Tips to Excel in Thematic Apperception Test

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is an essential part of the psychological assessment during the Services Selection Board (SSB) interview. This test presents candidates with a series of ambiguous pictures, and they are required to create a story around each image. The story should have a central character (hero), a challenge or crisis, and a resolution where the hero overcomes the situation and succeeds.

The primary aim of the TAT is to evaluate a candidate’s imagination, social understanding, emotional intelligence, and problem-solving abilities. Candidates must write stories spontaneously, without relying on memorized content. Each story should reflect natural thought processes, showcasing a candidate’s personality, outlook, and state of mind.

How the TAT Works:

• Candidates are shown 12 pictures, including one blank slide.
• For each picture, they get 30 seconds to observe and 4 minutes to write a story.
• The blank slide encourages candidates to use their creativity by imagining a scenario without any visual cues.

Key Points for Writing a TAT Story:

1. Identify the Hero: The hero should reflect your personality and values.
2. Build a Positive Narrative: The story should depict challenges, actions taken to overcome them, and a positive outcome.
3. Show Logical Thinking: The actions and results should follow a logical progression.
4. Emphasize Leadership Qualities: Stories should highlight traits like responsibility, initiative, teamwork, and determination.

Evaluation Systems for TAT:

The TAT was initially developed in the 1930s by American psychologist Henry A. Murray and lay psychoanalyst Christiana D. Morgan at Harvard University. Over time, various evaluation methods have been introduced to analyze the stories written by candidates.

1. Murray’s Scoring System:
   • Focuses on four elements: intensity, frequency, duration, and significance of the plot.
   • Evaluates the need and pressures within the story to understand the storyteller’s psychological framework.
2. Defense Mechanisms Manual (DMM):
   • Assesses the use of psychological defense mechanisms like denial, projection, and identification.
   • Denial: Immature defense mechanism.
   • Projection: Intermediate maturity level.
   • Identification: The most mature defense mechanism.
3. Social Cognition and Object Relations (SCOR) Scale:
   • Measures four aspects of object relations:
     • Complexity of Representations of People: Ability to perceive individuals’ personalities.
     • Affect-Tone of Relationship Paradigms: Emotional tone and relationships.
     • Capacity for Emotional Investment in Relationships and Moral Standards: Emotional engagement and moral decision-making.
     • Understanding of Social Causality: Insight into human interactions.

Important Note:

In SSB, assessors often rely on their clinical intuition alongside these methods to evaluate candidates’ personality traits. A well-structured, logical, and optimistic story that demonstrates qualities like responsibility, problem-solving, and leadership increases the chances of performing well in the TAT.

Tips to Excel in Thematic Apperception Test

Be Original: Avoid copying stories from external sources. Your story should reflect your personality, thoughts, and perspective rather than life events you’ve read or heard about.

Stay Genuine: Don’t fall for the misconception that linking the story to your personal life or copying popular events will give you an edge—it often leads to rejection.

Structure Your Story: Always include the essential elements:

• Character Details: Mention the characters’ ages.
• Background: Describe the situation or what led to the event.
• Action: Highlight the key events or actions taken by the characters.
• Conclusion: End your story with a logical and positive outcome.

Focus on Psychological Insights: The psychologist is more interested in understanding your personality, values, and qualities than your writing skills. This isn’t an English exam, so using complex vocabulary won’t help if the story lacks psychological depth and authenticity.

Stay Positive and Practical: Develop stories that showcase positive traits like leadership, problem-solving, empathy, and optimism. Avoid unrealistic heroics and maintain a balanced, practical approach.

Sample Stories Thematic Apperception Test

Sample 1:

Ankur was 24 years old and worked in an MNC; he used to live in a flat with his friends Abhi and Shardul. The three were college mates and had got the job in this company through college placement. Abhi had a girlfriend Neha who was also part of the boys group. They all hung out and had fun. One day when Ankur came back from work early he gets a call from Abhi saying that he needed him as it was serious. Ankur rushes to him and sees that Abhi and Neha were having a huge fight. Ankur immediately jumps in and stops them. He calms them down and hears each side’s opinion. He tells them not to fight as fights only weaken the relations, he reminds them of the good times they all have spent together, the jokes and the laughter, his talk makes them realize their mistake and they patch up. They both later thank Ankur for his help.

Sample 2:

Rakesh was 31 years old and was a police constable. He lived in the city along with his parents and wife and was a father of a 3-year-old. As the city was having a fair he used to be present in the fair at evening. One day when he was doing his duty he saw a man was running around here and there and was looking for something. Seeing him worried Rakesh goes to him and asks him the matter and learns that the person came with his boy who he had lost in the fair and was not able to find him. Rakesh calmed him down, gave him water and helped him. He through the police loudspeaker made an announcement to the people to help the boy meet his father, within minutes a person came forward with the boy, the boy on seeing his father ran to him, his father hugged him tightly, he thanked Rakesh, and Rakesh was pleased to help but told him to be careful.

Sample 3:

Shashank was 19 years old and was in his second year of  BTech, He was a hosteller and was in the college NCC Camp. He had volunteered to captain the first-year students. The camp was far from the college location and students were carried out there through the college buses. It was an open site where tents were made so as to keep the students there, the kitchen was a stove and a gas cylinder. Shashank was given the responsibility to monitor the students perform the morning drill exercise. On the next day they arrived, the students were doing their exercise while Shashank monitored them, as the water camper went out, he came with his friends to fill it from the camp site, when he arrived there he smelt gas leaking from the cylinder, as the tents were nearby and could catch fire, he immediately took the cylinder at a distance from the tent, and asked his other friend to inform the authorities, he and the one friend who remained find out the gas tube hole which caused the leak, he told the authorities about it and got it replaced.