Sarah A. Hall, Ph.D.
Adult & Pediatric Forensic Neuropsychologist

Oct. 28, 2013

The Rorschach Performance Assessment System, or R-PAS (Meyer, G. J., Viglione, D. J., Mihura, J. L., Erad, R. E., & Erdberg, P., 2011) provides a long needed update to the administration and scoring of the Rorschach Inkblots.  Originally assembled by the late John Exner, and tasked with updating his widely popular scoring and interpretation system (the Comprehensive System) the authors of R-PAS have streamlined the administration of the Rorschach, updated and expanded the normative data set, and re-worked the scoring and interpretation of the test to reflect the latest scientific and clinical research evidence.

 

The R-PAS incorporates international reference data and provides an evidence-based interpretation system.  Unlike other personality tests that are based on self-report questionnaires, the R-PAS doesn’t measure how an individual SAYS she or he behaves, and does not rely upon the degree of insight the respondent has about him or herself.  Instead, the Rorschach is able to measure how an individual actually behaves, as demonstrated by the way that he or she processes and makes sense of novel and highly ambiguous visual stimuli.  The R-PAS provides the most up-to-date research-based evidence illustrating the convergence between behavior on the Rorschach and behavior in the real world.  These properties allow R-PAS to provide important incremental information in forensic psychological evaluations, in addition to offering a valuable means of assessing for either exaggerated or minimized symptom presentation.