Rorschach Human Movement and Psychotherapy: Relationship with the Therapist's Emotional Responses.

The emotional responses of psychotherapists to their patients, known as countertransference, can yield valuable insights into the patient's psychological functioning. Albeit from a different perspective, the Rorschach test also provides information about the patient's psychological processes. In particular, the Rorschach human movement response (M) has been shown to be a useful measure of higher-level psychological functioning. In an attempt to bridge these two largely different perspectives, the aim of this study was to explore the association between M responses in the Rorschach protocols of psychotherapy patients and emotional responses exhibited by their therapists. To this end, a convenience sample of 149 outpatients were administered the Rorschach according to the Comprehensive System, and their therapists completed the Therapist Response Questionnaire. Through a series of regression models, controlling for response style, response complexity, and degree of psychopathology, M demonstrated a significant association with the therapists' emotional responses. A lower number of M responses was associated with the therapists' feelings of disengagement, and a higher number of M responses was associated with the therapists' feelings of being more involved with the patient. Taken together, these results suggest a potential relationship between the number of M responses the respondent gives in the Rorschach and the subsequent development of the therapeutic alliance between the respondent and their therapist.

Effects of Covid-19 Emergency and Associated Lockdown Policies on the Normative Expectations for the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS).

Standardized personality tests compare the test taker's scores to those of a large sample of individuals representing normative expectations. However, what is psychologically normal in one historical context may not be similarly normal in another, so the recent spread of a new coronavirus, SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19), may have implications for what should normally be expected of a nonclinical person taking a personality test shortly after this dramatic event. To address this research question, we administered the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) to 60 nonclinical volunteers from Italy and compared their scores with the official normative reference values of the two tests, which had been established before COVID-19. The results of a series of two-sample t-tests indicated that our newly collected sample appeared somewhat less psychologically healthy compared with normative expectations, and these discrepancies were more pronounced on the PAI than on the R-PAS. Implications and future perspectives are discussed.

Cross-cultural investigation from nine countries on the associations of antisocial traits and the WHO's containment measures for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Personality traits play a role in prosocial behavior in relation to containment measures intended to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic. Empirical findings indicated that individuals high in socially aversive traits such as callousness are less compliant with containment measures. This study aimed to add cross-cultural data on the relationship between antisocial traits and adherence to COVID-19 containment measures. The sample consisted of 4,538 adults recruited by convenience in nine countries (Australia, Brazil, England, Iraq, Iran, Italy, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States). Statistical analyses indicated two latent profiles from our sample, empathic and antisocial, and six COVID-19 containment-measure-related factors using measures covering antisocial traits (PID-5), empathy (ACME), global personality pathology (LPFS-BF), and COVID-19 behaviors and beliefs. Through MANCOVA, the antisocial profile consistently showed less compliance and concern about the COVID-19 containment measures, even when controlling for demographics and local pandemic covariables. The network analysis indicated a lack of empathy and callousness as crucial traits of the predisposition to non-compliant behavior. In elaborating on prosocial campaigns in community emergencies, our cross-cultural findings would need to consider personality traits that focus on antisociality, anticipating similar associations and potential impacts in future disease outbreaks.

Complexity and Cognitive Engagement in the Rorschach Task: An fMRI Study.

Recently, an eye-tracking study found that Complexity and other R-PAS variables located in the Engagement and Cognitive Processing domain correlated with a proxy marker for cognitive effort and engagement. The goal of the current study was to test the robustness and validity of those eye-tracking findings by inspecting fMRI data. We hypothesized that the greater the level of engagement and cognitive effort put in place by a Rorschach test-taker, the greater the engagement of his/her cortical areas reflecting ongoing top-down attentional processes should be. We re-analyzed archival fMRI data from 26 healthy participants exposed to the Rorschach inkblots with the instruction to think of what they might be. The association of various Engagement and Cognitive Processing R-PAS scores to increased BOLD signals in the Dorsal Attention Network of the brain was examined. As expected, Complexity showed the strongest effect size across all R-PAS variables under investigation (d = 0.43), followed by Synthesis (d = 0.32) and Human Movement (d = 0.21). Noteworthy, the correlation between the effect sizes found in the current fMRI study and those found in the previously published eye-tracking study consists of an impressive r = .80.

An Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29) study investigating feigned schizophrenia and random responding in a British community sample.

Compared to other Western countries, malingering research is still relatively scarce in the United Kingdom, partly because only a few brief and easy-to-use symptom validity tests (SVTs) have been validated for use with British test-takers. This online study examined the validity of the Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29) in detecting feigned schizophrenia and random responding in 151 British volunteers. Each participant took three IOP-29 test administrations: (a) responding honestly; (b) pretending to suffer from schizophrenia; and (c) responding at random. Additionally, they also responded to a schizotypy measure (O-LIFE) under standard instruction. The IOP-29's feigning scale (FDS) showed excellent validity in discriminating honest responding from feigned schizophrenia (AUC = .99), and its classification accuracy was not significantly affected by the presence of schizotypal traits. Additionally, a recently introduced IOP-29 scale aimed at detecting random responding (RRS) demonstrated very promising results.

Complexity and Cognitive Engagement in the Rorschach Task: An Eye-Tracking Study.

This study investigated whether complexity and the other related Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) variables in the engagement and cognitive processing domain would associate with eye-tracking measures reflecting increased cognitive engagement and effort while visually scanning the Rorschach inkblots. A nonclinical sample of 71 adult volunteers were administered the Rorschach task while their eye movements were recorded using an eye tracker. Then, the average duration of fixations, the average number of fixations, the average amplitude of saccades, and the average maximum pupil size recorded during the response phase (RP) of the Rorschach administration were correlated with protocol-level, R-PAS variables located in the engagement and cognitive processing. As expected, complexity correlated, with a large effect size (r = .526, p < .01), with the number of fixations occurring during the RP of Rorschach administration. Some other variables related to complexity (e.g., Synthesis, Sy) also produced similar associations. The other eye-tracking variables under examination, however, produced weak or nonsignificant correlations.

An Inventory of Problems-29 Sensitivity Study Investigating Feigning of Four Different Symptom Presentations Via Malingering Experimental Paradigm.

The Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29) is a newly developed, self-administered test designed to assist practitioners evaluating the credibility of various symptom presentations. In a recent simulation study comparing real patients against experimental feigners, its classification accuracy compared favorably with that of the Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology and generalized better to different types of symptom reports (i.e., mood- or trauma-related vs. psychosis-related). Extending on these findings, this sensitivity study tested whether the IOP-29 would be similarly accurate in detecting feigning of conditions related to depression, mild traumatic brain injury, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and schizophrenia. Additionally, it also evaluated the susceptibility of the IOP-29 to uncooperative or random-like responding. Examination of 1,200 IOP-29 records from 400 nonclinical Italian volunteers who took the Italian version of the IOP-29 3 times, in 3 different conditions (i.e., standard instructions, feigned disorder, and random-like responding), confirmed that the IOP-29 might be similarly valid across a wide variety of mental health and cognitive complaints. Indeed, using the standard a priori cutoff of the IOP-29 (i.e., ≥ .50), sensitivity estimates ranged from .86 (for feigned PTSD) to .95 (for feigned depression) and did not significantly differ from one symptom presentation to another. These findings were obtained despite the fact that participants were coached to respond in a believable manner. Interestingly, the random-like responding generated extremely variable IOP-29 scores.

An Inventory of Problems-29 Study on Random Responding Using Experimental Feigners, Honest Controls, and Computer-Generated Data.

Self-reports could be affected by 2 primary sources of distortion: content-related (CRD) and content-unrelated (CUD) distortions. CRD and CUD, however, might covary, and similar detection strategies have been used to capture both. Thus, we hypothesized that a scale developed to detect random responding-arguably, one of the most evident examples of CUD-would likely be sensitive to both CUD and, albeit to a lesser extent, CRD. Study 1 (N = 1,901) empirically tested this hypothesis by developing a random responding scale (RRS) for the recently introduced Inventory of Problems-29 (Viglione, Giromini, & Landis, 2017), and by testing it with both experimental feigners and honest controls. Results supported our hypothesis and offered some insight on how to pull apart CRD- from CUD-related variance. Study 2 (N = 700) then evaluated whether our RRS would perform similarly well with data from human participants instructed to respond at random versus computer-generated random data. Interestingly, the sensitivity of our RRS dropped dramatically when considering the data from human participants. Together with the results of additional analyses inspecting the patterns of responses provided by our human random responders, these findings thus posed a major question: Is humans' random responding really random?

A multimethod assessment to study the relationship between rumination and gender differences.

Rumination is described as the propensity of responding to distress by repetitively and passively focusing on one's negative emotions, and failures, and their consequences (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991, 1998). Therefore, given that rumination is characterized especially by difficulties in managing and controlling negative emotional states, it is considered as the most common (impaired) emotional regulation strategy, and can be defined as an emotional process related to a repetitive, undesired, and past-oriented negatively inclined thought (Compare, Zarbo, Shonin, Van Gordon, & Marconi, 2014; Smith & Alloy, 2009). Recent evidence suggested that because of problems related to monitoring of negative states, rumination may be associated with exaggerated physiological reactivity relative to demands from the environment, and to some difficulties in attentional control abilities. The current study aimed at deepening our understanding of the role that a maladaptive emotional regulation strategy - such as rumination - might play in physiological response changes and in engaging dysfunctional attentional strategies. We used a multimethod assessment including self-reports (i.e., Rumination and Reflection Questionnaire, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale), physiological measures, (i.e., Heart Rate Variability recording), and attention tasks (i.e., Stroop Task) in order to examine the multiple aspects of rumination across genders. Sixty-eight individuals (30 males and 38 females) were administered DERS -16, RRQ and, soon after them, the Stroop task. Immediately after completing the Stroop task (T1), participants were exposed to a three-phase, baseline-stress-recovery experimental paradigm while their heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded. After completing the experimental paradigm, Stroop stimuli were presented for the second time (T2), in order to examine possible intra-individual differences between the two performances in the Stroop task. Our findings showed that rumination was higher in females than in males, but in men it appeared to be strongly associated with an overall impaired emotional regulation. However, no gender differences in rumination and emotion dysregulation were found when inspecting physiological data. The current study aims to contribute towards a better understanding which emotion regulation strategies and which physiological mechanisms are associated with rumination.

The Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy: A Comparison Between Paper-and-Pencil Versus Online Formats in Italian Samples.

The most recent conceptualizations of empathy recognize affective empathy as distinct from cognitive empathy. Consequently, instruments that assess these 2 types of empathy have been developed. Among them, the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) is a particularly promising, relatively new, self-report measure consisting of 31 items. To examine the cross-cultural adaptability of the QCAE, we investigated the psychometric properties of an Italian version in 2 samples and with 2 different formats of administration. Study 1 (n = 407) used archival data collected via paper and pencil; Study 2 (n = 285) used newly collected data, obtained with an online format. In these studies, in addition to the QCAE, 6 other instruments measuring empathy-related constructs (i.e., interpersonal competence, well-being, personality traits, emotion regulation, alexithymia, and emotion recognition) were administered, too. Data analysis focused on factor structure, internal consistency, and convergent validity. The findings of both studies provide support for the cross-cultural applicability of the QCAE, and reveal interesting associations between empathy and the other constructs under examination.

Development and Validation of the False Disorder Score: The Focal Scale of the Inventory of Problems.

This article introduces the Inventory of Problems (IOP)-a new, computerized, 181-item tool designed to discriminate bona fide from feigned mental illness and cognitive impairment-and presents the development and validation of its focal, feigning scale, the False Disorder Score (IOP-FDS). The initial sample included (a) 211 patients and 64 offenders who took the IOP under standard conditions, and (b) 210 community volunteers and 64 offenders who feigned mental illness. We split this sample into three subsamples. The first (n = 301) was used to select the variables to generate the IOP-FDS; the second (n = 148) scaled the IOP-FDS into a probability score; and the third (n = 100) tested its validity with an independent data set. In this third subsample, the IOP-FDS had sensitivity = .90, specificity = .80, and a greater area under the curve (AUC = .95) than the IOP-29 (.91). For 40 participants, the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) was available, too. Within this subgroup, the IOP-FDS outperformed the selected PAI validity scales (AUC = .99 vs. AUC ≤ .85).

Introducing the concept of neurobiological foundation of Rorschach responses using the example of Oral Dependent Language.

We introduce the concept of "neurobiological foundation" of Rorschach interpretations as an extension of the concept of behavioral representation as a foundation for interpretation of R-PAS variables. Here, we propose that if there is a parallelism between the mental, verbal and perceptual behaviors occurring within the microcosm of the Rorschach task and those occurring in the external environment [behavioral foundation], then the same brain regions engaged by the test-taker when producing of a given code, should be engaged also when reproducing, in the external environment, the same psychological processes underlying that specific Rorschach code [neurobiological foundation]. To investigate this concept, we used archival, fMRI data and tested whether producing Oral Dependency Language (ODL) responses would associate with increased activation in brain regions associated with dependency-related, psychological processes. Results from a sample of 21 non-clinical volunteers partially confirmed our hypothesis, providing some support to the neurobiological foundation of the ODL code.

Influence of maternal reflective functioning on mothers' and children's weight: A follow-up study.

Based on cross-sectional research linking poor reflective functionining (RF) to eating disorders, the current follow-up study tested whether maternal RF would explain the variance of mothers' and children's weight beyond the effects of maternal emotional dysregulation. During pregnancy (Time 1 [T1]), 51 women were administered the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and interviewed using the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI). Seven months after delivery (Time 2 [T2]), mother-baby dyads who remained in the study (n = 44) were videotaped (Feeding Scale) during their feeding interaction. Last (Time 3 [T3]), the weight of the 34 children who were still in the study was collected at 3 years of age. Maternal AAI-RF at T1 did not correlate with the DERS at T1 nor with the quality of the feeding interacions at T2. However, it correlated, significantly, with maternal body mass index (BMI) at T1, r = -.298, P = .034, and marginally significantly with baby's BMI at T3, r = -.296, P = .089. Moreover, multiple regression models showed a trend indicating that maternal AAI-RF might explain the variance of mothers' and children's weight beyond the effects of maternal emotional dysregulation. These findings suggest that working on maternal mentalization might contribute to helping prevent childhood obesity from pregnancy.

Objetivo: con base en la investigación de naturaleza transversal que conecta el pobre funcionamiento con reflexión (RF) con los trastornos de alimentación, el presente estudio de seguimiento examinó si el RF materno podría explicar la variación del peso de las madres y de los niños más allá de los efectos de la desregulación emocional materna. Método: durante el embarazo (T1), a 51 mujeres se les administró la Escala de Regulación de las Dificultades en la Emoción (DERS) y se les entrevistó usando la Entrevista de la Afectividad Adulta (AAI). Siete meses después del parto (T2), las díadas mamá-bebé que permanecían en el estudio (n = 44) fueron grabadas en video (Escala de Alimentación) durante su interacción de alimentación. Por último (T3), se determinó el peso de los 34 niños que aún estaban en el estudio a los tres años de edad. Resultados: la información materna de AAI-RF al T1 no se correlacionó con DERS al T1, ni tampoco con la calidad de las interacciones de alimentación al T2. Sin embargo, sí se correlacionó, significativamente, con BMI materno al T1 (r = −.298, p = .034), y marginalmente significativo, con el BMI del bebé al T3 (r = −.296, p = .089). Es más, los modelos de regresión múltiple mostraron una tendencia indicando que la AAI-RF materna pudiera explicar la variación del peso de las madres y de los niños más allá de los efectos de la desregulación emocional materna. Conclusiones: estos resultados sugieren que trabajar en la mentalización materna pudiera contribuir a ayudar a prevenir la obesidad en la niñez desde el embarazo.

Objectif: Se basant sur des recherches transversales liant un faible fonctionnement de réflexion (RF) aux troubles du comportement alimentaire, cette étude de suivi a testé si le RF maternel pouvait ou non expliquer la variance des poids des mères et des enfants au-delà des effets de la dysrégulation émotionnelle maternelle. Méthode: Durant la grossesse (T1), 51 femmes ont reçu l'Echelle de Difficultés de Régulation de l'Emotion (en anglais Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale, soit la DERS) et ont passé un entretien utilisant l'Entretien d'Attachement Adulte (Adult Attachment Interview, AAI). Sept mois après l'accouchement (T2), les dyades mère-bébé encore dans l'étude (n = 44) ont été filmées (Echelle d'Alimentation) durant leur interaction alimentaires. Enfin (T3), le poids des 34 enfants étant encore dans l'étude a été pris à l'âge de trois ans. Résultats: Le RF-AAI maternel au T1 n'était pas en corrélation avec la DERS au T1, ni avec la qualité des interactions alimentaires au T2. Cependant, il était corrélé, et de manière importante, avec l'IMC maternel au T1 (r = −,298, p = ,034), et de manière marginalement importante, avec l'IMC du bébé au T3 (r = −,296, p = ,089). De plus plusieurs modèles de régression ont montré une tendance indiquant le le RF-AAI maternel pourrait expliquer la variance des poids des mères et des enfants au delà des effets de la dysrégulation émotionnelle maternelle. Conclusions: Ces résultats suggèrent que le fait de travailler sur la mentalisation maternelle peut contribuer à aider à prévenir l'obésité de l'enfance dès la grossesse.

The Development of the Inventory of Problems-29: A Brief Self-Administered Measure for Discriminating Bona Fide From Feigned Psychiatric and Cognitive Complaints.

This article describes the development of the Inventory of Problems-29 (IOP-29), a new, short, paper-and-pencil, self-administered measure of feigned mental and cognitive disorders. Four clinical comparison simulation studies were conducted. Study 1 (n = 451) selected the items and produced an index of potential feigning. Study 2 (n = 331) scaled this index to produce a probability score, and examined its psychometric properties. Study 3 tested the generalizability of Study 2's findings with 2 additional samples (ns = 128 and 90). Results supported the utility of the IOP-29 for discriminating bona fide from feigned psychiatric and cognitive complaints. Validity was demonstrated in feigning mild traumatic brain injury, psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression. Within the independent samples of Studies 2 and 3, the brief IOP-29 performed similarly to the MMPI-2 and Personality Assessment Inventory, and perhaps better than the Test of Memory Malingering. Classifications within these samples with base rates of .5 produced sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive power, and negative predictive power statistics of about .80. Further research is needed testing the IOP-29 in ecologically valid field studies.

An Interrater Reliability Study of Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) Raw and Complexity-Adjusted Scores.

Recently, the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS; Meyer, Viglione, Mihura, Erard, & Erdberg, 2011 ) was introduced to overcome some possible limitations of the Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003 ) while continuing its efforts to link Rorschach inferences to their evidence base. An important, technical modification to the scoring system is that R-PAS interpretations are based on both standard scores and complexity-adjusted scores. Two previous U.S. studies reported good to excellent interrater reliability (IRR) for the great majority of R-PAS variables; however, IRR of complexity-adjusted scores has never been investigated. Furthermore, no studies have yet investigated R-PAS IRR in Europe. To extend this literature, we examined R-PAS IRR of Page 1 and Page 2 raw and complexity-adjusted scores with 112 Italian Rorschach protocols. We collected a large sample of both clinical and nonclinical Rorschach protocols, each of which was coded separately by 2 independent raters. Results demonstrated a mean intraclass correlation of .78 (SD = .14) for raw scores and.74 (SD = .14) for complexity-adjusted scores. Overall, for both raw and complexity-adjusted values, most of the variables were characterized by good to excellent IRR.

A Brazilian Investigation of the 36- and 16-Item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scales.

OBJECTIVE: About 10 years ago, Gratz and Roemer (2004) introduced the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS), a 36-item self-report instrument measuring 6 areas of emotion regulation problems. Recently, Bjureberg et al. (2015) have introduced a new, briefer version of the DERS comprising only 16 of the 36 items included in the original version. Because no studies have yet cross-validated the recently introduced 16-item DERS and the 36-item DERS has never been tested in Brazil, we sought to inspect the psychometric properties of scores from both DERS versions with a nonclinical Brazilian sample. METHOD: Participants were 725 adult volunteers aged 18-70 years (mean = 30.54, standard deviation = 10.59), 82.3% of whom were women. All were administered the DERS along with a number of other self-report and performance-based instruments. Data analyses inspected internal consistency, factor structure, and convergent as well as divergent validity of scores from both DERS versions. RESULTS: Results show that scores from both DERS versions possess good psychometric properties. Interestingly, both versions correlated, in the expected direction, with psychopathology and showed no significant correlations with cognitive measures. Like in other studies, however, the Awareness factor of the 36-item DERS did not produce optimal validity and reliability indexes. CONCLUSION: Taken together, our findings indicate that the 16-item DERS may be preferred over the 36-item version and provide additional support to the differentiation between emotion regulation and cognitive tasks of emotional perception and abstract and verbal reasoning.

An Italian contribution to the study of the validity and reliability of the trait meta-mood scale.

BACKGROUND: Emotional intelligence (EI) is a field of study that is receiving increasingly attention in the literature, due to its relevance to a series of aspects of human psychological and social functioning. AIMS: This study used archival data from an Italian sample encompassing 885 nonclinical adults, to contribute to the study of the validity and reliability of the Trait Meta Mood-Scale (TMMS), a widely used measure of self-perceived EI. METHOD: Statistical analyses focused on internal consistency, factor structure and concurrent validity of an Italian TMMS version. RESULTS: Results confirmed previous international studies supporting the cross-cultural adaptability of the TMMS, showing adequate reliability and validity indexes for all TMMS scores. CONCLUSIONS: EI may be measured via self-report. Its relationship to psychopathology, however, deserves more research, as certain components of EI correlate positively with psychological suffering.

A longitudinal study on emotional dysregulation and obesity risk: From pregnancy to 3 years of age of the baby.

Some recent findings indicate that maternal sensitivity and emotional regulation may play a key role in predicting the risk for obesity of the child in early ages. The current article describes a longitudinal study encompassing more than 50 women, across a time-span that currently goes from pregnancy (n = 65) to three years of age of the baby (n = 53). In a previous report on our ongoing research project, we showed that emotional regulation during pregnancy and pre-pregnancy BMI significantly predicted the quality of the early, dyadic feeding interactions, at 7 months of age of the baby. The current study confirmed and extended those findings, by showing that maternal emotional dysregulation (r = .355, p = .009) and pre-pregnancy BMI (r = .389, p = .004) predicted the BMI of the child at three years of age too, with a medium to large effect size. However, neither maternal emotional regulation nor pre-pregnancy BMI significantly predicted infant attachment at one year of age.

The Effects of Using the International Versus Comprehensive System Rorschach Norms For Children, Adolescents, and Adults.

Currently, there is some debate about whether to use Comprehensive System norms (CS; Exner, 2003 ) or the Composite International Reference Values (CIRV; Meyer, Erdberg, & Shaffer, 2007 ) when interpreting Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM; Rorschach, 1921 ) protocols administered with the CS method. The goal of this study is to assist clinicians in making this decision by providing information about the effects of choosing one option or the other. Accordingly, this research evaluates the effects of using the CS versus CIRV norms with children, adolescents, and adults. First, we identified 43 variables for which the CS and the CIRV for children and adolescents differ from each other by at least a Cohen's d value of .50. Next, we evaluated whether these divergent variables are the same as those previously identified as divergent for the adult population. Results showed that for both children and adolescents, as well as for adults, relying on CS norms versus CIRV would result in interpretations that are more pathological in terms of (a) perception and thinking, (b) psychological resources and cognitive and emotional abilities, and (c) representations of human relationships. A discussion on the clinical effects of using one versus the other set of norms follows.

Introducing a Bayesian Approach to Determining Degree of Fit With Existing Rorschach Norms.

This article offers a new methodological approach to investigate the degree of fit between an independent sample and 2 existing sets of norms. Specifically, with a new adaptation of a Bayesian method, we developed a user-friendly procedure to compare the mean values of a given sample to those of 2 different sets of Rorschach norms. To illustrate our technique, we used a small, U.S. community sample of 80 adults and tested whether it resembled more closely the standard Comprehensive System norms (CS 600; Exner, 2003), or a recently introduced, internationally based set of Rorschach norms (Meyer, Erdberg, & Shaffer, 2007 ). Strengths and limitations of this new statistical technique are discussed.