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May 7, 2008
The Ink Blot Test
Just over a week ago I met with a Psychologist to go over some psychological testing I'd had done. Without getting into all the details of the "whys" I'll just say the doc was checking for ADD.
As it happens, I don't have ADD or any other cognitive dysfunction (a word I'm not keen on when it is applied to cognitive things). It would appear that any time I come out of a meeting wondering what the hell had just been said it's more a reflection of the boring nature of the meeting than a hardwired reaction on my part.
I'll bet you've all been in meetings like that. And if you haven't you've probably run meetings like that.
At one point during the testing I was given an Ink Blot test (sometimes called a Horshack Test after the beloved Arnold Horshack of Welcome Back Kotter fame).
The only time I've ever seen an Ink Blot test has been on TV sitcoms and they are rarely portrayed as anything to take seriously. To make it even more challenging I knew that it was going to take every ounce of self-control to not say two ducks kissing for every blot that came my way.
I did my best and I saw things like:
- Two elephants balanced with their backs to each other
- Some Native American art
- My ex wife with a butcher's knife
- Pat Robertson
- Two little girls giving each other a peck on the lips
- Sea horses
- A frog skeleton (Hello my honey, hello my baby, hello my ragtime gal ...)
And you likely know I made up the stuff about my ex-wife and Pat Robertson. If not, shame on you; especially if you've been here more than twice.
A couple of Fridays ago the doc and I got together to go over the results of my testing. He told me the part about not having ADD and I took the lack of law enforcement officials milling about as an indication that he didn't consider me a danger to myself or others.
He handed me some papers and told me they were the results of the Rorshack. There were four pages of statements about me and each statement was numbered 1 2 ? 4 5; I was to circle 1 if I agreed with the statement, 5 if I disagreed, the question mark if I had questions and the 2 or 4 if I wanted to continue in Spanish. No, wait, 2 or 4 if I agreed or disagreed somewhat.
There are things I've thought I've known about me that I could never be sure of because I am the only thing I have to compare me against. I'm a sample of one.
They aren't good or bad things. They're just the way I am.
What I think is even better. There are things I think, that I'm not even sure I believe. I can't come up with an example right now, but this is just a draft. (And as I go to publish it I'm still lost for an example.)
Anyway the Rorschach is scored by taking the images I saw and matching those images with other people that saw the same thing. Then, the known psychological attributes about those people are taken and applied to me. For example, if 10 guys were to have seen my ex with a butcher's knife, well, that's not really a good example. If 100 people had seen, and this is just an example, Seahorses on one particular blot and all (or a percentage, I don't know) had similar ways of dealing with their emotions then that characteristic would have been applied to me.
Tomorrow we'll start taking a look at the results.
Technorati Tags: Ink Blot, Rorschach
Posted by delmer at May 7, 2008 3:27 PM
Comments
One of my friends is a neuropsycholgist. when he was in school he was taught how to read the results of the ink blot tests. He wouldn't give them to people he knew because he didn't want to know if we were crazy.
The fact that no police were there is a good thing
Posted by: libragirl/Rachel at May 7, 2008 2:48 AM
That reminds me of the Cheers episode in which Cliffy has his handwriting analyzed. As Dr. Crane is explaining that handwriting analysis is unreliable he gets a look at Cliff's test and give an alarmed shout of "Mother of God!"
Sometimes, I guess, it's best if we only assume our friends are nuts.
Posted by: delmer at May 7, 2008 9:30 AM
I have never had an ink blot test done, but I did do the Kiersey Temperament Sorter test with my counselor. I am an ENFJ...and in reading that profile, learned a lot about why I respond the way I do in situations, etc. (I found an online version that gave me that cool little widget below my profile pic over at my blog.)
Isn't navel gazing fun? :)
Posted by: Ginger at May 7, 2008 10:56 AM
I am pretty sure I've had an inkblot test. I just can't recall the results. I think I heard that it's bad if you can't see anything - something like it has nothing to do with a lack of imagination rather your brain isn't working to make sense of the blot - it's suppose to look for patterns.
You were worried about ADD? I know people with that (my mom) and there a varying degrees of it, that's for sure.
I know I don't have it because when I'm talking with her she tends to interrupt me because she doesn't want to forget a thought knowing that it will skitter away due to her ADHD.
Sometimes it will take me 10 minutes to finish my thought plus I have to hold several of her topic threads in my head at the same time.
Meetings are their own thing. I don't have ADD but I do get the "Peanuts Syndrome" where it all sounds like "Bwah-bwah-bwah. Bwah. Bwah-BWAH-bwah..bwah."
Posted by: Ms. Q at May 7, 2008 2:22 PM
"...the lack of law enforcement officials milling about..."
You're killing me over here! And with no Butcher's knife either.
I'm sooooo wanting to take this and the
WAIS III. Neat stuff.
I was also nodding in agreement with your results (Well, maybe not the one with the Butcher's knife) but these two:
-Two elephants balanced with their backs to each other
-Sea horses
I also saw Two German Shepards, faced back to back. Mmmmmmm *Scratches Head* I wonder what that means? (Can you ask for me?) *smiles*
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/Inkblot.png
~ZZ
Posted by: Greeneyezz at May 7, 2008 6:27 PM
So Rorschach tests are basically a test to see if you conform? Interesting.
Posted by: Avitable at May 7, 2008 11:11 PM
Ginger: I'd swear I'd never heard anything about 'navel gazing' prior to your comment. Then, lo and behold, I ran across it on another blog just hours later.
MsQ: I've always suspected it was the meetings that were dull over my inability to listen well. Despite the fact I'm in IT, I attend the Finance Meetings. They are wonderful people but, honeslty, if a problem they are having doesn't involve buying a new PC I'm sort of useless there.
Avitable: Not so much if I conform, I think, as who I am most like.
Posted by: delmer at May 8, 2008 8:35 AM
Hey?
Did you check your spam folder for the comment I left here?
There's a link on it so I'm sure that's why it was diverted there.
~ZZ
Posted by: greeneyezz at May 8, 2008 9:53 AM
This reminds me of something.
In a high school biblical studies class our teacher decided to try a word association test.
I think (by memory back to 1983) he called us individually into a room and asked the first word that came into our head when he said "Jesus".
Most of us said God or something like that.
After a few of us had been in, I suggested as a joke to one boy that he answer "fish", which was the silliest word I could think of at the time.
Because I was the one of the cleverest kids in the class he went along with it.
Little did I know then, that fish was a biblical symbol. The teacher praised the boy for his insightful answer!
Posted by: Michael at May 8, 2008 11:55 AM
What if you saw something no one else saw? And what if the other people who see what you see are lying about what their personalities are like? And how did they interpret the first test?
Write these down and discuss them with your therapist please. You can tell him they're for me.
Posted by: Finn at May 8, 2008 1:30 PM
I did not realize that they did Rorschach tests anymore. I thought they went out with whatever it was they went out with. I'll be interested to see what they came up with you about.
Posted by: Shelli at May 8, 2008 5:08 PM
I did not realize that they did Rorschach tests anymore. I thought they went out with whatever it was they went out with. I'll be interested to see what they came up with about you.
Posted by: Shelli at May 8, 2008 5:09 PM
ZZ: I'm pretty sure that's one of the blots I saw. And I said it was a butterfly or two angels.
Michael: Don't you hate it when you try to make a joke and it backfires.
Finn: It will be a while before I see the doc again. I'll do what I can to remember as I wondered about how they could filter out the fibbers. I was encouraged to give more than one impression of things I'd seen -- maybe that was to ensure I didn't come up with too many never-before-seen things.
Shelli: I had the same thoughts about electo-shock ... but I know a couple of people who have had it not all that long ago.
Posted by: delmer at May 8, 2008 8:33 PM