MeSH D007282 | ||
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An ink blot test is a personality test which involves the evaluation of a subjects response to ambiguous ink blots. This test was published in 1921 by Hermann Rorschach who was a psychiatrist from Switzerland. The interpretation of people's responses to the Rorschach Inkblot Test was originally based on psychoanalytical theory but investigators have used it in an empirical fashion. When this test is used empirically, the quality of the responses is related to the measurements of personality.
Throughout the 1940s and 1950s the ink blot test was popular among clinical psychologists but quickly lost popularity as critics claimed it to be too subjective. Variations of the ink blot test have since been developed such as the Holtzman Inkblot Test and the Somatic Inkblot Series.