Predictive Efficiency as a Function of Amount of Information and Level of Professional Experience

Abstract

Both the amount of information available to judges and their level of professional training have been identified as variables relevant to accurate personality predictions. This study represented an attempt to determine the optimal amount of Rorschach protocol information essential to accurate personality descriptions for judges at various levels of professional experience.

Four groups of 25 judges (Fellows in the Society for Projective Techniques, recently graduated Ph.D.'s, Graduate and Undergraduate students) responded to sets of true-false personality statements which referred to a patient whose Rorschach protocol had been supplied to them.

The results indicated that aside from occasional exceptions: 1. No significant improvement in predictive accuracy occurred as the level of training and/or experience increased. 2. Increases in the amount of protocol information did not significantly improve the judges' understanding of the patient, as measured by the criterion. 3. The Rorschach appears best equipped to answer questions regarding the degree of psychological disturbance, emotional control, and adequacy of thinking processes.