THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST (TAT):
It is a projective test consisting of a series of picture in which the examinee is requested
to create a story about the picture.
It is a method of revealing dominant drives, emotions, sentiments, complexes and
conflicts of personality.
Apperception refers to the process of projecting fantasy imaginary onto an objective
stimuli.
INSTRUCTIONS: The examiner will show some pictures one at a time and the subject will
be asked to make up a story; he/she can for each picture card. The story structure must be
obtained:
Current situation: what is happening at the moment?
Thoughts and feelings of the character: what the characters are feeling and
thinking.
Preceding events: what has led up to the event shown in the picture?
Outcome: what was the outcome?
PROCEDURE: A subject’s complete responses should be recorded and scored, Hero and
his/her need, motive and desires, presses like hindrance, exclamation, stuttering, pauses,
blushing, verbal and non-verbal behavior, fidget, eye-contact, degree of involvement, and change
in voice variation.
Questioning and inquiry: To produce an unhindered and free-flow of the subjects’ fantasy
material.
Order of presentation: Usually, the cards should be administered according to their
sequential numbering system.
INTERPRETATION:
Nomothetic Interpretation: Refers to the practice of establishing norms for answer from
subjects in specific age, gender, racial, or educational level groups and then measuring a given
subject’s responses against those norms.
Idiographic Interpretation: Refers to evaluating the unique features of the subject’s view of
the world and relationship.
Levels of Interpretation according to Bellak:
Descriptive: It is the mere repeat and narration of the story.
Interpretative: It extends the descriptive level by an alteration of it.
Diagnostic: it is the further extension that an interference is made about the client.
THEMES:
CARD 1: (Relationship card)
Three major indicators are measured.
o Negative relationship
o Positive relationship
o No relationship (worst psychopathology or disturbed relations)
Relationship with parents (aggression, punishing, protective, over-protective, dominating,
demanding, understanding)
Autonomy versus compliance
Guilt feeling about autonomy
Sexual symbolic responses
Body-image and self-image
Aggression
Issues of impulses versus control
Superego anxiety
Obsessive pre-occupation
CARD 2: (Family Card)
Autonomy versus compliance
Heterosexual and homosexual relationships
Obsessive compulsive details
Regression and avoidance conflict
Siblings rivalry and Oedipus complex
CARD 3BM: (Depression card)
Guilt measure
Aggression (intra and extra aggression)
Latent homosexuality
Denial (Defense Mechanism)
Latent/ Hidden anger
Poor body-image
CARD 3GF: (Depression and Depressive Feelings)
CARD 4: (Male and Female Relationship Measure)
Contemporary/Current relations
Sexual problem or sexual-conflict measures
Themes of infidelity
CARD 5:
Fear of absorbed masturbation
Voyeuristic material
Fear of attack
CARD 6BM: Mother and Son Relationship
CARD 6GF: Female Relation towards their Father
CARD 7BM: Father/Son Relation
Positive/ dominating/disturb relation
CARD 7GF: Mother/ Daughter Relation
Expectancy of children
CARD 8BM:
Aggression
Stories of Ambition
Fear of being Mutilation
Denial of Aggression
CARD 8GF:
Thinking and Self-Image
CARD 9BM: (Man to Man Relation)
CARD 9GF:
Depression
Suicidal Tendency
Paranoid Tendency
Romantic Connotations
Mother-Daughter Hostility
CARD 10: (Man-Women Relation)
Latent Homo-sexuality
CARD 11:
Infantile and Primitive fears
Fear and Anxiety
Fear of Destruction
Hallucinations
Imaginative Experiences
CARD 12M: (Relation of Young man to an Old man)
Passive homosexual fears
Fear of being under the dominance of superior figure
CARD 12F:
Conception of Mother Figure
CARD 12BG:
Suicidal and Depressive Feelings
CARD 13MF: (Sexual Conflict in both Males and Females)
Fear of Rape and Attack
Feeling of Guilt
Economic Deprivation
Oral Tendency
OCD Tendency
Husband/Wife Feelings Project
CARD 13B:
Needs and Childhood Related Conflicts and Defense Mechanism
CARD 14:
Suicidal Tendency
Aesthetic Feelings
CARD 15:
Guilt Feeling
Depressive Tendencies
Fear of Death
Fantasies
CARD 16: (Blank card based on Imagination)
CARD 17BM:
Need for Achievement
Body-Image
Homosexual Feelings/Trends
Fear from Physical Trauma
CARD 17GF:
Suicidal Tendencies
CARD 18BM:
Homosexual Trends
Fear of Attack
Anxiety in Males
CARD 18GF: (Mother-Daughter Conflict)
How aggression is handled by a women
CARD 19: (Children and Early Adolescent)
Fantasies, Aspiration and Desires
CARD 20: (Fear in Males and Females)
Fear of Suicide
Fear of Darkness
Fear of Lonliness