Rorschach Inkblot Test and Thematic Apperception Test

Check out our YouTube video of our re-creation!

Photo taken by UNLV student Sasha McCormick

A picture tells a thousand words. Is there validity to that statement? Can you tell a story based on one photo?

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAG) is an interesting test that seeks motives that the participants may not directly be saying. During the TAG, participants are shown photos of people or something recognizable. The point is that the story the participant says could be linked to an emotion they are having. The more specific they are, the more likely it is their story.

The Rorschach inkblot test is an ambiguous stimuli. The person is asked to report what they see. It is not a regular photo of a person but the idea is to come up with something from an abstract picture. The response is supposedly linked with the person’s inner thoughts, motivations or their feelings that they may not be aware of.

Our group decided to see how different people could react to both tests. We had three participants who had no knowledge of the test or what it measured. We showed them 10 photos, 5 from the TAG and 5 from the Rorschach inkblot test. We observed their reactions and what they said.

The interesting part about administering these tests, was to see how diverse their responses were. For example, I showed a photo of a man and a woman from the TAG, and here is what the participants had to say.

Patrick Calma: “Oh wow. This is a classic one, where the woman is chasing the man of her dream.”

Mary Blankenship: “It looks like the guy is contemplating or complaining about something.”

Javier Echeverria: “She just wants his attention and he does not care at all.”

I showed them five photos from the TAG and five photos from the Rorschach Inkblot Test. Here were their responses to n example from the Rorschach Inkblot Test when shown the following photo.

Patrick Calma: "Zodiac signs."

Mary Blankenship: "Paris."

Javier Echeverria: "Italy."

After the end of the tests, we asked the participants if they could relate to any of the photos. Two out of three participants admitted to associating a photo with some part of their life. I knew the participants very well. I knew many things about their lives and could see how their answers correlated to how they felt. Not everything they said was left in the videos because they were personal responses. What is shown in the video is what they were comfortable with me sharing.

Calma states, “It’s about a woman liking a man but at the same time, there’s always that special someone in your life that you could never somehow, move on from or forget." I know Calma very well and we discussed the photos more in depth once I turned off the camera. He was talking about an ex-girlfriend who had hurt him in the past and how he wasn't able to let go of the pain.

Ms. Blankenship replies with, “That one kind of did. I thought of my grandpa when I saw that and some of my family members, and how they reacted to his death.” We discussed more about how this picture captured some feelings off camera.

Some problems while filming this video had to do with the setting and how well we knew each other. The filming did not take place in a room but in a hall where people passed by. I could sense that some of the participants felt a bit embarrassed. It took a while to film because people kept passing and going. I didn’t have chairs for the participants to sit in so we all sat on the floor.