PERSONALITY TEST,

TEST OF
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY,
AND PROJECTIVE TEST

1890 James Cattell develops a "mental test" to

assess college students . Test includes measures of
strength, resistance to pain, and reaction time.
1905 Binet-Simon scale of mental development used
to classify mentally retarded children in France.

1916 Terman develops Stanford - Binet test and

develops the idea of Intelligence Quotient

1941-1960 vocational interest

measures developed

1920 - 1940 factor analysis,

projective tests, and
personality inventories first
appear.

1961-1980 item response

theory and neuropsychological
testing developed

1980 - present : Wide spread

adaptation of computerized testing.
"Smart" Tests which can give each
individual different test items
develop

The Projective Hypothesis

The projective hypothesis (Lawrence Frank,
1939):
When people try to understand vague or
ambiguous unstructured stimuli, the
interpretation
they produce reflects their needs, feelings,
experience, prior
conditioning, thought processes
Shakespeare, Hamlet, II.ii: "Nothing is either
good or bad, but
thinking makes it so."

The Problem
The difficulty is answering: Which particular '
needs, feelings,
experience, prior conditioning, thought processes'
are reflected?
projective tests can (by their own claim) draw
equally upon the
imagined and real, the conscious and unconscious,
the recent and
old, the important and the trivial, the revealing and
the obvious
Much room for interpretation is left given to the
tester, making test
validation almost impossible
These tests flourished more in the
psychoanalytical era, 1940-1960

History
The earliest use of inkblots as projective
surfaces was J.Kerner's (1857)
He was the first to claim that some people
make
idiosyncratic or revealing interpretations
In 1896, Alfred Binet suggested that inkblots
might be
used to assess personality (not
psychopathology)
Some work was done on this suggestion
the first response set was published by G. M.
Whipple
(1910)

History
Herman Rorschach, a Swiss
psychiatrist, was the first to suggest
(1911) the use of inkblot responses as a
diagnostic instrument
In 1921 he published his book on
the test, Psychodiagnostik (and
soon thereafter died, age 38)

History
Rorschach's test was not well-received, attracting little
notice
David Levy brought it to the States
His student, Samuel Beck, popularized its use here, writing
severalpapers and books on it starting with Configurational
Tendencies in
Rorschach Responses (1933)
Several other early users also published work on the
Rorschach
several offered their own system of administration, scoring, and
interpretation, leading to later problems in standardization

The Rorschach Inkblot Test

The Rorschach Inkblot Test is the most
commonly used
projective test
In a 1971 survey of test usage, it was used
in 91% of251 clinical settings survey
It is one of the most widely used tests that
exists
It is widely cited in research

Psychometric Properties of the Rorschach

Obviously, it is almost impossible to measure any of the
usualproperties in the usual way
Validity and reliability are both rendered meaningless by
the openendedmultiplicity of possibility that is allowed and
by the lack of universally-accepted standardized instructions,
administrationprotocol, and scoring procedure (but see
Exner, 1974)
one approach: blind diagnosis made from a protocol alone
In one study, 85% of protocols were matched to case
descriptions, in batches of 5
reliability studies that have been done find r-values varying
from
0.1 to 0.9
One was done on cases after electroshock, because it
"wipes
out memory for the first test but does not change
personality"
Protocols were reported to be very similar

Other common projective tests

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): 30
grayscale
pictures + one blank for elicitation of stories
Not all are (though all may be) seen by everyone:
some
are suggested for men, some for women, some for
youth, some for elderly
Most subjects see 10-12 cards, over two sessions
Based on Murray's (1938) theory of needs (sex,
affiliation, dominance, achievement etc.)
Thema = Interaction between needs and
environmental determinants
Standardization of administration and scoring is
minimal
Many variations on this 'story-telling' test exist

August 14, 1919 -December 15,

2005
National Scientist
(1988)

Other common projective tests

House-Tree-Person Test (Buck, 1948) & Draw-A-Person
(Machover, 1949):
Subject is asked to draw
Scoring is on absolute size, relative size of elements,
omissions
"If there is a tendency to over-interpret projective test data
without sufficient
empirical grounds, then projective drawing tests are among
the worst
offenders."
Kaplan & Saccuzo, Psychological Testing 1993

HAND TEST
Identifies aggressive
tendencies likely to be
expressed in overt
behavior

The problem with drawing tests

- Among the plausible but empirically untrue
relations that have been claimed:
- Large size = Emotional expansiveness or
acting out
- Small size = emotional constriction;
withdrawal, or timidity
- Erasures around male buttocks; long
eyelashes on males = homoeroticism
- Overworked lines = tension, aggression
- Distorted or omitted features = Conflicts
related to that feature
- Large or elaborate eyes = Paranoia

Chapman & ChapmanTest Results Are What You Think They Are
People tend to over-estimate the frequency of
correlations they believe
in (i.e. of associations) -or, equivalently, people
tend to confuse
correlation with semantic association
This confusion is very resistant to change
It remains even when the actual correlation is negative, or
when
there are cash rewards for accurate estimations of correlation
"senses are fallibleclinical judgments

The two-way projection problem

"Objectivity in human relationships is impossible.
Therapists affect thebehaviour and feelings of
patients, and patients affect therapists. When achart
notes that a patient is 'hostile', it should also note, in
the interests ofbalance, that the therapist is
'paranoid'. If a therapist calls a patient'defensive',
chances are that the patient would call the therapist
'aggressive'.Both should be noted in a chart, if either
is, since both are equallyprobable.
Shelagh Lynne Supeene
As For The Sky, Falling

NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENT

http://www.brainsource.com/nptests.htm

The primary activity of neuropsychologists is

assessment of brain functioning through structured
and systematic behavioral observation.
Neuropsychological tests are designed to
examine a variety of cognitive abilities, including
speed of information processing, attention, memory,
language, and executive functions, which are
necessary for goal-directed behavior

By testing a range of cognitive abilities and

examining patterns of performance in different
cognitive areas, neuropsychologists can make
inferences about underlying brain function.
Neuropsychological testing is an important
component of the assessment and treatment of
traumatic brain injury, dementia , neurological
conditions, and psychiatric disorders.
Neuropsychological testing is also an important
tool for examining the effects of toxic
substances and medical conditions on brain
functioning.

As early as the seventeenth century, scientists theorized about

associations between regions of the brain and specific functions.
The French philosopher, Descartes, believed the human soul could be
localized to a specific brain structure, the pineal gland.
In the eighteenth century, Franz Gall advocated the theory that
specific mental qualities such as spirituality or aggression were governed
by discrete parts of the brain.
n contrast, Pierre Flourens contended that the brain was an
integrated system that governed cognitive functioning in a holistic manner.
Later discoveries indicated that brain function is both localized and
integrated. Paul Broca and Karl Wernicke furthered
understanding of localization and integration of function when they
reported the loss of language abilities in patients with lesions to two
regions in the left hemisphere of the brain

The modern field of

neuropsychology emerged in the
twentieth century, combining theories
based on anatomical observations of
neurology with the techniques of
psychology, including objective
observation of behavior and the use of
statistical analysis to differentiate
functional abilities and define
impairment.

The famous Soviet

neuropsychologist
Alexander Luria played a
major role in defining
neuropsychology as it is
practiced today. Luria
formulated two principle
goals of neuropsychology: to
localize brain lesions and
analyze psychological
activities arising from brain
function through behavioral
observation.

American neuropsychologist
Ralph Reitan emphasized the
importance of using standardized
psychometric tests to guide
systematic observations of brainbehavior relationships.

Muriel Deutsch Lezak is an American

neuropsychologist best known for her book
Neuropsychological Assessment, widely accepted
as the standard in the field.
Her work has centred on research into, assessment
and rehabilitation of brain injury
Dr. Lezak is Emeritus Professor of Neurology at the
Oregon Health and Science University School of
Medicine.
In 1996 she received the Distinguished
Neuropsychologist Award from the US-based
National Academy of Neuropsychology

Luria-Nebraska Battery
The Luria-Nebraska
Neuropsychological Battery, also
known as LNNB or Luria-Nebraska
Battery, is a standardized test
battery used in the screening and
evaluation of
neuropsychologically impaired
individuals.

The LNNB is based on the work of A. R. Luria, a Russian

neuropsychologist who performed pioneering
theoretical and clinical work with regard to brain
function.
Luria believed in a primarily qualitative approach to
assessment and was opposed to standardization. He
did not believe that neuropsychological functioning
could be measured quantitatively. Thus, although his
name is part of the test itself, his contribution to the
LNNB is entirely theoretical.
Also, the LNNB is based, in part, on Luria's
Neuropsychological Investigation, a measure
developed by Christensen in 1975. This test included
items asked by Luria in his clinical interviews, some of
which are used in the LNNB.

The battery, written in 1981 by Charles Golden, is

appropriate for people aged 13 and older and takes
between 90 and 150 minutes to complete.
It consists of 269 items in the following 11 clinical
scales:
reading
writing
arithmetic
visual
memory
expressive language
receptive language
motor function
Rhythm

The Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological

Test Battery is a fixed set of eight tests used to
evaluate brain and nervous system functioning in
individuals aged 15 years and older.
Children's versions are the Halstead
Neuropsychological Test Battery for Older Children
(ages nine to 14) and the Reitan Indiana
Neuropsychological Test Battery (ages five to
eight).

The purpose of this battery is to provide the

clinician with a database for inferring the
nature, location, and extent of the structural
changes in the brain that may underlie and
explain the pattern of intact and impaired
functions derived from the measures and
qualitative information yielded by the battery.
The present battery consists of 10 tests which
have been shown empirically to best
discriminate between normals and patients
with documented cortical damage. The authors
offer convincing data favoring clearer brain
damage localization with the HRNB for acute
lesions rather than more chronic
neuropathology.

The CANTAB tests are simple:

computerised, non-linguistic, and
culturally blind. They can be
administered by a trained
assistant. Importantly,
interpretation of a patients
condition can be easily
understood by a clinician.