Personality Functioning in Schizophrenia: A Comparative Study Using the Rorschach Inkblot Test (Exner’s Comprehensive System)

Description

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23496125

Anubha Srivastava (Department of Psychology, Shri Agrasen Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Azamgarh, Uttar Pradesh)

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder involving distortions in thinking, perceiving, feeling, and behavior that have lasting negative effects on a person’s cognitive, social, and emotional functioning. Projective techniques, particularly the Rorschach Inkblot test offer valuable empirical information regarding the thought processes, perceptual patterns, emotional concerns, and social relations associated with schizophrenia. The purpose of this study was to compare personality characteristics of individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia and those without the mental disorder (healthy controls). A comparative survey design was adopted. One hundred and twenty (120) participants comprising sixty (60) schizophrenics and sixty (60) healthy controls participated in the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select the participants. The diagnosis of the participants with schizophrenia was made by qualified psychiatrists using the ICD-10, while that of the healthy controls was made using the GHQ-5. The socio-demographic data of the participants were collected using a structured questionnaire. The participants were individually administered the Rorschach Inkblot Test (Rorschach, 1921) and their responses were analyzed using Exner’s comprehensive system. Statistical analysis of the data was performed using IBM SPSS Statistics (Version 20.0). Independent sample t-test was performed to determine the significant differences in the mean values of the selected personality measures between the participants with schizophrenia and the healthy controls. Significant differences were found in perceived organizational content, perceptual organization, developmental quality, form quality, determinants, content categories and special scores. It was found that the participants with schizophrenia experienced challenges in organizing their thoughts, perceiving objects, controlling emotions, relating to others and distinguishing between fantasy and reality compared to the healthy controls. It was concluded that Rorschach Inkblot Test is a viable assessment tool for the determination of personality functioning and the presence of cognitive and perceptual abnormalities in individuals with schizophrenia.