The open-ended nature of the test-simply telling the practitioner what the person sees-may reveal aspects of the subconscious that may not have been accessible otherwise. However, proponents of the test argue that it is a valuable tool to elicit aspects of a person's identity. And despite efforts to standardize the test, there may still be differences in scoring and interpretation, rendering the results less reliable than other measures. The test seems to over-pathologize test-takers, finding higher rates of schizophrenia, depression, and narcissism than are typically found in the general population. Although there may be typical responses and idiosyncratic responses to the same blots, research suggests the Rorschach is not a valid instrument to test personality traits, predict behavior, or diagnose some disorders. Yet the test has still been critiqued on many fronts. They have developed standardized protocols to administer, score, and interpret the test. In response to criticism that the test is not a reliable assessment tool, psychologists have worked to improve and validate the Rorschach over time.

The interpretation was originally designed to diagnose schizophrenia but today may aim to elicit insights about the subject’s personality, emotions, cognition, motivations, relationships, or mental health. For example, scoring criteria may include how common the response is, what part of the blot the subject focuses on, or if the person sees movement in the image. The subject’s responses are then recorded and interpreted according to standardized scoring systems. This process may occur repeatedly, to explore whether the subject perceives anything new the next time around. To take the Big Five personality assessment, rate each statement according to how well it describes you. See exactly how you score for Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism with this scientific personality assessment. Shimonaka and Nakazato (1991) used the Rorschach Inkblot Test. This free personality test gives you accurate scores for the Big Five personality traits. The practitioner asks the subject to describe what they see in the blot, such as animals or people. The Rorschach Inkblot Test has often been used to analyze the personality of the elderly in Japan. The Rorschach test is conducted by a practitioner who sits next to a subject and presents them with 10 images of symmetrical inkblots, one at a time.

He died soon after the book was published, but others extended his work and broadened the inkblot test. He therefore used inkblots to create a diagnostic test for schizophrenia, which he wrote in his book Psychodiagnostik. Swiss psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach formalized this idea through the inkblot test he created-he noticed that people with schizophrenia tended to perceive the images differently than did other individuals. Humans have long explored the idea of interpreting ambiguous designs.

Ink blot tests