1 RPAS Administration Guidelines to Optimize R This ... - Psychology

when they are low (e.g., resistance or limited resources) and high (e.g., fluid, affectively driven
responding).
4) Fourth, to help ensure a sufficient pool of responses for interpretation, if you do not obtain 14 or
more responses initially, retain all the initial responses but go through all cards again with
encouragement for the respondent to give a few more responses. Unlike standard CS
administration, use the responses from the first administration but administer the cards again and
collect the extra responses that are spontaneously given. Once this is done, complete the inquiry
based on the order of the responses within a card, not the order in which the responses were
obtained. Although it is quite unlikely to occur, if the respondent produces fewer than 16
responses say something like:
a. "That was fine. However, we need a few more responses in order for this test to be most
helpful. So let's go through the cards again. Take your time when looking at them. I'm
sure you will be able to see some more things." Hand the respondent, the first card and
say, "What else might this be?" Say this only once. During this second administration no
prompts or pulls are given. Rejections are accepted. Although this approach complicates
how a sequence analysis interpretation would be conducted, it reduces demands on the
examinee compared to redoing the whole test and this is likely to preserve the alliance
and reduce the added frustration or discouragement that could affect their scores on a
second administration.
When it is time to administer the Rorschach, say the following, "Now we are going to take the inkblot
test. I will hand the inkblots to you one at a time and your task is to look at each card to answer the
question "What might this be?" Does that make sense?" If the answer is no, find out what is unclear and
address the issue. If the answer is yes, say the following: "Good. We can get started then. Try to give
two responses, or maybe three, to each card. That is, for each card try to see two, or maybe three,
different things." Next, hand Card I in the upright position to the respondent and say just the following
four words: "What might this be?"
Use clinical judgment to balance the need for consistent administration guidelines and the need for
personal rapport and a good working alliance with the respondent. For instance, although we note that it
may make sense to inquire one or several responses that happen to come after the fourth, if a respondent
consistently gives extra responses, it may be most reasonable to explain at the start of the inquiry that
you will only be asking about the first four to each card.
Research on an early version of the "Prompt for Two, Pull after Four" guideline showed that it
eliminated the need to re-administer the test because of short protocols and it increased the validity of
Rorschach measures of thought disorder and psychosis (Dean, Viglione, Perry, & Meyer, 2007).
© 2010 RPAS 2