important aspects of personality , at least in psychiatrically normal
adults. Some unstructured tests aim to sample the ego, to judge it by itsspontaneous functioning in an unstructured situation. But there isstrong reason to believe that the samples obtained are generally inade -
quate and that when they approach adequacy they simply duplicate in -
formation that could more easily have been obtained by direct question -
ing.
We might, therefore, dismiss projective testing altogether and de -
cline to review a literature based on such faulty instruments. We have
noted that sentence completion tests, the most reliable of projectives,show no cross-sectional relationship of ego development to age inadulthood (McCrae & Costa, 1980). At the same rime, it will be worth -
while to consider some examples of aging and personality research us -
ing projective techniques, if only as a way of illustrating the points al -
ready made.
Inkblot Tests
Cross-sectional studies of inkblot responses do in fact show a regular
progression of age-related changes. Old people make fewer and moreconcrete descriptions of what they see and tend to give global responsesinstead of picking out minor details (Kahana, 1978). Both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies (Ames, 1965) have verified this ten-dency; but before concluding that here at last is evidence of personalitychange, we must bear in mind that the Rorschach Inkblot test is used toassess cognition and perception as well as personality . There is no doubtthat there are age-related changes in learning, memory , perceptual clo -
sure, and visual acuity , and these, rather than personality change, may
well account for the age differences. Caldwell made that argument aslong ago as 1954, and Eisdorfer (1963) provided some strong evidencein favor of it. When he matched old and young subjects on cognitiveabilities as measured by the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales, orWAIS, he found no differences in Rorschach responses.
We (Costa & McCrae, 1986a) conducted a 2-year longitudinal
study of age differences and changes on scales of the Holtzman InkblotTechnique or HIT (Holtzman, 1961). The HIT is intended to provide apsychometrically superior version of the better-known Rorschach test.Respondents are shown 45 blots and asked to tell what each looks like.Responses are scored for 22 variables, ranging from reaction time (howEgo Psychologies and Projective Methods 157