The Assessment of Ambitious-Narcissistic Character Style with Three Projective Tests: The Early Memories, TAT, and Rorschach

Abstract

This study describes the construction of scales designed to assess ambitious-narcissistic character style on three projective tests: the Early Memories, TAT, and Rorschach. The main aim of the study was to evaluate the reliability and validity of these scales. A secondary aim was to demonstrate the feasibility of assessing particular character styles with projective tests commonly available to clinicians and researchers. Forty male college students volunteered as subjects. The overall reliability of the three projective scales was found to be acceptable. The scales were then tested for validity in two ways. First, they were intercorrelated and found to show a pattern suggesting a common dimensionality. Secondly, the scales were found to successfully differentiate subjects rated by clinically-trained raters as ambitious-narcissistic in style from those subjects rated as non-ambitious-narcissistic.