Projective techniques

Projective Techniques are indirect and unstructured methods of investigation which have been developed by the psychologists and use projection of respondents for inferring about underline motives, urges or intentions which cannot be secure through direct questioning as the respondent either resists to reveal them or is unable to figure out himself. These techniques are useful in giving respondents opportunities to express their attitudes without personal embarrassment. These techniques helps the respondents to project his own attitude and feelings unconsciously on the subject under study. Thus Projective Techniques play a important role in motivational researches or in attitude surveys.

The important projective techniques are-

(i) Word association tests: These tests are used to extract information regarding such words which have maximum association. In this sort of test the respondent is asked to mention the first word that comes to mind, ostensibly without thinking, as the interviewer reads out each word from a list.
(ii) Sentence completion tests: These tests happen to be an extension of the technique of word association tests. Under this, informant may be asked to complete a to find association of Khadi clothes with certain personality characteristics. Several sentences of this type might be put to the informant on the same subject.
(iii) Construction Test: This is more or less like completion test. They can give you a picture and you are asked to write a story about it. The initial structure is limited and not detailed like the completion test. For eg: 2 cartoons are given and a dialogue is to written.
(vi) Expression Techniques: In this the people are asked to express the feeling or attitude of other people.
Disadvantages of Projective Techniques
1. Highly trained interviewers and skilled interpreters are needed.
2. Interpreters bias can be there.
3. It is a costly method.
4. The respondent selected may not be representative of the entire population.