Validation and normative studies of Rorschach Performance Assessment System, R-PAS, for Brasilian children

• Grant number: 12/24022-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2013
• End date: April 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Fundamentals and Assessments in Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Latife Yazigi
• Grantee: Ana Cristina Resende
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) was formally created in 2011, in the United States, from a body of recent empirical research aimed at remedying some limitations mentioned in the Rorschach Comprehensive System. The aim of this study is to develop scientific standards of validity and norms for the use of the R-PAS in Brazil. More specifically it aims to: (a) organize tables of R-PAS normative reference data for children and adolescents, (b) to see how the new administration instructions proposed by R-PAS impact on responses productivity and in the Rorschach indices of the paticipants; (c) undertake analysis of validity of Developmental Index (DI) of R-PAS. Four hundred children and adolescentes, aged between 7 and 14 years old, living in the state of Goiás, will participate in this study. The instruments that will be used are: a Backgroud Information Questionnaire, the Raven Progressive Matrices Test and Rorschach in the R-PAS system. The instruments will be implemented by a team of researchers composed by the postdoctoral candidate for the scholarship, and her doctoral and masters students and five undergraduate fellows). The main procedures for data analysis will be: the analysis of the differences between examiners using ANOVA; assessing the interrater reliability using the Cohen's Kappa; studies of convergent and discriminant validity, through statistical correlation; constructing normative tables, by age group, by descriptive statistics of the variables of the instruments (average, standard deviation, percentile, median, mode, minimum and maximum values, skewness and kurtosis); studies comparing averages of data collected by the R-PAS and through Rorschach SC (available in databases). The research will provide training for collaborating researchers and we expect it to be completed in two years. Results should be published in refereed journals and be disseminated in national and international scientific events.