Rorschach test

See also: Rorschachtest

English

WOTD – 10 November 2010

Rorschach test (plural Rorschach tests)

(psychology) A method of psychological evaluation that uses a person's interpretations of inkblots or similar images to discover information concerning his or her personality, emotional functioning, or unconscious mind.
- 2001 May 1, Scott O. Lilienfeld; James M. Wood; Howard Garb, “What's Wrong with This Picture?”, in Scientific American‎, DOI:10.1038/scientificamerican0501-80, PMID 11341164, page 85:
  Psychologists have dozens of projective methods to choose from beyond the Rorschach Test, the TAT and figure drawings.
(by extension) Any test of an individual's perception of phenomena.
- 1996, Roger Warner, Shooting at the Moon: The Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos‎, Steerforth Press, →ISBN, LCCN 96045758, OCLC 1049023213, page 84:
  She demurely took out a piece of paper with an ink blot on it , a Rorschach test . ... Poe said he had been saved by Desmond FitzGerald , the patron saint of knuckledraggers , who sent him away from headquarters to keep him from getting ...

(figuratively, derogatory) Something which reveals the intent of the person using it rather than fulfilling its designed purpose.
- 2004, Scott A. Huscher, Appellant, v. Wells Fargo Bank, as Trustee, etc., Respondents (Huscher v. Wells Fargo Bank)‎, Court of Appeal of California, Second District, Division Eight, Docket #B168103:
  Because Irvine asserts that the earlier case law interpreting section 2280 was incorporated into Probate Code section 15401, but offers inconsistent interpretations of the law, it has become a Rorschach test for the parties.

(method of evaluation): blot test, inkblot test, Rorschach, Rorschach inkblot test

method of psychological evaluation that uses subject's interpretations of inkblots