Rorschach interpretation with high-ability adolescent females: psychopathology or creative thinking?

Highly intelligent and creative persons have long posed interpretation difficulties for users of the Rorschach Inkblot Test. This study examined Exner's (1993) Schizophrenia, Depression, and Coping Deficit indices as adjustment measures in a sample of 43 female adolescents enrolled in an early college entrance program and a comparison group of 19 girls enrolled in public high school gifted programs. Contrary to conventional interpretation, higher scores on the Rorschach Schizophrenia Index among the accelerants were correlated with healthy emotional adjustment on both the California Psychological Inventory and the Self-Perception Profile for Adolescents (SPPA). Further analyses offered support for the hypothesis that among accelerants, elevated scores on the Rorschach constellations did not indicate psychopathology, but rather their creative thinking style.