The Inkblot Re-conceptualized: Developing an Implicit Situational Judgment Test of Multiple Components of Poor and Optimal Functioning

Abstract

Situation judgment tests (SJTs), which provide a balance between global personality measurement and context-specific social-cognitive processes, can be combined with implicit measurement approaches to limit some of the biases that are common in self-reports. Based on such considerations, the author developed an implicit SJT, called the Inkblot Scale, to investigate three components of optimal functioning – Happiness, Success, and Friendliness – that can be assessed from the same response set. Undergraduates completed the Inkblot Scale and various measures related to each component of optimal functioning (n = 184) before reporting their daily experiences and behaviors for two weeks (n = 124). Happiness, Friendliness, and Success, as measured by the Inkblot Scales, predicted global and daily outcomes and processes that were relevant to their respective constructs. The Inkblot Scale materials are therefore valid and have potential to assess a variety of important constructs in ways that bypass self-ascriptions of the relevant qualities.