Karl Bruhn, professor of education at Helsinki University for almost 20 years, in addition to writing a history of education, concentrated particularly on carrying out further investigations with his Helsinki Test which was publicly released in 1953. The use of this test is presented in this posthumous article by Bruhn. The Helsinki Test is a…

The Multidimensional Aggression Scale containing 34 variables of aggression, categorized along the dimensions of intensity, agent, and directionality, was used to score the doll play responses of 123 black preschool children. The data supported the contention that aggression can be conceptualized along several dimensions. (Author/CS)

The Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory (MTAI), the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS), and the Vocational Preference Inventory (VPI) were administered to 183 undergraduate students enrolled in teacher education courses. The MTAI was compared with each of the two personality instruments by canonical analysis. Concludes that teacher's…

Evaluated the attitudes toward life and death held by 52 suicidal and 58 normal children, by means of quantitative responses to questions that followed fairy-tale stories. Results indicated that the suicidal children, in contrast to normal children, showed a high degree of repulsion by life and attraction to death. (LLL)

Responds to previous article (Motta, Little, and Tobin, this issue) which reviewed data-based studies on figure drawings and found little support for their validity or use in assessing personality, behavior, emotion, or intellectual functioning. Contends that article is unacceptable for publication in present form, with main criticism being that…

The predicted decline in usefulness and emphasis of projective techniques was analyzed from several different perspectives including the academic community, members of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 12, internship centers, the applied clinical setting, and private practitioners. In addition, an extensive review of empirical,…

Using play constructions as a projective technique of investigation, Erik Erikson (1951) concluded from his observation of preadolescents that, during this developmental period, play constructions are largely determined by psychosexual differences. Erikson suggested that only observation of subjects in a younger and older developmental period…

Investigated the extent to which response length influences Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) scores in (N=102) elderly. Results suggest that response length has a pervasive effect on HIT scores and bears out the productivity of effects found in previous research with younger age cohorts. (JAC)

Experimental results indicate test items taken individually discriminate strongly between abused and well-adjusted children, but not between abused and nonabused disturbed children. Items used collectively discriminate between abused children and the other two groups. Based on these results, this test is proposed to identify abused children.…

This meta-analysis of 12 studies assessed the efficacy of projective techniques to discriminate between sexually abused and nonsexually abused children. Results indicated the techniques were able to discriminate distressed children from nondistressed subjects, but were less able to discriminate the type of distress. (Author/DB)

Questions about the limitations and potential contributions of projective techniques in research are considered and issues which limit the contributions of diagnostic assessment and projective techniques in clinical practice are examined. A proposal is made for conceptualizing diagnostic assessment as a more integral part of the therapeutic…

Kinetic-Family-Drawings were obtained from 50 kindergarten or first grade children with delayed perceptual and/or motor development and 50 controls to investigate the effectiveness of this instrument as a measure of socio-emotional dimensions of high risk low achievers. Each child was asked to draw each member of his family (including himself)…

The Hand Test was administered to 30 male and 10 female eighth- to tenth-grade students transferred to an alternative school for acting-out behavior. When retested 21 days later, responses were significantly consistent supporting the reliability of the Hand Test variables related to acting-out behavioral tendencies. (Author/CM)

This paper reports on evaluations of a projective measure of self-esteem adapted from the Tasks of Emotional Development (TED). The evaluations were conducted in 7 studies with a total sample of 416 children and adults. The revised TED uses a five-point scoring system ranging from negative to positive self-esteem. Interrater reliability in the…

One of the most persistent problems in the use of projective techniques is the need to develop objective, reliable and valid scoring systems. The sample consisted of 100 college students enrolled in an introductory psychology course. Ss were administered the DAPIR along with an extensive biographical questionnaire. Additionally, Ss were rated by…