Effect of social class of subjects on normative responses to TAT cards

The present study investigated whether there are significant differences in the responses of individuals of varied social class background to selected TAT cards. White, female college students (N = 70) were classified as "working class" or "middle class" according to the characteristics of their families of origin and were asked to write stories in response to five TAT cards. Significant differences between the TAT stories written by the two social class groups were found for pattern of dependency and locus of control. No significant differences were found in number of drive expressions, intensity of drive expressions, or level of defenses used. Implications of these results for testing, as well as the difficulties in studying psychological phenomena across social class, are discussed.