1. Presented by: Shatera P. Taylor
Picture This!
Murray, H. A. (1938). Exploration in Personality (pp ). New York: Oxford University Press.
Presented by: Shatera P. Taylor
April 28th, 2004

2. Several Years Later….
After the development of Rorschach’s test, Henry A. Murray and his assistant Christina D. Morgan, developed a very different form of a projective test called the Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT), which focused entirely on the content of the subjects interpretation. Rather than formless shapes like Rorschach’s Inkblot test.
The client or subject is asked to make up a story about the drawing.
The stories are then analyzed by therapist or researcher to reveal hidden unconscious conflicts (appreciation means conscious perception).

3. Are you convinced….
I wonder if you notice me chewing gum the whole time during my first presentation.
I bet you did Dr. Reeves and minus some points for poorly performance. Ha ha, I got you.
Classmates you can’t get away neither because you probably were thinking: “What was I thinking for giving presentation with gum in my mouth?”
This can be one example of what Henry A. Murray was getting across.

4. Theory Behind TAT….
The TAT is when you observe human behavior, either in a picture or in real life, you will interpret that behavior according to the clues that are available in the situation.
Does my real life presentation ring a bell?
When the causes for the behavior are clear, your interpretation will not only be correct, but it will be in a substantial agreement with other observers.
However, if the situation is vague and it is difficult to find reasons for the behavior, your interpretation will more likely reflect something about yourself or about your own fears, desires, conflicts and so on.

5. Theoretical Propositions
At a basic level, the theory underlying the TAT< like that of the Rorschach test, is that people’s behavior is driven by unconscious forces.
Unconscious conflicts must be exposed for accurate diagnosis and successful treatment of psychological problems to take place.
This was the purpose of Rorschach’s Inkblot test, discussed in the previous reading, and it was also the goal of Murray’s TAT.

6. What is Morgan & Murray purpose of this procedure?
The purpose is to stimulate literary creativity and thereby evoke fantasies that reveal covert and unconscious complexes.
The way they conceived of this process was that a person would be shown ambiguous drawings of human behavior.
In trying to explain the situation, the subject would become less self-conscious and less concerned about being observed by the therapist. This would in turn, cause the person to become less defensive and reveal inner wishes, fears and past experiences that might have been repressed.

7. M & M Murray Method….
Subjects were asked to guess the events leading up to the scene depicted in the drawing and what they thought the outcome of the scene would be.
After testing the method, it was determined that a great deal more about the psychology of subjects could be obtained if they were simply asked to make up a story about the picture, rather than asked to guess the facts surrounding it.
The pictures themselves were developed to stimulate fantasies in the subjects about conflicts and important events in their own experiences. It was decided that each picture should involve at least one person with whom the subject could easily identify.

8. Exact Instructions….
This is a test of your creative imagination. I shall show you a picture and I want you to make up a plot or a story for which it might be used as an illustration. What is the relation of the individuals in the picture? What has happened to them? What are their present thoughts and feelings? What will be the outcome? Do your very best. Since I am asking you indulge your literary imagination, you may make your story as ling and as detailed as you wish.

9. “TAT” Picture.

10. I Love this one!

11. Participants….
Murray also conducted another test with the participants being men. The men were between the ages of 20 and 30.
Each participant was seated in a comfortable chair facing away from the experimenter.
These are the exact instructions given to each subject.

12. M & M Murray Method
The experimenter handed the subject each picture in succession and took notes on what the subject said for each one. Each subject was given an hour. Due to the time limitations, most subjects only completed stories for about 15 of the 20 drawings.
Few days later, participants returned and were interviewed about their stories.
In order to disguise the true purpose of the study, participants were told that the purpose of the research was to compare their creative experiences with those of famous writers
Participants were reminded of their responses to the pictures and were asked to explain what their sources for the stories were.
There were given free-association test, were they say the first thing that come to mind in response to words spoken by the experimenter. This was designed to determine to what extent the drawings reflected their own personal experiences, conflicts, desires, and so on.

13. Results and Discussions
Murray and Morgan reported two main findings form this early study of the TAT. The first was the discovery that the stories the subjects made up for the pictures came form four sources:
(1) books and movies, (2) real-life events involving a friend or a relative, (3) experiences in the subject’s own life and (4) the subjects conscious or unconscious fantasies.
The second and more important finding was that the subjects clearly projected their own personal, emotional, and psychological existence into their stories.
Murray reports that, without exception, every person who participated in the study injected aspects of their personalities into their stories.

14. Criticism toward TAT
In a study by Eron (1950), the TAT was administered to two groups of male veterans. Some were students in college and others were patients in a psychiatric hospital. When the results of the TAT were analyzed, there were no significant differences found between the two groups or among psychiatric patients with different illnesses.
Critics argue that, to the extent that the stories are different, the TAT has only tapped into your temporary state and not your real underlying self.

15. Recent Applications National Institute of Fashion Technology
NIFT entrance test is of 3 types - General Ability Test (GAT), Creative Ability Test (CAT), and Managerial Ability Test (MAT). On successfully passing the entrance tests, short listed candidates will be called for a situation test, group discussion, thematic appreciation test (TAT) and interview respectively, at the NIFT Centre of your choice. The written examination is planned to test the knowledge, skill, ability and aptitude of the candidates.

16. (Cont.)
McClelland's experiment -- the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) -- consisted of showing individuals a series of pictures and asking them to give brief descriptions of what was happening in the pictures. The responses were analyzed in terms of the presence or absence of certain themes. The themes McClelland and his associates were looking for revolved around the following motivators: achievement, affiliation and power. 

17. Last One….
In the 30s, researcher Henry Moore developed a test for personality research: TAT (Thematic Apperception Test). With the help of that test it is possible to explore ones personality, especially thoughts and dreams, as well as needs and emotions, conflicts and ability to deal with problems. With the aid of the TAT test, researcher McClelland found that the difference between people in performing different tasks originates in the differences in people’s sense of achievement. It is therefore clear that the need to achieve and to be accepted in the new society may create a conflict in a person who has left the country of his birth for another country. This conflict may express itself in putting extreme efforts into trying to merge within the new environment, as a part of the achievement.

18. In Conclusion
The most remarkable aspects of the projective tests such as the TAT and the Rorschach inkblot test is that in spite of a massive body of evidence condemning them as invalid, unreliable, and possibly on faulty assumptions, they are among the most frequently used psychological test till this day.

19. Thank You