ABSTRACT
Effective utilization of the Rorschach Inkblot Method in the clinical evaluation of senior adults requires awareness of its nature as an assessment instrument, of the ways in which people typically experience and respond to it, and of age-related considerations in examining older people and obtaining test data from them. Taken together, these behavioral, structural, and thematic elements of respondents’ Rorschach performance provide information about their cognitive functioning, affective experience, interpersonal relatedness, self-perception, and underlying attitudes and concerns. Rorschach test behaviors are representative samples of a person’s customary ways of dealing with problem-solving and decision-making situations. How people conduct themselves when taking the Rorschach often reflects the kind of person they are, their attitudes toward themselves, and their manner of relating to other people. Some comments that share personal information with the examiner refer to objects and events in the respondent’s life, but these self-revelations are neither explanatory nor self-glorifying.
