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The Apperceptive Personality Test located in personality space
Personality and Individual Differences 30 (2001) 363±366
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Notes and Shorter Communications
The Apperceptive Personality Test located in personality space Colin Cooper *, B. Neil Rorison School of Psychology, The Queen's University, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK Received 6 August 1999; received in revised form 7 December 1999; accepted 24 January 2000
Abstract The Apperceptive Personality Test is a projective test that claims to show good psychometric properties but which has not been related to the main, Eysenckian, personality traits. This study investigated the overlap between these two tests using a sample of students. Correlational and regression analyses showed a modest degree of overlap between Extraversion, Neuroticism and some of the scales from the Apperceptive Personality Test. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Projective tests Ð those which claim that responses to ambiguous stimuli reveal something about the respondent's personality Ð suer from four well-known problems which limit their usefulness: they provide categorical data; they often focus on esoteric constructs (e.g., `movement', `location'); responses are in¯uenced by variables other than personality (Masling, 1960); and they frequently show low reliability and validity. Yet the literature shows that a person's personality aects their perception of others' personality and actions (e.g., Furnham, 1989) and a projective test should logically provide a standardised setting in which these attributional processes may be let loose. Hence the present study determines whether the three main personality traits of Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism (Eysenck, Eysenck & Barrett, 1985) are related to the types of responses made to a modern and psychometrically elegant projective test of personality; the Apperceptive Personality Test (Karp, Holmstrom & Silber, 1989). This is a variant of the Thematic Apperception Test using eight stimuli that are more up-todate and less gloomy in tone. Three multiple-choice items (with between 18 and 25 alternatives) are used to ascertain the relationships between the characters, their feelings for each other and their actions, and the likely outcome of the events shown in the picture is rated on a ®ve-point scale, from very happy to very unhappy. Thus the APT is scored entirely objectively. A computer program then produces scores on 23 scales, about half of which show satisfactory split-half * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-1232-335445. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Cooper). 0191-8869/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0191-8869(00)00018-0
364
C. Cooper, B.N. Rorison / Personality and Individual Dierences 30 (2001) 363±366
reliability (op. cit.). Published evidence for the validity of the APT is meagre. It has shown some slight overlap with a scale measuring depression (Holstrom, Karp & Silber, 1994) and the MMPI (Karp, Silber, Holmstrom & Kellert, 1992) but is predominantly linked to dierences between clinical groups and normal individuals. However, there seems to have been no attempt to discover whether the APT scores overlap substantially with the main personality traits. 1. Method Twenty-eight male and 35 female UK and Irish undergraduates volunteered to take part in this study. Their ages ranged from 19 to 35 years with a mean of 21 years. The design thus has a power>0.7 of detecting a population correlation of 0.3 or larger (Erdfelder, Faul & Buchner, 1996). As the APT is suitable for group use (Karp et al., 1989) participants were tested in groups of between six and 19. They ®rst completed the EPQ-R questionnaire, and then viewed the series of eight APT pictures, projected onto a screen. Each picture was shown for three minutes, and the standard instructions were used. These asked participants to write a short, imaginative account of what was going on in each picture, what led up to the events depicted and what would happen next, together with a description of what each character thought, felt and did. The participants were then asked to ®ll in the standard questionnaires for each of the APT pictures, miniature versions of which are provided on the answer sheets. This took between 4 and 6 min per picture. The APT yields scores on over 23 main scales plus other subsidiary measures. These scales are not independent, and most are functions of several observed variables: for example, the larger of two standardised scores. Such dierence scores may show low reliability, and most are tied to the American standardisation sample, which makes the validity of these scales questionable. The scores were thus divided into two groups. The ®rst group comprises simple ratings made by the participants, and are not norm-related. For each picture, participants are asked to rate how smart, kind, capable, caring, successful, happy, trustworthy and how much of a leader each character appears. The second group of scores are thought by the test's authors to be more important. Indeed, they are the only ones interpreted in studies such as Karp et al. (1992). They are all derived from just three multiple-choice questions that within each picture explore the relationship between characters, their feelings and actions. The resulting scores are interdependent, and frequently involve (US) norms. For each set of variables, three stepwise multiple regressions were used to determine the degree of overlap between the main personality superfactors (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism) and the APT scales (transformed to reduce skew). EPQ Psychoticism scores showed the usual signi®cant dierence in means between the sexes. To prevent this from confounding the analyses, z-scores on the Psychoticism scale were calculated separately for the males and females. All analyses were based on forward selection of variables. 2. Results and discussion Table 1 shows the simple correlations between the eight attributional ratings (each averaged over the eight pictures) and the EPQ scales, together with the beta-weights and multiple correla-
C. Cooper, B.N. Rorison / Personality and Individual Dierences 30 (2001) 363±366
365
Table 1 Correlations and standardised regression coecients between personality attributions in the Apperceptive Personality Test and Eysenck's personality factorsa Rates characters as
Extraversion
Smart Capable Caring Happy A leader Successful Trustworthy Kind R by forward selection (all vars) a
N=53; P<0.05;
Neuroticism
r
beta
r
ÿ0.13 0.10 0.03 0.34 0.27 0.22 0.19 0.08 0.50 (0.40)
ÿ0.51
ÿ0.23 ÿ0.12 ÿ0.25 ÿ0.35 ÿ0.19 ÿ0.28 ÿ0.18 ÿ0.31 0.35 (0.46)
0.70
Psychoticism beta
ÿ0.34
r ÿ0.08 ÿ0.07 ÿ0.06 0.24 ÿ0.08 ÿ0.06 0.11 0.032 0.44 (0.37)
beta
0.68 ÿ0.57
P<0.01, two-tailed.
tions from the stepwise regression of the eight attributional ratings onto the EPQ scores. A blank cell indicates that a variable failed to meet the criterion for inclusion (F=3.0). The bottom row of this Table shows the adjusted squared multiple correlation coecient (R) from the stepwise regression, whilst the ®gure in brackets is the adjusted multiple-R when all of the APT scores were used to predict an EPQ scale. Extraverts tend to view characters as happy leaders; neurotic individuals view characters in the pictures as unhappy, unsuccessful and unkind, whilst no variables correlate signi®cantly with Psychoticism once the gender-eect is removed. Thus personality traits do seem to in¯uence some aspects of responses to projective tests, although the eect is not substantial. Similar analyses were performed using the main APT scores: those based on dierence-scores and related to American norms. We had prepared some detailed hypotheses (e.g., to check whether extraversion correlated with positive outcomes) and sought to replicate some correlations between APT scores and the MMPI Extraversion scale. The only signi®cant correlation, with `average outcome', showed that extraverts gave their stories happy endings (r=0.29, P<0.05) but when all 13 variables were regressed onto Extraversion, the corrected multiple regression coecient was zero. We expected that participants would project their negative emotions onto characters in the APT, producing correlations between Neuroticism and `extreme negative outcomes', `hostile feelings', etc. The `extreme negative outcomes' scale correlated signi®cantly with Neuroticism (r=0.30, P<0.05) as found by Holmstrom et al. (1994), but the link between Neuroticism and `hostile feelings' did not replicate (r=0.16, NS). Neurotic individuals gave their stories unhappy endings (r=ÿ0.41, P<0.01) and the 13 variables produced a corrected multiple-R of 0.55 with n. None of these APT variables correlated signi®cantly with Psychoticism once gender eects were controlled: the corrected Multiple-R was 0.25. This study lends some support to the main premise of projective tests: that individuals project two of their own personality traits (Extraversion and Neuroticism) on to the characters in the pictures. Neuroticism (and to a smaller extent Extraversion) also in¯uence whether the ®nal outcome of the events shown in the projective test pictures is likely to be happy and/or successful.
366
C. Cooper, B.N. Rorison / Personality and Individual Dierences 30 (2001) 363±366
There is however insucient overlap between the APT scales (individually or jointly) and the EPQ to allow the APT to be used to assess Neuroticism, Extraversion or Psychoticism. The main APT scales showed some overlap with Neuroticism, but not with any of the other scales of the EPQ. References Erdfelder, E., Faul, F., & Buchner, A. (1996). GPOWER: A general power analysis program. Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers, 28(1), 1±11. Eysenck, S. B., Eysenck, H. J., & Barrett, P. (1985). A revised version of the Psychoticism scale. Personality and Individual Dierences, 6(1), 21±29. Furnham, A. (1989). Predicting one's own and others' 16PF scores. Current Psychology: Research and Reviews, 8(1), 30±37. Holmstrom, R. W., Karp, S. A., & Silber, D. E. (1994). Prediction of depression with the Apperceptive Personality Test. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50(2), 234±237. Karp, S. A., Holmstrom, R. W., & Silber, D. E. (1989). The Apperceptive Personality Test manual. Worthington, OH: International Diagnostic Systems. Karp, S. A., Silber, D. E., Holmstrom, R. W., & Kellert, H. (1992). Prediction of MMPI scores from the Apperceptive Personality Test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 74, 779±786. Masling, J. (1960). The in¯uence of situational and interpersonal variables in projective testing. Psychological Bulletin, 57, 65±85.
www.elsevier.com/locate/paid
Notes and Shorter Communications
The Apperceptive Personality Test located in personality space Colin Cooper *, B. Neil Rorison School of Psychology, The Queen's University, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK Received 6 August 1999; received in revised form 7 December 1999; accepted 24 January 2000
Abstract The Apperceptive Personality Test is a projective test that claims to show good psychometric properties but which has not been related to the main, Eysenckian, personality traits. This study investigated the overlap between these two tests using a sample of students. Correlational and regression analyses showed a modest degree of overlap between Extraversion, Neuroticism and some of the scales from the Apperceptive Personality Test. # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Projective tests Ð those which claim that responses to ambiguous stimuli reveal something about the respondent's personality Ð suer from four well-known problems which limit their usefulness: they provide categorical data; they often focus on esoteric constructs (e.g., `movement', `location'); responses are in¯uenced by variables other than personality (Masling, 1960); and they frequently show low reliability and validity. Yet the literature shows that a person's personality aects their perception of others' personality and actions (e.g., Furnham, 1989) and a projective test should logically provide a standardised setting in which these attributional processes may be let loose. Hence the present study determines whether the three main personality traits of Extraversion, Neuroticism and Psychoticism (Eysenck, Eysenck & Barrett, 1985) are related to the types of responses made to a modern and psychometrically elegant projective test of personality; the Apperceptive Personality Test (Karp, Holmstrom & Silber, 1989). This is a variant of the Thematic Apperception Test using eight stimuli that are more up-todate and less gloomy in tone. Three multiple-choice items (with between 18 and 25 alternatives) are used to ascertain the relationships between the characters, their feelings for each other and their actions, and the likely outcome of the events shown in the picture is rated on a ®ve-point scale, from very happy to very unhappy. Thus the APT is scored entirely objectively. A computer program then produces scores on 23 scales, about half of which show satisfactory split-half * Corresponding author. Tel.: +44-1232-335445. E-mail address: [email protected] (C. Cooper). 0191-8869/00/$ - see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0191-8869(00)00018-0
364
C. Cooper, B.N. Rorison / Personality and Individual Dierences 30 (2001) 363±366
reliability (op. cit.). Published evidence for the validity of the APT is meagre. It has shown some slight overlap with a scale measuring depression (Holstrom, Karp & Silber, 1994) and the MMPI (Karp, Silber, Holmstrom & Kellert, 1992) but is predominantly linked to dierences between clinical groups and normal individuals. However, there seems to have been no attempt to discover whether the APT scores overlap substantially with the main personality traits. 1. Method Twenty-eight male and 35 female UK and Irish undergraduates volunteered to take part in this study. Their ages ranged from 19 to 35 years with a mean of 21 years. The design thus has a power>0.7 of detecting a population correlation of 0.3 or larger (Erdfelder, Faul & Buchner, 1996). As the APT is suitable for group use (Karp et al., 1989) participants were tested in groups of between six and 19. They ®rst completed the EPQ-R questionnaire, and then viewed the series of eight APT pictures, projected onto a screen. Each picture was shown for three minutes, and the standard instructions were used. These asked participants to write a short, imaginative account of what was going on in each picture, what led up to the events depicted and what would happen next, together with a description of what each character thought, felt and did. The participants were then asked to ®ll in the standard questionnaires for each of the APT pictures, miniature versions of which are provided on the answer sheets. This took between 4 and 6 min per picture. The APT yields scores on over 23 main scales plus other subsidiary measures. These scales are not independent, and most are functions of several observed variables: for example, the larger of two standardised scores. Such dierence scores may show low reliability, and most are tied to the American standardisation sample, which makes the validity of these scales questionable. The scores were thus divided into two groups. The ®rst group comprises simple ratings made by the participants, and are not norm-related. For each picture, participants are asked to rate how smart, kind, capable, caring, successful, happy, trustworthy and how much of a leader each character appears. The second group of scores are thought by the test's authors to be more important. Indeed, they are the only ones interpreted in studies such as Karp et al. (1992). They are all derived from just three multiple-choice questions that within each picture explore the relationship between characters, their feelings and actions. The resulting scores are interdependent, and frequently involve (US) norms. For each set of variables, three stepwise multiple regressions were used to determine the degree of overlap between the main personality superfactors (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Psychoticism) and the APT scales (transformed to reduce skew). EPQ Psychoticism scores showed the usual signi®cant dierence in means between the sexes. To prevent this from confounding the analyses, z-scores on the Psychoticism scale were calculated separately for the males and females. All analyses were based on forward selection of variables. 2. Results and discussion Table 1 shows the simple correlations between the eight attributional ratings (each averaged over the eight pictures) and the EPQ scales, together with the beta-weights and multiple correla-
C. Cooper, B.N. Rorison / Personality and Individual Dierences 30 (2001) 363±366
365
Table 1 Correlations and standardised regression coecients between personality attributions in the Apperceptive Personality Test and Eysenck's personality factorsa Rates characters as
Extraversion
Smart Capable Caring Happy A leader Successful Trustworthy Kind R by forward selection (all vars) a
N=53; P<0.05;
Neuroticism
r
beta
r
ÿ0.13 0.10 0.03 0.34 0.27 0.22 0.19 0.08 0.50 (0.40)
ÿ0.51
ÿ0.23 ÿ0.12 ÿ0.25 ÿ0.35 ÿ0.19 ÿ0.28 ÿ0.18 ÿ0.31 0.35 (0.46)
0.70
Psychoticism beta
ÿ0.34
r ÿ0.08 ÿ0.07 ÿ0.06 0.24 ÿ0.08 ÿ0.06 0.11 0.032 0.44 (0.37)
beta
0.68 ÿ0.57
P<0.01, two-tailed.
tions from the stepwise regression of the eight attributional ratings onto the EPQ scores. A blank cell indicates that a variable failed to meet the criterion for inclusion (F=3.0). The bottom row of this Table shows the adjusted squared multiple correlation coecient (R) from the stepwise regression, whilst the ®gure in brackets is the adjusted multiple-R when all of the APT scores were used to predict an EPQ scale. Extraverts tend to view characters as happy leaders; neurotic individuals view characters in the pictures as unhappy, unsuccessful and unkind, whilst no variables correlate signi®cantly with Psychoticism once the gender-eect is removed. Thus personality traits do seem to in¯uence some aspects of responses to projective tests, although the eect is not substantial. Similar analyses were performed using the main APT scores: those based on dierence-scores and related to American norms. We had prepared some detailed hypotheses (e.g., to check whether extraversion correlated with positive outcomes) and sought to replicate some correlations between APT scores and the MMPI Extraversion scale. The only signi®cant correlation, with `average outcome', showed that extraverts gave their stories happy endings (r=0.29, P<0.05) but when all 13 variables were regressed onto Extraversion, the corrected multiple regression coecient was zero. We expected that participants would project their negative emotions onto characters in the APT, producing correlations between Neuroticism and `extreme negative outcomes', `hostile feelings', etc. The `extreme negative outcomes' scale correlated signi®cantly with Neuroticism (r=0.30, P<0.05) as found by Holmstrom et al. (1994), but the link between Neuroticism and `hostile feelings' did not replicate (r=0.16, NS). Neurotic individuals gave their stories unhappy endings (r=ÿ0.41, P<0.01) and the 13 variables produced a corrected multiple-R of 0.55 with n. None of these APT variables correlated signi®cantly with Psychoticism once gender eects were controlled: the corrected Multiple-R was 0.25. This study lends some support to the main premise of projective tests: that individuals project two of their own personality traits (Extraversion and Neuroticism) on to the characters in the pictures. Neuroticism (and to a smaller extent Extraversion) also in¯uence whether the ®nal outcome of the events shown in the projective test pictures is likely to be happy and/or successful.
366
C. Cooper, B.N. Rorison / Personality and Individual Dierences 30 (2001) 363±366
There is however insucient overlap between the APT scales (individually or jointly) and the EPQ to allow the APT to be used to assess Neuroticism, Extraversion or Psychoticism. The main APT scales showed some overlap with Neuroticism, but not with any of the other scales of the EPQ. References Erdfelder, E., Faul, F., & Buchner, A. (1996). GPOWER: A general power analysis program. Behavior Research Methods Instruments & Computers, 28(1), 1±11. Eysenck, S. B., Eysenck, H. J., & Barrett, P. (1985). A revised version of the Psychoticism scale. Personality and Individual Dierences, 6(1), 21±29. Furnham, A. (1989). Predicting one's own and others' 16PF scores. Current Psychology: Research and Reviews, 8(1), 30±37. Holmstrom, R. W., Karp, S. A., & Silber, D. E. (1994). Prediction of depression with the Apperceptive Personality Test. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 50(2), 234±237. Karp, S. A., Holmstrom, R. W., & Silber, D. E. (1989). The Apperceptive Personality Test manual. Worthington, OH: International Diagnostic Systems. Karp, S. A., Silber, D. E., Holmstrom, R. W., & Kellert, H. (1992). Prediction of MMPI scores from the Apperceptive Personality Test. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 74, 779±786. Masling, J. (1960). The in¯uence of situational and interpersonal variables in projective testing. Psychological Bulletin, 57, 65±85.