Simulation of Psychosis on a Multiple-Choice Projective Test

Abstract

The ability of a new multiple-choice group Rorschach instrument to differentiate 62 undergraduate students asked to simulate psychosis from 75 students and 55 schizophrenics given standard instructions was investigated. For each of 50 responses to miniature inkblots, normals and psychotics chose one of four alternative answers as most descriptive of what the stimulus looked like. Simulators responded as they thought a psychotic or insane person would. As hypothesized, simulators chose significantly more "good form but bizarre wording" responses than normals or psychotics, suggesting that the test is promising as a practical clinical indicator of attempts to simulate psychosis.

Detection of malingering on the Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms (SIRS): A study of coached and uncoached simulators.

“…Frederick and Foster (1990) elaborated on the forced-choice approach and found that ratios based on item difficulty effectively identified those feigning neuropsychological impairment. Other investigators (Kauteck, 1990;Pettigrew, Tuma, Pickering, & Whelton, 1983) found encouraging results with the application of forced-choice responses to projectives in the detection of malingered psychosis.…”