Chapter Five-How To Master Thematic Apperception Test
In this chapter there is a detailed analysis of a story which will help gaining a good understanding about evaluation pattern in the Thematic Apperception Test.
Chapter 5: Analysis Of First Story
In this chapter we will analyse a story written by a candidate on the image discussed in chapter 4.
Story-Manish was the leader of student union of M. S. College Motihari. Once it happened, the school administration banned jeans for the girls. Being the student leader, the students approached Manish. He, along with some students decided to talk with college administration. But the dean of college denied their demand. So Manish decided to organize peaceful protest against school administration. They made banners and slogans. They also got media attention. Seeing the intensity of the protest, the college administration finally agreed to have a discussion. During the meeting, Manish projected all the points of students. After discussion, they all come to a common term and allowed jeans in campus.
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Analysis: There are multiple reasons why this story will not be considered good but before we analyse those reasons, let us first understand in a systematic way how the story is on the important parameters.
First, does it look like a story written after seeing the image and does it come across as a natural response to the image? The answer is yes, in a way, because the image is about protest and the story does have an element of protest.
However, there is a big blunder which the candidate has committed and that is that he has made a student the central character, whereas in the image there is clearly an older person given and he has even been made to stand out from the crowd by making his dress different and also his age visible by his baldness and glasses. The old man has been added in the image and that too with his hands raised in a way which clearly shows he is trying to stop and address the protest precisely with the purpose to generate a thought in the candidate’s mind that this person is a person who is older and probably holds some position of authority and will be able to help resolve the situation.
However, if you read the story, you will notice that the candidate has not even mentioned about this character. He has rather chosen a student to resolve this. This will create a negative impression about the candidate’s perception and will probably give a feeling that the story was written with somewhat of a preconceived mindset and not really after seeing the image honestly and writing a story based on what is visible in the image. On this parameter, the story won’t help the candidate.
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The next thing to understand is that the image is about conflict mitigation and how you will resolve an issue. Does the story answer that? The answer is not a complete yes because the candidate has written steps about what he will do to solve the problem but then that is where the problem is. The way the candidate has gone about solving the problem is what is bringing out only negative qualities of the candidate. We will discuss this in detail in a while.
The next parameter to check is the structure of the story.
Did it introduce the theme in the beginning and then write steps and then conclude? The answer to this is yes but then the story could have been written in a much more tightly scripted manner and in a much more articulate manner. Please remember that writing a story in a tightly scripted manner is not only going to help you save time, but it also helps showcase that you have a very strong factor 1 because a tightly scripted story also shows that you are articulate and have a very good power of expression. So, there is a weakness in that aspect of the story.
Now let us understand how the story is revealing negative qualities.
In the very first sentence, he has written that the central character is a student union leader. I leave it to you to decide whether student unions are having a good image or a negative image in our society. I leave it to you to decide whether student unions in our colleges are politically aligned organizations having their own motives behind whatever they do and perhaps at times are notorious for indulging in unethical means or whether they are organizations which are considered very noble and are completely dedicated to social service and wellbeing of society and students.
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The second problem with making the student a union leader is that the candidate has already made him a leader by putting him in a leadership role. Anyone in such a leadership role will already be aware of the means and methods which can be used to address a problem like a student strike. If the candidate would have chosen an ordinary student to resolve this, then probably lot of good qualities could have been revealed. Qualities like initiative could have been revealed because he would have proactively undertaken to do something to resolve a problem which is not his official responsibility in any way.
This way he will even show a quality like sense of responsibility since he is coming forward on his own and not waiting for anyone else to do something to resolve the issue at hand. Doing all this in spite of not being in any leadership role officially and also thinking in a correct and logical manner to resolve the issue would have reflected his own logical thinking and problem-solving skills and these qualities relate to factor 1. Let us not forget that it is a key quality of an officer to have the natural ability to handle and resolve a sudden and unexpected problem for which he is not trained in any way. Due to these reasons, had the candidate chosen an ordinary student as the central character, it would have benefited him immensely.
The next thing to understand about the concept of TAT and psychological evaluation is that how we are is how we view others. We feel others are just like us and how we behave in a particular situation is how the rest of the world will behave in that particular situation. Keeping this principle in mind, if you see what the candidate has written in the story, you will understand that the candidate is displaying a very negative view of the outside world.
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First negative thing is the way the candidate has written about banning jeans for girls. Showcasing your principal, college management and professors as being so backward and orthodox will only show that perhaps you yourself or the environment you come from in terms of family, friends and neighbours is so backward and negative that things like girls wearing jeans is considered bad there. The theme of ban on wearing jeans for girls is a very low and disgusting thing to write in a story. It will only reveal negative traits in the candidate.
The next weak point is that the candidate has written that the students approached Manish and thereby implied that Manish acted only after, and because, students approached him. This way, the candidate lost an opportunity to show initiative and proactiveness in his personality. Had he acted on his own proactively upon getting to know about the ban, he would have shown initiative and sense of responsibility in a far clearer manner.
The next thing is that there is negative quality getting reflected due to the way the candidate has written about the dean of college denying their demands. There can be only two reasons why the dean will deny their demand. Either the dean is a backward minded, rigid and orthodox person who won’t listen to healthy reason and argument or the candidate does not have the skill to convince someone logically. If the candidate is not having the skill to convince someone logically, then it shows that his power of expression is weak and thereby factor one is also weak. If he is seeing the dean as an orthodox and backward minded person who won’t listen to reason, then it is only showing that he himself is perhaps a backward minded person who won’t listen to reason. There is one more problem in that sentence and that is the use of the word demand. Demand implies aggression and threatening
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behaviour. Having an aggressive and threatening attitude towards your own college dean shows that the candidate has no respect for even elders and will display same aggression and threatening behaviour towards future senior officers in army if commissioned.
The candidate has tried to show organizing ability by writing about making banners and slogans and by taking things to media. What the candidate has failed to realize is that he is simply not concerned about the negative reputation it will bring to the college. The candidate has written about peaceful protest with the intention that he is showing something good about himself. What the candidate does not know, and this is true about a majority of candidates is that there is no room for even peaceful protest in army. In your psychology tests, if you show that there are seeds in you of organizing a protest in the future then army will never accept you. It is a very scary prospect for army. Imagine a Captain sitting outside the CO’s office on protest with banners and slogans. Army life is tough. Army is short on resources because we are a poor country. There will always be enough valid reasons to complain and protest. At times there aren’t proper facilities in the unit due to crunch of funds or resources. At times the food is not of good quality because of being posted in an altitude area. These kinds of reasons are all valid reasons for protest. So will you go on protest in the future? In fact, lot of people don’t know that under Indian law our armed forces are the only organization which are not allowed to form a worker’s union and that is mainly because we simply cannot imagine a situation where our armed forces go on strike. That is how important it is for our country and our armed forces to ensure that they don’t have elements in their rank and file which will go on strike in the future.
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I am sure now you understand why writing these kinds of things in the story will not help.
The last thing which again shows a negative quality and in fact confirms that the candidate is having aggressive and threatening attitude is in the way he has written about how the administration agrees for discussion due to intensity of the protest. It clearly shows that the candidate will keep on increasing pressure till the administration doesn’t relent. This in turn shows that the candidate is someone who will indulge in arm twisting tactics in the future. It shows a very dominating approach. Due to these kinds of qualities getting displayed, the candidate will not be considered acceptable by the board. In fact, the board will be scared of the candidate. I hope this analysis helped you get good insight about the story.
In the next chapter we will analyse another story written by a different candidate and it will help us learn new and important things about TAT.
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