Thematic Apperception Test

Abstract

Abstract The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a performance‐based personality instrument published by Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan in 1943. For decades, the TAT has ranked among the three most widely used personality assessment instruments in clinical settings, along with the Rorschach inkblot method and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The test consists of 31 cards with achromatic images, typically involving people, a subset of which the respondent is given and instructed to tell a story. Storytelling tests like the TAT are unique in they rely on a person's implicit intrapersonal and interpersonal narratives. Some formal TAT scores exist but are rarely used in clinical practice. Instead, clinicians typically use a variant of Murray's original interpretive approach that evaluates the need (internal motivation), press (external influences), and outcome of each story. Although the TAT has wide research base, the lack of commonly accepted scoring guidelines and norms has impaired researchers' ability to systematically assess its validity.