Posted on 07/30/2009 8:51:14 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, has been drawn into a row over its decision to publish common responses to the 10 Rorschach inkblots.
The plates were created by the Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach for his book "Psychodiagnostik," published in 1921. Because they were made more than 90 years ago their US copyright has lapsed.
However, psychologists have complained that publishing the inkblots and responses is the equivalent to putting answers to school exams on the internet.
"The only winners seem to be those for whom this issue has become personal, and who see this as a game in which victory means having their way," one Wikipedia poster named Faustian wrote on Monday, adding, "Just don't pretend you are doing anything other than harming scientific research."
Initially Wikipedia had just one of the inkblots online, but the row intensified in June, when James Heilman, an emergency-room doctor from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, posted images of all 10 plates to the bottom of the article about the test, along with what research had found to be the most popular responses for each.
"I just wanted to raise the bar whether one should keep a single image on Wikipedia seemed absurd to me, so I put all 10 up," Dr.
Heilman said in an interview. "The debate has exploded from there." Psychologists have registered with Wikipedia to argue that the site is jeopardising one of the oldest continuously used psychological assessment tests.
The plates have appeared on other websites, but it was not until they showed up on the popular Wikipedia site that psychologists became concerned.
"The more test materials are promulgated widely, the more possibility there is to game it," said Bruce L. Smith, a psychologist and president of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods, who has posted
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
No hiding inkblots that looks like the downtown cash-n-prizes from THE INTERTUBES!!!!
Without the data set collected over the years, who cares?
I see demons, and they’re all on a certain side of the aisle.
To me that looks like someone in an Easter Bunny suit lying in chocolate.
Does that make me mentally ill?
Does that make me mentally ill?
Almost any sufficiently clever person could game a psych test if he or she wished. Ninety years — and nobody has produced any new and improved ink blots? Isn’t that a bit ossified for a “science”?
I remember a book called “Big Secrets” published back in the 80’s which revealed the common answers to these tests as well as common interpretations of each answer by psychologists.
I would love to see two of those, simultaneously, in person or after they blot the paper with chocolate.
Does it talk to you? And more importantly, do you answer?
Two women or two strawberries? I don’t see either, so...yeah. Off to the re-education camp for you.
No, but I think someone murdered the bunny and he’s floating in a pool of chocolate, face down.
Easter bunny with double Bart Simpson head bursting through a pair of chocolate chickens?
Yes! She doesn't have any whipped cream on the strategic places... ;)
Looks like someone spilled their ink on a blotter to me. Maybe it was the new kid, Rorschach, he was always spilling stuff.
Someone find the Cadbury bunny! There’s your culprit.
Great book.
O.kayyyyy then. You’re not nuts but no more week end passes for you.
I had one of these tests as a child. They said I responded like a Vietnam vet who had been in a war zone. I took that as a compliment and left it at that.
Am I seeing that right? In that plctured inkblot I see Nancy Pelosi has got Satan and Stalin buy the nads and squeezin hard.
Pelosi?
That’s a stretch...
What you don’t think she would hang out whith them ?
Was it a past life reading? LOL!
Hehehe. Too much film noir, I suspect.
If it does, I’ve got the same symptoms.
Looks like a sheep wearing the Pope’s outfit, parting the Knights who say, “Ni.”
She sends me to the principal, and I get to his office and I sit down and he looks at me and says, “Emo, Emo, Emo.” I said, “I'm the one in the middle, you drunken slob.” He said, “How would you like to repeat the fifth grade?” I said, “Well, I don't know if I could do it exactly, uh, but I'll try.” He said, “I could expel you!” I said, “You'll have to catch and eat me first, ya wierdo!” He said, “Emo, you have to go over to the school psychologist.” I said, “Why do I have to go to the school psychologist?” So he shows me the petition.
And I go over to the psychologist, and he says, “Emo, what does this inkblot look like to you?” I said, “Oh, it's kind of embarrassing.” He said, “Emo, everyone sees something, so don't be embarrassed. Tell me what the inkblot looks like to you.” I said, “Well, to me it looks like standard pattern #3 in the Rorschach series to test obsessive compulsiveness.” And he gets kind of depressed. I said, “Okay, it's a butterfly.” And he cheers up. He said, “What does this inkblot look like?” I said, “It looks like a horrible ugly blob of pure evil that sucks the souls of man into a vortex of sin and degradation.” He said, “No, um, the inkblot's over there. That's a photo of my wife you're looking at.” “Oh,” I said, “was I far off?” He said, “No. That's the sad part.”
And he gives me a chocolate Easter bunny. And this shows how tricky those guys are. I eat the chocolate and I think, wait a second... this isn't around Easter. “Was this a test?” He said, “Yes.” “And what does it mean?” He said, “Well, had you eaten the ears first you would have been normal; had you eaten the feet first you would have had an inferiority complex; had you eaten the tail first you would have had latent homosexual tendencies; and had you eaten the breasts first you would have had a latent oedipal complex.” I said, “Well, go on. What does it mean when you bite out the eyes and scream, ‘Stop staring at me!’?’” He says, “It shows you've a tendency towards self-destruction.” I said, “What do you recommend?” He says, “Go for it!”
- Emo Philips
What is that guy carrying birth control pills in his left hand?
No, just slightly pathetic.
I see a pink eared bunny in a priests robe hugging two overweight chocolate Santas carrying bags of toys.
I am certain this means I am insane, but at least I had the decency to not look up the answers.
LOL Stretched damn near to the point of catastrophic failure.
“The more test materials are promulgated widely, the more possibility there is to game it,” said Bruce L. Smith, a psychologist and president of the International Society of the Rorschach and Projective Methods”
Said with a straight face, no doubt
Looks a skunk I ran over a few weeks ago.
To me, this looks remarkably like the official seal on the face of Barry's birth certificate.
Not for phrenology. These guys are the same APA that removed homosexuality and a rash of other mental illnesses from standard practice. I mean they know, buddy!
Is this what a gynecologist sees?
There is a depressing amount of politics in the psych trade, no doubt. I guess inkblots never became politically incorrect.
Inkblots allowed otherwise normal people to appear as supersmart mind wizards.
You get more from talking to a loving, normal and mildly sophisticated friend than a psychologist.
100% of the people I met in college getting psych degrees should have been on the couch not in the chair.
Ink blots may tell us something of valid concern, like what first tends to flash to a person’s mind. But I would expect the method to advance with science (there are now more advanced ways to determine mental priorities, such as brain activity monitoring), and lead to better engineered tests.
I believe it is a flawed method and unusable. You'll note that the human mind, through the eye, tries to analyze data and put randomness into order. It is the nature of humans, especially given their divine origins.
That respondents see bats or people on the inkblots is normal and indicates nothing. That some see other things may or may not indicate anything, but possibly more creativity than their peers.
One can only hope...
I will never be able to hear anything about a Rorschach "test" without thinking of the punchline, "You think I'm obsessed with sex, Doc? You're the one with all the dirty pictures!"
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