Thematic Apperception Test

American  

noun

Psychology.

1. a projective technique in which stories told by a subject about each of a series of pictures are assumed to reveal dominant needs or motivations. TAT

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thematic apperception test British  

noun

1. psychol a projective test in which drawings of interacting people are shown and the person being tested is asked to make up a story about them

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Example Sentences

The Rorschach inkblot test was in use, as were the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, a 567-item questionnaire, and the Thematic Apperception Test, developed by the Harvard psychologist Henry Murray.

From New York Times • Oct. 14, 2022

Even Henry Murray, a director of the Harvard Psychological Clinic and co-inventor of the Thematic Apperception Test , attributed his understanding of narcissism to Herman Melville, “the greatest depth psychologist America ever produced.”

From Washington Post • Sep. 20, 2018

At the police academy, the new recruit takes the California Test of Mental Maturity, the Watson-Glaser Judgmental Test, a Rorschach inkblot test, a picture-memory test and the Thematic Apperception Test.

From Time Magazine Archive

Nor does he use them like the Thematic Apperception Test, in which viewers reveal personality patterns by constructing stories from a series of pictures.

From Time Magazine Archive

In 1969, Mrs. Horner ran representative groups of Radcliffe students through a Thematic Apperception Test; she discovered that more than 75% "showed evidence of high fear of success."

From Time Magazine Archive