Picture This Walking down the street you see a man and a woman standing together, staring up at the sky behind you. The man has a horrified look on his face, while the woman’s expression is that of amazement and joy. Before you instinctively turn to look as well, countless thoughts pulse through your mind of what possibly could these two folks be staring at. This was the basis for Henry Murry and Christina Morgan’s Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Background During the 1930’s, Murry and Morgan set out to develop a projective psychological test, that could be used by clinicians to dive deeper into a subjects unconscious mind. The idea was to show a series of ambiguous photos and illustrations to the subject, and ask them to make up, in their own words, a story about the image. Ideally, the clinician would learn more about the subject’s fears, worries, etc., and be able to open them up for discussion, all while the subject is “lowering their defenses,” without knowing. Through multiple rounds of experiments, with a group of males aged 20 to 30, the
final selection of 20 images was chosen. Each image was specially curated to stimulate fantasies in the subjects surrounding events and conflicts in their life. The experimenter would take notes on how the subject told each photos story. A few days later, the subjects returned and were questioned regarding their sources for their stories. The stories came from four sources: books and movies, real life events involving friends and family, the subject’s own life, and the subject’s conscious or unconscious fantasies.
Criticism For the most part, the study was, and is effective. However, it has drawn much controversy over the years since its inception. One glaring error is that the results of the experiment can depend entirely on the mood of the subject on any given day. Imagine getting
let go from a job and then describing the images stories, versus describing them while on vacation in the Bahamas. Most likely, the results would be very different. Another issue is the experiment has shown no effectiveness in revealing mental disorders in a subject. In the 1950’s, the experiment was administered to two sets of veterans. One group were students in college, while the others were patients in a psychiatric hospital. When the results of the study were analyzed, there were no significant differences between the two groups. Furthermore, there were no significant differences between the different psychiatric patients with differing illnesses. Closing Despite the widespread criticism of the test and the various complaints regarding its accuracy, clinicians continue to be enthusiastic regarding the test. Why do they enjoy this test so much? Clinicians do not use the Thematic Apperception Test as a test at all. Instead, they use it in individually applied situations to open out previously closed channels of communication with their clients.