The Ambiguity of TAT Ambiguity

Summary

A comparison was made between single and continued association methods of deriving ambiguity of TAT cards. Ss responded with a number of stories to each of 10 TAT cards. Using a computational procedure based on alternative categorization, ambiguity values were found, and the relative ambiguity of the cards was compared to estimates based on the single association method. Little agreement was found among the various single association estimates and the present values. It was concluded that where ambiguity values are based upon categorization, the values are dependent upon the number of categories in the scoring system. It was suggested that disagreement is a function of intrasubject variability, the effect of which is maximized in single association estimates.