TAT interpretation – compiled by A. Glezerman, Ph.D.
| Level 1: content analysis of responses to each card. | |
| Card # | |
| Hero | |
| Hero’s needs:1) Abasement2) Achievement3) Affiliation4) Aggression5) Autonomy6) Counteraction7) Deference8) Defendance9) Dominance10) Exhibition11) Harm avoidance12) Avoidance of failure13) Nurturance14) Order15) Play16) Rejection17) Sentience18) Sex19) Succorance20) Understanding | |
| Hero’s characteristics (emotional and physical) | |
| Objects introduced | |
| Objects omitted | |
| Objects misperceived | |
| Environment | |
| Parental Figures | |
| Hero’s reactions | |
| Contemporary figures | |
| Hero’s reactions | |
| Junior figures | |
| Hero’s reactions | |
| Conflicts | |
| Responses to conflicts | |
| Anxieties | |
| Defenses | |
| Superego – punishment | |
| Hero’s goals | |
| Goal’s practicality | |
| Hero’s adequacy | |
| Means of achieving goals | |
| Types of obstacles | |
| Type of outcome | |
| Realistic outcome? | |
| Plot | |
| Type of topic:1) Personal2) Relational3) Sexual4) Familial5) Professional6) Social7) Fantastical8) Abstract/Philosophical9) Religious/Spiritual | |
| Level 2: content analysis of pattern of responses. | |
| Themes common to more than one card | |
| What type of stimulus triggers these themes | |
| Outlier responses | |
| What type of stimulus triggers these responses | |
| Themes absent in responses | |
| Common emotional states | |
| Common needs | |
| Common defenses | |
| Common conflicts | |
| Common goals | |
| Common obstacles | |
| Common outcomes | |
| Overall perception of relationships | |
| Overall perception of self | |
| Overall perception of the world | |
| Level 3: analysis of the process of responding. | |
| Style of responding | |
| Starting attitude to the task and changes in it | |
| Respondent’s affect and changes in it | |
| Structural elements missing in responses (beginning, situation, thoughts, feelings, outcome) | |
| Latencies and changes in them | |
| Length of stories and changes in them | |
| Level of detail in the picture described and changes in it | |
| Level of complexity (description, plot with conflict, conscious identification, interpretation of characters, generalization and symbolism) and changes in it | |
| Responses indicating defensiveness | |
| Type of defensive responses:1) Simple description of the card2) Highly formalized or structured responses3) Substitution of personal response by other (e.g. movie plot)4) Offering several options for story elements5) Other | |
| Triggers for responses indicating defensiveness | |
| Changes following these responses | |
| Responses indicating loss of control (tangentiality, thought blocking, loss of logic, blanket refusal) | |
| Triggers for responses indicating loss of control | |
| Changes following these responses | |
| Types of meta commentary:1) Evaluation of characters and plot (Narcissistic? Moralistic?)2) Personalization (low self-esteem?)3) Referring to common knowledge (low self-esteem? Anxiety?)4) Unusual precision of details (histrionic? Low self-esteem? Concrete? Good writer?) | |
| Speech characteristics:1) Unusual style or verbiage2) Platitudes and quotes3) Paraphasias and pauses | |
| Card # | Common Themes (mostly Bellak, 1986; Соколова, 1980) |
| 1 | Relationship w/parents, autonomy vs. compliance, achievement motivation, frustration, symbolic representation of sexual conflicts. |
| 2 | Family relationships, family conflicts, autonomy/compliance, love triangles, pregnancy and children, gender stereotypes, historical themes, professional competency. |
| 3BM | Gender (identification vs. dissociation), aggression, depression, suicidality. |
| 3GF | Depression. |
| 4 | Relationship w/partner or spouse (could be self or parental), autonomy vs. dependence, trust and betrayal, sexual conflicts, jealousy. |
| 5 | Relationship with mother, issues of privacy vs. intrusion, intimacy, safety. |
| 6BM | Mother-son relationship. |
| 6GF | Father-daughter or husband-wife or male authority figure relationship. |
| 7BM | Father-son or male authority figure relationship. |
| 7GF | Mother-daughter relationship, having children, sibling relationship, often includes very informative fairy tale. |
| 8BM | Aggression, ambition. |
| 8GF | Aspirations and dreams, current emotional state. |
| 9BM | Cohort relationships, social interactions and biases. |
| 9GF | Cohort relationships, mother-daughter and sibling conflicts, depression, suicidality, suspiciousness and paranoia, suppressed aggression. |
| 10 | Male-female relationship. |
| 11 | Primitive fears and anxieties, current emotional state. |
| 12M | Relationship with authority figures (often psychotherapist). |
| 12F | Relationship with mother or mother-in-law. |
| 12BG | Depression, suicidality, loneliness, tranquility. |
| 13MF | Sexual problems and conflicts, aggression, guilt. |
| 13B | Analogous to card 1 plus loneliness. |
| 13G | Same. |
| 14 | Fear of darkness, suicidality, overall perception of the world and life. |
| 15 | Death, depression, repressed aggression, religion. |
| 16 | Blank card (in my experience, often reflects reaction to the assessment process or the examiner). |
| 17BM | Fears, escape, body image, associations with sports and fitness. |
| 17GF | Suicidality, romantic stories. |
| 18BM | Attack vs. support, fears and dependencies, aggression. |
| 18GF | Aggression, mother-daughter conflicts. |
| 19 | Self and environment. |
| 20 | Fears, loneliness, independence. |
Compiled from: Леонтьев Д. А.(1998), Соколова Е. Т. (1980), Bellak, L. (1986), Murray H. A. (1943), Rotter J.B. (1946)
