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Projective methods. Projective techniques, types of projective techniques The main projective techniques include

Projective methods. Projective techniques, types of projective techniques The main projective techniques include

Projective method

(from Latin projectio - throwing forward) - one of the methods of personality research. Based on identifying projections in experimental data with subsequent interpretation. The concept of projection to denote a research method was introduced by L. Frank. P. m. is characterized by the creation of an experimental situation that allows for a multiplicity of possible interpretations when it is perceived by the subjects. Behind each such interpretation a unique system emerges. personal meanings and features cognitive style subject. The method is provided by a set of projective techniques (also called projective tests), among which there are: associative (for example, Rorschach, Holtzman test, in which subjects create images based on stimuli - spots; unfinished sentence completion test); interpretive (for example, a thematic apperception text, in which it is required to interpret the social situation depicted in the picture); expressive (psychodrama, human drawing test, non-existent animal drawing test), etc. Projective techniques have significant capabilities in the study of individual personality.

Brief psychological dictionary. - Rostov-on-Don: “PHOENIX”. L.A. Karpenko, A.V. Petrovsky, M. G. Yaroshevsky. 1998 .

See what the “projective method” is in other dictionaries:

PROJECTIVE METHOD- (from lat. projectio throwing forward...) one of the methods of personality psychodiagnostics (the study of a person’s personal qualities). The most significant feature of P. m. is the use of vague, ambiguous (weakly structured) ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

Experimental identification of projections and their subsequent interpretation. Projective techniques are used to study personality... Psychological and pedagogical dictionary of a naval unit teacher officer

PROJECTIVE METHOD- (from Lat. projectio throwing forward) one of the methods of personality research. Characterized by the creation of an experimental situation that allows for a multiplicity of possible interpretations when perceived by the subjects... Forensic pathopsychology (book terms)

One of the methods of personality research. Based on identifying projections in experimental data with their subsequent interpretation. The concept of projection to denote a research method was introduced by L. Frank. Characterized by the creation of an experimental situation... ...

PROJECTIVE DRAWING- One of the methods of group psychotherapy. A number of authors do not distinguish P. r. into an independent method, but is included in a complex designated as “projective art therapy” (involves the use of not only drawing, but also modeling, modeling and... ... Psychotherapeutic Encyclopedia

Praximetric method- a psychological method that consists in studying the products of the activities of subjects. Products of activity can be diary entries, archival materials, literary texts, etc. Other names The praxismetric method is also known ... Wikipedia

- (projective test) a set of methods for the holistic study of personality, based on the psychological interpretation of the results of the projection; tests used to determine personal characteristics by recording reactions to uncertain and... ... Great psychological encyclopedia- The praxismetric method is a psychological method that consists in studying the products of the activities of subjects. Products of activity can be diary entries, archival materials, literary texts, etc. Other names... ... Wikipedia

one of the methods of personality research. Based on identifying projections in experimental data with their subsequent interpretation. The concept of projection to denote a research method was introduced by L. Frank. Characterized by the creation of an experimental situation that allows for a multiplicity of possible interpretations as perceived by the subjects. Behind each interpretation emerges a unique system of personal meanings and style characteristics of the cognitive subject.

The method is provided by a set of projective techniques (also called projective tests), among which are distinguished:

1) associative - for example, the Rorschach blot test and the Holtzman test, where subjects create images based on stimuli - blots; unfinished sentence completion test);

2) interpretive - for example, a thematic apperception test, where you need to interpret the social situation depicted in the picture;

3) expressive - psychodrama, human drawing test, non-existent animal drawing test, etc.

The projective method is aimed at studying unconscious or not fully conscious forms of motivation and therefore is perhaps the only proper psychological method of penetrating into a particularly intimate area of the psyche.

In the light of the concept of personal meaning, it is clear that the effectiveness of these methods is based on the fact that the reflection of the mental, in particular, human consciousness, is biased. Therefore, when describing ambiguous images or performing loosely defined actions, a person involuntarily expresses himself, “projecting” some of his significant experiences and thereby his personal characteristics.

But it is necessary to clarify exactly what features of the personality and its inner world are expressed in the situation of a projective experiment and why exactly this situation contributes to the manifestation of these features. Any obstacles interrupt the action until they are overcome or until the subject refuses to complete the action; in this case, the action turns out to be incomplete either in its external plan or in its internal one - since the decision has not yet been made whether to overcome the obstacle or abandon the action. According to research, unfinished actions and the circumstances surrounding them are involuntarily remembered better than completed ones; In addition, a tendency is formed to complete these actions, and if direct completion is impossible, some kind of replacement actions are performed.

The situation of a projective experiment precisely offers the conditions for a replacement action: with a conscientious attitude towards performing the test, the subject involuntarily turns to his experience, and there the interrupted actions and the situations corresponding to them are stored “closest of all”. And the person, even sometimes consciously, tries to complete the interrupted action, which, however, is only possible in a symbolic sense. A “return” to an interrupted action occurs even when it consisted of hiding the meaning, distorting the meaning of circumstances according to one’s interests. At this symbolic completion of an action, a person applies solutions that are especially inherent to him, constituting his individual style.

This makes clear the requirements for projective stimuli: the degree of their certainty or uncertainty is determined by their applicability for certain substitute actions associated with obstructive meanings of varying degrees of specificity. Thus, the tables of the thematic apperceptive test correspond to meanings associated with obstacles, which can be somehow objectified. The tables of the Rorschach blot test correspond to the meanings of obstacles of a generalized, insufficiently objective nature, the nature of which may lie in the most general features of a person’s individual style - in the features of the functioning of his consciousness, etc. These features are least accessible to awareness, because awareness of what you are thinking about is much simpler and more accessible than awareness of how you think.

Other justifications for the projective method are possible, within the framework of other theories and concepts. Such considerations also lead to an understanding of certain fundamental difficulties. Thus, it is fundamentally difficult to move from the characteristics manifested when performing tests to such personality formations as motives, relationships, attitudes, conflicts, defenses, etc. Personal meanings and their place in the personality structure cannot yet be identified.

From the perspective of psychoanalysis, the object of projective methods is a deeply conflicted, maladapted personality. Therefore, the methods used in the psychoanalytic system have the following distinctive features:

1) focus on diagnosing the causes of maladjustment - unconscious treatments, conflicts and ways to resolve them - protective mechanisms;

2) interpretation of all behavior as a manifestation of the dynamics of unconscious drives;

3) the prerequisite of any projective research - the uncertainty of test conditions - is interpreted as the removal of the pressure of reality, in the absence of which, as expected, the person will manifest forms of behavior that are inherent in him.

The method is projective within the framework of the concepts of holistic psychology: the core of the personality seems to consist of the subjective world of desires, opinions, ideas and other things, and the relationship between the personality and its social environment is the structuring of the “life space” for the creation and maintenance of the “personal world”. These relationships are modeled by a projective experiment, and the projective method acts as a means of understanding the content and structure of the “egg world.” In the foreground is the diagnosis of individual personality characteristics and methods of its normal adaptation.

Many psychologists rate the projective method quite low as a psychometric tool, in particular due to the existence of problems with the reliability and validity of projective tests due to the existing instability of results and inconsistency of data interpretations.

One of the attempts to overcome the crisis in justifying projective methods is to abandon the concept of projection as an explanatory category. An example of such an approach is the concept of apperceptive distortion.

Projective methods

Projective techniques). A class of psychological tests in which subjects respond to ambiguous and unstructured stimuli, which allows them to identify their needs, feelings and conflicts; An example is the Rorschach test.

PROJECTIVE METHODS

a set of research procedures that make it possible to obtain scientifically based data on those attitudes or motives, information about which is subject to certain distortions when applying direct research procedures. Distortion of information can have several reasons: the respondent’s unawareness of his true motives and attitudes; respondents’ desire for rational, logical behavior; discrepancy between the norms and values existing in society and the real attitudes and motives of respondents; influence on the style of providing information by the subculture of respondents. There are four main ways of obtaining information using memory: association, fantasy, conceptualization and classification. Basic procedures of M. p.: sentence completion test; caricature method; painting interpretation method; method of didactic stories; method of pseudo-factual questions; game methods (M. S. Matskovsky, 2003). In conflictology, MPs make it possible to identify the true motives of the actions of participants in conflicts, and therefore they are a necessary and important element of many studies.

Projective methods

in developmental psychology) [lat. projectus - protruding, protruding forward] - methods for studying the personal and emotional characteristics of a child, based on the principle of projection formulated by Z. Freud. P. m. are widely used for practical and scientific purposes in studying the psychological characteristics of people of different ages, but they become especially important when working with children. Most other methods for studying personal characteristics (questionnaires, questionnaires, clinical interviews, etc.) are based on the subject’s self-report. These methods cannot be used when studying children who are not yet capable of reflecting on their own experiences and states. P. m. do not require such reflection. When working with children, both for diagnostic and psychotherapeutic purposes, projective games with special sets of toys (dolls, doll furniture, dishes, etc.) are often used. Children's analogues of “adult” projective tests have been developed. Thus, there is a children's version of the Rosenzweig test to study the reaction to frustration. The Children's Apperception Test CAT (Child Apperception Test; L. Bellak) was created - an analogue of the Thematic Apperception Test TAT; in it, the subject is asked to compose stories based on a standard set of pictures depicting animals in various situations that are potentially significant for the child (feeding, punishment, etc.). When studying children, projective drawing tests are widely used: “House - Tree - Person” (J.N. Buck), “Family Drawing” (W. Wolff; W. Hulse), “Dynamic Family Drawing” (R. Burns, S. Kaufman), “Non-existent animal” (M.Z. Dukarevich) and others. A.L. Wenger

History of development and theoretical foundations of the projective method. Types of projective techniques. Description of projective techniques.

Projective techniques are techniques for indirectly studying personality, based on the construction of a specific, weakly structured stimulus situation, the desire to resolve which contributes to the actualization in the perception of attitudes, relationships and other personal characteristics.

The main feature of projective techniques can be described as a relatively unstructured task, i.e. a problem that allows for an almost unlimited variety of possible answers. In order for the individual’s imagination to be freely expressed, only brief, general instructions are given. For the same reason, test stimuli are usually vague or ambiguous. The hypothesis on which such tasks are based is that the way an individual perceives and interprets test material or the “structures” of a situation should reflect fundamental aspects of the functioning of his psyche. In other words, the test material is supposed to act as a kind of screen on which the respondent “projects” his characteristic thought processes, needs, anxieties and conflicts.

Typically, projective techniques are also masked testing techniques, since the subject is rarely aware of the type of psychological interpretation that will be given to his answers.

For a long time, peering into the clouds floating across the sky, observing the play of light and shadow on the surface of the sea, people “saw” different animals, creatures, tried to guess their future, considering the bizarre configurations formed when molten wax or lead fell into cold water. It has long been known that the personality of a writer or artist is always present to one degree or another in his works. However, centuries had to pass before well-known observations were used to study personality.

Projective techniques take their origins from the research of F. Galton, who studied the associative process. Galton was the first to be convinced that the so-called free associations are not such, but are determined by the past experience of the individual.

Later, K. Jung believed that emotions influence an individual’s ability to form and perceive ideas. He prepared a list of 100 words and carefully monitored people's behavior as they tried to answer each word with a different word.

Many scientists have welcomed the free association method as a promising diagnostic tool for in-depth personality analysis. Some psychologists, and Jung himself, relied so much on the effectiveness of the free association test that they tried to use it in crime investigations.

In America, G. Kent and A. Rozanov tried to diagnose a mental disorder on the basis of typical free associations reproduced in response to a list of 100 words. Almost nothing came of this, since patients, for example those with epilepsy, gave practically no atypical associations. However, an important consequence of this work was that scientists, having examined about a thousand people, compiled an extensive list of associations of healthy people (typical answers). And a little later, Rozanov and his co-authors published the results of a new study: free associations in children. After testing 300 children of various ages, they found that by age 11 there was a significant increase in individual responses.

Projective techniques originated in clinical settings and remain primarily a clinician's tool. The first projective technique, i.e. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) by the American psychologist Henry Murray (1935) is considered to be the one that was based on the corresponding theoretical concept - the psychological concept of projection. He views projection as the natural tendency of people to act under the influence of their needs, interests, and entire mental organization.

The concept of “projection” is characterized by the fact that its different interpretations reflect the inherent ambiguity of psychology in understanding even the most important categories and concepts.

Projection (from Latin - throwing out) as a psychological concept first appeared in psychoanalysis and belongs to Sigmund Freud. Projection was seen as one of the defense mechanisms. The process of conflict between unconscious drives and attitudes of society, in accordance with Freud's teachings, is eliminated thanks to a special mental mechanism - projection. Freud, however, also mentions that projection not only arises in the event of a conflict between the “I” and the unconscious, but also takes a major part in the formation of the external world. However, this expanded interpretation of projection was not accepted by psychoanalysis. The understanding of projection as a defense mechanism has been called "classical projection."

It is assumed that classical projection is aimed at negatively evaluated individuals, and when an individual realizes that he has negative traits, he assigns them to individuals towards whom he has a positive attitude. This understanding of projection - the endowment of one's own motives, needs, feelings to other people, and, accordingly, an understanding of their actions - is based on both centuries-old pre-scientific observations and experimental research, and therefore is considered by many psychologists to be the only justified one.

Attributional projection is associated with the ability to evaluate and internalize negative information about one's personality and is a normal process that does not necessarily serve to protect the self. Classic projection is, so to speak, a more “pathological” process, because it indicates an inability to agree with negative information about oneself (Figure 11).

Figure 11 - Types of projections

In addition to the two most important types of projection considered, a number of works highlight others. “Autistic projection” has been called a phenomenon that explains the perception of an object by the actual needs of a person. This phenomenon was discovered when subjects were shown defocused images of various objects on a screen. It turned out that images of food were recognized earlier by hungry people than by full ones, and this was called “autism.”

Thus, the theory of projection as a psychological theory has its own path of development. Therefore, when designating certain techniques that exist as projective, existing concepts of projection are applied to them, in relation to the tasks of personality diagnostics.

To designate a certain type of psychological techniques, the concept of projection was first used by Lawrence Frank (full study in 1948). He put forward three basic principles underlying the projective study of personality:

1 Focus on uniqueness in the personality structure (considered as a system of interconnected processes, and not a list of abilities or traits).

2 Personality in the projective approach is studied as a relatively stable system of dynamic processes organized on the basis of needs, emotions and individual experience.

3 Every new action, every emotional manifestation of an individual, his perceptions, feelings, statements, motor acts bear the imprint of his personality. This third and main theoretical position is usually called the "projective hypothesis".

Projective techniques are characterized by a global approach to personality assessment. Attention is focused on the overall picture of the personality as such, rather than on measuring individual characteristics. Finally, projective techniques are considered by their proponents as the most effective procedures for discovering hidden, veiled or unconscious aspects of personality. Moreover, it is argued that the less structured the test, the more sensitive it is to such veiled material. This follows from the assumption that the less structured and unambiguous the stimuli, the less likely they are to evoke defensive reactions in the perceiver.

L. Frank does not consider projective techniques as a replacement for existing psychometric ones. Projective techniques successfully complement existing ones, allowing you to look into what is most deeply hidden and escapes when using traditional research techniques.

The following features are common to all projective techniques:

1) uncertainty, ambiguity of the incentives used;

2) no restrictions in choosing an answer;

3) lack of assessment of the test subjects’ answers as “correct” or “wrong”.

Types of projective techniques

L. Frank was the first to develop a classification of projective techniques. This classification, despite the abundance of others with later proposed changes and additions, today most fully characterizes the projective technique.

· Constitutive (the subject is offered some amorphous material to which he must give meaning. An example is the Rorschach technique, consisting of 10 tables depicting symmetrical single-color and polychrome images). It is believed that in the process of interpreting images and giving them meaning, the test subject projects his internal attitudes, aspirations, and expectations onto the test material.

· Constructive (designed details are offered (figurines of people, animals, models of their homes, etc.) from which you need to create a meaningful whole and explain it). Subjects, usually children and teenagers, create various scenes from their lives, and from certain features of these scenes and stories about them, conclusions are drawn both about the personality of their creator and about the specifics of their environment.

· Interpretative (the subject is offered table-pictures that depict uncertain situations about which it is necessary to write a story indicating what led to such a conclusion). It is assumed that the subject identifies himself with the “hero” of the story, which makes it possible to reveal the inner world of the subject, his interests, and motives.

· Cathartic (it is assumed that gaming activities will be carried out in specially organized conditions). For example, psychodrama. This enables the researcher to detect externalized conflicts, problems, and other emotionally charged information.

· Refractive. The researcher strives to diagnose personal characteristics and hidden motives by those involuntary changes that are introduced into generally accepted means of communication, for example, speech and handwriting.

· Expressive (subjects perform visual activities, drawing on a free or given topic, for example, the “House – Tree – Person” technique). Based on the drawing, conclusions are drawn about the affective sphere of the personality, the level of psychosexual development and other characteristics.

· Impressive. These methods are based on studying the results of choosing stimuli from a number of proposed ones. For example, the Luscher test: they ask you to choose the square with the most pleasant color. After a repeated procedure, a number of the most attractive colors are determined and interpreted according to the symbolic meanings of the color. Any objects of inanimate nature can act as stimuli.

· Additive (subjects are required to complete a beginning sentence, story or story). These techniques are designed to diagnose a variety of personal variables, from the motives of certain actions to attitudes towards sex education for young people.

It should be noted that some scientists have made repeated attempts to change the designations of the methods discussed. Thus, R. Cattell prefers to call them “tests of erroneous perception”, L. Blank – “tests of apperceptive distortion”. However, most researchers accept their historical designation as projective.

Description of projective techniques

1 Method of inkblots by G. Rorschach (Rorschach Inkblot Test). This technique is one of the most popular. Developed by the Swiss psychiatrist G. Rorschach, it was first described in 1921. The Rorschach test diagnoses structural characteristics of personality: individual characteristics of the affective-need sphere and cognitive activity (cognitive style), intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts and measures to combat them (defense mechanisms), general orientation of the personality (type of experience), etc.

Although standardized series of inkblots had been used by psychologists before to study imagination and other mental functions, G. Rorschach was the first to use inkblots for the diagnostic study of personality as a whole. Developing this method, G. Rorschach experimented with a large number of inkblots, which he presented to various groups of mentally ill people. As a result of such clinical studies, those response characteristics that could be correlated with various mental illnesses were gradually combined into indicator systems. Methods for determining the indicators were then refined through additional testing of mentally retarded and normal people, artists, scientists and others with known psychological characteristics. G. Rorschach proposed the main ways to analyze and interpret answers. His technique uses 10 cards, each of which is printed with a double-sided symmetrical spot. Five spots are done in only gray and black tones, two contain additional touches of bright red, and the remaining three are a combination of pastel colors. The tables are presented sequentially from 1 to 10 in the standard position indicated on the back. The presentation is accompanied by instructions: “What is this, what might it look like?” In addition to the verbatim recording of the subject's answers on each card, the experimenter notes the response time, involuntary remarks, emotional manifestations and other changes in the subject's behavior during the diagnostic session. After presenting all 10 cards, the experimenter, using a certain system, questions the subject regarding the parts and features of each of the spots for which associations arose. During the survey, the respondent can also clarify or supplement his previous answers.

There are several systems for calculating and interpreting Rorschach scores. The most common categories included in the indicators include localization, determinants, content, popularity

Localization indicates the part of the spot with which the subject associates his answer: whether the answers use the entire spot, some common detail, an unusual detail, the white part of the card, or some combination of white and dark areas.

Localization of the answer (a whole spot or detail) indicates a way of approaching the knowledge of objects and phenomena of the surrounding reality, the desire to embrace the situation in all its complexity, the interdependence of its components, or interest in the particular, specific, concrete. If a person operates on the entire spot, it means that he is able to perceive basic relationships and is prone to systematic thinking. If he fixates on small details, it means he is picky and petty; if he fixates on rare details, it means he is prone to the “extraordinary” and is capable of keen observation. Responses to a white background, according to Rorschach, indicate the presence of an oppositional attitude.

Response determinants are those parameters of the spot that cause the response. These include shape, color, shade and movement. Rorschach considered the ability to clearly perceive the shape of spots to be an indicator of stability of attention and one of the most important signs of intelligence. A clear “good” form indicates observational accuracy, realistic thinking; Normally, such answers are 80-90%. The use of shades in answers indicates a person’s sensitivity to the subtle nuances of interpersonal relationships. In combination with the form, shades indicate a way to manage the need for affection, dependence, and care from other people.

Rorschach considered movement responses that arise with the assistance of ideas about movements previously seen or experienced by the subject himself as an indicator of intelligence, a measure of inner life (introversion) and emotional stability.

Psychological interpretation of kinesthetic indicators is the most difficult and controversial part of working with the Rorschach test. It is believed that this indicator is most intimately connected with the inner world of the individual, although there are different points of view on exactly what tendencies it represents. Most researchers regard kinesthesia as a projection of the unconscious deep layers of a person’s life, since, unlike color and shape, determined by the objective qualities of the spot, movement seems to be introduced by the subject himself. Based on this, kinesthesia is often associated with creative abilities, high intelligence, and developed imagination. Rorschach considered them in connection with the introversive orientation of the personality, i.e. a person’s ability to “withdraw into himself,” creatively process (sublimate) affective conflicts and thereby achieve internal stability.

Thus, human kinesthesia indicates:

1) introversion;

2) maturity of the “I”, expressed in conscious acceptance of one’s own inner world and good control over emotions;

3) creative intelligence (if in good shape);

4) affective stability and adaptability;

5) the ability to empathize.

Content. The interpretation of the content varies depending on the system for defining indicators, but some basic categories are used consistently. The main ones among them are human figures and their details (or fragments of the human body), animal figures and their details, and anatomical structure. Other commonly used categories of indicators include inanimate objects, plants, maps, clouds, blood stains, x-rays, sexual objects, and symbols.

The popularity score is often determined based on the relative frequency of different answers among people in general, by comparison with tables of popular answers.

Interpretation of Rorschach scores is based on the relative number of responses falling into various categories, as well as certain relationships and relationships between various categories.

2 The thematic apperception test was developed at the Harvard Psychological Clinic by Henry Murray and his colleagues in the second half of the 30s of the twentieth century. Correct, qualified application of this complex technique allows one to obtain holistic, global knowledge about the individual, which provides information about dominant needs, the degree of their satisfaction, conflicts with the environment, goals and means of achieving them, obstacles, the state of the affective sphere, psychological defenses, life position, worldview, self-esteem.

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a set of 31 tables with black and white photographic images on thin white matte cardboard. One of the tables is a blank white sheet. The subject is presented in a certain order with 20 tables from this set (their choice is determined by the gender and age of the subject). His task is to compose plot stories based on the situation depicted on each table.

TAT was presented as a method for studying imagination, allowing one to characterize the personality of the subject due to the fact that the task of interpreting depicted situations allowed him to fantasize without visible restrictions and contributed to the weakening of psychological defense mechanisms.

G. Lindzi identifies a number of basic assumptions on which the interpretation of TAT is based.

1 The primary assumption is that by completing or structuring an incomplete or unstructured situation, the individual manifests his aspirations, dispositions and conflicts. The following assumptions are associated with identifying the most diagnostically informative stories or fragments thereof.

2 When writing a story, the narrator usually identifies with one of the characters, and that character's desires, aspirations, and conflicts may reflect the desires, aspirations, and conflicts of the narrator. Sometimes the narrator's dispositions, aspirations, and conflicts are presented in implicit or symbolic form.

3 Stories have unequal significance for diagnosing impulses and conflicts. Some may contain a lot of important diagnostic material, while others may have very little or no material at all.

4 Topics that are directly derived from the stimulus material are likely to be less significant than topics that are not directly derived from the stimulus material.

5 Recurring themes are most likely to reflect the narrator's impulses and conflicts.

G. Murray, analyzing the stories of the subject, identified several stages:

1 At the first stage, you should identify the hero of each story.

2 At the second stage, the most important characteristics of the hero are revealed: his aspirations, desires, feelings, character traits, habits. According to G. Murray's terminology, these are manifestations of needs. Need is the main category of personology. Analysis of needs is necessary to clarify individuality, since each person has a specific set of needs. G. Murray identified and described many needs, which he classified on different grounds. The most famous among these classifications, which places emphasis on the origin of the need and, therefore, on the direction of activity to which it prompts, is the following: mental, organismal and social needs are distinguished. Murray identified and described several basic needs, including dominance, aggression, autonomy, sociality, achievement, self-defense, etc.

3 At the third stage, after finding the needs of the characters in the stories, the psychologist must evaluate them in points (from 1 to 5) depending on the intensity, duration and frequency of manifestation, and significance for the development of the plot.

4 The final stage of processing consists of ranking them in order to highlight the dominant needs that manifest themselves more strongly and most often throughout the diagnosis (that is, in many stories). According to G. Murray's hypothesis, the subject identifies himself with the heroes of the stories; therefore, the needs found and their hierarchy characterize his personality.

Control questions:

1 What are the purposes of using projective methods?

2 What are the advantages and disadvantages of projective methods?

3 Give a general description of TAT, describe the areas of application of this technique.

Bibliography:

1 Anastasi A., Urbina S. Psychological testing. St. Petersburg, 2001.

2 Bely B.I. Rorschach test. Practice and theory. St. Petersburg, 1992.

3 Burlachuk L.F. Psychodiagnostics. Kyiv, 1995.

4 Fundamentals of psychodiagnostics / ed. A.G. Shmeleva. Rostov n/d., 1996.

5 Sokolova E.T. Projective methods of personality research. M., 1980.

The main feature of projective techniques can be described as a relatively unstructured task, i.e. a problem that allows for an almost unlimited variety of possible answers. In order for the individual’s imagination to freely manifest itself, only brief, general instructions are given. For the same reason, test stimuli are usually vague or ambiguous. The hypothesis on which such tasks are based is that the way an individual perceives and interprets test material or the “structures” of a situation should reflect fundamental aspects of the functioning of his psyche. In other words, the test material is supposed to act as a kind of screen on which the respondent “projects” his characteristic thought processes, needs, anxieties and conflicts.

Typically, projective techniques are also masked testing techniques, since the subject is rarely aware of the type of psychological interpretation that will be given to his answers.

In America, G. Kent and A. Rozanov tried to diagnose a mental disorder on the basis of typical free associations reproduced in response to a list of 100 words. Almost nothing came of this, since patients (for example, patients with epilepsy) gave practically no atypical associations. However, an important consequence of this work was that scientists, having examined about a thousand people, compiled an extensive list of associations of healthy people (typical answers). And a little later, Rozanov and his co-authors published the results of a new study: free associations in children. After testing 300 children of various ages, they found that by age 11 there was a significant increase in individual responses.

It is assumed that classical projection is aimed at negatively evaluated persons, but when an individual becomes aware of negative traits in himself, he endows them with persons towards whom he has a positive attitude. This understanding of projection - endowing other people with one’s own motives, needs, feelings, and, accordingly, understanding their actions - is based on both centuries-old pre-scientific observations and experimental research, and therefore is considered by many psychologists to be the only justified one.

Focus on uniqueness in the personality structure (considered as a system of interconnected processes, and not a list of abilities or traits).
Personality in the projective approach is studied as a relatively stable system of dynamic processes organized on the basis of needs, emotions and individual experience.
3Every new action, every emotional manifestation of an individual, his perceptions, feelings, statements, motor acts bear the imprint of his personality. This third and main theoretical position is usually called the "projective hypothesis".

The following features are common to all projective techniques:

uncertainty, ambiguity of the incentives used;
no restrictions in choosing an answer;
lack of assessment of the test subjects' answers as “correct” or “wrong”.