Verbal and Behavioral Signs of Abuse History While Interpreting Rorschach Semi-Ambiguous Visual Stimuli

Multiple studies have found that people with trauma and abuse histories are more likely to see trauma-related images (e.g., aggression, physical damage) as coded in the Trauma Content Index (TCI) when responding to the Rorschach inkblot stimuli. In a sample of 60 adult female outpatients, this TCI research replicated with the R-PAS Critical Contents% ( r = .44) and a new behavior-based Rorschach measure of trauma re-experiencing, the Trauma Experience Index (TEI; r = .48). Further, the TEI added statistically significant ( p = .002) incremental validity to Critical Contents in predicting lifetime abuse history with a combined magnitude of R = .57. Given that no TEI norms currently exist, we examined scoring the TEI as simply present or absent, which resulted in large effect size associations with lifetime abuse (.51) and intimate partner violence intensity (IPV, .59). The presence of even one aversive reaction to the inkblots – without even mentioning a distressing event – was associated almost as strongly with lifetime abuse (.45) and IPV (.48) as the full TEI. These effect size magnitudes are especially impressive given that meta-analyses find that the average effect size for R-PAS variables is around r = .30. A link to refined TEI coding guidelines with excellent coding reliability (ICC = .86) is provided.