How to Do a Rorschach Test

Taking a Rorschach Test

Find a test online or with a trained psychologist. You can take inkblot tests online, though mainly these tests are just for fun, not for serious psychological analysis. You can find tests for fun at places like http://personality-testing.info/tests/HEMCR/. You can also call around to psychologists in your area to find out if any of them administer inkblot tests. The reasons online tests are just for fun is they are often multiple choice, meaning you don't get to describe what you actually see. Also, they are not analyzed by a psychologist.

Study each inkblot one at a time. As the inkblot is shown to you, take a moment to look at it. Consider what you see in front of you. What jumps out at you? What shape or pattern does the inkblot suggest? You don't have to answer right away. You can take as long as you want to study the pattern, and no answer you come up with will be wrong. For instance, you might see two animals or a flower garden.

Say your initial response. Once you've studied the inkblot, you can simply say what comes to mind. You may think the card looks like a butterfly, for instance, or a sunset. Remember, don't worry about what you say being "wrong," as there are no wrong answers.

Don't be afraid to elaborate on your answer. Often, you may give one response and decide that you see something more that you want to talk about. That's fine, even encouraged. Talk about how you see the inkblot changing, describing it in detail. Generally, you only change your responses before moving on to the next image.

Go through all ten inkblots. Most tests will have ten inkblots, so to complete the test, you'll need to offer responses for all of these images. An online test will be scored quickly, but if you're testing with a psychologist, your results could take several days to a week.

Giving a Rorschach Test

Use the original ten inkblot cards. Though Rorschach originally used a large number of different inkblots, he eventually narrowed it down to just ten inkblots. These ten cards are the standard for giving this test. You can find them in psychology books or online at sites such as http://oink.elrellano.com/desastre/rorschach_inkblot_test.html. You can create your own inkblots. However, it will be harder to judge responses.

Describe the test to the test taker. You may give this test to a patient of yours in a clinical situation, or you might give one to evaluate the mental state of someone on trial. Before giving the test, it's best to give some instructions to the test taker, so they know what to expect. Tell them what you are going to do, such as "I will hold up individual cards with inkblots on them. You will describe what you see in the image. Keep in mind, there is no right or wrong answer, and you can describe more than one thing you see in the picture."

Hold the card up. Your first job is to hold up the cards one at a time so the person can see them. Let the person have time to process. It may take a minute or two for them to come up with an answer. Also, don't put the card down too soon, as the person may come up with more than one response. Place the card down when the person's attention starts drifting, or they indicate they are done with it.

Ask "What might this be?" As you're holding the card, ask the person what they see in the card. The standard question is "What might this be?" as it encourages the person to discuss what they see on the card.

Record what the person says. With the person's permission, use a voice recorder to record the interaction. That way, you can return to the responses later to study them more closely. If you can't voice record the person, take detailed notes.

Wait for more responses. When giving the Rorschach test, you should encourage the test taker to give at least fourteen responses over the course of the test. Some people give many more responses, but if your test taker is reticent, you can say, "Do you see anything else?" You can also encourage elaboration. For instance, if someone says they see a bee, ask the person whether they see that in the whole inkblot or just part of it.

Interpreting a Rorschach Test

Train to score the test. To score the test, you must be a trained professional psychologist, as the scoring system is complex and you need the training of a psychologist to interpret the results. The most popular scoring system is the John E. Exner, Jr.'s scoring system, which he developed in 1969. You can take a class on the Rorschach test while getting a degree in psychology or even afterwards. You can also be trained by someone else who knows how to administer and score a Rorschach test. When scoring the Rorschach test, you'll label different aspects of the response with a code or score.

Code the location and detail of the answer. The location is where the person focuses on the inkblot. For instance, the person might home in on a small detail, or they may incorporate the whole image in their response. Also, look at how detailed the response is. Some responders will give a vague answer, while others will be more detailed. For instance, you'll need to notice what part of the inkblot the person used, as well as whether they used the white space in their response. The most detailed responses will describe more than one object that are related through movement or position, such as "two dogs holding flowers." How the person organizes the content is also important. In other words, you should consider how the person integrates separate parts of the picture, such as saying "a dog is looking at a star." The person has grouped the content together by having the dog look at the star.

Figure out the determinants. The determinants refer to things like form, chromatic color, achromatic color, movement, shading-texture, shading-dimension, and shading-diffuse, form dimension, and pairs and reflection. For instance, chromatic color refers to when the test taker discusses the color in their response, while achromatic color refers to the person using black, white, or gray in their response. Similarly, shading-texture, shading-dimension, and shading-diffuse refer to the person discussing texture, dimension (in connection to shading), and shading in their responses, respectively, while form dimension means the person discusses dimension without noting shading. Form is the shape the person refers to, while movement is whether the person describes movement. Pairs and reflections notes whether the person discusses pairs in their responses.

Think about movement in the response. Another area to consider is how the person describes the participants in the image. The responder could describe them with movement (such as "two people moving towards one another") or as passive (such as "a person sitting"). They may also describe part as active and part as passive.

Consider the content of the response. The contents are the actual object or image the person comes up with, such as a bear, a person, a cat, a flower, and so on. Another consideration in this category is how popular the response is. That is, these cards have been used thousands of times, so of course, certain responses are more common. You can compare the person's answers with those in the scoring system to learn how common they are.

Note oddities in the response. The last thing you'll score is anything unusual about the person's response. These oddities can be a variety of things, including odd verbalizations (such as using the wrong word or repeating information), mentions of things that aren't relevant, odd combinations (such as a cat with a dog head), and focusing on one thing (coming back to the same inkblot again and again or seeing the same thing in each image). It can also include logical fallacies ("It's black so it must be a pot."), inappropriate generalizations (using small details to determine the whole picture), and projecting color onto the image. Oddities could mean the person isn't quite "normal" in how they approach the test.