Does productivity impact the stability of rorschach scores?

Research suggests that productivity could impact the stability of Rorschach scores. To explore for this effect, we conducted secondary analyses of test-retest data gathered using the Rorschach Comprehensive System (Exner, 2003) and available for 75 French, nonpatient adults (Sultan, Andronikof, Reveillere, & Lemmel, 2006). We examined how response frequency (R) impacted stability using hierarchical regression models. Results on 83 variables from the lower part of the structural summary showed that stability was impacted by the mean level of productivity in 12 variables with medium to large effects (including Zf, HVI, and W location). Stability was also impacted by variations of productivity in 9 variables with medium to large effects (including Passive Movement, D Location, or Human Contents). Higher mean R and variability of R impacted stability levels negatively. Transforming scores into proportions (i.e., dividing scores by R) was beneficial for some important variables (including FM+m, Zf, DQ+). Procedures should be developed to limit productivity and control for R variations across time if one wishes to derive more reliable descriptions of individuals from the Rorschach.