The Utility of Rorschach Inkblot Test in the Assessment of Executive Functions in Children with Trait Anxiety

Abstract

Despite the psychosocial nature of the difficulties that anxious children experience, limited research has utilized projective tests to examine the dynamics of their executive functions.  This research aimed to investigate and compare the executive functions of children with trait anxiety with those functions in healthy ones utilizing the Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM).  The research sample consisted of 285 participants who were recruited from the fifth and sixth grade in the schools of El-Kharga in the New Valley Governorate, their ages range from 11 to 12 years (M_age= 11.61 years; SD = .28). They were screened using the State-trait anxiety inventory (STAI-t). Based on the scores of the primary sample on the STAI-t and using a random method, (9) children were selected as a group experiencing trait anxiety (anxious children), while (11) children were selected as a group not experiencing trait anxiety (normal children). Next, both groups were compared using the Rorschach. Results showed that anxious children differed from normal children in the function of flexibility and organization which is reflected through their information processing. Anxious children also differed from normal children in the function of planning, decision making and problem solving, which was reflected through the capacity for coping with stress. Anxious children produced fewer sum C responses and a lower affective ratio, higher morbid responses which reflect emotion dysregulation as seen from affect and self-perception.