Exploring fantasies of TAT reliability

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Personality research

Background:

• Test-retest reliability of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is often low.
• This low stability may stem from instructions encouraging originality and creativity during retesting.
• Winter and Stewart (1977) suggested reliability improves when participants are asked to write similar stories upon retest.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate Winter and Stewart's (1977) findings on TAT retest instructions.
• To investigate if story similarity varies based on retest instructions.
• To determine if improved reliability reflects genuine TAT stability or memory recall.

Main Methods:

• Attempted replication of Winter and Stewart's (1977) study design.
• Administered TAT with varying retest instructions (original vs. similar stories).
• Analyzed test-retest reliability and story similarity.

Main Results:

• Replication of Winter and Stewart's (1977) results was only partially successful.
• Instructions to write similar stories increased TAT reliability.
• The observed increase in reliability was attributed to participants' memory, not enhanced motive expression stability.

Conclusions:

• Altering retest instructions to emphasize story similarity can improve TAT reliability.
• This improvement primarily reflects memory recall, not underlying stability in motive expression.
• The findings suggest that memory capabilities, not true TAT stability, are influenced by such instructions.