ABSTRACT
Published reports of this scoring system have used subsets of cards from the original Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) (Murray, 1943). When mentioned, TAT administration is consistent with that recommended by Bellak (1993), with probes limited to story antecedents and outcomes and to characters’ thoughts and feelings. Because of this, the scoring scheme can be applied to archival as well as newly acquired data. Studies using this system have included a range of TAT cards (4-20), with variable numbers of characters portrayed (1-3). There is no indication from any of the reviewed studies
that certain cards are more effective than others in eliciting specific contents. This is an advantage of this scoring system, as the number and selection of cards can be tailored to the sample under study. The system has been used with outpatient children, inpatient adults, and college undergraduates in the United States and with a sample of Pacific Islanders. Data have been acquired from both individual and group settings and in both oral and written formats. The only requirement of the system is that respondents comply with the storytelling instructions; thus, it can be broadly applied to a variety of subject samples.
