Overview

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a systematic approach to storytelling that offers insight into the unique psychological reality of each individual. This book integrates a variety of interpretive approaches to the TAT to illuminate the meaning of narratives and explore their clinical implications. Informed by psychodynamic theory and empirical research, the book addresses such topics as the ways narratives reveal different personality organizations; how stories change over the course of therapy; the influence of age, gender, and defense mechanisms on narratives; and the use of the TAT in clinical studies. A new preface to the paperback edition situates the book within the contemporary landscape of personality research.

Full Product Details

Author:   Phebe Cramer (Williams College, United States)
Publisher:   Guilford Publications
Imprint:   Guilford Publications
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.540kg
ISBN:  

9781593850715

ISBN 10:   1593850719
Pages:   374
Publication Date:   15 July 2004
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  General ,  Undergraduate
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
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Table of Contents

I. Origins of the Thematic Apperception Test 1. Introduction 2. The TAT II. Interpretation of the TAT 3. Narrative and Storytelling 4. Context and Storytelling 5. The TAT and the Life Story Narrative 6. Gender Identity: An Interpretive Perspective 7. Defense Mechanisms: Another Interpretive Perspective III. Studies of Clinical Patients 8. The Storyteller's Narrative 9. The Anaclitic/Introjective Perspective: Two Personality Organizations 10. The Interpreter's Perspective: TAT and Psychopathology IV. Changing Narratives: Studies of Normal Development 11. Developmental Differences in TAT Stories: Children and Adolescents 12. Developmental Differences in Adult TAT Stories V. Research Issues with the TAT 13. General Issues in TAT Research 14. Questions of Reliability and Validity 15. The TAT in Personality Research Today 16. The TAT in Clinical Research Studies: Further Examples 17. Conclusion

Reviews

This work is the most comprehensive, original, and creative integration of clinical and empirical approaches to the TAT yet produced. It begins with an emphasis on the multi-modal perspectives inherent in the depiction of the TAT as a narrative, interactive event between story-teller and story-interpreter. The remainder of the book then enacts this conception of narrative by providing multiple, overlapping reviews of the vast array of clinical and empirical investigations of personality using the TAT. Her clinical interpretations of TAT protocols are brilliant and provide outstanding material for the practitioner and teacher alike. Her scholarly review of the reliability and validity of the technique and, more importantly, her critique of the way conventional psychometric standards have misunderstood the essence of the TAT are of great significance in the recent debate about the merits of various assessment procedures. The work is also compelling in its ability to give equal and lucid emphasis to both the clinical/psychodynamic and social psychology/achievement traditions that have historically intertwined as the two primary configuration of TAT use since its introduction 60 years ago. This book is beautifully written, clinically astute, and extraordinarily well documented. It will no doubt be the standard TAT reference for many years to come. --Steven Tuber, Ph.D., ABPP, Director, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, City College Graduate Center, New York The book provides a masterful synthesis of half a century of work on the TAT, placing it in the context of storytelling and narrative approaches to understanding individuals and clinical groups. Dr. Cramer does a particularly good job of integrating interpretative and empirical approaches to the TAT, showing how the interpretation of life narratives and the rigorous psychometric assessment of life narratives can be part of the same enterprise. --Drew Westen, Ph.D., Chief Psychologist, The Cambridget

This work is the most comprehensive, original, and creative integration of clinical and empirical approaches to the TAT yet produced. It begins with an emphasis on the multi-modal perspectives inherent in the depiction of the TAT as a narrative, interactive event between story-teller and story-interpreter. The remainder of the book then enacts this conception of narrative by providing multiple, overlapping reviews of the vast array of clinical and empirical investigations of personality using the TAT. Her clinical interpretations of TAT protocols are brilliant and provide outstanding material for the practitioner and teacher alike. Her scholarly review of the reliability and validity of the technique and, more importantly, her critique of the way conventional psychometric standards have misunderstood the essence of the TAT are of great significance in the recent debate about the merits of various assessment procedures. The work is also compelling in its ability to give equal and lucid

This work is the most comprehensive, original, and creative integration of clinical and empirical approaches to the TAT yet produced. It begins with an emphasis on the multi-modal perspectives inherent in the depiction of the TAT as a narrative, interactive event between story-teller and story-interpreter. The remainder of the book then enacts this conception of narrative by providing multiple, overlapping reviews of the vast array of clinical and empirical investigations of personality using the TAT. Her clinical interpretations of TAT protocols are brilliant and provide outstanding material for the practitioner and teacher alike. Her scholarly review of the reliability and validity of the technique and, more importantly, her critique of the way conventional psychometric standards have misunderstood the essence of the TAT are of great significance in the recent debate about the merits of various assessment procedures. The work is also compelling in its ability to give equal and lucid emphasis to both the clinical/psychodynamic and social psychology/achievement traditions that have historically intertwined as the two primary configuration of TAT use since its introduction 60 years ago. This book is beautifully written, clinically astute, and extraordinarily well documented. It will no doubt be the standard TAT reference for many years to come. --Steven Tuber, Ph.D., ABPP, Director, Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology, City College Graduate Center, New York <br> The book provides a masterful synthesis of half a century of work on the TAT, placing it in the context of storytelling and narrative approaches to understanding individuals and clinical groups. Dr. Cramer does a particularly good job of integrating interpretative and empirical approaches to the TAT, showing how the interpretation of life narratives and the rigorous psychometric assessment of life narratives can be part of the same enterprise. --Drew Westen, Ph.D., Chief Psychologist, The Cambridgei

.,. few [books] offer a more comprehensive and clearly written examination of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) than Dr. Cramer's....This book is a valuable resource for psychology students at any level who are learning the foundations of projective testing, and it is destined to become standard reading for doctoral students who are enrolled in projective assessment courses....it should be required reading for every clinician who will be administering and interpreting the TAT at any point in his or her professional career, -- Psychiatric Services <br>

Author Information

Phebe Cramer, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at Williams College, in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and a practicing clinical psychologist.

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