PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUE

Also known as the projective method, projective technique is any personality assessment process that uses a fixed series of random stimuli in the hopes of obtain often idiosyncratic responses from the subject. For example, the Rorschach ink blot test is a projective technique. Word associations also fall in this category. It should be noted that there is a great deal of disagreement on the effectiveness of this technique. One camp maintains that they play a vital role in gathering a personality assessment. Another camp maintains the technique is lacking in validity and interpretations derived from them are hypothetical and have not been scientifically proven.

PROJECTIVE TECHNIQUE: “It is not clear to many in the field that word association tests are effective in a diagnostic or interpretive sense.”
 Divorced Families and the Programs That Work for Them

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