Rorschach
(ˈrɔːʃɑːx)
The name of Hermann Rorschach (1884–1922), Swiss psychiatrist, used attrib. and absol. to designate a type of projective personality test first devised by him, in which a standard set of ink blots of different shapes and colours is presented one at a time to a subject with the request that he should describe what they suggest or resemble. Also Rorschach (ink) blot, Rorschach method, etc. Also fig.
| 1927 Moir & Gundlach in Jrnl. Exper. Psychol. Apr. 151 Each subject was given the Rorschach test. Ibid., In a classification of the individual records according to the Rorschach diagnostic tables. 1935 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry July 109 The Rorschach test has recently received considerable attention in psychiatric and psychological circles. 1942 [see insecurity 1]. 1948 Personnel Psychol. I. 357 (heading) Can the Rorschach pick sales clerks? 1951 Koestler Age of Longing i. 40 The brandy..expanded slowly into a Rorschach blotch on the marble surface. 1953 A. K. C. Ottaway Educ. & Society viii. 147 The Rorschach method of giving a verbal interpretation of ink-blots. 1956 Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxvi. 121 The social or clinical psychologist will want to go still more deeply into the individual's imaginative response to the Rorschach ink blots. 1958 Listener 17 July 93/2 Rorschach blots and tapestries. 1960 Commentary June 486/2 Rorschach (inkblot) ratings. 1966 T. Pynchon Crying of Lot 49 i. 18 His [sc. a psycho-therapist's] theory being that a face is symmetrical like a Rorschach blot. 1971 Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. LXXXV. 295 Free associative responses and responses to ambiguous stimuli—a kind of auditory Rorschach. 1974 B. M. & D. D. Braginsky Mainstream Psychol. vi. 118 The two most widely used psychological tests, the Rorschach inkblot test and the Draw-a-Person test (both projective tests), have also been widely researched. 1980 Dædalus Spring 136 The Rorschach test is effective..because it forces people to be creative. |