The Impact of Administration and Inquiry on Rorschach Comprehensive System Protocols in a National Reference Sample

We investigated the impact of administration and inquiry skills on Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 1974, 1991, 1993) protocols collected for the Italian adult nonpatient reference sample. The same research team collected CS protocols on two occasions. The initial reference sample (N = 212; Lis, Rossi, & Prina, 1998) was collected under the supervision of experienced psychologists who carefully studied CS administration and scoring procedures (Exner, 1986, 1990, 1993). The second sample (N = 101; Lis, Zennaro, Calvo, & Salcuni, 2001) was collected after the team obtained additional and sustained CS training from Rorschach workshops certified instructors. Both samples were scored, reliably but they showed large differences on many codes, with protocols from the second sample being richer and more complex than the first. The results indicate that administration skills can have a dramatic impact on CS protocols and may contribute to variations in samples collected by different investigators. Training standards should be devised to insure uniform administration procedures are followed when collecting CS protocols.