Gee eMode Whiz
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1997 - 2002
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Inkblot
Test(according
to eMode)
Rosie, your unconscious mind
is driven most by
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By having your unconscious mind driven
most by Resistance, it appears that you like to keep your internal life
private. So while some people might wish for the bright lights and paparazzi
of celebrity, that's probably not your thing. In fact, you might be
a bit more wary than most people are about others "getting into
your business." Perhaps you grew up thinking that personal matters
should be kept to yourself or that being reserved is a virtue. Regardless
of the reason, people with a heightened drive for resistance are typically
not very communicative. If this is true for you, the people in your
life may never even realize when you're having an off day — and
perhaps you like it that way.
However, if you tend to keep people at arm's length, you may sometimes
appear secretive or standoffish to those who don't know you well. In
some cases, a lack of communication with others may even put you out
of touch with your own ideas and feelings. If you find that resistance
is affecting your life in negative ways, you may want to more closely
examine the situations that tend to spark it. Once you have a handle
on the things that make you defensive, you can take an active role in
opening yourself up to people and new situations. When you do, you'll
likely find that the benefits of sharing more of yourself far outweigh
the risks. |
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Your responses to the inkblots reveal more than just what drives your
unconscious mind. They also uncover some central details about your
personality, perspective, and relationships with others. Your unconscious
mind colors these characteristics but is different from them. Here's
what your responses indicated:
Your concept of reality
Your concept of reality is a popular one and might be seen on the surface
as being mainstream. When making first impressions, for the most part,
you tend to see the world as others do. However, because you're a unique
individual and have your own perspectives, it's likely that you also
have a talent for devising your own novel viewpoints. This ability to
see what others see but still have your own vision can be a great gift.
Because you're usually in agreement with the majority about the way
things are, you're not likely to find yourself at odds because of your
views. On the contrary, this common vision is likely one of the things
that binds you to the people with whom you associate yourself. When
a person's perspective is far different from the norm, they're much
more likely to feel alienated and may have to work harder to get their
points of view across. People like you have the opposite problem in
that you may have a greater tendency to see what is obvious. Because
you see what most people see, it can be a struggle to appreciate others'
unusual perspectives or a lone opinion in the group. Be careful of getting
too comfortable with your views, even if others share them. The obvious
opinion isn't always the best one. Challenge yourself.
Take Action
In the past, it
may have seemed to you that people with dissenting opinions were
misguided or just plain wrong. Yet not all differing viewpoints lack
merit. On the contrary, people with unusual perspectives can add
breadth to a discussion or even present an entirely new lens through
which to view a problem. Imagine the great inventors. Many of their
boldest achievements must have sounded like crackpot schemes at first.
However, their unique views eventually proved to be at the root of
great scientific and technological advancements.
The best way to make sure that you're not writing
off potentially valuable ideas from others is to pay special attention
in situations where there is a dissenting opinion. While your initial
reaction may be to squash an unexpected idea to move on to ones that
you share, try instead to examine the contribution more closely.
Ask yourself — or better yet, ask the idea's originator —
what it is that guides their logic. Try to keep an open mind and
really hear what the person saying, rather than trying to bend their
views to match your own. If you can remain objective, you might find
a fresh, new perspective or solution.
For example, imagine taking a friend along with
you when buying a new cell phone. Your usual tendency might be to
base your purchase solely on product features. After all, when buying
electronic equipment, bells and whistles can be important. Picture
that you've narrowed your selection down to two phones. Both are
of quality, but one has a nicer keypad, cooler ring tones, and better
number storage capabilities. Once you find out that there's only
a $10 price difference between the two, your choice between them
seems obvious.
But then your friend, shopping right along with
you, asks the salesperson how many people have returned the phone
you chose due to defects or other problems. The salesperson reluctantly
tells you that the model you selected has a much higher number of
problems than the other one you were considering. She also admits
to you that if you drop the phone even one time, it will be destroyed.
After hearing this news you decide to put your
usual criteria aside and select the phone with the better return
record. If your friend hadn't been shopping with you, you would have
made a different — probably worse — decision because
the two of you went about shopping differently. By looking at things
a new way, you can sometimes come to a different, more beneficial
conclusion even in situations that appeared obvious. |
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Your mental flexibility
This section looks as the flexibility of your opinions, values, and
perspective. To determine your result, Emode's experts examined both
the fluidity of your thinking and the rigidity of your opinions.
Based on your responses, you're reasonably flexible in your thinking
and opinions. As a result, when dealing with most topics, you can easily
consider other people's views. However, if a conversation centers on
one of your core values, you're typically more reluctant to entertain
other ways of thinking. This is true for most people. After all, it's
good to have strong opinions on issues of importance. These views help
create a foundation for what you believe in. Naturally, your ideas can
change and develop over time. But particularly in your case, it's unlikely
that they'll be radically different from day to day.
Occasionally your certainty can result in missed opportunities. If
you're too sure of your values, you might forego the chance to observe
a different way of being. You might also fail to imagine a way of life
that might actually make you happier. If you find that you are excessively
defensive on certain topics, it's likely because of one of the following
reasons. Either the area is something you've had extensive experience
with, and therefore have personal history to base your views on. Or,
your defensiveness could be covering up a deep wound or insecurity that
you're afraid will be exposed if you open yourself up to a new way of
thinking.
Take Action
When you find yourself
behaving defensively about one of your opinions, instead of escalating
the situation or shutting down, take a moment to step back and examine
your beliefs. Have you formed your opinion based on sound knowledge
and experience, or is it merely convenient for you to think that
way? At times, you might be surprised to find that fear or even simple
laziness is at the root of some of your views. When trying to uncover
what is really bothering you about having your viewpoint questioned,
ask yourself: "What would be so bad if my opinion were wrong?"
In finding out what you have to lose by changing your opinion you
can come to some deep understanding about your true values and motivations.
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Your Level of Fantasy
Some people fantasize nearly nonstop, others rarely do, and the majority
of people fall somewhere in between. Imagination and the ability to
create alternate realities are the two factors that determine whether
or not a person is capable of having a highly colorful fantasy life.
However, not everyone who can fantasize does. For example, if two strangers
who were both capable of fantasizing were sitting next to one another
on a bus, one might still spend the whole ride thinking about paying
their bills and formulating their next to-do list, while the other could
be envisioning taking a siesta on a tropical island. For Emode's Inblot
Test, having a high level of fantasy involves both having the mental
tools necessary to fantasize and putting them to use.
Being prone to fantasy can be thought of as a spectacular gift. Fantasy
can give one the ability to create a made-up world much more captivating
and pleasurable than the usual day-to-day realities. This can be a wonderful
asset as you go though life - a free form of entertainment that you
can use any time.
Some people look at those who are fantasy prone in a derogatory way.
They feel that the more realistically a person thinks, the saner they
are. Indeed, most definitions of "abnormal" refer to what
is "unusual" or "not frequent". Clinical experts
sometimes look at fantasy as a means of trying to escape reality, rather
that face what's there.
Regardless of how one feels about fantasy, its value is heavily dependent
on how it's used. If you use fantasy to visualize improvements in your
life without ignoring important realities, then fantasy can be a useful
talent. It can help you maintain your optimism and even to devise novel
solutions to your problems. However, if fantasy is something you retreat
into as a way of denying reality, then you might want to reconsider
your use of it.
Emode's experts found that you are certainly capable of fantasizing
and may even enjoy keeping yourself entertained that way. However, based
on your responses, your first reaction to stress probably isn't to create
an alternate universe or to imagine things differently than they actually
are. In fact, you appear to have the nice balance of having the gift
of fantasy at your disposal without having the tendency to overly rely
on it. In other words, when it comes to fantasy, you typically use it,
but don't abuse it.
Fantasy is a technique frequently employed by people living under
harsh conditions in order to ease their stress. In this way, imagination
can be a vital tool for prison inmates who live in depressing, restrictive
conditions day in and day out. Using the power of fantasy can also be
a profound relief for people living in poverty and in war zones. In
fact, there are many people who live in adverse situations or deal with
other painful circumstances that could benefit from occasional relief
through fantasy.
Fantasy only becomes a problem when you ignore something you need
to deal with because you have the ability to fantasize it away. For
example, imagine you have a problem with an aunt of yours. Perhaps this
aunt says something that upsets you almost every time you talk with
her. As a result, after a while you stop listening to her in favor of
pretending that you're someplace else entirely. The fantasy you create
for yourself might be more exciting - and far less annoying, but it
doesn't change this detrimental pattern between you and your aunt. A
better response might be to put your fantasies aside for a while to
address your aunt's poor communication style head-on.
At it's worst, fantasy can keep you from making important lifestyle
choices. For instance, if you fantasize that you have boundless energy
and are a wonderful athlete, and in the meantime sit on your couch eating
potato chips and playing video games, there will eventually come a time
where you won't be able to deny what is really happening to your body
and you will have to tend to the reality of your deteriorating health.
However, there's no reason that you have to let fantasy affect you in
these negative ways. So long as you pay attention to the aspects of
your life that need addressing, like your health or your career, you
should be able to use fantasy and creative visualizations to bolster
your happiness and success, not impede them.
How you relate to others
Your relationships are complex things. One important aspect affecting
all of them is the role that you play when interacting with others.
Do you typically take an active approach when dealing with the people
around you, or do you tend to behave more passively? According to your
test responses, you appear to have a balanced approach to interacting.
You're not consistently the one who is active or passive. This mixed
pattern indicates that, relative to other people, you try to either
be sensitive to the needs of a particular situation or the people with
whom you're dealing. By being able to adjust your approach depending
on how the others are behaving, you can handle most situations with
ease. Your friends may see you as a great listener or a savvy communicator
because of your gift for reading people.
The overall effect of this balanced approach is that you have more
options available to you when it comes to your communication style.
The possible downside to this fact is that certain individuals with
a balanced approach can get confused about which approach feels most
natural to them — not just to the situation. While flexibility
is a good thing, if you behave solely according to what's going on around
you, it can wear on your sense of self.
Another difficulty you may find yourself running up against is that
your balanced style may seem like inconsistency to other people. For
example, if one day you take the lead in a group and the next day you
choose to follow, this transition can be unsettling to those around
you. Also when you're dealing with someone who is also balanced in their
approach, your relationship can become an elaborate dance where each
of you is trying to figure out who's taking charge. If you find yourself
in a situation like this one, consider making your style more consistent
— whether active or passive — in order to avoid potential
confusion. |
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Now that you've taken a look inside your unconscious mind, it's time
to uncover more details about your inner workings. To help you do just
that, Emode's team of experts has collected further research about your
personal test results covering everything from your sex life to your
capacity to be alone. Over the next four weeks, you'll receive four
emails, one per week, based on what they found. Get ready to learn more
about what makes you tick. In the meantime, check out how other people
responded to Emode's Inkblot test and see if your own responses match
the norm. |
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Emode's research team thought that you might find it interesting to
compare your answers to those that we got from other people. For this
reason, we've included the inkblots from the test along with the percentages
of people that responded for each option.
I can't give the answers.....
that wouldn't be fair!! (go to eM de
and take the test!) |
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Hermann Rorschach is the most well known clinician
to have worked with inkblots in a clinical setting, but he was not the
first. Psychologists have been using inkblots to make inferences about
personality since the 1850s.
During Rorschach's work in the early 1900s, he noticed
that certain types of patients responded to inkblots in similar ways.
Through years of empirical testing, Rorschach was able to determine
patterns between how people responded to the inkblots and certain personality
traits. For more than a decade, Rorschach continued to develop his theories
and the Rorschach Inkblot Test until his death in 1922.
In the years following Rorschach's death, there were
several different scoring methods presented by different researchers.
However, having all these different methodologies made scoring and interpretation
of the test confusing. Then in the late 1960s and early 1970s, John
Exner took on the formidable challenge of putting together the different
systems of thought to come up with a standardized scoring methodology.
Exner's work, along with the contributions of other researchers such
as Weiner (see reference list below), has created a foundation for how
the Rorschach is used today. A study published in 1995 confirmed that
about 82% of mental health clinicians regularly use the Rorschach in
their practices, indicating that use of inkblots is still alive and
well.
To use the Rorschach test properly, it needs to be
administered in a clinical setting where the clinician allows the subject
to say whatever is on their mind. Given this is not possible to do in
a widely administered online assessment, Emode took on the challenge
of using the concepts and findings of Rorschach research to create its
own online Inkblot test. Emode's Inkblot Test is designed as an online
psychological instrument with strong psychometric properties of its
own. One major difference between Emode's Inkblot Test and the Rorschach
Test is that Emode developed its test to reflect the tendencies of the
normal population. The Rorschach was designed to detect psychopathology,
such as schizophrenia. To make the wisdom gained through Rorschach available
to the public, Emode translated it so that it is relevant to all people
and simultaneously more accessible because of the ease in administration.
Emode's test provides a modern interpretation of inkblot
testing based both on years of careful clinical work, as well as on
the responses of thousands of Emode members who gave us their impressions
of a series of inkblots.
The methodology behind Emode's Inkblot Test consisted
of three steps:
- Emode created online inkblots and gathered open-ended
feedback from thousands of users about what the inkblots meant to them.
- Emode's research team used the collected responses
to develop a survey consisting of multiple-choice questions about the
inkblots. The survey questions were designed based on themes that appeared
in people's open-ended inkblot responses. The types of questions included
those assessing patterns identified through classical theory, and by
asking questions about the inkblots and correlating those questions
to other information Emode's test gathered about users' behaviors and
psychological characteristics.
- Emode analyzed the survey responses to select the
most reliable inkblots and questions, as well as analyzing the data
to determine clusters of responses that became the different types
of people the test segments.
The clusters were used to give primary results at the end of the test.
In order to elaborate on what each cluster meant, Emode's researchers
looked at associations with other questions in Emode's database. In
addition, they examined the dimensions measured in traditional Rorschach
methods. They then concluded which of those classic dimensions could
be confirmed through empirical associations. The resulting dimensions
were used to create multi-faceted descriptions of what the inkblot
responses indicated.
If you're interested in learning more about the Rorschach
method and inkblot testing, Emode suggests the following resources.
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Beck, S. J. (1937). Introduction to the Rorschach
Method. New York: American Orthopsychiatric
Association.
Exner, J. E.
(1993). The Rorschach: A comprehensive system, Volume 1: Basic foundations,
3rd Edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Exner, J. E. (1991). The Rorschach: A comprehensive
system, Volume 2: Current Research and advanced interpretation, Second
edition. New York: John Wiley.
Exner, J. E. (Ed.) (1995). Issues and methods in Rorschach
research. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Hertz, M. R. (1934). The Reliability of the Rorschach
inkblot test. Journal of Applied Psychology, 18, 461-77.
Hertz, M. R. (1936). The method of administration
of the Rorschach Inkblot Test, Child Development, 7, 237-54.
Klopfer, B. (1937). The present status of the theoretical
development of the Rorschach Method. Rorschach Research Exchange, 1,
142-47.
Piotrowski, Z. A. (1957). Perceptanalysis. New York:
Macmillan.
Rapaport, D., Gill, M. & Schafer, R. (1946). Diagnostic
psychological testing, Version 2. Chicago, IL: Year Book Publishers.
Rorschach, H. (1921). Psychodiagnostics. Bern, Switzerland:
Bircher.
Rose, T., Kaser-Boyd, N., & Maloney, M. P. (2001).
Essentials of Rorschach Assessment, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Watkins, C. E., Jr., Campbell, V. L., Nieberding,
R., & Hallmark, R. (1995). Contemporary practice of psychological
assessment by clinical psychologists. Professional Psychology, 26, 54-60.
Weiner, I. B. (1997). Current status of the Rorschach
Inkblot Method, Journal of Personality Assessment, 68(1), 5-19.
Weiner, I. B. (1998). Principles of Rorschach interpretation.
Mahwah, N.J.: Erlbaum Associates.
Weiner, I. B., & Exner, J. E. (1991). Rorschach
changes in long-term and short-term psychotherapy. Journal of Personality
Assessment, 56, 453-465. |
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