No agreement between the Rorschach and self-assessed personality traits derived from the Comprehensive System

Abstract

Eighty psychiatric patients with different clinical diagnoses completed the Rorschach (Exner, 1993), the MMPI-2 (Butcher et al., 1989) and also rated 51 written personality descriptions derived from the Comprehensive System (SAPCS). The 51 self-descriptions were constructed by the authors with the objective to achieve maximum overlap with the interpretive guidelines suggested for Rorschach Comprehensive System (RCS) variables, while simultaneously fitting with how patients could be expected to describe themselves in self-rating. With evidence of (1) independent judges' ability to correct classification of the items, (2) item test-retest stability, (3) sensitivity and specificity, measuring psychological adaptive capacity and vulnerability/pathology, and (4) item inter-correlation with the MMPI-2, patient's SAPCS ratings were expected to significantly converge with corresponding RCS measures. However, including all variable pairings, the mean correlation suggests that SAPCS statements overlapping with RCS interpretive statements do not measure the same constructs as the RCS variables to which the interpretive statements are referring. Standard validity scales in the MMPI-2 and first factor-related test interaction style did not predictably moderate the relation between RCS indices and the RCS-near self descriptions.