Siglaror Project
A little more about the SIGLAROR project
The SIGLAROR is a research project that stems from the need to provide a reliable tool for the homogeneous assessment of formal qualities, regardless of the Signing Method followed and cross-cultural differences, by involving different experts in assessing them. The study also aims to activate constant updating on Original Responses, which together with formal qualities are the mainstay of Rorschach Psychodiagnostics. Regarding the original responses, which like the Volgari may vary according to cultural differences, SIGLAROR obviously refers to the Italian population.
The project concretely meets the administrator’s need for objectivity and safety in his or her professional practice. Making the attribution of formal qualities homogeneous, with statistical and convergence criteria for evaluation by a panel of experts, also provides an effective response both to that part of the scientific community critical of the autonomy of judgment of the individual examiner and to those who consider the Rorschach “an art” and not a rigorous technique.
The SIGLAROR computerized database currently contains about 23,000 different Rorschach interpretations, localized and initialed, updatable via the Internet and usable in both Windows and Macintosh environments.
For each interpretation, the SIGLAROR reports:
1. The type of the subject who provided the interpretation: “normal” adults, subjects with severe psychopathology (personality disorders, psychotic frameworks, and cerebro-organic syndromes) or normal and pathological developmental age subjects.
2. The statistical frequency compared with a sample of 792 subjects representative of the Italian adult population. Out-of-sample interpretations entered into the database do not report statistical frequency.
3. “Statistical R+’s” i.e., responses of good form as given by 2% of a representative sample.
4. “Vague R±s” i.e., those that by their nature concern objects that can have any shape.
5. “Inaccurate R±s,” i.e., those composed of parts good in statistical frequency and parts of bad shape.
6. The frequency, expressed as a percentage, of convergence of the panel’s judgment for other interpretations.
The judgment on the formal quality of each of these responses is considered convergent when at least 70 percent of the experts made the same assessment. Where convergence has not been achieved, the program reports the percentages of divergence for each acronym, indicating the highest rating as first.
This application allows the examiner who consults it to print out a certification (useful mainly in the forensic legal field) that the formal qualities attributed are guaranteed by objective characteristics provided by the data base.
What makes the SIGLAROR project interesting is that it can be constantly updated via the Internet, both in terms of new interpretations and the involvement of new experts who can make their own judgments.
METHODOLOGICAL CHOICES
In order to make the research homogeneous, it is imperative that participants in the SIGLAROR project agree with the following regarding the principles governing the assessment of formal qualities.
Attribution of Formal Qualities
The SIGLAROR , defines formal qualities according to the following criteria:
Good Form Answers
These are the ones that are easily recognized in the interpreted scrubland area. Two types can be distinguished:
- R+ statistics, that is, those interpreted by at least 2% of a representative sample.
- Aesthetic R+ i.e., responses in which the interpreted spot area corresponds in shape to the interpretation given.
Answers of Vague, Indefinite and/or Imprecise Form.
Only two types are distinguished in the SIGLAROR:
- R± vague by their nature, that is, concerning objects that can have any shape, as long as they are not R+ statistics.
- R± indefinite or imprecise, that is, answers in which formally good parts and formally bad parts coexist.
Bad Form Answers
Interpretations of bad form or no form. The quality level is worse than that of statistical R+. They are recognized with difficulty on the Table for the reason that the shape of the interpreted spot area does not correspond to the interpretation provided by the subject. R- of the formless type concern interpretations that do not take into account the formal component.
Combinatorial and Contaminated Responses.
Regarding these responses, the principle shared by experts, which governs the attribution of formal quality, is to consider even contaminated or disproportionate interpretations as good forms, as long as their individual parts are R+ statistical or aesthetic interpretations. This logic follows the principle that R+s represent the subject’s ability to recognize something “formally evident,” albeit unreal, in the bush that is easily identifiable and therefore shareable.
The overall interpretation of Table V: “A rabbit with wings” (rabbit in the central detail 3 , head in the upper central detail 5, ears in the small upper appendages 6, wings in the large lateral details 7), is a clear example of an infrequent response, unreal as the result of contamination, but immediately recognizable in the blot since both the rabbit in 3 and the wings in 7 are high statistical frequency responses. Different is the case with a response such as “A snake with dragonfly wings” seen in Table V itself (snake in 3, dragonfly wings in 7); such an interpretation will be considered an R- since, unlike the rabbit with wings, it is evidently a bad form in all its component parts.
The R+s express the subject’s ability to attribute perceptually shareable meaning to the stain and are thus a direct expression of his or her reality check; if of good form, even an unreal and/or tainted response identifies proper functioning of the reality check, but presents a problem at the level of the sense of reality, that is, in the ability to attribute meaning to the perceived experience.
The Roman Rorschach School Method classifies contaminated responses into three levels of severity, distinguished by the formal quality of the responses, comparable to the three levels into which Particular Manifestations are distinguished. Broadly speaking, the first level deals with the normal and neurotic area, the second level with severe neuroses and personality disorders, and the third level directs toward psychotic disorders.
– Level I includes interpretations in which Contamination does not impair formal quality; they identify a sufficiently intact examination of reality and an altered sense of reality.
Ex. Table. V “Butterfly with bat wings” (Butterfly body in 3, bat wings in 7) initialed:
G F+ A (V) C1
In this case, the two parts composing the Contaminated Response are both R+ statistics and therefore the interpretation retains the formal + quality.
– Level II includes contaminated interpretations of imprecise formal quality. In them, both examination and a sense of reality are partially impaired.
Ex. Table. V “A snake with bat wings” (snake in 3, bat wings in 7) initialed:
G F± A (V)(O±) C2
In this case the formal quality ± results from the presence of a positive part by statistical frequency (the bat’s wings) and a part of negative and original formal quality (the snake). In this case for example, the experts can give their opinion on the formal quality only of the part not subject to statistical constraint, i.e., the snake, and not on the whole interpretation.
– Level III includes contaminated responses of poor formal quality, and they show clear impairment in both examination and sense of reality.
Ex. Table. V “Snake with dragonfly wings” (snake in 3, dragonfly wings in 7) initialed:
G F- A O- C3
The latter type of interpretation for example can be evaluated entirely by experts from a formal quality point of view, as none of its constituent parts are bound by the criterion of statistical frequency.
The SIGLAROR is a transmethod and transcultural working tool, also active in Spanish and Romanian, important for all those who work with inkblots whether they are students or professionals, capable of giving the psychodiagnostic’s activity more confidence, objectivity and homogeneity in the delicate task of estimating the formal qualities and originality of Rorschach Interpretations, and resulting in an indispensable support in the professional practice conducted with the Blot Test.
The contribution made by SIGLAROR in estimating formal qualities appears to cut across different approaches to interpreting the Test. Broadening the panel of experts to include professionals from all major methodological orientations is therefore a goal to be set to give the instrument an increasingly universal character.
