Projective Tests

There are two types of personality tests; projective and objective tests. Projective techniques consist of presenting ambiguous stimuli. These generate subjective interpretations, thus there is no single specific answer. The responses given by participants are thought to reflect their thoughts, desires, fears, needs and conflicts that they otherwise would not have declared explicitly.

Projective tests rely too much on professional’s personal judgment rather than following standardized criteria. These lack statistical reliability and validity. Furthermore, many are skeptic about their utility for diagnostic procedure. In addition, there is little evidence that these tests predict any behavior. Despites their criticism, they are still frequently used. They are thought to be useful in creating a nonthreatening environment for children, which elicits better cooperation and performance. Projective tests are practical for the development of a good relationship between the client and the therapist, which is crucial. Another advantage of projective tests is that they are almost free of response sets and dissimulation since individuals do not know what is the expected or the socially desirable answer.

Even though projective tests are not statistically compelling, they are useful. In some situations these are easier or even better at measuring and\or observing a specific construct. This type of testing unveils inhibited tendencies that would not be discovered if measured in another manner. Most people explicitly affirm that they are a certain way though it is not their true self but their ideal self. Thus self-reports or interviews do not always capture the underlying truth. For instance, there is evidence that measuring motives and goals explicitly and implicitly yielded zero correlation because the explicit measure described their ideal self and the projective tests measured participants true thoughts and feelings. Furthermore, projective tests are too valuable in discovering core information about individuals to stop using them due to their limitations. Of course, when possible further testing should be accompanied to support the findings of projective tests.

Projective techniques can help identify the way patient’s think and process information, which can be practical for further interventions or to narrow subsequent testing. They are especially effective when testing children or individuals that are reserved in sharing details. For instance, draw-a-person test reflects how one feels about themselves. A child will rarely explain to a stranger (therapist) their feelings, though drawing is usually an activity they like and through the drawing they will often unconsciously reveal parts of themselves. Thus projective drawings are effective in understanding better children’s thoughts. In sum, projective tests are not a valid means to predict behaviors and to diagnose individuals however they reveal information that would otherwise be unknown.