The Research Use of Projective Techniques: A Seventeen Year Survey

Summary

The past 17 volumes (from 1947 to 1064) of the Journal of Projective Techniques and Personality Assessment were surveyed with regard to the degree of research usage of the various projective techniques. The most commonly used techniques in research have remained quite unchanged over the past 17 years, i.e., the Rorschach, the thematic tests, human figure drawings, and sentence completions. An analysis and comparison of the first five years covered by the survey with the last five years suggests that the Szondi, the Mosaic, Finger Painting Analysis, and the Make-A-Picture show relative decline in research usage; the Blacky, the Holtzman Inkblots, and the Hand Test appear to be increasing. The correlation between the degree of clinical usage reported by Sundberg (1961) and the degree of research usage found in this study was .60, suggesting a high relationship between the two measures. However, it was suggested that an increase or decline in the research usage of an instrument may precede a corresponding increase or decline in its clinical usage.