified with the test subject.
If the test taker walks silently to the test with heavy steps, as if on his way to the guillotine, he will only give the impression that he has something to hide.
It is absolutely essential to make it clear that this is not a creativity test. TAT tests are designed to uncover things about our personality that we ourselves are hardly not aware of. Companies have no desire to hire the next H. C. Andersen or Charles Dickens. If the applicant mistakenly assumes it is a creativity test and simply goes off the rails, things can go completely wrong.
The test taker's stories should be success stories. The boy or the animal, or whatever is on the image, should set a big goal for themselves early on. Through hardship and suffering, they should strive towards this goal until they finally succeed and become rich or famous or both. Possible personal conflicts should ultimately be resolved.
As you can see, it can be difficult to maintain optimism; but remember that womens magazines' stories always have happy endings.
The main characters of the stories will be identified with the test taker, and the main character's relationships with other characters in the stories will be interpreted as his typical relationships with other people, especially colleagues. Therefore, the personal relationships between the main character and other agents in the stories should be good - at least problems between them should be resolved before the story ends.
This picture could be a TAT picture. It is very similar to TAT 7BM, which shows a younger man looking ahead and an older man looking from behind at him. TAT 7BM is supposed to elicit the test subject's attitudes and feelings towards authority figures.
You might think that these are two colleagues, one older and more experienced and one slightly younger and less experienced. The younger man has seen, to his amazement, a phenomenon that he has never experienced before. His more experienced colleague explains to him, what is behind.
However, this is a completely unreasonable demand to make of a writer. In all great stories there are heroes and villains, and the tension between them creates the intrigues that make the plot unfold. The Three Musketeers fight against Milady and Cardinal Richelieu, and Kulsoen is the archenemy of the G nge Chief. Only Robinson Crusoe faces nature itself, and Josef K faces the anonymous and all-powerful court.
But bad relationships between the main character and other people in the TAT test subject's story should be temporary and based on mistakes.
It probably goes without saying that it is wise to avoid controversial topics such as religion and politics - which does not make novel writing easier.
5. McClelland's ambition level test
The American psychologist, McClelland, believed that humans have a fundamental need to accomplish something, great feats, heroic deeds or other achievements. Just as we need food, drink and shelter, we also need to achieve.
The original photograph used to produce TAT 13B - A boy sitting in the doorway of a log cabin. The purpose of this card is supposedly to evoke the test subject's feelings about loneliness. Perhaps the boy is just sitting there dreaming of all the feats and discoveries he will make when he grows up, or he is just practicing his harmonica. Photo Dhembe Korea.
He demonstrated that there was a huge difference in the economic growth of society at different periods in history. In some periods, development took a tiger leap forward, so to speak. Elizabethan England experienced for example, a significant growth that could only be partially attributed to the new sea routes that were discovered.
David McClelland studied the literature in the years leading up to the great booms. He found that 40 to 50 years before the economic tiger leaps, literature contained many success stories. People dreamed, so to speak, of moving borders, finding new lands, creating new things, accomplishing something, and becoming famous. He noted that when Francis Drake and the other great explorers were children, their parents had been very preoccupied with achievement, and they had communicated this obsession to their children.
Therefore, he believed that the economic boom of his time was due to the fact that half a century ago children and adults dreamed of success.
David McClelland 1917 - 1998. Foto Eastern Psychological Association
Children's books of that time contained many success stories. For example, Tolkien's Bilbo Baggins voluntarily set out on a long and dangerous journey to search for treasure, and in the end he really succeeded.
To ensure the future success of society and individual companies, it is therefore important to identify such people as new employees of companies, who have the greatest desire for achievement, who want to accomplish something, make a difference and get recognition for it.
For this purpose, McClelland developed a TAT-like test, an ambition level
test, which he called the "nACH" test. Later, the test was expanded to include the need for power (nPOW) and the need for affiliation with others (nAFF).
According to McClelland, a good leader must have a desire for power. The very idea of ??leadership is that the leader must realize his plans through the actions of his subordinates, and for this to happen, he needs power. People with a low need for power may lack the self-confidence necessary to organize and direct the activities of their subordinates effectively. McClelland distinguishes between "personal power" and "socialized power".
Manager with personal power. Photo of unknown origin..
People with a high need for personal power may have few inhibitions and little self-control. They may tend to be rude, and they may exercise their power impulsively.
They are often characterized by excessive use of alcohol, associated with sexual harassment, and they often collect symbols of power (for example, large offices, large desks, expensive cars). When they give advice or support, it is with the strategic ulterior motive of further enhancing their own status.
They demand personal loyalty from their subordinates rather than loyalty to the
organization. When the leader leaves his position, there is likely to be a breakdown in order and team morale.
The need for socialized power, on the other hand, is associated with effective leadership. Such leaders use their power in socially positive ways that benefit others and the organization rather than contributing to the leader's status and personal gain.
They are less narcissistic and defensive, more reluctant to use power in manipulative ways, they accumulate fewer symbols of power and status, work with a longer time horizon, and are more willing to accept advice. They know that power should be distributed and that everyone should have a sense of influence in their own job.
Affiliation between managers. Photo unknown origin.
McClelland's third factor is affiliation, which refers to the ability to establish and maintain close and friendly relationships and participate in enjoyable social activities. People with a high need for affiliation derive great satisfaction from being liked and accepted by others. McClelland believes that a good leader must have enough motivation and thus enough energy to maintain close personal relationships with other managers and employees and to maintain networks and public relations. However, a leader cannot always make only popular decisions that make everyone happy, so a good leader should have only a moderate need for affiliation.
A person with a low score on affiliation will tend to be a loner who feels uncomfortable socializing with others, except for a few close friends.
McClealand's test is designed to find the candidates who are best suited as
leaders. Its method is very similar to the TAT. The test subject is presented with four to six pictures, photos that show people performing some tasks. For example, a picture might show two men working at a machine.
The test subject looks at each picture for about twenty seconds. He will then be asked to write a story about it.
This could be a nAch picture - What will she do now? - write a story. Photo unknown origin.
Just like with the TAT, the story should be based on questions such as,
"What happened?"
"What events have occurred prior to this?"
"What will happen to him (the main person) now?"
"What will happen later?".
It is again crucial to make it clear that this is not a creativity test, nor is it an intelligence test. It is a test that is intended to show whether the applicant is ambitious or not.
A response that indicates a high level of ambition will be characterized by the main person setting an appropriate goal - not too high and not too low. He makes a plan that reaches into the future, with the intention of achieving this goal.
The ambitious applicant sets a realistic goal that is possible to achieve if he makes an effort.
A candidate who sets an idealistic high-flying goal will have revealed himself as unambitious, as he is simply looking for an excuse for the failure that he himself expects deep in his mind.
A candidate who sets a very easy and manageable goal will have revealed that his fear of failure overshadows his ambitions.
Test answers that are stories of achieving challenging goals, setting new
records, successfully completing difficult tasks, doing something that has not been done before, will all score on achievement.
This could be a nAch picture - What happened? - write a story. Photo unknown origin
According to the theory, an answer that reveals a low level of ambition will be characterized by the main person giving in to pressure, seeking to avoid responsibility, and thereby failing in his efforts to achieve his goal.
McClelland believes that to qualify as a manager in a large organization, one must have a moderate need for achievement, a strong need for power, and a moderate need for affiliation. To qualify as a manager in smaller organizations, one must have a strong need for achievement, a strong need for power, and a low need for affiliation.
Stories about influencing others, defeating an opponent or
competitor, winning an argument, or achieving a position of greater authority and responsibility will all reflect a need for power.
Stories about lifelong friendship, eternal love, establishing or restoring close and friendly relationships, joining groups, or participating in pleasant social activities with family or friends will all score on affiliation.
Richard Atkinson moderated McClelland's ideas. He demonstrated that we all weigh our ambitions against our fear of failure. If we want to put a new motherboard in a computer or build a new carport, we will consider in advance, whether we also have the right knowledge, the right tools, and the right materials. We may decide to abandon the project or leave it to a professional.
This article is a contribution to the debate about personality tests and Dalum Hjallese Debate Club assumes no responsibility for any use of the article's content.
There are also TAT pictures for children that don't leave much to imagination and imagination. Photo ppt-online.
