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The Scientific Status of Projective Techniques.

S O Lilienfeld¹, J M Wood², H N Garb³

¹Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia slilien@emory.edu.

Psychological Science in the Public Interest : a Journal of the American Psychological Society

|July 8, 2015

Summary

Projective techniques like the Rorschach and TAT have limited empirical support, with most indexes lacking validity. Human figure drawings show even less evidence, impacting their clinical and forensic use.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Psychometrics
Forensic Psychology

Background:

Projective techniques are widely used in clinical and forensic settings.
Their scientific validity and psychometric properties remain controversial.
Key instruments include the Rorschach Inkblot Test, Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), and human figure drawings.

Purpose of the Study:

To review the psychometric properties (norms, reliability, validity, incremental validity, treatment utility) of major projective instruments.
To evaluate the empirical support for the Rorschach, TAT, and human figure drawings.
To examine the capacity of these instruments to detect child sexual abuse via meta-analysis.

Main Methods:

Literature review of psychometric properties.
Meta-analysis of studies on detecting child sexual abuse.
Assessment of incremental validity against other psychometric data.

Main Results:

Empirical support exists for a small number of Rorschach and TAT indexes.
The majority of Rorschach and TAT indexes, and human figure drawings, lack empirical support.
Projective indexes rarely demonstrate incremental validity.
Meta-analysis revealed some instruments better than chance at detecting child sexual abuse, but with no replicated findings.
Significant file drawer effects were identified in the projectives literature.

Conclusions:

Most projective techniques and their derived indexes lack sufficient empirical validation for widespread clinical and forensic use.
Recommendations are provided for improving projective technique construction, their application in forensic and clinical settings, and training for future psychologists.