Thematic Apperception Test

Introduction

TAT was first developed by Henry Murray and staff at the Harvard Psychological clinic

In 1938. The TAT has not only been widely used in clinical practice and research but it has
also served as a model for the development of many other instruments.

The TAT presents more highly structured stimuli and requires more complex and
meaningfully organized verbal response.
The TAT material consists of 19 cards containing vague pictures in the black and white and

one blank card. The respondent is asked to make up a story to fit each picture, telling what led
up to the event show in picture, describing what is happening at the moment and what the

characters are feeling and thinking and give the outcome. In the case of blank card, the
respondent is instructed to imagine some picture on the card, describe it and then tell a story

about it.
The original procedure outlined by Murray in the test manual requires two one-hour sessions,

10 cards being employed in each session. The cards reserved for the second session were
deliberately chosen to be more unusual, dramatic and bizarre and accompanying instructions
urge respondents to give free play to their imaginations. In the original method of interpreting

TAT stories the examiner first determines who the “Hero” is, the exposure to either sex with
whom the respondent has presumably identified herself or himself. The content of the story is

then analyzed principally in reference to Murray’s list of “needs” and “press”.

Press refer to environmental factors that may facilitate or interfere with the satisfaction of

needs. Being attacked or criticizes, receiving affection, being comforted and physical danger
are illustration of press.

In assessing the importance or strength of a particular need or press for the individual, special
attention is given to the intensity, duration and frequency of its occurrence in different stories,

as well as to the uniqueness of its association with given picture. The assumption is made that
unusual material, which departs from the common responses to each picture, is more likely to

25
have significance for the respondent.
The TAT has been extensively used personality research. Unfortunately, the wide diversity of

administration and scoring procedure, and even of stimulus material, associated with TAT
rubric has extended to researcher’s use as well as clinical practice.

Nevertheless, the value of thematic apperception technique, in general and of TAT, in

particular is not in question. Recent investigations confirm the clinical utility of various

version of the TAT both for traditional applications, such as assessing extent of
psychopathology and use of defense mechanism, and for novel uses, such as the evolution of

problem solving skills. One of the most promising applications of TAT is with newly

developed scales for the clinical assessment of objective relations.

History

The TAT was developed during the 1930’s by the American Psychologist Henry A. Murray

and lay Psychologist Christina D. Morgan at the Harvard Clinic at Harvard University. A
widely-held belief that the idea for the TAT emerged from a question asked by one of

Murray’s undergraduate students, Cecilia Roberts. She reported that when her son was ill, he
spend the day making up stories about images in magazines and she asked Murray if pictures
could be employed in clinical setting to explore underlying dynamics of personality.

Murray wanted to use a measure that would reveal information about the whole person but
found the contemporary tests of his time lacking in this regard. Therefore, he created the TAT.

The rationale behind the techniques is that the people tend to interpret ambiguous situations
in accordance with their own past experiences and current motivations, which may be

conscious or unconscious. Murray reasoned that by asking people to tell a story about a
picture, their defenses to the examiner would be lowered as they would not realize the sensitive

personal information they were divulging by creating the stories.

Murray and Morgan sent the 1930’s selecting pictures from the illustrative magazines and

developing the test. After 3 version of the test (Series A, Series B, Series C) Morgan and
Murray decided on the final set of picture Series D, which remains in the use today. Although

26
she was given first authorship on the first publish paper about the TAT in 1935, Morgan did not
receive authorship credit on the final published instrument. Reportedly, her role in the creation

of the TAT was primarily in the selection and editing of the images, but due to the primacy of
the name on the original publication the majority of written inquires about TAT were addressed

to her; since most of these letters included questions that she could not answer, she requested
her name be removed from future authorship.

During the time, Murray was developed the TAT, he was also involved in Herman Melville
studies. The therapeutic technique originally came to him from the Doubloon chapter in Moby

Dick. In this central juxtaposition of characters, crew members, including Ahab, project them
self-perception onto the coin which was nailed to the mast, Murray, a lifelong Melville’s often

maintained that all of the Melville’s oeuvre was for him a TAT.
After World War II the TAT was adopt more broadly by the Psychoanalysts and clinicians to
evaluate emotionally disturbed patients, Later, in the 1970’s the Human Potential Movement

encouraged the Psychologist to use the TAT to help their clients understand themselves better
and stimulate personal growth.

Administration
Preparation of the subject, most subjects (patients) do not need any preparation beyond that of

being given some acceptable reasons for taking the test. But those who are particularly dult
witted unresponsive, resistance. Who have never taken an educational and Psychological test,

had better been given ales imposing task (a test of intelligence, mechanical, aptitude Rorschach
etc.) before being introduced to the TAT children, usually do better after several sessions spent

in making up spoken. Fantasies with day or two years.

Atmosphere of the testing situation, the air of friendliness (imported by the secretary and other
members of the staff), the esthetic tone of the office and its furnishing as well as the sex, age,

manner and personality of the examiner, all are capable of affecting the freedom, vigor and
direction of the subject’s imagination. Since the examiner’s goal is to obtain greatest amount of

the material of the highest quality possible under the circumstances and since the obtainment

27
depends entirely upon a delicate largely involuntary process that cannot be forced.
By adopting encouragement and appreciation as the best routine attitude, one’s will demolish the

frequency of the kind of the story. That is sometimes evoked by examiner. Who is cooling
indifferent or aggressively critical towards his subject’s composition?

Reliability
Internal consistency, a reliability estimate focusing on how highly test items correlate to

each other, is often quite low for TAT scoring systems. Some authors have argued that internal
consistency does not apply to the TAT. In contrast to traditional test items, which should

measure the same construct and be correlated to each other, each TAT card represents a different
situation and should yield highly different response themes.

Validity
Finally, validity, the degree to which the TAT measures what it is supposed to measure and
performs as it should for a given purpose, is also modest for the TAT. Jenkins has stated that

the phrase “validity of the TAT” is meaningless because the validity of the test would be
ascertained by seeing how clinician’s decisions were assisted based on the TAT. Evidence on

this front suggests it is a weak guide at best.

Material
The material consisted on five pictures pointed on white glazed card and each white card
calling for subject to “make up a story”. It has been found that,

1. The pictures are affected in stirring the imagination.

2. And they serve to force the subject to deal in his own way.
3. The advantage of using standard stimuli is there.

Procedure

The TAT is popularly known as the picture interpretation technique because it uses a series
of provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which a subject is asked to tell a story. The TAT
manual provides the administration instructions used by Murray, although these procedures are

28
altered. The subject is asked to tell a dramatic story as they can for each picture presented,
including the following;

 What has led up to the event shown

 What is happening at the moment?
 What characters are at the moments
 What are characters feeling ang and thinking
 What was the outcome of the story?

If these elements are omitted, particularly for children and adults of low cognitive abilities, the
evaluator may ask the subject about them directly. Otherwise, the examiner is supposed to avoid
interjecting and should not answer the questions about the content of the pictures. The examiner
records stories verbatim for later interpretation.

The complete version of the test contains 32 pictures cards. Some of the cards show male
figures, some female and some both male and female figures, some of ambiguous gender, some
adults, some children some show no human figure at all. One card is completely blank and is
used to elicit both the scene and a story about the given scene from the story teller. Although
the cards were originally designed to be matched to the subjects in terms of age and gender, any
card may be used with any subjects. Murray hypothesized that stories would yield a better
information about a client if the majority of cards administrated, feature a similar characteristic
of age and gender.

Although Murray recommended using 20 cards, most practitioners choose a set of between 8-
12 selected cards. Either cards that feel are generally useful, or that they believe will encourage
the subject’s expression of emotional conflict relevant to their specific history and situation.

29
 Interpretation of TAT

Bio Data

Name FZ

Age 21 years

Gender Female

Education BS Applied Psychology

Marital Status Single

No of Sibling 5

Order of birth 5th

Informant Subject Herself

Reason for Referral

The examiner called the subject for the purpose of Psychological assessment “Thematic
Apperception Test”.

Background Information

Family History

Subject's family is composed of 7 members. She belongs to average status of

family. Subject father was 60 years old. His qualification was intermediate. He was a
retired manager. The subject had healthy relations with her father. The subject mother was
50 years old. she was a house wife and her qualification was matric. The 1st born brother
was 35 years old. He was do work in out of country. The 2nd born brother was age was 32.
He does work in Lahore. The 3rd born brother age was 30. He was software engineer. The
4th born brother age 28. He did work in Lahore. The 5th born was subject herself. The
subject had healthy relations with her siblings.

30
 Personal History
The subject birth was normal. All milestone was achieved at normal age. The subject was
stared schooling at the age of 4 years. She was an average student. She likes creativity and
music. She does not make friends immediately and no more talkative but She has social
interactions with others. She has much interest in history. She also liked to different
historical places. The subject had healthy relations with her friends. Her hobbies were
watching tv, cooking.
Behavioral Observation

The subject was neatly dressed up. She was sitting on the chair comfortably. Her expression
seems like to be curious before the test. During the test her expressions were confusing.
She showed cooperative attitude throughout the test.

Test Administration

Test was administrated in a lighted room. Subject was informed about the test. She was
instructed according to the manual

Quantitative Analysis

Card Numbers

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total

n Achievement 1 1 1 1 4

n Acquisition 1 1 1 1 4

n Aggression 1 1 1 1 1 5

n Construction 1 1

n Counteraction 1 1 1 1 1 5

n Dominance 1 1 1 1 1 5

n Exposition 1 1

n Recognition

31
n Understanding 1 1 1 1 1 5

n Affiliation 1 1 2

n Deference 1 1 1 1 4

n Nurturance 1 1 1 1 1 5

n Sex 1 1 2

n Succorance

n Autonomy 1 1 1 1 1 1 6

n Change, 1 1

Travel,

Adventure

n Exitance,

Dissipation,

n Play mirth

n Abasement 1 1 1 3

n Blame 1 1

Avoidance

n Passivity 1 1

n Rejection 1 1 2

n Retention 1 1

n Sentience 1 1 1 3

Conflict 1 1 1 1 1 5

Emotion 1 1 1 1 4

Elation

32
Dejection

Distrust 1 1 1 1 4

Jealousy 1 1

Irreality

Ego Idea, Pride 1 1 2

Super Ego

Miscellaneous 1 1 1 3

Qualitative Analysis

Subject has a very high Aggression need, which indicates that person is Aggressive in nature.
She cannot manage her emotions and anger. Subject has a very high Autonomy need, which
indicates that the person in independent from others. She can make her own decision and she
doesn’t like interference from others in her decision making. Subjects score is also high in
conflict need, which indicates that she has problem with her closely relative persons. Subject
score also high in understanding need, which indicates that she understands others feelings. She
has a sense of empathy.

33
Reference

Murray, H.A (1935) Thematic Apperception Test, The Psychologist Corporation.

New York USA.

34