Inkblot test
The inkblot test is more properly known as the Rorschach test. The man who developed it at the beginning of the 20th century, Hermann Rorschach, was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. The inkblots were used to assess the unrevealed parts of a person’s character through reactions to the test blots.
As a boy, Rorschach enjoyed making inkblot pictures, an occupation known as klecksography. His friends called him ‘Klex’, meaning ‘inkblot.’ A similar pastime can be observed in infant classrooms, with bright poster paint being substituted for ink and daubed or splattered on one half of a sheet of folded paper, and then the paper folded over to ‘repeat’ the design. It can be used to demonstrate symmetry, too. It’s simple and it’s fun.
The inkblot test was very popular in the 1960s in the diagnosis of some psychological conditions. It is still used as a means of understanding a person’s thought processes, but is considered too subjective to be dependable, as interpretation and scoring can vary between the people conducting the tests.
The subject being evaluated is shown a series of inkblots and asked to indicate what each blot represents. Answers are checked against established norms.
You can find out more here and frighten yourself to death with an online test. (!)
I think it says more about him that he liked the inkblots than what they can tell you about a person. It sort of reminds me of seeing things in clouds.
ReplyDeleteWhen I finished psychology, I also thought that the use of inkblots too subjective to be dependable. But now I think ALL inkblots, dreams, psychoanalyses, palm reading and tea leaves are very subjective - they mainly are useful for getting a patient talking free of hesitation and caution.
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