Norms, norming, and clinical assessment.

Abstract

The Rorschach inkblot test is the most commonly used projective measure in both clinical and forensic settings, and Exner's Comprehensive System (CS) is the most commonly used approach to Rorschach administration and scoring. However, recent studies of both adults and children have cast doubt on the representativeness of the CS norms. The analyses by Wood, Nezworski, Garb, and Lilienfeld provide compelling evidence that the CS adult norms are seriously flawed and are likely to result in frequent false positive identifications of psychopathology. We discuss the crucial need for appropriate norms in clinical assessment and examine the quality of the CS norms vis-a-vis those of other commonly used tests. We conclude that the concerns raised about the CS adult norms are sufficient to require the development of new norms for the CS. In the meantime, given the doubt that has been cast on the CS norms, it is crucial that the developers of the CS immediately move to provide ethically informed, scientifically based guidance to Rorschach users on how best to interpret adult Rorschach protocols.