Thematic Apperception Test

The study extends research on the Proteus effect by demonstrating that avatars can prime negative attitudes and cognition in desktop virtual settings. Experiment 1 shows that, after virtual group discussions, participants using black-cloaked avatars developed more aggressive intentions and attitudes but less group cohesion than those using white-cloaked avatars. In Experiment 2, individual participants using a Ku Klux Klan (KKK)-associated avatar created more aggressive Thematic Apperception Test stories in comparison to a control group. Participants using the KKK avatar also wrote less affiliative stories in comparison to those employing avatars dressed as doctors. Overall, the resulting pattern of activation of negative thoughts (i.e., aggression) coupled with the inhibition of inconsistent thoughts (i.e., cohesion, affiliation) is consistent with principles of current priming models and provides initial evidence for automatic cognitive priming in virtual settings.

Cet ouvrage aborde d’une façon vivante et originale les problèmes psychologiques que l’on peut rencontrer dans les familles. Dans le cadre de la psychothérapie, diverses techniques d’expression de l’imaginaire familial sont présentées, comme le TAT en commun (un test projectif), raconter une histoire ensemble, compléter un conte, etc. Cette approche pratique et concrète de l’imaginaire familial permet d’explorer, aussi bien les aspects psychodynamiques, intrapsychiques, que systémiques d’une famille, au travers d’une approche synthétique et originale, dite « psychosystémique ».

Outre les aspects théoriques et techniques, dans cet ouvrage vous découvrirez, comme si vous y étiez, un travail de thérapie familiale, au travers des comptes-rendus du clinicien. L’ouvrage peut intéresser tous les lecteurs qui se sentent concernés par les problématiques familiales, mais plus particulièrement l’étudiant en psychologie ou en psychiatrie, le professionnel sur le terrain familial, qui y trouvera de nombreuses précisions techniques et de nouvelles idées pour aborder efficacement cet objet complexe qu’est une famille.

En présentant le déroulé de vingt séances de thérapie familiale psychosystémique, le Dr Éric Loonis nous convie à un passionnant voyage au cœur des mécanismes complexes de la psychologie d’une famille. Prenant appui sur plus d’une centaine de références bibliographiques, cet ouvrage est un jalon intéressant dans l’approche clinique familiale.

Three apperception theories that explain how people respond to Thematic Apperception Test cards are proposed: a simple apperception theory, an apperception theory with a dynamic component, and an apperception theory with 2 types of responses. Each theory is translated into an item response theory model and is applied to need for achievement (nAch) data. The analysis indicates that the best fitting model is provided by the apperception theory with 2 types of responses, also referred to as the drop-out apperception theory. The 1st type of response predicted by this theory is determined by the nAch level of the person and the achievement-response-eliciting value of the card; this response is diagnostic for the nAch level of the person. The 2nd type of response is not determined by the 2 aforementioned characteristics and is therefore not diagnostic of the person's nAch level. The results are cross-validated for need for power and need for affiliation.

Nowadays, some family do not care about elderly people. Because of this, Elderly people staying eventide home. And they are living huge healthy problem in their life. Even some elderly people living clinical problem in life. Therefore, Gerontological apperception test helping elderly people. Maybe, some elderly people do not understand this test because they have a visual or auditory problem. But gerontological apperception test can helping clinical cases for elderly people.

Préface / Preface
Michel Weber 7
The WW3 Scenario: An Appeal to Sanity
Michel Weber et al. 9

I. Séminaires de recherche — Research Seminars 19
La causalité selon Whitehead : son rapport à Husserl et à Kant
Jean-Marie Breuvart 21
Théorie des catégories et émergence
Roland Cazalis 41
Temps, ontogenèse et individuation biologique
Elena Pagni 53

II. Études critiques — Critical Studies 61
The Place of the Sciences and Humanities in the University Today Ronny Desmet 63
Le paradoxe du progrès
Philippe Gagnon 71
What is it Like to Be a Photon?
Robert J. Valenza 87
Capitalisme, technoscience et santé mentale
Michel Weber 97

III. Whitehead Psychology Nexus Proceedings 109
A Process Perspective on Mystical States of Awareness
David T. Bradford 111
Certainty and Conviction
Jason W. Brown 117
A Whiteheadian reading of Victor Frankl
Ronny Desmet 135
Whitehead and Gestalt Psychology
Ronny Desmet 147
Re-thinking the self process philosophy in Murray’s and Morgan’s Thematic Apperception Test
Eleonora Mingarelli 153
Religious Tolerance as a Factor of Nation’s Mental Health
Yuliya Pazynich 169
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and in Whitehead’s philosophy
Tina Röck 177
The Dynamic Nature of the Subjective Character of Consciousness Karen Yan 189
The Notion of Balance. Part One: Balance out of Chaosmos
Denys Zhadiaiev 205

IV. Comptes rendus — Critical Reviews 215
Oord, Defining Love
Roland Cazalis 217
Oord, The Nature of Love
Roland Cazalis 220
Pugliese, The One, the Many, and the Trinity
Roland Cazalis 223

V. Informations réticulaires — Reticular News 227
Vincent Berne, Vérité et illusion de la métaphysique 229
Séminaires — Seminars 232
Whitehead Psychology Nexus Workshop 232
Publications 233
Abréviations — Abbreviations 237
Table des matières — Table of Contents 239

As a story telling measure, the Thematic apperception test (TAT; Murray, 1943. Thematic apperception test manual. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press) has been an integral part of psychological assessment batteries dating back to the pioneering work of Rapaport et al. (Diagnostic psychological testing (rev. Edition). New York, NY: International Universities Press). Approaches to analyse TAT stories include, for clinical purposes: (a) organising information into discrete categories of ego functioning (e.g.. Using metaphor to understand projective test data: A training heuristic. In: Hilsenroth MJ, and Handler L, eds. Teaching and Learning Personality Assessment. pp. 391-412, Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ; Silverstein, 1999. Self psychology and diagnostic assessment: Identifying selfobject functions through psychological testing. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum) and, typically for research purposes, (d) utilisation of formal scoring systems (e.g. Jenkins, 2008. A handbook of clinical scoring systems for thematic apperceptive techniques. New York, NY: Routledge). This article presents a psychodynamic interpretive approach to TAT sequence analysis that draws from TAT (Arnold, 1949.

This article describes experiments in which happy or sad moods were induced in subjects by hypnotic suggestion to investigate the influence of emotions on memory and thinking. One result was that subjects exhibited mood-state-dependent memory in recall of word lists, personal experiences recorded in a daily diary, and childhood experiences; people recalled a greater percentage of those experiences that were affectively congruent with the mood they were in during recall. Second, emotion powerfully influenced such cognitive processes as free associations, imaginative fantasies, social perceptions, and snap judgments about others' personalities (e.g., angry subjects generated angry associates, told hostile stories, and were prone to find fault with others). Third, when the feeling-tone of a narrative agreed with the reader's emotion, the salience and memorability of events in that narrative were increased. Thus, sad readers attended more to sad material, identified with a sad character from a story, and recalled more about that character. An associative network theory is proposed to account for these several results. In this theory, an emotion serves as a memory unit that can enter into associations with coincident events. Activation of this emotion unit aids retrieval of events associated with it; it also primes emotional themata for use in free association, fantasies, and perceptual categorization.

This study investigated the relation between children's use of defense mechanisms and their understanding of those defenses. We hypothesized that, once a child understands how a particular defense functions, the use of that defense will no longer be successful and will be replaced by another defense mechanism that is not yet understood. Defense use was assessed from the Thematic Appreception Test (TAT) stories told by 122 children; defense understanding was determined from the children's understanding of stories portraying defenses. The results indicated that younger children (mean age = 7-8) used the defense of denial more than the older children (mean age = 9-11). Older children understood the functioning of denial and projection better than the younger children. A comparison of children who did and did not understand a defense showed that younger children who understood the functioning of denial were less likely to themselves use denial. Likewise, older children who understood the functioning of projection were less likely to use this defense.

There are many Armed Force aspirants who attempt the SSB without knowing about the test through which their personality will be assessed. Some wants firsthand experience & feel of the tests and procedures, many attend coaching institutes and some tries to get informed through sources of knowledge. This paper is dedicated to such aspirants who explore and apply themselves to learn and understand. Not only most asked query of blank picture related to psychological test will hopefully get clarified but also will get an insight for deeper understanding of psychological concepts & personality. The information provided in the paper is not at all to guide or prepare aspirants to crack the test but to get insight about the inner-self and self-analysis. This paper throws some light on following concepts:
1. The Unconscious
2. Projective Test
3. Thematic Apperception Test
4. Blank Picture
5. Food for Thought

The science of graphology and projective techniques of psychology have roots in the unconscious mind of the individual and its imagination. Imagination is the skill to think about new objects, ideas or thoughts and to create out of previous events, experiences, which were read or seen in a new order to produce novel event altogether with an added dimension of any contemporary thought. The blank picture of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is best suited to tap the imagination which free from any image. An individual has open ended wide array of brain’s eye to pen down the imagination. Handwriting is an art known as ‘brain writing’. Graphology is discipline of identifying brain writing emerged from brain’s eye. The aim of this paper was to examine the capability of handwriting analysis vis-a-vis the blank story written in the TAT in relation to the imagination of the subjects. The seven samples of handwriting of stories written in the blank picture of TAT were taken. The richness of imagination exercised was assessed by both techniques namely handwriting analysis and TAT. Seven features of handwriting which depicts imaginations were upper zone, arcades, loops, t bar above stem, crossing t bar over looped stem, round i dot placed high above the stem and sharp accent i dot high above the stem. The scoring of the TAT has been largely restricted to content analysis, a qualitative approach of assessment. The scoring of the story in blank picture has included three aspects for richness of imagination which can be categorized- fantasy, realistic and preconceived.  The results suggest that both techniques have great deal of relation in assessing imagination.
Keywords: Handwriting analysis, Graphology, Thematic Apperception Test, Blank Picture, Imagination

Self-reported individual differences in attachment insecurities (anxiety and avoidance) are sometimes assumed to tap only conscious mental processes, although many studies have found correlations between such measures and responses to the Thematic Apperception Test, the Rorschach Inkblot Test, and diverse laboratory measures of unconscious mental processes. Dreams offer another route into the unconscious, as Freud famously claimed: a route found useful in psychotherapy. In this study, approximately 1000 dreams reported by 68 young adults who kept dream diaries for a month were analyzed using the Core Conflictual Relationships Theme method, and the themes were examined in relation to (a) scores on the Experiences in Close Relationships measure of attachment anxiety and avoidance and (b) stress experienced the day before each dream. In line with attachment theory and previous research, attachment-related avoidance predicted avoidant wishes and negative representations of other people in dreams. Attachment anxiety predicted wishes for interpersonal closeness, especially in dreams following stressful days, and negative representations of self and both positive and negative representations of others, with negative representations being more common in dreams following stressful days.

Purpose: Swadhayaya is pondering over good thoughts that links our minds with the knowledge of saints and sages and thus enlightens and re-orients our own thoughts consequently. Hence the aim of this research was to see the effect of Swadhyaya on Hostility.
Scope: Swadhyaya is a great psycho-spiritual intervention, which, if inculcated in the routine life of adolescent girls, can do their cognitive restructuring, which in turn can alleviate hostility.
Research Methods:
a) Sample and Sampling: 14 to 18 years old, 40 subjects were selected with the help of simple random sampling.
b) Research Design: Randomized two group design was applied to present research work.
c) Tool: For the assessment of hostility an Indian Modification of the Thematic Apperception Test (T.A.T.) Developed by Uma Chowdhury was applied.
d) Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was done through MS-Excel software by using .two-samples assuming equal variances.
e) Result: The results showed significant changes on the basis of which it can be said that swadhyaya as a therapy can be extremely helpful for balancing hostility of the adolescent girls.

... Login to save citations to My List. Citation. Database: PsycINFO. [Journal Article]. Future directions for the Thematic Apperception Test. ... Abstract. Emphasis on the narrative mode of thought offers new ideas about the interpretation of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). ...

In 1963 a method was published for the analysis of word frequencies in spontaneous (story-telling) spoken language. The immediate purpose was to provide a means for computer analysis of part-of-speech usage in a study of linguistically impaired aphasic patients. A dictionary of most frequently used words in response to a 20-card administration of the Thematic Apperception Test based on the verbal output of 12 subjects was compiled. The present paper is a revision of the dictionary based on 54 adults. An alphabetical listing of the words in the new directory with part-of-speech identification of each word is included.

The study of the clinical psychological profile of the cancer patients has received increasing attention and interest in the scientific community, however, more often under the light of quantitative rather than qualitative research studies, while vast opportunities for using qualitative methods exist within cancer patients research as far as the palliative care concept is concerned. Generally, it could be stated that qualitative methods, although presented in a few studies, can be served as a versatile set of tools and a necessary complement to quantitative analysis in the field of palliative care, especially for the patients of this diagnostic category. This study shows, inter alia, how qualitative research is uniquely positioned to contribute to ongoing clinical trial development and analysis and provides a demystifying introduction to qualitative methods for interested palliative care clinicians, clinical psychologists, and investigators. The purpose of the present study is to highlight the psychological profile of the group of the cancer patients throughout certain qualitative “filters”, that is to say applying a semi-structured clinical interview, designed especially for the needs of the present study, as well as throughout the use of a theoretical conceptual framework based on the axioms of analysis of the Grounded Theory. Semistructured clinical interview aimed not only to describe phenomena, rather than report statistics, but also to understand the views and feelings of patients in palliative care settings (early palliative care) towards the “bad news” and explore their opinions regarding the timing of its discussion as well, and, consequently, each analyzed item provides a wealth of data, for example the emotional labor, the prolonged agony, the desires of the patient, and, finally, the silent acting-out. Additionally, throughout the subjects’ narrative interventions, for the first time in this research field (palliative care), three (3) “cognitive entrapments”, linked to the onset of the disease, were found and emerged, simultaneously. The final completion of the outline of the participants' psychological profile it has been made possible by using the Thematic Apperception Test (Τ.Α.Τ), as it was not only more appropriate than the first psychological tool so as to bring out more internal, more insidious, more obscure and more entrenched emotional and mental processes, but also more suitable for the assessment of the diversity of the defense functions and their levels as well. The findings of both psychological tools were analyzed on the basis of the methodological principles and axioms of the Grounded Theory and on purely psychodynamic terminology. Finally, a reference is made to the use of these
findings of the study, both on the clinical practice with oncological patients and on the education of the health professionals. Last but not least, reference is made to the research constraints that are fatally "accompanying" each study.

After reviewing classic and current conceptions of trait (as measured by questionnaires) and motive (as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test [TAT] or other imaginative verbal behavior), the authors suggest that these 2 concepts reflect 2 fundamentally different elements of personality-conceptually distinct and empirically unrelated. The authors propose that traits and motives interact in the prediction of behavior: Traits channel the behavioral expression of motives throughout the life course. The authors illustrate this interactive hypothesis in 2 longitudinal studies, focusing on the broad trait of extraversion and the 2 social motives of affiliation and power. In interaction with extraversion, both motives show predicted and replicated relations to independently measured life outcomes in the domains of relationships and careers. Extraversion facilitates unconfiicted motive expression, whereas introversion deflects social motives away from their characteristic goals and creates difficulties in goal attainment.

This article presents psychometric properties of the Cramer Defense Mechanism Manual (Cramer, 1991b) for the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943). The developmental hierarchy of defenses originally postulated by Cramer was supported in this cross-sectional sample. Gender differences and the validity of distinguishing between "mature" and "immature" levels of defense were also investigated. Findings for gender differences largely replicate those previously reported by Cramer (1987, 1991a). Results also support the view of a developmental hierarchy of defenses and the validity of distinguishing between mature and immature levels of two of the three types of defenses.

This study compared reliably diagnosed borderline personality disorder patients (n = 35) with major depressives (n = 25) and normals (n = 30) on 4 dimensions of object relations and social cognition coded from Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses: Complexity of Representations of People, Affect-Tone of Relationship Paradigms (malevolent to benevolent), Capacity for Emotional Investment in Relationships, and Understanding of Social Causality. As predicted, borderlines scored significantly lower on all 4 scales than did normals and lower on Affect-Tone and Capacity for Emotional Investment than did nonborderline major depressives. Borderlines also produced more pathological responses than did both groups on every scale, indicating more poorly differentiated representations, grossly illogical attributions, malevolent expectations, and need-gratifying relationship paradigms. The results suggest the importance of distinguishing several interdependent but distinct cognitive-affective dimensions of object relations and the potential utility of assessing object relations and social cognition from TAT responses.

An image or visual stimulus in the environment plays an essential role in exercising the imagination. An imagery based account of the imagination is directed to the mental imagining but if the image is entirely eliminated then it brings out the true nature of imagination. Hammer (1958) hypothesised that painters, composers, designers, and anyone who uses their imagination projects his personality through the form of self expression. Roeckelein (2004) describes imagination as the "recombination of memories of past experiences and previously formed images into novel constructions". Projective techniques are strategies used to access presumably repressed content that is often unconscious or difficult to get access. Projective techniques are predicated on the assumption that a person will cast his or her unfiltered perception, feelings, and desires onto neutral or ambiguous images (Branthwaite, 2002). There are five classifications of projective techniques based on response el...

The relation between the use of defense mechanisms and autonomic nervous system reactivity, under conditions of laboratory stress, was studied in 78 men and women. Both diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and skin conductance level (SCL) were monitored during exposure to ten stress tasks; concurrently, the use of three defense mechanisms was assessed by coding Thematic Apperception Test stories. Autonomic reactivity was found to be related to defenses; the nature of that relation differed across the defenses. DBP, typically found to be associated with cognitive work, was higher in those individuals who used more Identification, a defense that requires greater cognitive activity. The use of Projection, on the other hand, was associated with lower DBP. In addition, the use of Identification showed a tendency to be associated with lower SCL.

Four hundred twenty-eight participants wrote imaginative stories in response to 6 picture cues of a research version of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT; Morgan & Murray, 1935). Story protocols were coded for n (need) Power, n Achievement, and n Affiliation using Winter's (1991) integrated scoring system that provided detailed information about the motive profiles of individual picture cues. In general, picture cues differed strongly from each other with regard to how many scorable instances of power, achievement, or affiliation imagery they elicited. The n Affiliation, but not n Power, n Achievement, or activity inhibition-a measure of impulse control-was found to be higher in (a) women than in men and (b) individuals tested in a group than in individuals tested individually. TAT motive measures showed no significant overlap with questionnaire measures of motivational orientation (German Personality Research Form; Stumpf, Angleitner, Wieck, Jackson, & Beloch-Till, 1985) or traits (German NEO-Five-Factor Inventory; Borkenau & Ostendorf, 1993). Over the past 50 years, scholars of motivation have developed scoring systems that allow them to code the content of verbal material for various motivational themes-usually termed need (n)-such as n Food (Atkinson & McClelland,

This paper makes an effort to investigate the Imaginal Production and Press employed by the subjects in story on blank card of Thematic Apperception Test with respect to Familiarity of the subject in writing TAT story. The blank card has been chosen for research because the response in TAT (projection in form of story) is a function of structural stimulus but the response on blank card of TAT (projection in form of story) is not a function of the structural stimulus. In the blank card no situation or characters are provided in the stimulus, here subjects are free to imagine a situation and characters of their own choice. Hence on the blank card, a stimulus has to be imagined and produced in the form of story. The three variables imaginal production of the subjects, familiarity with the test and presses employed during production of story have been considered as independent variables to see an effect on the characteristic of stimulus (dependent variable) which triggered the unconscio...

Several overlapping features have frequently been described between psychosis and the subjective experience of dreaming from the neurobiological to the phenomenological level, but whether this similarity reflects the cognitive organization of schizophrenic thought or rather that of psychotic mentation independent of diagnostic categories is still unclear. In this study, 40 actively psychotic inpatients were equally divided in two age- and education-matched groups according to their diagnosis (Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder). Participants were asked to report their dreams upon awakening and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) was administered to elicit waking fantasies; the same procedure was used in a control group of 20 non-psychiatric subjects. Two highly trained judges scored the collected material according to a Dream Bizarreness scale. The same level of cognitive bizarreness was found in TAT and dream reports of schizophrenic and manic subjects but was almost completely absent in the TAT stories of the control group. Two-way analysis of variance for repeated measures assessed the effect of diagnosis and experimental conditions (TAT stories and dream reports) on bizarreness yielding a significant interaction. Cognitive bizarreness seems to be a shared feature of dreaming and psychotic mentation, beyond diagnostic categorizations. Although these findings must be considered preliminary, this experimental measure of the cognitive architecture of thought processes seems to support the view that dreaming could be a useful model for the psychoses.

Over 1,200 adults in a representative nationwide sample were administered the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) and an unstructured interview which produced 25 measures of subjective mental health and ultimately SIX factor scores unhappiness, lack of gratification, strain, feelings of vulnerability, lack of self-confidence, and uncertainty The TATs were scored for intimacy motivation (McAdams, 1980)-a recurrent preference or readiness for experiences of warm, close, and communicative interaction with others Controlling for age, education, and their interaction, high intimacy motivation in women was associated with greater happiness and gratification, whereas in men it was associated with lack of strain and lack of uncertainty Women high in intimacy motivation who were living alone reported lower levels of gratification and more uncertainty in their lives than other women Intimacy motivation also declined significantly over the life span for women, but not for men Finally, demographic effects on intimacy motivation were examined Controlling for age, education, and their interaction, professional men (e g , doctors, lawyers, and teachers) scored higher on intimacy motivation than did men in other occupational categones, while among women the occupational groups with highest intimacy motivation were service workers and craftspersons The authors would like to thank Joe Veroff and the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research for making available the data analyzed in this report These data were onginally collected by J Veroff, E Douvan, and R A Kulka Neither the collectors of the ongmal data nor the Consortium bear any responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here The authors extend a special thank you to Dave Klingel for his invaluable assistance m computer analyses and to Carol Kirshmt who scored the hundreds of TAT protocols

Both self-report and projective assessment techniques were used to examine whether there exists a gender identitY crossover at midlife such that men develop a communal or affiliative orientation and women become more interested in agency and power. A sample of 150 predominantly Caucasian men and women ages 24-84 were divided into three age groups for comparison: (1) young (ages 20-39); (2) middle-aged (ages 40-65); and (3) old (ages 66-84). Measures included six pictures from the Thematic Apperception Test, which were coded for achievement, power, intimacy, and affiliation needs, and the Goldberg 50-Bipolar, from which items were selected to derive "agency" and "communion" scales. Middle-aged men were lower in the need for power and higher in the need for affiliation than were younger men; there were no age differences in self attributions of agency and communion. Results are discussed in terms of the traditionality of the men and the nontraditionality of the women with respect to work and family roles.

Some indexes and variables of the Children's Apperception Test Evaluation Form were used to evaluate children's thematic apperception stories to Bellak's test. The protocols were scored for four indexes: (1) number of words, (2) number of characters (animals) rightly identified, (3) number of modified characters (animals), (4) number of attributions given to the characters (animals) in the stories. The form was also scored for number and types of conflicts evoked in children. Interscorer reliability coefficients were high for all the indexes and variables. The sample included 70 children ages 4.5 to 11.5 yr. The relationship between scores and age and sex was also investigated.

This study explored empirically the relationship between developmental history variables and several dimensions of object relations in a sample of 36 female adolescent inpatients. The results document the importance of preoedipal experience, the relationship with the mother, and continuity of attachments in shaping object relations. In addition, the data point to the importance of distinguishing different dimensions of object relations, such as the affective quality of the object world and the logic and accuracy of attributions, which may have different developmental correlates. The findings also suggest the impact of sexual abuse, typically a postoedipal experience, on enduring object-relational processes.

26 children, one-half of whom were diagnosed with Tourette's syndrome, were administered the Thematic Apperception Test. A pilot investigation suggested that children with Tourette's syndrome produced high rates of responses in four categories: references to physical aggression, supernatural power, character names, and specific quantities. When compared with other children treated for emotional and behavioral problems at the same facility and matched on demographic variables and IQ, children with Tourette's syndrome were not more likely to produce Thematic Apperception Test responses in any of the four categories. This study shows that a recognizable pattern on projective testing was not easily established among these 13 children with Tourette's syndrome and further highlights the importance of using mental health comparison groups when investigating clinical disorders.

Based on longitudinal data from the Institute of Human Development Intergenerational Study, the use and change in defense mechanisms of more than 150 individuals, as assessed from TAT stories, was studied across ages 11, 12, and 18. The findings of this study, based on an earlier generation, were generally consistent with cross-sectional findings from current samples, showing that the defenses of projection and identification were used more frequently than denial at all three ages and that the use of projection and identification increased from early to late adolescence. However, unlike current findings, the 18-year-olds did not show greater use of identification than of projection, perhaps due to IQ differences between this community sample and the samples of more recent studies.