a projective method of personality research developed by the American psychologist Henry Murray and his colleagues in the 1930s. The final edition of the stimulus material and the Interpretation Guide was published in 1943. TAT is one of the most popular and rich in its capabilities, but at the same time one of the most difficult to conduct and process psychodiagnostic methods used in world practice.
The stimulus material consists of 30 paintings by American artists. The subject is presented with 20 pictures in a certain order (the set depends on gender and age) and is given the following instruction: “Look at the picture and, based on it, make up a story, plot, story. Try to remember what you need to mention in this story. You will say what, in your opinion, this situation is, what moment is depicted in the picture, what happens to people. In addition, you will say what happened before this moment, in the past in relation to him, what happened before. Then you will say what will happen after this situation, in the future in relation to it, what will happen next. In addition, it should be said what the people depicted in the picture or any of them feel, their experiences, emotions, feelings. And you will also tell me what the people depicted in the picture think, their reasoning, memories, thoughts, decisions.”
The analysis of the stories allows us to give a detailed description of the deep tendencies of the personality, including its needs and motives, attitudes to the world, character traits, typical forms of behavior, internal and external conflicts, features of the course of mental processes, mechanisms of psychological defense, etc. The qualification of the specialist decisively determines whether it will be possible to obtain information suitable for psychodiagnostic interpretation.