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Assessment And Critique : Thematic Apperception Test

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Assessment and Critique: Thematic Apperception Test

Brian Kees
Oklahoma State University

Abstract

Assessment and Critique: Thematic Apperception Test
General Test The Thematic Apperception Test or TAT was developed during the 1930s by the American psychologist Henry A. Murray and psychoanalyst Christiana D. Morgan at the Harvard Clinic at Harvard University. The TAT is published by Harvard University Press. The cost is $81 per test. The test takes a total of 200 minutes to give. It is given in two 100-minute sessions one day apart. The population that the TAT is given to are ages 4 and over.
Brief Description of Purpose and Nature of the Test The Thematic Apperception Test is a projective personality test. The idea behind the technique is that the subjects ' responses, in the narratives they construct about ambiguous pictures of people, reveal their subconscious motives, concerns, and the way they interpret the social world. The TAT was described by Murray as “a method of revealing to the trained interpreter some of the dominant drives, emotions, sentiments, complexes and conflicts of a personality" (Murray, 1935, p.132).
The TAT is frequently given to individuals as part of a battery, or group, of tests intended to assess personality. Ideally the TAT elicits information about a person 's sense of the world and her perspective toward the self and others. As individuals taking the TAT proceed through the various story

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