Another motivational Quiz: TAT

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This one requires you to stare at a picture and then write a ten minute essay about the picture. Then you press "Finish" and it will give you an analysis of what you have written and what your motivations therefore are, in terms of mostly Affiliation, Power and Achievement.

http://www.utpsyc.org/TATintro/

i found it was a bit buggy. If it doesnt come up with your results properly, copy the essay, push the back button and paste it back in the box and press "Finish" again. It is a good idea to copy it onto your clipboard before submitting for this reason.

Here is a short analysis of your word use.

LIWC dimension Your data Male average Female average
Need for Achievement 6.78 5.8 5.6
Need for Affiliation 0.59 1.1 1.3
Need for power 0.59 1.7 1.8
Self-references (I, me, my) 2.65 0.5 0.8
Social words 13.57 11.4 12.0
Positive emotions 2.36 1.8 2.1
Negative emotions 1.18 1.5 1.6
Big words (> 6 letters) 11.50 18.7 17.7

Overall, you wrote 339 words in the 10 minutes.

Need for Achievement. The typical person generally scores between 4.5 and 8.5, with an average of 5.7. The higher your number, the more you wrote about achievement-related themes.

Need for Affiliation. Because this picture typically elicits themes associated with achievement, most people don't pay too much attention to human relationships in their story. In fact, the typical person scores around 1.2 on this dimension. Indeed, 30% of participants score 0.00.

Need for Power. Most people score between 0.8 and 2.7, with the average being 1.7. High scores on the need for power dimension hint that the writer is concerned with who is or is not in control andwho has the most status.

One thing that is interesting about this kind of exercise is that language analyses can tell us many things about the writer that go far beyond power, achievement, and affiliation. Look at the table below. In it, you can determine some features of your own writing and can get a sense of your writing style compared with others:

Self-references: People who use a high rate of self-references tend to be more insecure, nervous, and possibly depressed. They also tend to be more honest.

Social words: Social words are words that make reference to other people (e.g., they, she, us, talk, friends). Generally, people who use a high level of social words are more outgoing and more socially connected with others.

Positive emotion words: The more that people use positive emotion words (e.g. happy, love, good), the more optimistic they tend to be. If you feel good about yourself, you are more likely to see the world in a positive way.

Negative emotion words: Use of negative emotion words (e.g., sad, kill, afraid) is weakly linked to people's ratings of anxiety or even neurotic. People who have had a bad day are more likely to see the world through negatively-tinted glasses.

Big words (words with more than 6 letters): Use of big words is weakly related to higher grades and standardized test scores. People who use a high rate of big words also tend to be less emotional and oftentimes psychologically distant or detached.

The Big Picture: The above interpretations should be considered with a grain of salt for your own writing. Your approach to the assignment may have been influenced by people bothering you, concerns about other things in your life, lack of sleep, etc. In addition, it is important to remember that the TAT is generally administered in a highly controlled situation and is always graded by a real-live human being. You will recall from the book that the TAT was devised to tap people's needs for achievement, power, and affiliation. Look at your own writings and see if you can pick up if you were in high in these motives. For example, if you said that one person was thinking about her future career, a TAT expert would probably say that you were higher in a need for achievement than if you said that the person was thinking about her lover (which would hint that you were higher in need for affiliation).

Date/Time: 9 January 2011, 2:56 am

Your TAT description: Marian stood at the lab bench and pippetted solution into her test tube. She looked up and saw her lab boss, Frank, watching her as she worked. She blushed nervously and tried to concentrate on her work. "Workin hard there, Marian?" asked Frank. She tried to block out his commanding presence and neatly pressed lab coat. He was looking so handsome and intellectual today, it was difficult to ignore him. What a crush she had on him. "How about we finish work early today and go to the pub," Frank said with a suggestive tinge to his voice. "But Frank, I've got to finish this" Marian said. "I think you have worked hard enough this week. Let me take you out, my treat. Do you like Pina Coladas? Or getting caught in the rain?" "Of course, but Frank, you are forgetting how important this work is... you know we are trying to find a cure for diseases, and a cure for human ignorance. You were the one who taught me how important it is to find an answer to these problems." "Yes, yes," Frank answered. "Those things are very important of course. But all work and no play makes Marian a dull girl. You have to come out and party sometime. With me." "I dont know, Frank..." she looked around the room at the lab decor, and the walls which were an easily disenfected linoleum, the floor which was mopped every day by Dora, the cleaning woman. Suddenly, a mouse ran across the floor. "Look, it's Albert!" said Marian. Frank ran to pick up the mouse and put him back in his fun-quarium with mouse wheel, maze and miniature mouse furniture and gourmet grains. "Good spotting, I forgot to close his door." said Frank. "He will make a great gift for my nephew, to teach him to love animals. Now how about that drink?" "Oh yes Frank!" said Marian, deciding to go with him after all. She put away her lab equipment and they left together, holding hands.