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In recent years, a number of researchers have developed Rorschach coding approaches that attempt to quantify psychodynamic constructs. This article describes four such approaches: the Rorschach Defense Scales, Primitive Interpersonal Modes, the Mutuality of Autonomy Scale, and the Rorschach Reality-Fantasy Scale. These four seemingly different approaches have a common goal: creating quantitative Rorschach systems for describing psychodynamic constructs (defense mechanisms, primitive interpersonal modes, self- and object-representations) and the use of potential space.

We used before-and-after testing with the Rorschach Inkblot Test (Exner, 1997/2003) and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (Butcher et al., 2001) to assist a psychotherapy client--a survivor of child abuse suffering from depression accompanied by hallucinations--in evaluating a course of electroconvulsive therapy that she underwent. The results of both tests indicated positive changes. During the collaborative discussion of the test results, especially the changes seen on the Rorschach, a deeper understanding of her skeptical response to evidence of improvement came to light and helped to refocus the ongoing psychotherapy work.

This article addresses the role of personality assessment-specifically the Rorschach (Exner, 2002)-]in the context of the health care industry's increased focus on patient satisfaction. When providing psychotherapy, a challenge to providing patient-centered care turns on understanding and acting on the key aspects of the patient's personality that are crucial to forming an effective alliance. This article includes a description and examples of how personality assessment can enhance therapists' understanding of the ideational, affective, and self-control aspects of complicated patients' problem-solving styles. This enhanced understanding in turn can lead to improved therapeutic alliance between therapists and patients and to increased patient satisfaction with their care. How to provide feedback to the therapist also is addressed.

This Introduction provides an overview to the JPA Special Supplement on International Reference Samples for the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2001). It contains a history of this project and a table including all of the lead authors, their country and the type and size of their sample. Suggestions for conducting this type of research are offered, including information on normative vs. nonpatient samples, inclusion/exclusion criteria, the use of collateral instruments, and concerns relative to representativeness. Reliability and coding concerns are addressed, and information on the Popular response in Japan are reviewed. Finally, trends within and across the data are highlighted.

This article presents an update on adult nonpatients living in central California previously described by Shaffer, Erdberg, and Haroian (1999). In this study an additional 160 nonpatients were administered the Rorschach for a total sample size of 283. Graduate students enrolled in a 2-year Rorschach research seminar administered the Rorschach (Exner, 1995), WAIS-R (Weschler, 1981), and MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989), and were provided with extensive supervision and ongoing quality control. All protocols were recoded by the first two authors and a psychologist with extensive Rorschach experience. Exclusion criteria are described. Interrater reliability statistics at the response level are presented along with scores for Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS), WAIS-R, and MMPI-2 variables.

This study is composed of 52 older adults, ages 60 to 80, all from the United States. In addition to being administered the Rorschach (Rorschach, 1942), all participants also were administered the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R; Weschler, 1981), the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen,Kaemmer, 1989), the Neuro Cognitive Status Examination (NCSE; Kiernan, Mueller, Langston,Van Dyke, 1987), and the Trail Making Test Part B (Reitan, 1958; ReitanWolfson, 1993). Examiners included the principal author as well as three other trained examiners. Inclusion criteria are described. Interrater reliability statistics at the response level are presented along with scores for the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1995).

This article describes 3 studies evaluating normative reference data for the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003, 2007), with a particular focus on the viability of the Composite International Reference Values (CIRVs) that were compiled from 21 adult studies by Meyer, Erdberg, and Shaffer (2007). Study 1 documented how the CIRV norms are virtually identical when organized into 3 groups differentiated by the quality of their data collection effort, including an optimal group of 4 samples that relied on multiple experienced examiners and provided ongoing quality control over administration and coding. Analyses also showed that relative to the group of more optimal samples, the group of less optimal samples did not produce more variability in summary scores within or across samples or lower interrater reliability for coding. Study 2 used the existing CS reference norms to generate T scores for the CIRV means and documented how the CS norms make other samples of healthy nonpatients look psychologically impaired in multiple domains. Study 3 documented with examples from 4 different countries how 2 sets of within-country local norms produced notably different results on some variables, which compromises the ability of local norms to be used instead of the CIRVs. Taken together, the 3 studies provide support for the use of CIRVs in clinical practice as norms that are generalizable across samples, settings, languages, and cultures and that account for the natural variability that is present when clinicians and researchers contend with the ambiguity contained in the standard CS reference materials concerning the proper ways to administer and code. We conclude by urging CS users to rely on the CIRVs when making clinical inferences and to adopt alternative methods of ensuring they are following cohesively standardized administration and coding guidelines.

There is a paucity of peer-reviewed, nonpatient Rorschach studies in psychological journals, particularly for children. This study examined 100 preteenage children, using the Comprehensive System to code their Rorschach protocols. The participants were also evaluated with the Conners Parent Rating Scale-93 (Conners, 1989) and 5 exclusionary behavior criteria. The 100 participants demonstrated better than average behaviors. The results presented include all the ratios and indexes found in the nonpatient statistics for the Comprehensive System. We discuss interrater reliability issues and offer recommendations for further cross-validating research.

A literature review yields a surprisingly small number of nonpatient studies focusing on three widely used assessment tools: the WAIS-R, Rorschach, and MMPI-2. In this study, 123 nonpatient adults residing in central California were administered these three instruments. We performed intercoder reliability statistics on 52 of the 123 Rorschach records. WAIS-R and MMPI-2 results are similar to current standardization data for these instruments, whereas many of the Rorschach variables are quite different from those published in the manual for the Comprehensive System (Exner, 1995). We discuss these findings and offer recommendations for further normative research.

Differences in offense history, brain functioning, and psychological functioning of rape ( n = 45) and molest offenders ( n = 15) who were receiving psychiatric treatment while in prison were evaluated. Significant differences were found in each of these domains. Rape offenders were more likely to have histories of high violence offenses other than sexual offense, including murder, serious juvenile offenses, and both juvenile and adult sexual offenses. Rape offenders were more likely to show lower intellectual functioning and diffuse brain dysfunction associated predominantly with temporal and prefrontal brain cortices. Rape offenders were also more likely to display psychological functioning associated with illogical thinking and disordered attachment but less immature self-focus and fewer feelings of alienation than demonstrated by molest offenders. Implications for treatment and social policy for sexual offenders are suggested. Logistic regression demonstrated that these neuropsychological measures resulted in 71.7% accurate prediction and Rorschach measures resulted in 79.2% accurate prediction in differentiating rape from molest offenders. Implications for theoretical understanding of sexual offending are discussed.

Objective There are many studies examining cognitive deficits in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), while significantly less attention has been given to emotional and personality changes. A chronic neurological disorder brings many life stresses and affects the patient's ability to cope with them. This study explored the personality characteristics in a sample of MS patients. Methods 51 MS patients (13 male and 38 female, mean age: 42.6 years, mean EDSS: 3.2). All participants were administered the Rorschach Test coded by the Comprehensive System. Results Our findings show that the patients in our sample perceive themselves as being less competent than others, at some cost to their self-esteem. A large percentage relies on an avoidant style of coping with problems. Conclusion These findings imply that MS patients might have special needs in terms of communication with healthcare providers, decision making and adherence to their treatment plans because of their simplifying style of information processing. We argue that it is important to consider personality as well as cognitive changes in neurological disorders such as MS.

This study describes the psychological problems of a group of Catholic clergy and religious who were referred for residential treatment. Psychological test data were obtained from 29 men and 13 women ranging in age from 29 to 64. The main tests used were the Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale—Revised, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and Exner's Comprehensive System approach to the Rorschach Inkblot Test. A consistent constellation of problems was found; an intellectualized orientation along with naive defensiveness and difficulty in the handling of emotions. The men did not respond in a stereotypically masculine way and 30% were found to be confused or distressed about their sexual orientation. The longstanding nature of the problems suggests that the need for help could have been identified with thorough evaluations at the seminary or novitiate level and so prevented some of the disruption that led to the referrals.

This study is composed of 37 American adolescents, ages 15 to 17 years of age, all from the United States. The principal author was the sole examiner. Inclusion criteria are described. Interrater reliability statistics at the response level are presented along with scores for the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003). The results revealed differences from the published norms on variables that reflect poor form quality, fewer popular responses, more attention to detail, more poor human relationship responses, and a more simplistic, affective-free approach to the environment, among others.

We build on the work of all the authors contributing to this Special Supplement by summarizing findings across their samples of data, and we also draw on samples published elsewhere. Using 21 samples of adult data from 17 countries we create a composite set of internationally-based reference means and standard deviations from which we compute T-scores for each sample. Figures illustrate how the scores in each sample are distributed and how the samples compare across variables in eight Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003) clusters. The adult samples from around the world are generally quite similar, and thus we encourage clinicians to integrate the composite international reference values into their clinical interpretation of protocols. However, the 31 child and adolescent samples from 5 countries produce unstable and often quite extreme values on many scores. Until the factors contributing to the variability among these samples are more fully understood, we discourage clinicians from using many CS scores to make nomothetic, score-based inferences about psychopathology in children and adolescents.

This study is composed of 42 Mexican American children, ages 8 to 10 years, all from the United States. In addition to the children being administered the Rorschach, they also were administered the Children's Hispanic Background Scale (CHBS) and the Children's Personality Questionnaire (CPQ). The principal author was the sole examiner. Inclusion criteria are described. Interrater reliability statistics at the response level are presented along with scores for the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1995).

A multimethod approach that included demographic, criminal offense, drug use, neuropsychological, Rorschach, psychiatric diagnosis, and psychopathy characteristics was used to evaluate 131 incarcerated male psychiatric inpatients. Each criminal offense was ranked from nonviolent to severely violent, and participants were classified as having lifetime histories of either high or low violent behavior. Univariate analyses revealed 12 characteristics which independently discriminated inmates with lifetime histories of high or low violent behavior (married, non-Caucasian race, Axis I psychotic diagnosis, drug other than alcohol or marijuana used most, positive for psychopathy on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, scores indicating impairment on the Halstead Impairment Index and Category Test, and five Rorschach measures). Logistic regression revealed that eight of those characteristics (married, non-Caucasian race, Axis I psychotic diagnosis, positive for psychopathy on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist-Revised, scores indicating impairment on the Halstead Impairment Index, and Rorschach Coping Deficit Index, Personal Responses, and Raw Sum Special Scores) significantly contributed to identifying inmates with lifetime histories of highly violent behavior. Data are provided for sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive power, and overall correct classification rate for neuropsychological and Rorschach measures. Because this sample represented only incarcerated male psychiatric inpatients, and not a general prison population, caution as to limits of generalization are discussed. Implications for use of this information in understanding violent behavior are also discussed.