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A COMPARISON OP THE FANTASY PRODUCTIONS ON
THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST OF SIXTY
HOSPITALIZED PSYCHONEUROTIC AND
PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS
A Thesis
Submitted to the Faculty
of
Purdue University
by
Arthur H* Davison
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
of
Doctor of Philosophy
August, 1950
ProQuest Number: 27714124
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to express his sincere gratitude to
Dr* Lawrence M. Baker for directing the research problem,
for serving as a judge in establishing the reliability of
the scoring scheme used in analyzing the data, and for his
constructive criticism throughout the progress of the study•
The author also wishes to express his appreciation to Dr.
John M. Hadley for his encouragement and advice, to Dr.
Irving W. Burr for suggesting the statistical procedures
used in the study and to Mr. Lee Gurel for his valuable as
sistance in serving as a judge. A further word of thanks is
due to Dr. Reuben Fine, Staff Psychologist at the Kingsbridge
V. A. Hospital, New York City, who developed and suggested
the author's utilization of the technique for scoring Thematic
Apperception Test records. Thanks are also due to Dr. Robert
S. Morrow, Chief Psychologist at the Kingsbridge V. A* Hos
pital, New York City and Dr. Ronald M. Wolfe, Chief Psycho
logist at the V. A. Hospital, Chi111cothe, Ohio, for allow
ing the author to select Thematic Apperception Test records
from the files of their respective hospitals. Finally, the
author wishes to express his indebtedness to the sixty sub
jects, who of course must remain anonymous, for their co
operation in making the study possible.
i
VITA
Arthur H. Davison
Born October 19, 1924
New York City, New York
Academic Career:
1945 B.8., College of the City of New York
1946 M.A*, State University of Iowa
1946-1947 Michigan State College
1947-1950 Candidate for Ph.D., Purdue University
Professional Career:
1946 Psychological Intern, Norwich State
Hospital, Norwich, Conn.
1946—1947 Psychological Intern, Boy* s Vocational
School, Lansing, Mich.
1947 Instructor (Part-time), Michigan State
College, East Lansing, Michigan
1947—1950 Clinical Psychology Trainee,
Veterans Administration Hospital,
Marion, Indiana^ Veterans Administra
tion Hospital, Fort Benjamin Harrison,
Indiana and Veterans Administration
Mental Hygiene Clinic, Indianapolis,
Indiana, in cooperation with Purdue
University.
1949—1950 Lecturer, Indiana University, Kokomo
Extension, Kokomo, Indiana.
Organizations:
American Psychological Association
Midwestern Psychological Association
Indiana Psychological Association
Sigma XI
ii
ABSTRACT
DAVISON, ARTHUR H. , "A COMPARISON OF THE FANTASY PRODUCTIONS
ON THE THEMATIC APPERCEPTION TEST OF SIXTY HOSPITALIZED
PSYCHONEUROTIC AND PSYCHOTIC PATIENTS", August, 1950, 120
pages, 30 Tables, Bibliography»
Thematic Apperception Test records of 60 hospitalized,
white, male. World War II veterans, divided into 6 diagnostic
groups of 10 each were analyzed in terms of feelings, out
comes and interpersonal relationships. The groups included
anxiety réactivés, conversion reactives, depressive réac
tivés, catatonic schizophrenics, hebephrenic schizophrenics
and paranoid schizophrenics.
The main objective of the study was to determine the
extent to which the TAT could be used as a means of dif
ferentiating between the groups on a specified number of
variables. Secondary considerations were, first, the differ
ential value of the cards in eliciting fantasy material and,
second, the extent to which fantasy production may depend
upon the stimulus properties of the cards rather than upon
actual group differences.
The results indicated that, to some extent certain
clinical groups could be differentiated from others at the
5% confidence level in terms of a significantly low or high
iii
incidence of certain variables* Tbe results were based upon
the control chart method of analysis of data*
The most clear-cut differentiations pertained to the
depressive reactive group who offered a significantly high
number of instances of hostility in all its nuances (verbal,
physical, death), conflict, frustration and doubt* They ap
proached the 5% significance level for expressions of guilt*
They offered a significantly high number of unfavorable out
comes and significantly more interpersonal - relationships
than any other clinical group* With respect to the latter,
they showed ambivalence in that they offered a significantly
high incidence of relationships involving both moving toward
and moving against on the part of characters in the stories.
The group also expressed a significantly high number of man-
woman relationships, the implications of which were not en
tirely clear*
Schizophrenics, for the most part, could be differen
tiated from psychoneurotics mostly on the basis of formal
characteristics of their stories. These included such things
as bizarre verbalizations, illogical twists, guarding and
evasion and other pathological indices for which they scored
significantly high* Hebephrenic and catatonic schizophrenics
offered significantly more instances of no relationships be—
iv
tween characters than any of the other clinical groups•
The hebephrenic schizophrenics offered significantly few
child-mother relationships, and the catatonic schizophrenics
significantly few man-man relationships. The implications
of these findings were not entirely clear and further re
search in this area, employing more detailed analysis of
data, a normal group and a greater number of subjects, was
suggested.
Cards 3BM, 4, 6BM, 13MF and 18GF seemed to stimulate
more fantasy production than any of the other cards. Cards
5, 9BM, 11, 16 and 17BM were poorest in this respect.
The findings suggested that the stimulus properties
of the cards themselves might be important factors in de
termining fantasy production, since certain cards seemed to
elicit characteristic feelings and interpersonal relation
ships regardless of clinical classification of subjects.
Additional research with the aim of establishing more ade
quate normative data was suggested.
In conclusion, "the results of the present investiga
tion suggest that the TAT, at least to some extent, may be
useful in differential clinical diagnosis. This seems to
follow since it has been demonstrated that certain kinds of
responses apparently are emphasized more by certain groups
v
than by others♦ On the other hand, since no type of re
sponse is exclusive to or definitive of any one clinical
group, the test probably can be used to best advantage as
a means of studying personality dynamics, per se. The
findings of this study indicate that the TAT, used as a
research tool, may have considerable potentialities in
this challenging and extremely important area of clinical
research."
vi
