• If projective techniques do not contribute psychologically useful information above and beyond

more easily collected data (e.g., scores on self-report instruments, demographic information) then their
routine clinical use is difficult to justify.

• The 3 tests discussed are the most frequently used projective techniques in clinical practice

• Specifically, following Wood et al., we propose that the indexes derived from projective
techniques should exhibit (a) a consistent relation to one or more specific psychological symptoms,
psychological disorders, real-world behaviors, or personality trait measures in (b) several
methodologically rigorous validation studies that have been (c) performed by independent researchers
or research groups. The lattermost criterion is important because it minimizes the possibility that
replications are a consequence of systematic errors (e.g., artifacts stemming from flawed methods of
administration or scoring) that may be inadvertently produced by researchers originating from the same
laboratory

o Rorschach

 John Exner’s Comprehensive System (CS) for the Rorschach provided detailed rules for
administration and scoring

o Adequacy of the CS Norms,

 out of date and based on rather small samples compared with norms for well established
psychological instruments

 substantial evidence has recently emerged that the CS norms are unrepresentative of the U.S.
population and tend to make normal adults and children appear maladjusted

o Cultural Generalizability of the CS

 there is little, if any, research on the differential validity of Rorschach indexes across different
racial and cultural groups

o Scoring Reliability of the CS

 , a study of CS scoring accuracy using alumni of the Rorschach Workshops suggests that field
reliability may be problematic

o Test-Retest Reliability of the CS

 test-retest reliability of most CS scores is still an open issue that remains to be resolved by
methodologically rigorous studies.

o Rorschach Validity: Relationships with Diagnoses and Self-Report Instruments

 general failure of CS scores to correlate with psychiatric diagnosis

o Incremental Validity

 When psychologists made judgments after being given increasing amounts of assessment
information, the addition of the Rorschach almost never led to an increase in the validity of their
judgments
Despite a few positive findings, the Rorschach has demonstrated little validity as a diagnostic tool