Guide
The Thematic Apperception Test and the Picture Story Exercise
Both methods ask a person to write or tell stories about pictures. They differ in purpose, in the pictures used and above all in how the stories are scored.
Related measures on Implicitify
- Picture Story Exercise (PSE). Stories written about pictures, scored for implicit motives.
- Core Conflictual Relationship Theme (CCRT). Relationship narratives scored for wishes and responses.
- Narrative Lab. Scoring tools for researchers who work with narrative data.
The Thematic Apperception Test
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) began as a clinical method for studying fantasy. Morgan and Murray introduced it in 1935 in the Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry. A person tells a story about each of a series of ambiguous pictures, and the clinician reads the stories for needs, conflicts and themes. Clinical use of the TAT has often relied on the examiner's interpretation rather than on one fixed scoring system.
The Picture Story Exercise
The Picture Story Exercise (PSE) grew out of research use of the same story method. Researchers give a short set of pictures, collect written stories and code them with published scoring systems for three implicit motives: achievement, affiliation and power. The name sets this research method apart from the clinical TAT.
McClelland, Koestner and Weinberger argued in 1989, in Psychological Review, that motives coded from stories and motives people report about themselves are distinct systems. That argument explains why story-based motive scores often relate weakly to questionnaire scores for the same motive. Spangler reviewed the achievement evidence in a 1992 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin and found that story-based achievement scores predicted behavior in their own right.
How the two differ in practice
The TAT asks what a story reveals about one person. The PSE asks how strongly each motive appears, coded the same way for everyone. TAT interpretation draws on clinical judgment. PSE scoring follows a written code. On Implicitify, the PSE is scored for implicit motives, and the report describes each motive in plain language. The report is not a diagnosis.
Questions
Is the Picture Story Exercise the same as the TAT?
No. Both use stories about pictures, but the PSE uses its own picture set and a fixed code for implicit motives, while the TAT is usually interpreted clinically.
What are implicit motives?
Implicit motives are recurring concerns with achievement, affiliation or power that show up in the stories people tell, often apart from what they say about themselves on questionnaires.
Scores and reports describe responses. They are not a diagnosis.