Abstract
There has been a proliferation of assessment research on Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) over the past twenty years. In spite of recent advances in the PTSD assessment research, there continues to be a controversy as to whether the MMPI or Rorschach is more useful in determining the presence of PTSD. The present comparative analysis of the research literature will carefully evaluate controlled empirical studies, which utilized psychometric measures such as the MMPI/2 and Rorschach to identify PTSD in Vietnam Veterans. This analysis is guided by the paucity of comparative data for standardized objective and projective instruments to assess combat-related PTSD. The analysis indicated that the MMPI as an assessment instrument focuses on symptom recognition of PTSD while the Rorschach seems to be more likely to identify chronic adaptations to trauma. The significance of pre-combat factors, such as preexisting personality, and their impact on the way individuals make meaning and express traumatic experiences needs to be further addressed in future research. The need for reliable and valid measures to assess combat-related PTSD is urgent as an increasing number of soldiers return from war zones.
Highlights
The heterogeneity and complexity of symptoms that can be indicated in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is often difficult to distinguish from other psychiatric diagnoses, many of which are characterized by the same symptoms
Later research indicated that Rorschach protocols show an abreactive repetition of the trauma, with the inkblots serving only as the stimuli in the process. These findings have suggested that PTSD sufferers when presented with ambiguous or affectively charged stimuli they react to current situations as a recurrence of the traumatic stress
Other studies have shown that a large group of Vietnam veterans falls into the introversive and ambitensive category of experience type (Goldfinger et al, 1998; Hartman et al, 1990). These findings suggested that Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD use a less efficient problem solving and coping style than controls, are less likely to use a more efficient coping style, and have more mental access to combat-related imagery than non-PTSD Vietnam veterans, few appear preoccupied with gory, traumatic scenes
Summary
The heterogeneity and complexity of symptoms that can be indicated in PTSD is often difficult to distinguish from other psychiatric diagnoses, many of which are characterized by the same symptoms. The Rorschach is a promising tool in that it can detect varying levels of war-related stress in soldiers and address the complex symptomatology inherent in traumatic states often not readily accessible on self-report measures (Sloan, Arsenault, & Hilsenroth, 2002). This comparative analysis of assessment measures is especially valuable since it scrutinizes whether the most popular psychometric techniques assess the interactive effects of premorbid personality variables, personal resource variables, and the nature of the stressor dimensions in a particular traumatic event. The content and methodology of the studies relevant to the analysis were reviewed
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