The Holtzman Inkblot Technique: a review.

for instance, "Reminds me of happiness." Anxiety (Ax)—a 3-point scale for rating the degree of anxiety apparent in the content of the response as reflected in feelings or attitudes ("frightened animal"), expressive behavior ("girl escaping"), symbolic responses ("dead person"), or cultural stereotypes of fear ("witch"); score 1 when debatable or indirect, and score 2 when clearly evident. Hostility (Hs)—a 4-point scale for rating degree of hostility apparent in the content of the response, with increasing score as hostility moves from vague or symbolic expressions to more direct, violent ones in which human beings are involved. HOLTZMAN INKBLOT TECHNIQUE 175 Barrier (Br)—score 1 for reference to any protective covering, membrane, shell, or skin that might be symbolically related to the perception of body-image boundaries. Penetration (Pn)—score 1 for concepts symbolic of body penetration. Balance (B)—score 1 where the subject expresses concern for the symmetry-asymmetry dimension of the inkblot. Popular (P)—score 1 if a popular response is given, popular responses being defined statistically for specific areas of the inkblots in earlier normative studies of the HIT. The decision to include a variable in the HIT scoring scheme was based on several considerations (Holtzman, 1966; Holtzman et al., 1961): (a) Could most of the traditional Rorschach scores be derived from the new system? (b) Is it theoretically possible to have any score from 0 to 45? (c) Can high scoring agreement be reached among trained individuals? (d) Is the variable relevant to the study of personality? and (e) Are the variables logically (but not necessarily empirically) independent of one another? It seems that all of these conditions have been met. Rorschach Whole (W), Determinants ( D ) , or Common Detail (d) would be Location 0, 1, or 2, respectively. Rorschach Human Movement (M) is Movement scored 2 or higher. Rorschach Entire Human (H) is Human 1 or 2. Rorschach FC, CF, or C would correspond to the number of chromatic cards coded 1, 2, or 3, respectively, for Color. Item b above is evident from the structure of the scoring scheme, and Item c is a matter of data (discussed below). Item d needs to be decided on the basis of validity research, and Item e seems to be a matter of judgment.