Projective Techniques for Social Sciences and Business Research

Citation

Hesapçı Sanaktekin, Ö. (2009), "Projective Techniques for Social Sciences and Business Research", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 26 No. 3, pp. 223-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760910954154

For the past quarter‐century there has been a growing use of and interest in qualitative research methods. The use of projective techniques within this research stream has not been employed by social researchers as much as the other measurement tools; rather it was neglected. Being used originally by psychologists to understand the subconscious aspects of individuals' personality, projective techniques involve getting people to respond to ambiguous stimuli with the assumption that if they “project” inner thoughts and feelings on to the stimulus, this would be less threatening than speaking about those directly. These techniques are unusual and often intriguing for respondents to complete, and they permit them to express thoughts and feelings which can be very difficult to access.

Projective research techniques such as thematic apperception tests, pictorial techniques, sentence completion, and word association have recently started to find their way into social sciences other than psychology, and instead of being used for clinical purposes, they can be used in attitudinal, behavioral or exploratory studies in areas such as communication, advertising, marketing, and business, where scientists strive to understand attitudes, motivators and behaviors.

Projective Techniques for Social Sciences and Business Research is one book that can provide insight to those who are searching for alternative measures to better understand the respondent's inner world. Getting beyond a subject's defensive reaction to direct/structured questioning, these techniques can better uncover a respondent's innermost thoughts, feelings, attitudes, and motives, and they can even facilitate the articulation of thought that may otherwise be difficult to express. For marketers and consumer psychologists, for example, as a way of tapping into the consumer's subconscious, projective research methods serve as alternative techniques in getting consumers better express themselves.

In eight chapters the book provides information on the history of the development of projective methods, discusses their underlying theories, provides instruction for methodological applications and interpretations, and a gives a framework for future of research with projective measures. Various projective techniques are examined in detail with reference to their design and structure. The book surveys the analysis and interpretation of data generated by using these techniques. Aspects of reliability and validity are discussed, as are the advantages and disadvantages of each examined projective technique.

The book reviews an extensive number of studies that have either been conducted using projective methods, or explaining these techniques in detail. Most of the book's material is based on findings from such research studies. With an instructional way of providing explanations, the book is in a textbook format, and it serves as a source for detailed information on each projective technique. That is why I believe that this book is an important source for researchers, instructors, and students in social sciences.

In Chapter One, “The psychodynamic paradigm”, the authors start by providing information on the history of psychodynamic research, and its contributions within social and managerial sciences. The chapter continues with the discussion on the validity and reliability of projective techniques and their use in several disciplines, such as, communication, marketing, and business. The second chapter, “Methods for projective research”, explains in detail the steps (sampling, design, instrumentation, implementation, and analysis) included when conducting a research study using a projective measure.

Beginning with Chapter Three, the book starts describing the techniques used within the psychodynamic research paradigm. In The third chapter, thematic apperception measures are explained in depth. The authors also address different approaches and several critics to thematic apperception tests. Various pictorial‐elicitation techniques, such as photo‐interviewing, line‐drawings, cartoon‐type tests, and picture arrangement tests, are surveyed in Chapter Four by providing advantages and disadvantages of each technique. The fifth chapter provides explanations of another projective measure, sentence completion. The chapter starts by discussing the advantages of the sentence completion test, as a very popular measure among other projective techniques. The authors include the use of this measure for clinical purposes, in personality, scholastic, linguistic, intelligence tests, and attitude measures. The word association technique is outlined in Chapter Six. Historical use of this method and its implications for psychological diagnosis are explained. In Chapter Seven, two of the most popular qualitative research methods in social sciences; focus group and in‐depth interviews; are surveyed, and their use in the psychodynamic research is further discussed. The book concludes with Chapter Eight discussing the contemporary uses of projective techniques and models for future uses. The chapter ends with a discussion on variations and innovations in research settings of projective techniques.

I believe that an in‐depth understanding of projective techniques is necessary for all social scientists. Projective techniques will continue even more to be employed because of their usefulness in helping marketing researchers obtain a much more comprehensive understanding of consumers. These measurement methods offer approaches for exploration that are not available with other research techniques. Thus, it is strongly suggested that researchers start to consider using these techniques. Having reviewed several other books on the topic, I believe this book serves a much deeper understanding of how projective techniques can be used for social sciences, and business research. When compared to more objective research measures, projective tests may require more time and skills to understand and administer. Importantly, this book provides easY‐to‐read explanations and a comprehensive review of the projective techniques literature.