There is a tendency, especially amongst repeaters, to treat psychology tests as a preparation for an academic test and they cast an iron cage around their thoughts, based on ‘their’ understanding of what they have picked up from the environment.
They invariably wear unidirectional ‘blinds’ to judge the TAT stories through a set of hard and fast rules, rather than logical parameters through which the psychologists will evaluate your stories. I would recommend that you must allow your imagination to run ‘free’ and not ‘wild’ or ‘stereotypical’ to look for a meaningful purpose for your main character that you can very well relate with.
Many self-proclaimed mentors have made preparation for psychology tests sound like some kind of a special art that need to be mastered through arduous practice to get recommended in the SSB.
Psychology Tests in SSB employ “Projective Techniques of Testing”, where an ambiguous stimulus is given in the form of an enigmatic picture in case of TAT, with an aim to evoke responses that may reveal the true facets of the candidate’s personality by projection of his internal attitudes, traits, behavior patterns, beliefs and values.
The bottom line is that through the ideas generated by you, which are being enacted by the characters created by you, the assessor wants to know “YOU”. So, please do not get tied down in knots by certain basic yardsticks enunciated in books of substance written by even renowned psychologists. Please understand that those are guidelines and not Do’s and Don’ts.
- In this post I would like to discuss one such common doubt that in case of a so called ‘neutral’ picture, how you should approach story writing. Let us say a person is sitting in a thoughtful mood in a room. Now ask yourself, if I was sitting in a contemplative mood what could I be doing:
– Planning for an upcoming activity, at your school, college, society, locality level, etc.
– Preparing a speech or a lecture for some important upcoming occasion.
– Organizing your thoughts to contribute towards your surroundings more purposefully.
– Waiting for a visitor at your place or an officer in his office to plan and execute an important function.
– Strategizing for accomplishing your life goals (avoid talking about preparing for SSB/ some exam), e.g. - Raman having completed his graduation was now stepping out to face the real world and to make the most of his education and upbringing. The college placement had fetched him a job, but it was now important for him to search for a purpose in life. He sat in his study room in a contemplative mood and mentally prepared a checklist of all that he was required to do when he reports to his first place of work.
He thought of writing a letter to his superior informing him as to how much he was looking forward to his new assignment and to learn under his able guidance. He obtained a social calendar of people that he was to work with and contacted them on phone to familiarize with them. Raman gathered as much information as possible about the company that he was joining and also about his own job content.
He volunteered for free internship with a local company in his home town to learn, improve his skill sets and become industry ready. Finally, when Raman reported to his first place of work, he adapted himself to the new environment like a ‘duck to water’ and was the most adorable employee of his company.