Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / An experiment was designed to study the effects of color on associational and perceptual functions by making explicit the assumptions underlying the Rorschach color shock hypothesis. These are: Shock reaction on the Rorschach test is essentially and anxiety interferes with mental functioning. Any or all aspects of the Rorschach stimulus can be related to such an anxiety reaction. If color is manifested in a protocol, color is assumed to have played a determining role in eliciting such a response. Response to color is an affective response. The arousal of affects influence the associational and perceptual processes. Subjects who use repression to cope with the aroused affects, manifest color shock phenomenon. If gray-black shock is manifested, it is assumed gray has played a determining role in eliciting such a response. The selection of a particular aspect of the Rorschach stimulus is determined by the personality variables [TRUNCATED] / 2031-01-01

Using a clinical sample of 63 girls aged 5 - 16 years, the Psychoanalytic Rorschach Profile (PRP; Burke et al., 1988), a measure of drive, ego, and object relations functioning, was examined for differences between sexual abuse (SA) victims and distressed but nonabused (NA) peers. The hypothesis that the SA group would evidence more pathological, less developed levels of drive, ego, and object relations functioning than the NA group was not supported. Limitations of the use of archival data are discussed. The effects of controlling for the number of responses (R) in Rorschach research were examined by comparing entire protocols of a clinical sample of girls from 5 - 16 years of age to shortened versions which included only the first one (N = 89; R = 10) or two (N = 17; R = 20) responses to each blot. Of 12 PRP scales compared, differences between the R = 10 and entire protocols were found on 5 variables, but when R was increased to 20, only 2 differences remained. Support was given for the notion of uniform Rorschach administration in which 2 responses per card are solicited.

In an attempt to find meaningful predictors of the ability to interpret Rorschach protocols by clinicians, a paradigm change (Kuhn, 1962) was instigated by using as predictors the scores of the perceptual organizational abilities of 30 subjects, and their ratings of favorableness toward the Rorschach in terms of its usefulness as a clinical tool. The subjects were first year, graduate psychology students, and the Haptic Visual Discrimination Test (HVDT) was the instrument used to measure perceptual organization. A multiple linear regression analysis was computed, and the data supported the hypothesis that perceptual organization and favorableness are of significant predictive value (R = .54, F(2, 27) = 5.43, p = .01). The standardized beta for usefulness was .47 (p = .008) and the HVDT beta was .33, (p = .05). The results were interpreted as applying to Rorschach validity research methodology and pedagogy.

Os transtornos psicoticos, de um modo geral, e em especial a esquizofrenia, exercem um impacto patente na qualidade de vida do individuo com estes sintomas, afetando seu bemestar, sua ocupacao profissional e sua relacao com a comunidade. Quanto mais cedo se inicia o tratamento, mais breve pode ocorrer a reintegracao dessa pessoa na sociedade, porem sua eficacia depende do diagnostico precoce para que seja possivel a intervencao caso a caso. O estudo do Rorschach, como instrumento de investigacao da personalidade, pode auxiliar neste processo devido ao seu amplo escopo de aplicacoes. A maior parte dos estudos sobre as pessoas com sintomas psicoticos trata da esquizofrenia, porem poucas publicacoes pesquisaram os pacientes ainda proximos ao surto e com efeito minimo da medicacao, alem de poucos estudos estabelecerem a comparacao com um grupo de individuos normais. A presente pesquisa propos-se a enfocar estes dois aspectos: o estudo de individuos proximos ao surto psicotico que os levou a procurar pela primeira vez uma instituicao de saude e sua comparacao com um grupo controle. Assim, o grupo experimental foi composto de vinte pessoas que procuraram uma instituicao de saude entre maio de 2004 e marco de 2005 e que moravam ha pelo menos 6 meses na area delimitada pelo projeto. Os participantes do grupo controle foram pareados individualmente por vizinhanca, faixa etaria e sexo; desta forma concentrando-os em regioes geograficas relevantes e demograficamente representativas para a comparacao. A coleta de dados foi realizada em duas entrevistas, a primeira para familiarizacao do participante com a pesquisadora e a segunda para a aplicacao do Rorschach. A analise dos dados se deu quantitativamente, segundo o Sistema Frances. O Metodo de Rorschach mostrou-se sensivel a diferencas entre os dois grupos estudados. Os resultados obtidos com os sujeitos do grupo experimental, em relacao ao grupo controle, foram significativos quanto ao menor percentual de respostas de forma bem vista, menor quantidade de respostas de tonalidade e menor percentual de respostas de conteudo animal. A analise destes indices em conjunto com outros fatores do Rorschach sugeriu uma dificuldade maior das pessoas com sintomas psicoticos no contato com os outros decorrente da introjecao inadequada de estereotipos sociais, da nao diferenciacao entre realidade interna e externa e de um processo de identificacao fragilizado permeado pela angustia de desintegracao. Este projeto esta associado a um projeto maior intitulado Estudos de Casos Incidentes (Primeiro Contato com Servicos de Saude) de Psicoses Funcionais no Brasil, que esta sendo realizado por equipe do Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo (HC FMUSP), na tentativa de caracterizar, acompanhar e comparar os casos de transtornos psicoticos na cidade de Sao Paulo com um estudo semelhante feito em Londres, Reino Unido / The psychotic disorders, as a whole, and specially schizophrenia, inflict an evident impact upon one\'s life quality with such symptoms, affecting his well-being, professional affairs and relationship with the community. The earlier treatment starts, the sooner this person can be reintegrated into society, albeit it\'s effectiveness depends upon early diagnosis for intervention to be possible on a case by case basis. The study of Rorschach as an instrument for personality assessment can help on this process due to its wide scope of applications. Most researches about individuals with psychotic symptoms are about schizophrenia, however only few publishings have studied patients still near the psychotic episode and under minimal medication, and few researches established a comparative study between afflicted population and healthy one. The current research aim was twofold in the study of individuals near the psychotic episode which resulted in his first-admission in a mental health care facility and comparison with control group. Thus, experimental group consisted of twenty individuals that were first admitted to a mental health care service between may (2004) and march (2005), that have lived in the research delimited area for at least 6 months. Control group participants were likened by neighborhood, age range and gender; this way concentrating them on both demographically representative and relevant geographic regions for comparison. Data was obtained by means of two interviews, being the first one in order to familiarize participant and researcher, and the second one to administer Rorschach test. Only quantitative analysis was performed, scored according to the French System. Rorschach Method presented sensibility to discrepancies among both researched groups. There was statistically significant differences between experimental group and comparison group with regard to lower percentage of good quality form responses, lower scores of shading responses, lower percentage of animal responses. The analisys of those three items along with other Rorschach scores suggests that people with psychotic symptoms present greater difficulties to relate with others due to introjection of inadequate social stereotypes, no differentiation from internal and external reality, and weakened identification process permeated by desintegration anguish. This project is associated to a larger project entitled Estudos de Casos Incidentes (Primeiro Contato com Servicos de Saude) de Psicoses Funcionais no Brasil, which is being conducted by the Hospital das Clinicas da Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade de Sao Paulo (HC FMUSP) research team, in an attempt to profile, study and compare psychosis affliction cases in Sao Paulo city with similar studies being carried in London, United Kingdom

A sample of 61 subjects from an introductory psychology class was administered a battery of psychological tests, among them the Rorschach and the MMPI. The purpose was to determine the behavioral correlates, if any, of the two Rorschach variables, Mean Reaction Time, and Fluctuation in Time of First Response. This was accomplished by using multivariate statistical techniques, i.e. a factor analysis followed by a stepwise multiple regression. The results were ambiguous. While not statistically significant, they suggest that the MMPI variables of Social Introversion and Psychopathic Deviant are more closely related to the two dependent variables than previous literature would suggest. One variable, anxiety, which has been shown by previous research to be associated with Mean Reaction Time, was found to be not associated by the present investigation. Explanations and suggestions for further research were discussed.

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Diss. (sammanfattning) Stockholm : Karolinska institutet, 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.