When Anna looks at some modern artwork at the museum, she often thinks she sees human figures or faces and likes to make up stories about them. When she tells the stories to her friend, her friend says that the stories reflect Anna's unconscious thoughts. In psychological terms, what Anna does is most similar to _____________.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

Anna's interpretation of the artwork as containing human figures and her creation of stories about them is similar to the process of a projective test. In projective tests, individuals are presented with ambiguous stimuli and asked to create meaning from them, which is thought to reveal their unconscious thoughts and desires. Classical conditioning and personality inventories do not involve interpretation of ambiguous stimuli, and the MMPI is a specific type of personality inventory, so it is not the most appropriate option in this case.

When Anna Looks at Some Modern Artwork at the Museum