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Projective Techniques
in the Counseling Process
by Arthur J. Clark
Projective techniques have a lengthy and vital history in
personality assessment, but they have evoked a
minimal degree of interest on the part of counselors. Psychometric limitations,
lack of training opportunities, and the obscure qualities of the instruments
have restricted their use among practitioners. The author proposes a method to
stimulate the use of projectives as an integral part of the counseling process
and provides justification for the expanded use of the technique as a
counseling tool.
Almost 50 years ago, Harold Pepinsky, a pioneer in the counseling
profession (Claibom, 1985), urged counselors to use informal projective
techniques in counseling as a means to advance the counseling relationship and
to increase an understanding of clients (Pepinsky, 1947). Despite the greatly
expanded role of the counselor, the increasing diversity of clients served, and
the escalating challenge and complexity of issues facing the counselor,
Pepinsky's early call has largely gone unheeded. Projective techniques in the
counseling profession today are more commonly known for caution and
prohibitions in using the instruments than for the potential benefits the
devices offer as therapeutic tools (Anastasi, 1988; Hood Johnson, 1990). Given
the urgency of equipping the counselor with as broad a repertoire of skills as
possible, it is time to revisit Pepinsky's recommendation and to consider the
role of projective methods in counseling. The purpose of this article is to
review the qualities and practices of projective techniques, describe the value
of projectives in counseling, suggest procedures for using the techniques in
counseling, and illustrate applications of the methods with selected projective
devices.
Distinguishing features of projective techniques include ambiguous
directions, relatively unstructured tasks, and virtually unlimited client
responses (Anastasi, 1988). These same open-ended characteristics contribute to
a continuing controversy about the relative merit of the instruments.
Projectives may be perceived as esoteric devices with subjectively determined
evaluation procedures, particularly by counselors who seek empirically precise
appraisal standards (Anastasi, 1988). A fundamental assumption of projective
techniques is that the client expresses or "projects" his or her
personality characteristics through the completion of relatively unstructured
and ambiguous tasks (Rabin, 1981). A large number of projective instruments are
available, including association (e.g., Rorschach tests), construction (e.g. ,
Tbematic Apperception Test), completion (e.g., sentence completion), expressive
(e.g., human figure drawings), and choice or ordering (e.g., Picture
Arrangement Test) (Lindzey, 1961).
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