Norms, norming, and clinical assessment

The Rorschach inkblot test is the most commonly used projective measure in both clinical and forensic settings, and Exner's Comprehensive System (CS) is the most commonly used approach to Rorschach administration and scoring. However, recent studies of both adults and children have cast doubt on the representativeness of the CS norms. The analyses by Wood, Nezworski, Garb, and Lilienfeld provide compelling evidence that the CS adult norms are ser iously flawed and are likely to result in frequent false positive identific ations of psychopathology. We discuss the crucial need for appropriate norm s in clinical assessment and examine the quality of the CS norms vis-ii-vis those of other commonly used tests. We conclude that the concerns raised a bout the CS adult norms are sufficient to require the development of new no rms for the CS. In the meantime, given the doubt that has been cast on the CS norms, it is crucial that the developers of the CS immediately move to p rovide ethically informed, scientifically based guidance to Rorschach users on how best to interpret adult Rorschach protocols.