Comparing power imagery in TATs written by hand or on the computer

Abstract

Two barriers to the use of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)in motivation research were addressed: its low internal consistency and its time-consuming coding system, Sixty males and 60 females wrote five stories to TAT pictures either on the computer or by hand. Half of each group were timed and half untimed. The writing of stories was guided by four sets of questions, and stories were coded for need for power (n Pow) by the corresponding four paragraphs. Cronbach's alpha for the five stories was .46;for the 20 paragraphs, Cronbach's alpha was .65. We conclude that, to the extent that measuring internal consistency is appropriate for a thought-sampling instrument like the TAT, internal consistency should be calculated by paragraphs. Significantly more words were produced in the untimed condition, but n Pow did not differ by gender, hand-written versus computer-written, or timed versus untimed conditions. The five pictures elicited significantly different amounts of n Pow. It is recommended that researchers who give the TAT on the computer use the untimed condition. Suggestions are made for increasing the scoring validity and for using the computer to decrease the time required for human coders.The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)I has been used in research on achievement, affiliation, power, and intimacy (among others), and coding schemes are available to score imagery in each of these motives (Smith, 1992). We focused on power motivation in this study ofthe effects of computer writing on projective content or thought samples because we believed that power imagery might be the most susceptible to augmentation by the computer situation, although achievement imagery might also be affected.? Power imagery is coded when a story depicts someone acting in a way that expresses power, arousing strong positive or negative emotions, or showing concern for reputation or position. Power-oriented actions include attacks, insults, and seductions, giving help or advice that is not solicited, controlling someone else's life, trying to influence, bribe, or persuade, and trying to impress others (Winter, 1992, pp. 312-315). We assumed that if the computer could affect any motive, power was the most likely. This is based on the idea of the computer as empowering, as a device that can arouse strong emotions (e.g., frustration), and as a prestigious possession (Winter, 1973).Two barriers to the use of the TAT to measure power imagery in motivation research have been its apparent This research was supported in part by NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates Award BIR-9300595. We wish to thank Stacy Allison, Pamella Cordova, Tad Gary, Cynthia Gomes, Matt Herzberg, Margaret Kalamaras, Amanda Kapp, and Kathy Kunkel for helping us code TAT stories; Nisha Waghray and Jeni Fletcher for organizing data; and Jennifer Seiffer and Julie Gillette for transcribing stories. Bruce Dudek advised us on data analysis, and Randi Reppen edited the manuscript. We thank Tilly Houtmans, Charles P.Smith, and Ronald T. Kellogg for their comments on an...

Implicit Motive Profile Analysis: An If‐Then Contingency Approach to the Picture‐Story Exercise

“…The detractors used the PSE's low internal consistency to question the validity of the PSE (e.g., Entwisle, ; Lilienfeld et al, ), ignoring that the PSE has well‐documented predictive validity and is one of the very few personality measures with demonstrated causal validity (see Borsboom et al, ). The proponents either claimed that internal consistency is not a relevant reliability criterion for the PSE (e.g., McClelland, ), an argument that is defensible according to modern psychometric theory (e.g., Borsboom, ), or they argued that low internal consistency is a result of insufficient test length (e.g., Blankenship & Zoota, ; Heckhausen, ). Few have recognized that low inter‐story reliability is a potentially valuable phenomenon that should be taken seriously and understood in its own right.…”

Measuring needs with the Thematic Apperception Test: A psychometric study.

“…On the basis of the classical test theory, they claim that the TAT cannot be valid if it has a low reliability because it only measures error. On the other hand, there are the TAT believers (e.g., Atkinson, 1981;Atkinson et al, 1977;Blankenship & Zoota, 1998;Cramer, 1996Cramer, , 1999McClelland, 1980McClelland, , 1985Reuman, 1982), who say that the low internal consistency shows that the classical test theoretical framework is not appropriate for assessing the quality of the TAT as a measurement instrument and that the TAT can be a valid instrument despite its low internal consistency. The chief argument in this reasoning comes from the dynamics of action theory of Atkinson and Birch (1970).…”

Meta-analytic evidence of low convergence between implicit and explicit measures of the needs for achievement, affiliation, and power

“…Considering characteristics of the implicit measure, one methodological issue concerns the data collection format of the PSE (Schultheiss and Pang, 2007 ). Building on Blankenship and Zoota ( 1998 ), who found no substantial differences in n Power scores for PC vs. paper-and-pencil administration, we expected the relationship to be independent of the data collection format and thus no reliable differences between PC administration, handwritten PSEs, or other formats ( Additional hypothesis 1.1 ).…”