I know they are the ink blot tests. But my question is, how do they decide how sane or how problematic you are based on your perception of ink blots? Is it still used, and if so how much weight is it given?
It seems puzzling to me. Mainly because isn’t it all sort of a matter of opinion, or what you personally see? Everyone’s different…can there be a “right” or “wrong” answer?
Thank you, all, I’ve always sort of wondered about them.
I minored in Psych but I haven’t looked at the stuff in years. As I recall, Rorscharch tests aren’t used to determine sanity. They are supposed to be indicators of your type of personality. It’s not so much the specifics of what you see, it’s more general. Do you see one thing in the whole blot or do you see a bunch of little things? So a person seeing a big giant bird and one seeing a big giant lizard would have similar readings as opposed to someone who saw either a bunch of insects or shop full of people.
Haj
I should add that I only gave one example of the many things that a psychologist might look for in a test.
Haj
It’s also used to evaluate a person’s attitude. Show them a random inkblot and ask them to describe what they see. Do they see a fluffy bunny dancing on a hill with butterflies, or a dead dog with his brains split open?
I see a dead dog with his brains split open dancing on a hill with fluffy bunnies. What does that say about me?
You should not be allowed near small children.
The Rorschach Ink Blot Test is not widely regarded, although it is unforunately still in use (a friend had to take one recently as part of a custody battle). The examples I’ve seen all exhibit bilateral symmetry, which is most often seen in the natural world in organisms. Here’s skepdic’s take on it.
Lemur 866 wrote:
Ooh, somebody’s been reading Watchmen again, I take it.
[inside joke]
The Rorshach test is when a masked man (named Rorschach, natch) starts breaking your fingers until you tell him whatever he wants to know.
[/inside joke]
*O, Leo the Lion could really roar!
When he got mad
He once spilled a bottle of India ink
On his writing pad
He looked toward the heavens and he did roar!
His loudest roar
Poor Sally the Sparrow fell to the ground
And flew no more
She died of roar shock!
She died of roar shock!
She died of roar shock!
They gave a “roar shock” test to her that confirmed
Of roar shock
She died!
Yes she did!
Cross my heart!
Hope to die…ack*
Does anyone know who wrote that?
Ooooh…I knew my “Psychological Tests and Measurments” class that I took as part of my psych minor would come in handy.
Essentially, the test DOESN’T work, short of someone giving answers like “Umm…penis, rape, sex, testicles, mother, penis, penis, mother, sex.” There is no “answer key” and there’s no real guide to interpreting results. There have been attempts over the years to make it into a multiple choice test with set “right” and “wrong” answers, but these are just as inneffective as the original.
Why is it still used? Because patients expect it. It calms people down, opens up communication, and gets people comfortable on the couch, or in the chair. Basically, if it weren’t given in every entertainment depiction of psychologists/psychiatrists, it probably wouldn’t be given in real life. It’s just a placebo.
Well that’s sweet of the pyschologists to do that.
Thanks for clearing up the confusion, guys.
*Dead dog in gutter this morning. Tire tread on burst stomach. This message board is afraid of me. I have seen it’s true face. The forums are extended gutters and the gutters are filled with blood and when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their flirting and flaming will foam up around their waists. The posters and mods will look up and shout “Save us!”
And I’ll look down and whisper “No”.
*
Fen-schach’s Journal
God I love that book. I wrote the above stuff from memory. It’s gotta be one of the great opening lines ever.
And back on topic, I disagree with **Flymaster. I also have a psych. minor and I heard something different: The test is useful to give you broad patterns, to point you in the right direction. It’s not all that useful to try to pinpoint something, but it can give you an area to focus on.
And whoever recommended Poundstone’s Big Secrets was right. It’ll give you a good rundown on the test.
Fenris
My psych teacher in high school had an interesting anecdote about Rorchach tests. He and some of his friends were all getting some sort of psychological tests when he was young (why, I remember not; perhaps military). One of his friends told him that what the Rorshach test is “really” looking for is your sexual subconscious, so (if you’re a guy, apparently) one of the pictures should look like a vagina to you. That is, if you’re “normal.” Anyway, it’s a woman giving the test, and he doesn’t remember what his friend said until near the end of the test; so when he sees the last inkblot he pretty much blurts out, “It’s a VAGINA!” The woman looked at him curiously and furiously scribbled something on her clipboard, and he ended up feeling like an idiot.
What the test is INTENDED to do, I believe, is give insight into the person’s psyche by forcing that person to make up a picture when they really see nothing or very little. Of course, that doesn’t help when you’re told (truthfully or otherwise) the purpose of the test.
And, uh, Fenris, who, uh, do you think split the dog’s head open?
You were adopted by a funny looking kid after another kid poured a bucket of sand in your neck. You spend most of your time lying on a doghouse. You write for a living, but have never been published. Your secret identity is the Red Baron. Your best friend is a small bird named after a famous festival (or was that the other way around, I forget)
Anyway, how am I doing?
"I did.
Crossposting case. 1995. Perhaps you remember…"
Fen-shach
Does anyone else remember how exciting Watchmen was when it came out? (It’s still great, but the sheer…shock… of reading it for the first time. Man!) I must 've read the first issue 30 or 40 times waiting for issue 2.