A Survey of Challenges Experienced by New Learners Coding the Rorschach

ABSTRACT

Learning to code the imagery, communication, and behavior associated with Rorschach responding is challenging. Although there is some survey research on graduate students' impressions of their Rorschach training, research has not identified which coding decisions students find to be the most problematic and time-consuming. We surveyed students to identify what they struggled with most when learning coding and to quantify how difficult it is to learn how to code. Participants (n = 191) from the United States, Brazil, Denmark, Israel, and Italy rated 57 aspects of coding using a 4-point scale that encompassed both the time required to code and the subjective difficulty of doing so. Mean ratings for coding in general indicated that students considered the overall task challenging. Ratings also revealed that students struggled most with Cognitive Special Scores, Determinants, and extrapolating from the tables to code Form Quality for objects that were not specifically listed. The findings offer suggestions about how to improve the guidelines for some of the more difficult variables and where it is most necessary to focus teaching time. Taking these steps might help new students in learning the Rorschach.

Acknowledgments

Part of these data were presented at the Society for Personality Assessment Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA, March 28, 2008, by Katrina Ptucha, Donald J. Viglione, and Gregory J. Meyer.

We thank Edna Appel, Melissa Babb, Kathie Bates, Devon Berkheiser, Sakina Butt, Matt Del Giudice, Lisa Greenberg, Carla Hisatugo, Jan Ivanouw, Ramsey Khouri, Dixie Lee, Staphanie Lippman, Andre Felicio Lobato Sobral, Suzanna Lozada-Murray, Daniella Miranda, Ana Luiza Patriarca Mineo, Laura Parolin, Piero Porcelli, Aaron Upton, Jared Wilke, Latife Yazigi, and Tal Yelin for their help in administering the New Learner Survey.

Disclosure

Donald J. Viglione and Gregory J. Meyer are among the owners of the Rorschach Performance Assessment System and receive royalties on the sale of the R–PAS manual and associated products.

Notes

¹ In reporting our findings, we used coding category to refer to response segments and coding decision to refer to distinction between one code and another or the presence or absence of an individual code. Thus, any coding decision (e.g., Bt vs. Na vs. Ls, presence or absence of Art) occurs within a coding category (in this example, within the Content category).