True story about multiple choice Rorschach tests. [View all]
My first year at a California State College was in 1963. All incoming Freshmen had to take a battery of tests, for placement and other things. One of these that appeared on Freshman testing day was, of all things, a multiple choice Rorschach ink blot test. Multiple choice! Since the test is normally administered individually with free-form responses, the expectation is that the person being tested will reveal things by the things he or she seems to see in the ink blot, it's one psychological test that doesn't seem to lend itself to a multiple-choice administration. We also took the MMPI on the same day.
Having read quite a few psychology books in high school, I was skeptical. Then, I noticed that one of the choices on every one of the ink blots was "female sexual organs." Given the method used to create the inkblots, they all could have that as an answer. So, I dutifully marked that option for every one of the things to show my disdain for their methodology.
A couple of weeks later, I got a message to come and visit the psychologist at the student health center. I went. He asked me about my answers, and I told him that the test was absurd, so I provided an absurd response. He nodded and said, "Never mind, then."
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