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The Tat: the Thematic Apperception Test Essay

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The TAT: The Thematic Apperception Test Suzette Lamb Argosy University The TAT test was developed in the 1930s by psychologists Henry A. Murray, Christiana D. Morgan and other colleagues at the Harvard Psychological Clinic. The TAT Test or Thematic Apperception Test is a projective psychological test used to explore the unconscious of an individual in order to reveal the underlying parts of personality, internal conflicts, motives and interests. It has been one of the most widely used, taught and researched of tests of its kind (Combs, 1946). The test evolved over approximately a decade in the 1930’s and 1940’ after a rocky start and three distinct revisions. An earlier manuscript titled “A Method for the Investigation of …show more content…

The TAT test is usually given as one of a battery of tests because it should not be used as the only examination tool when evaluating an individual. Experts also highly recommend getting a personal and medical history before administering. It is important to have this information because medical conditions as well as life events, such as a divorce, can give the examiner some context on what may otherwise be considered unusual or abnormal responses. The TAT is usually administered to an individual in a quiet room where the examiner shows the individual between 10 and 14 cards taken from the full set of 31 TAT cards although Murray recommended the use of 20 cards. Then, in two separate one-hour sessions, the examiner keeps the cards in a pile face down in front of him or her, giving them to the individual one at a time. The individual is asked to tell a story about the picture on each card. There are specific instructions given to the individual to describe what led up to the event in the picture, the event in the picture, the thoughts and feelings of the people in the picture, and the outcome of the story. When the individual is finished, they place the card face down in front of them (Morett, 1997). The examiner usually takes notes on the individuals ‘stories’ by hand. There has been controversy that a lot of

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