Editing Thematic Apperception Test (section)

==Criticisms==
Like other projective techniques, the TAT has been criticized on the basis of poor psychometric properties (see above).<ref name="lilienfeld" /> Criticisms include that the TAT is unscientific because it cannot be proved to be valid (that it actually measures what it claims to measure), or reliable (that it gives consistent results over time). As stories about the cards are a reflection of both the conscious and unconscious motives of the storyteller, it is difficult to disprove the conclusions of the examiner and to find appropriate behavioral measures that would represent the personality traits under examination. Characteristics of the TAT that make conclusions based on the stories yielded from TAT cards hard to be disproved have been termed "immunizing tactics."<ref name="lilienfeld"/> These characteristics include the [[Walter Mitty]] effect (i.e., the assertion that individuals will exhibit high levels of a given trait in TAT stories that do not match their overt behavior because TAT responses may represent how a person wishes they were, not how they truly are) and the inhibition effect (i.e., the assertion that individuals will ''not'' exhibit high levels of a trait in TAT responses because they are repressing that trait). In addition, as the present needs of the storyteller change over time, it is not expected that later stories will produce the same results.{{Citation needed|date=July 2012}}

The lack of standardization of the cards given and scoring systems applied is problematic because it makes comparing research on the TAT very difficult. With a dearth of sound evidence and normative samples, it is tough to determine how much useful information can be gathered in this manner.

Some critics of the TAT cards have observed that the characters and environments are dated, even "old-fashioned", creating a "cultural or psycho-social distance" between the patients and the stimuli that makes identifying with them less likely.<ref>Holmstrom, R.W., Silber, D.E., & Karp, S.A. (1990), "Development of the Apperceptive Personality Test", [[Journal of Personality Assessment]], 54 (1 & 2), 252-264.</ref> In specific situations it is even hard to identify with people of opposite gender.<ref>Gruber, N. (2017), "Is the achievement motive gender biased? The validity of TAT/PSE in women and men", [[Frontiers in Psychology]], 8, 181.</ref> Also, in researching the responses of subjects given photographs versus the TAT, researchers found that the TAT cards evoked more "deviant" stories (i.e., more negative) than photographs, leading researchers to conclude that the difference was due to the differences in the characteristics of the images used as stimuli.{{Citation needed|date=January 2010}}

In a 2005 dissertation,<ref>Narron, M. C. (2005), ''Updating the TAT: A Photographic Revision of the Thematic Apperception Test, Dissertations Abstract International, DAI-B 66/01'', p. 568, July 2005</ref> Matthew Narron, Psy.D. attempted to address these issues by reproducing a Leopold Bellak<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/30/us/leopold-bellak-83-expert-on-psychological-tests.html?pagewanted=1 | work=The New York Times | title=Leopold Bellak, 83; Expert on Psychological Tests | first=Wolfgang | last=Saxon | date=30 March 2000 | access-date=25 May 2010 | archive-date=9 June 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100609222819/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/03/30/us/leopold-bellak-83-expert-on-psychological-tests.html?pagewanted=1 | url-status=live }}</ref> 10 card set photographically and performing an outcome study. The results concluded that the old TAT elicited answers that included many more specific time references than the new TAT.