Developmental psychology.pdf

Personality 405
Figure 15.6
Projective Testing. What sort of
story does this picture bring to mind 9
In a test of this sort the subjects
stories to many such pictures are
analyzed for diverse contents and
themes.
Projective tests are controversial, especially the Rorschach and TAT (Ritzier,
Sharkey, & Chudy, 1980). Many psychologists feel they are uniquely useful for understanding
the deeper aspects of personality. According to Freud, the projective response
always represents energy, sexual or aggressive, pressing for discharge. But other
psychologists ask how we know that projection has really occurred. For them, the concepts
of repression and projective testing are too speculative. For these reasons, research
on the reliability and validity of the Rorschach continues unabated (Howes,
1981; Piotrowski, 1982; DeCato, 1984).
TRAIT APPROACH
Most people, when asked to describe Jenny Masterson, would not refer to psychoanalytic
concepts. Instead, they would describe Jenny as a certain personality type or
according to certain personality traits, an approach that is popular among laypeople
because of its efficiency.
Personality Typing
A personality typology is a system for classifying people according to a few basic types,
each of which involves certain pervasive characteristics. This approach to personality
has been common since the days of Hippocrates, an early Greek physician, and even
Shakespeare referred to people as types. He had Caesar say:
Let me have men about me that are fat;
Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look;
He thinks too much: such men are dangerous.
Julius Caesar, act 1, scene 2