Popular Myths in Psychology

Myths about Personality

Myth: People’s responses to inkblots tell a lot about their personality

by Kent Bastell

What do you see when you look at this?

I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t wanna know what my answer to this question says about me haha. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one with my mind in the gutter, so many of us (well at least I hope you guys are seeing what I see) would probably be labeled as sex addicts and/or offenders by approximately 43% of clinical psychologists. Why 43%? Well that’s the approximate number of psychologists that use inkblot (also known as projection) tests (well according to a 1998 survey).  How does this test work? Well a psychologist would ask you to describe what you see in the inkblot diagram and would come to a conclusion about your personality and/or your deepest unconscious thoughts. Sounds pretty reliable eh?...not. Research has found no viable evidence that these techniques work consistently. The one area that it does a serviceable job in is that of people with disturbing thoughts like in schizophrenia, or bipolar disorder, but it plays a dangerous game because some studies have shown the inkblot testing to be misleading to psychologists making their predictions less accurate. Plus individuals with disturbed thought patterns would most likely show symptoms regardless of an inkblot test or not. How would you feel after taking this test, if the psychologist, after analyzing your responses, said you suffered from narcissism (inflated self-importance, egotism, vanity, or conceit)? How would you begin to view yourself? Would you start analyzing your every move to “find” evidence of your “disorder?” Chances are you would, because now you have a label put on you from an uneducated guess. Ever heard of a self-fulfilling prophecy? That means that when you look for evidence that you have a problem, you end up finding (sometimes ridiculous) proof of your supposed disorder, thus convincing yourself that you actually have it. Using the narcissistic example, if you begin to see that you look at yourself in the mirror several times a day you might begin to think you are vain and self-absorbed, when in reality you look in the mirror as many times as any one else in the world. This is why labels are dangerous and inkblot tests have the ability to put these labels on people without being a reliable way to test. Sigmund Freud was even skeptical about these tests and we all know how stable he was.  Because when it comes down to it “sometimes an inkblot is just an inkblot”.