long it takes for the subject to offer an interpretation) to the content of
the response (animal, human, anatomy) to the definiteness and appro -
priateness of the response for a given blot. These scales, alone and in
combination, can be given psychodynamic interpretations (Hill, 1972).
We originally administered the HIT to 93 men and women in the
BLSA aged 25–90. When correlated with age, only four of the 22 HITvariables showed significant associations, and all of these were small.Further, when the test was readministered to 44 of the subjects about 2years later, only one of the four cross-sectional findings was replicatedby longitudinal changes: Scores on the HIT Hostility scale were higherin older subjects and also increased over time, suggesting a possiblematurational effect. However, this may well have been a chance finding,since Overall and Gorham (1972) did not replicate it in a much largercross-sectional study .
We also examined stability coefficients for the 44 subjects with two
administrations. These correlations ranged from .07 for Form Appropri-ateness to .73 for Form Definiteness; most of the HIT variables gave evi-dence of moderate to substantial stability over the 2-year interval.Finally , we correlated the HIT scales with measures of Neuroticism,Extraversion, and Openness, but we found no consistent pattern of as-sociations. In particular, the HIT Hostility score was unrelated to Neu-roticism. (Later analyses showed that none of the HIT scales was relatedto Agreeableness or Conscientiousness either.)
Interpreting these results is difficult. Because they are not corre-
lated with measures of the five factors, we cannot group the HIT scalesinto familiar domains of personality—in fact, we could conclude thatthe HIT does not measure personality at all. Perhaps it measures someform of perceptual or cognitive style, or perhaps merely idiosyncraticpreferences: When looking at inkblots, some people tend to see ani -
mals, some to see people. Whatever it is that the HIT scales measure ap -
pears to be relatively stable over a 2-year period and perhaps for much
longer. We found little evidence of age-related change in HIT scores. Ifthe HIT measures unconscious layers of personality , they do not appearto change with age.
TAT Studies
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) was introduced by Murray(1938) as a way of inferring motives or needs of which the individual158 PERSONALITY IN ADULTHOOD