Stressful life events and Rorschach content

This study investigated the construct validity of Elizur's (1949) Rorschach Content Test anxiety score. The study compared the Rorschach protocols of subjects experiencing high and low life-stress conditions. The Rorschach test was administered to 56 college students, half men and half women, who were selected from a larger group on the basis of their extreme scores on a measure of stressful life events, the College Schedule of Recent Experience (Anderson, 1972). Subjects in the high stress condition responded to the Rorschach with significantly (p less than .05) more anxious content than did subjects in the low stress condition. The findings of the study add support to the construct validity of Elizur's anxiety score. Implications for future research are discussed.