Experimental study of an inanimate movement response as a conflict index in the Rorschach test

Abstract

According to Klopfer, the occurrence of inanimate movement responses (m) in a Rorschach protocol is an index of the subject's conflict level. Specifically, the greater the number of m responses the higher the level of conflict.The present study was designed to investigate this hypothesis experimentally. Two experiments were performed. In the first Experiment, 100 university students were administered the Rorschach test. A high “m” group and a low “m” group were selected out of these 100 subjects according to the frequency of “m” response occurrence in the Rorschach protocols. The high “m” group consisted of 20 subjects whose protocols showed three to six “m” responses and the low “m” group consisted of 20 subjects whose protocols showed no “m” responses.In the two groups, the procedure of discrimination conflict was employed. The apparatus was a modified version of the equipment which was used by Worell. Each subject was asked to respond to the brighter of two simultaneously exposed lights. The high conflict condition consisted of the brightest stimuli (100 Volt and 100 Volt), while the low conflict condition used the two extreme (40 Volt and 100 Volt). Each subject was presented with 32 trials in all. The 32 trials were divided into two blocks: first 16 trials of weak conflict followed by 16 trials of strong conflict. The conflict score of each subject was calculated by the following formula.conflict score=mean reaction time (log) of the first three trials in the strong conflict condition./mean reaction time (log) of the last three trials in the weak conflict condition.The high “m” group showed a significantly higher conflict score (p<0.05) than the low “m” group.In Experiment II, the MMPI was administered to 650 university students. On the basis of the Conflict Scale of the MMPI, a high conflict group (30 Ss) and a low conflict group (30 Ss) were selected.Then, the Rorschach test was administered to each of the subjects in the two groups in order to investigate the frequency of “m” responses.The results indicated that the mean frequency of “m” responses was higher (p<0.05) in the high conflict group.From these two experiments, we may conclude that the “m” response in the Rorschach test is significantly related to (1) experimentally induced conflict and (2) verbally measured conflict.These findings were discussed from the view-point of Berlyne's information theory.