What is the TAT test, how is it administered and how are the stories you tell interpreted? A plain, realistic guide to the Thematic Apperception Test.
"I'm going to show you some pictures, and for each one I'd like you to tell me a story." When people hear this sentence, the first thing that goes through most of their minds is the same: "But I can't make up stories." For someone who never enjoyed writing essays at school and thinks of themselves as not very creative, this task can seem like an exam. Yet the TAT test, the Thematic Apperception Test, does not measure who tells the better story. What matters in this test is which themes your mind chooses when looking at an ambiguous scene, how you think about people, and how you bring your stories to an end. In this article I explain where the TAT test comes from, how it is administered, how the stories are assessed, the test's limits, and how the results of the assessment can be used in therapy. If you are going to take this test soon, knowing what to expect may ease your anxiety.
What Is the TAT Test?
The Thematic Apperception Test is a projective personality assessment tool developed in the 1930s at Harvard University by the psychologists Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan. The test is made up of black-and-white pictures, most of which show one or more people, in which it is not entirely clear what is happening. One of the cards is completely blank; the person is asked to imagine a scene of their own on this blank card and tell its story.
The idea behind the test is simple: when someone encounters an ambiguous scene, they draw on their own experiences, expectations, needs and worries to give it meaning. The story you tell about why the young man in a picture is standing with his head bowed carries more traces of your world than of that young man. This process is closely related to the mechanism known in psychology as projection; for more on the concept, you can take a look at the article what is projection.
Murray tried to explain human behaviour through the interaction between inner needs (such as achievement, closeness, independence and recognition) and the pressures the environment places on those needs. The Thematic Apperception Test grew out of this theory: what the hero of a story needs and how the environment treats them is one of the main axes of the assessment.
How Is the TAT Test Administered?
The full test contains more than thirty cards, but not all of them are given to any one person. The practitioner usually selects between eight and twelve cards according to the person's age and gender and the purpose of the assessment. This selection varies depending on which questions the assessment is trying to answer.
For each card, the person is asked to tell a story that answers the following questions:
- What is happening in the picture right now?
- How did things get to this point, and what happened before?
- What are the characters thinking and feeling?
- How does the story end?
The practitioner writes the stories down word for word or, with the person's consent, records them. If a story is very short or an important element is missing, they may ask brief, non-leading questions (such as "What happened next?"). Administration usually takes around an hour; sometimes it is split over two sessions.
What you need to know before taking the test:
- The length or literary merit of the story does not matter. A three-sentence story can also be assessed.
- Saying "I don't know" is also an answer. If nothing comes to life for you in a picture, you can say so.
- You may want to change a story you don't like. This is entirely normal; the practitioner notes this too.
- You don't have to identify the people in the picture. You decide their ages, their relationships and what they are doing.
How Are the Stories Assessed?
Unlike tests such as the Rorschach, there is no single scoring system for the TAT test that everyone uses in the same way in clinical practice. Some researchers have developed systems that score particular themes such as the need for achievement, affiliation or power; there are also systematic approaches aimed at assessing relationships and the level of social cognition. In clinical practice, however, most specialists use a qualitative method that examines the stories under certain headings. These headings are usually:
- The hero: Who is the character at the centre of the story? People usually make the character they feel closest to the hero. Is the hero active or passive; do they make their own decisions, or do things happen to them?
- Needs and motives: What does the hero want? To succeed, to be loved, to escape, to be protected, to take revenge?
- The attitude of the environment: How do the other characters treat the hero? Are they supportive, critical, indifferent or threatening?
- Conflicts: What tensions are there in the story? Being caught between the family's expectations and the person's wishes, or between commitment and freedom, for example.
- Emotions: Which emotions stand out in the stories, and which never appear?
- Endings: Do the stories usually end hopefully or helplessly? Are problems resolved through the characters' efforts, by chance, or not resolved at all?
- The structure of the story: Is the story coherent and understandable? Is an element clearly visible in the picture left out, or is something added that is not in the picture?
What matters here is not a single story but the patterns that recur across the stories. A hero being left alone in one story may not mean anything; but if in seven out of ten stories someone leaves and the hero is left behind, that is a striking theme.
The heroes of our stories often say for us the sentences we don't dare to say ourselves.
Recurring Themes in the TAT Test, With Examples
Without discussing the content of the cards, it is possible to illustrate how themes can emerge with a few fictional examples.
Let's say that in almost every story, a person describes characters who work very hard but in the end do not get the reward for their efforts. One character prepares for an exam but doesn't pass; another tries to finish a job but once again can't get it done in time. The stories usually end with "Then he gave up." This pattern forms a hypothesis about the person's beliefs regarding the link between effort and outcome, and it can be considered alongside depressive thinking patterns.
In another person's stories, the older characters always make the decisions and the younger characters go along with them without objection. In one story a young woman marries the person her family wants; in another a young man agrees to work in his father's shop. The characters' own wishes are hardly ever voiced. This pattern can be a meaningful starting point for talking about authority relationships in the person's own family and their need for autonomy. However, cultural context must be kept in mind here too: in Turkey, an environment within the extended family where the word of elders carries weight can naturally make stories of this kind more common. The interpreter has to distinguish a personal pattern from a cultural norm.
A third person keeps their stories very short, never mentions the characters' feelings and says "I don't know, nothing's happening" for every card. This does not always mean they are hiding something; it can be explained by various reasons such as difficulty naming emotions, anxiety about being assessed, or tiredness. This, too, only becomes clear in the interview.
The Difference Between the TAT and the Rorschach
Both tests belong to the group of projective tests, but what they measure and the angle they take are different.
In the Rorschach, the person looks at abstract inkblots and answers the question "What might this be?" The assessment focuses more on perceptual and thought processes, that is, on how the person organises an ambiguous stimulus. For more detail, you can read the article on the Rorschach test.
In the Thematic Apperception Test, by contrast, the pictures show people and relationships, and the person constructs a narrative. The assessment therefore focuses more on relational themes, motives, conflicts and the person's expectations of people. In other words, the Rorschach is closer to the question "How do you see?" and the TAT to the question "What stories do you tell?"
For children, a children's version (the CAT) has also been developed, using pictures with animal characters instead of human figures. Because young children can identify with animals more easily, this version may be preferred in assessments with children.
When Is the TAT Test Used?
The Thematic Apperception Test is not a test given routinely to everyone. It is generally used as part of a comprehensive assessment when there is a need to understand a person's inner world, relationship patterns and motives in more depth. In Turkey, you are most likely to come across it in hospital psychiatry departments, university clinics and some forensic assessments.
The main situations in which it may be used are:
- Situations where the source of a person's difficulties has not become clear in the interview, and recurring relationship problems are being explored
- Situations where the person struggles to talk about their feelings directly and gives short, defensive answers to questions
- Situations where more detailed information about personality structure is needed for treatment planning
- Exploring themes in adolescents related to family relationships, conflicts with authority figures and the search for identity
The specialist decides whether this test will be used in an assessment according to the question being asked. If you are curious about why it has been recommended for you, you are entitled to ask before it is given. A clear answer to the question "What will this test tell us about?" helps you take part in the process with more confidence.
The Limits of the TAT Test
The Thematic Apperception Test can provide valuable information, but it is a tool that needs to be interpreted with care.
Limited standard scoring: Because there is no single widespread scoring system in clinical practice, interpretation relies heavily on the specialist's experience and clinical skill. This means different specialists may draw different conclusions from the same stories.
The era and culture of the cards: The cards were drawn many years ago, in a different culture. The clothes, settings and scenes may look unfamiliar or dated to someone living in Turkey today. This unfamiliarity can affect the stories.
Mood on the day: The stories of someone who has had a bad day, is short of sleep or is grieving may be more pessimistic. This information is valuable, but a person's lasting characteristics need to be distinguished from their state at that moment.
Language and storytelling skills: Someone who finds it hard to express themselves in words may tell short and superficial stories even if their inner world is rich.
It cannot diagnose: The TAT test cannot be used on its own to diagnose any mental health condition. The results are assessed together with a clinical interview, history and other tests.
From Assessment to Therapy: The Transformative Power of Stories
The most meaningful aspect of a TAT assessment is the moment when the themes that emerge are linked to the person's own life. In a good feedback meeting, the specialist starts by saying, "I often noticed this in your stories," and asks the person whether it has any counterpart in their own life. Sometimes the person recognises it immediately: "Yes, I always try very hard and then give up in the end." Sometimes the theme feels foreign to them; that, too, is information at least as valuable as confirmation.
In individual therapy, these themes can be addressed as core beliefs and automatic thoughts in cognitive behavioural therapy, or as schemas formed early in life in schema therapy. For example, with a person who keeps describing characters who are abandoned in their stories, the work can focus on how the expectation of being abandoned comes into play in their relationships, which experiences feed this expectation, and how it affects their relationships today.
In therapy, stories are not only an assessment tool. How a person tells their own story, which parts they highlight and which they skip, is also an important part of therapy itself. Over time, the person begins to be able to tell the same events with a different ending; this is one of the loveliest signs of change. A narrative that begins "My father never understood me, so I couldn't do anything either" may, over months, turn into "My father found it hard to understand me; for a long time I gave up trying to explain myself, and now I'm trying again." The events stay the same, but the hero of the story now stands in a more active place.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm not good at telling stories. Will my results come out negative?
No. The TAT test does not measure literary skill or creativity. Short, simple stories can also be assessed; what matters is the content of the stories and the themes that recur. The practitioner also takes the person's style of expression and language skills into account when interpreting.
If my stories were pessimistic, does that show I'm depressed?
Not on its own. Pessimistic stories can be influenced by your mood that day, a loss you have experienced or the cards themselves. Depression is assessed together with a clinical interview and other measures; the themes in the stories only contribute to that assessment.
Will the stories I tell be interpreted as if they actually happened in my life?
No. The stories are treated not as a record of events the person has lived through, but as clues about their emotional, expectation and relationship patterns. Telling a story about a family that argues does not mean that your family argues; the specialist reaches conclusions of that kind not from the stories but from the interview with you.
How long does the TAT test take, and how many cards are used?
Usually between eight and twelve cards are selected, and administration often takes around an hour. The number of cards and the time taken may vary with the purpose of the assessment and the person's storytelling pace. If necessary, the test can be split over two sessions.
Bu yazı genel bilgilendirme amaçlıdır; tanı veya tedavi yerine geçmez. Yaşadığınız güçlükler için bir ruh sağlığı uzmanına başvurmanız önerilir. Acil bir durumda lütfen 112'yi arayın.
Eda Erkan Alapala
Klinik Psikolog. İstanbul Kent Üniversitesi Klinik Psikoloji Tezli Yüksek Lisans mezunu; bilişsel davranışçı terapi, çocuk merkezli oyun terapisi ve çocuk-ergen psikoterapisi alanlarında eğitimlerini tamamlamıştır.
Eğitimler
