Moving Towards an Online Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): The Impact of Administeration Modifications on Narrative Length and Story Richness

Abstract

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is the second most commonly used performance-based task in clinical practice. However, traditional TAT administration is time-consuming and raises accessibility issues. Recent research exploring modifications to administration to address these concerns has found that within a lab setting, having participants type their own narratives leads to richer responses than when participants narrate the stories out loud to an examiner (Coleman et al., 2023). The current study extends Coleman et al.’s (2023) work by investigating the impact of card presentation (hard copy versus on the computer screen) and setting (in the lab versus online) on narrative quality. A four-card TAT protocol was administered to 135 college students in three separate conditions: in lab with hard copies of cards (Lh), in lab with images on the computer (Lc), and online (O) administration in which participants could take the TAT wherever they wished. The resulting narratives were scored using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale- Global Rating Method (SCORS-G) by two trained raters. MANOVA procedures showed that SCORS-G ratings were not affected by card presentation (computer versus hardcopy) or setting (online versus lab) and add to Coleman et al.’s (2023) results to suggest that the TAT can be administered online without a diminution in the quality of SCORSG ratings at least with some populations. Clinical and research implications as well as future directions will be discussed.