Behavioral specificity in the rorschach human movement response: A comparison of strippers and models

Abstract

The presence of exhibitionism in actively exhibitionistic strippers and passively exhibitionistic models was confirmed when it was discovered that 40 out of 43 subjects produced at least one exhibitionistic (EXH) response on the Hand Test, which purportedly measures behavior. Subsequently, based on highly reliable ratings, it was found that the strippers produced significantly more active exhibitionistic human movement (M) respones on the Rorschach and the models more passive exhibitionistic M. This finding was interpreted as confirming Piotrowski's position that M represents reasonably specific overt behaviors. Implications were discussed, and an attempt was made to integrate past research on the Rorschach M score within the context of these findings.

A Survey of Graduate Students' Experiences, Interests, andAttitudes About Learning the Rorschach

“…These data again support a previous recommendation that psychometric methodological issues should be addressed early in personality-assessment training (Ritzler, 1993). In addition to these psychometric studies, research that uses the Rorschach and other projective techniques in novel and creative ways (Shedler, Mayman, & Manis, 1993;Young & Wagner, 1993) should also be included in class materials.…”

Mirroring Activity in the Brain and Movement Determinant in the Rorschach Test

“…This is also believed to extend to the real-life attitudes toward interpersonal relationships. In fact, a predominance of active M responses has been found among women employed as strippers, in contrast to a relative predominance of passive M responses among women employed as models (Young & Wagner, 1993). Another important distinction, finally, is the difference between M responses associated with whole human figures (pure H) and M responses associated with nonwhole human figures (nonpure H).…”

Dancing on shaky ground: the power-laden interactions between exotic dancers and their customers

“…Feminism, and its sociological practitioners, contributed to the fall of deviance as a perspective by which to examine strippers, as shall be discussed in the next section. Although there were a few sporadic attempts to revitalize the deviance perspective (Thompson and Harred 1992;Young and Wagner 1993), by and large the attempts fell short of having much explanatory power. More salient in recent years have been attempts by feminists to explain the world of exotic dancing and to reveal details about the women who inhabit it.…”

“…It seems clear from their use of the term, "normal", that they consider their respondents somehow abnormal. Another term that appears repeatedly in the deviance literature on exotic dancers and which pathologizes dancers is "tendency towards exhibitionism" (Skipper and McCaghy 1970;Boles and Garbin 1974;Young and Wagner 1993). This phrase seems to be straight out of the 1960's version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual with its lists of psychological disorders.…”

“…The search for the physical, psychological, and social differences between "normal" women and stripper-respondents also is couched in terms of pathology, as these searches Most all of the studies from the deviance perspective discuss some of the factors that might cause women to choose to become strippers. Causal factors from the deviance perspective include being intoxicated while partying with friends in a strip club, living in a big city, having friends who are strippers, exhibiting a tendency towards exhibitionism, starting menstruation early, and coming from a "broken home" McCaghy 1969, 1970;Carey, Peterson and Sharpe 1974;Boles and Garbin 1974;Young and Wagner 1993).…”