for George, Terry, Brenda, Lisa, Sean, & Adam

Hunsley, J., & Bailey, J. M. (2001). Whither the Rorschach?: An analysis of the evidence. Psychological Assessment, 13, 472-485.

1. Hunsley and Bailey (2001) clearly consider the absence of an underlying, unifying theory explaining the connections between Rorschach indices and the problems they are expected to reflect to be a central flaw of the Rorschach. In contrast, as they note, Exner has been very clear that the absence of such a theory is unnecessary: the test may well be valid even without a theory explaining its validity. How do you evaluate this argument? How necessary is an overarching theory to this test?
2. In evaluating the extant research, Hunsley and Bailey (2001) note that Rorschach data have been compared to a variety of external criteria (e.g., behavioral data, self-reports, diagnoses). For which criteria do they cite stronger research support? For which criteria are research support weaker?
3. Hunsley and Bailey (2001) entitle one section of their paper “The Scientific Status of the Rorschach: Is There a Consensus?” How would you answer this question? Why do you think the debate around this particular measure is so heated?