Response to the Blank Card of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and its Correlation with Personality Factors

Anand Manjhi and Sunita Purty

The blank card (Card 16) of Thematic Apperception Test has extraordinary value in clinical assessment because it has no structure and pure projection. It provides an opportunity to the subject to come out with whatever is buried near the unconscious through writing a form of free association. The present study attempted to investigate the responses to the blank card of TAT and correlate with personality profile of the subject. The study was conducted at Post-Graduate Institute of Behavioral and Medical Sciences, Raipur (India). The sample consisted of 60 subjects of which 30 persons had alcohol dependence syndrome diagnosed as per ICD-10 DCR (WHO, 1992) and 30 normal controls, who selected through purposive sampling technique. The blank card (card 16) of TAT and 16 PF Form A (Hindi version) were administered on the subjects individually. The findings indicated that the factor C of 16 PF was positively correlated with the (n) rejection and factor B, F and L were negatively correlated with (n) dominance, succorance and blame avoidance respectively on blank card of TAT.

Personality may be defined as the underlying causes within the person of individual behavior and experience. After reviewing several definitions of personality in psychology, theology, philosophy, law, sociology and common usage, Allport (1937) proposed an operational definition that has become a classic definition of personality, i.e., “Personality is the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustment to the environment.”According to Mischel, (1986) personality is the distinctive pattern of behavior (including thoughts and emotions) that characterize each individual’s adaptation to the situation in his or her personality. There is an emphasis on the idea that each person has a unique personality. Even identical twins, who have exactly the same genetic make-up, have different personality although they probably also have more in common than unrelated people (Plomin, 1990).

The TAT (Murray, 1943) is one of the most commonly used projective measures of personality for clinical purposes (Rossini & Moretti, 1997; Watkins et al., 1995). It consists of a set of 20 black and white pictures depicting relatively ambiguous situations. In a typical TAT study, participants are asked to make stories about the pictures, and the stories are scored for several underlying themes (e.g., affiliation, aggression;  Murray,  1943).  Since  its

inception, researchers have used the TAT to evoke creative responses, but rarely included the blank card (No. 16) in their assessment procedures. In the Analysis of Fantasy, Henry has emphasized the importance of the blank card and writes “the extreme challenge which it makes for the subject who must create for himself the entire scene as well as its people, events, and plot development” (Henry, 1956). The blank card serves as a momentary challenge to the subject’s creativity.

During 1940s, many clinicians were using a limited number of cards and abbreviated scoring systems to save time in administration and scoring. In earlier studies the blank card was used to tap subjects’ creativity. But in terms of personality, the studies are lacking, to the best of the researchers’ knowledge. The present research was planned to investigate the responses to the blank card of TAT and its correlation with personality factors.

Methodology:

Sample: The sample consists of 60 subjects, of which 30 persons had alcohol dependence syndrome diagnosed as per ICD-10 DCR (WHO, 1992) in the age range of 18-50 years, having education at least of 10th standard who were taken from the OPD of Post- Graduate Institute of Behavioral and Medical Science, Raipur, and 30 matched normal controls  were  also  selected  following

purposive sampling. Persons with history of other substance abuse, severe physical illness, mental retardation, epilepsy and other neurological and psychiatric disorder were excluded from the study.

Tools: Following tools were administered individually to the subjects:

Socio-demographic and clinical data sheet: A self-prepared socio-demographic and clinical data sheet was used to collect basic information; e.g. age, education, marital status etc.

General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12: This questionnaire was developed by Goldberg (1972), consisting 12 items on behavioral and psychological functioning. The questionnaire screens out healthy persons with possible mental health issues on the basis of psychiatric morbidity.

Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST): The MAST was developed by Selzer in 1971, consisting 24-items screening instrument. The test was applied on alcohol dependent group to identify the severity of alcohol abuse and dependence.

16 P. F. - Form A: The Hindi adaptation of 16 PF (Kapoor, 1970) was administered to all subjects.

The blank card (card 16) of Thematic Apperception Test: In this study, only blank card (card 16) of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Murray, 1943) was used as stimulus. Card 1 was administered as sample card for orientation before administering the blank card.

Procedure: The socio demographic data was collected from both the groups. The General Health Questionnaire-12 was administered for screening the normal control group and those who scored less than 3, were included in the study. Persons with alcohol dependent syndrome group were screened by Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (MAST), subjects scoring more than 13 were taken for the present study. The 16 PF Form A (Hindi Version) and the Blank Card (card 16) of TAT were administered to all the subjects individually.

Statistical Analysis: The data was analyzed by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS 16.0). Pearson correlation (r) was applied to see the relationship between responses on TAT blank card and personality factors.

Results

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Discussion:

Table 1 shows the socio demographic characteristics of both the study groups. For this purpose the χ² was used. It is very clear from the table that, there is significant difference found between alcohol dependent group and normal control group in the age

and education variable respectively. In alcohol dependent group only 26.7% subjects were below 30 years and 73.3 % were more than 30 years whereas 76.7% were below 30 years and only 23.3% were having above 30 years in normal group. It is also clear from the table that  70%  of  the  subjects  were  having

education less than 12 years and only 30% were having more than 12 years of education in the alcohol dependent, whereas only 33.3% were less than 12 years of education and 66.7% were having more than 12 years of education among normal subjects.

While table 2 showed group difference between study groups, t-test was used to analyze the result. On the basis of test results it was found that the alcohol dependent patients were found to be significantly low (factor C) in frustration tolerance. This may be explained because of their unsatisfactory conditions for which they are easily annoyed and emotional in nature and have neurotic symptoms like sleep disturbances and psychosomatic complaints, but on the other hand normal control subjects are more emotionally stable, are realistic about their life and have good ego strength (Alcohol dependent patients: M= 2.47 ± 1.72, Normal control subjects: M= 3.53 ± 1.96, t=2.242, p>0.05 level).

Similar finding has been found in a study done by Gross and Carpenter (1971), where they found that in 16 PF, factor C was low among alcoholics. Based on the findings they concluded that alcoholics are emotionally unstable. Another similar finding has been concluded by a study done by IPAT staff (1963) in alcoholics using 16 PF. They also state alcoholics to have more concrete thinking, have lower scholastic capacity. A study conducted by Costello (1978) on alcoholics using 16 PF also found that alcoholics have low scores on factor C (easily frustrated, emotionally unstable) which also support the present study.

Further in the present study we found that Alcohol dependent patients tend to be high on Factor L which indicates that they are more doubtful and mistrusting than normal control subjects. They are often involved in their own internal life, are not concerned about others in comparison with normal control subjects (Alcohol dependent patient: M=7.30 ± 1.72, Normal control subjects: M= 5.03 ± 1.63, t=2.294, p>0.01 level). A similar study has

been conducted by Kirchner et al. (1974) in a sample of 49 male alcoholics who were assessed on 16 PF. They found that alcoholic males were more Suspicious (factor L) than normal control subjects. Another study conducted by Costello (1978) on alcoholics concluded that alcoholics on 16 PF have high scores on factor L which also support the present study.

Table 3 showed correlation between needs on blank card of TAT and 16 personality factors in groups of alcohol dependence syndrome. Analysis was done with Pearson correlation and (r) values are shown in tables.

In the present study factor B of 16 PF was negatively correlated with (n, dominance) response of blank card of TAT. It indicates that persons with alcohol dependence syndrome have low mental capacity or have low intelligence; they try to control the environment to some extent in the direction of their needs and sentiments.

Positive correlation was found in factor C of 16 PF and (n, rejection) blank card of TAT, which indicates that alcohol dependent patients are low in frustration tolerance for their unsatisfactory conditions. Because of that they get easily annoyed, so they keep or exclude themselves from the environment or people.

Further we found that Factor F was negatively correlated with (n, succorance) on the blank card, which indicates that persons diagnosed with alcohol dependence syndrome are sober and simple in nature but they have insecure feelings and they need others’ support and nursing to guide or advise them.

Negative correlation was found between factor L of 16 PF and (n, Blame avoidance) on the blank card of TAT, which shows that they are less trusting and get involved in sociopathic acts in order not to be rebuked by others and to avoid blame.

It is notable that the correlational studies between responses on blank card of Thematic Apperception Test and 16 Personality Factor

have not been studied in persons with alcohol dependence syndrome, to the best of our knowledge. Thus more refined studies are required to focus on such findings.

Conclusion:

Since 1946, researchers have used picture cards from the TAT as stimuli to evoke creative responses. The TAT manual provides some general guidelines for an evaluation of the responses. These guidelines are based on Murray’s personality theory, which revolves around the concepts of “needs” (tendencies in the individual’s personality) (Vane, 1981). The present study was designed to investigate the relationship of needs on blank card with personality factors where the authors found that factor C of 16 PF was positively correlated with the (n) rejection and factors B, F and L were negatively correlated with (n) dominance, succorance and blame avoidance respectively on the blank card of TAT. Further, it may be used as normative date provided the sample size is increased and becomes representative.

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