next generation projective techniquespersonal.kent.edu/~lmarks/consumerbehavior/tat.pdftion of new...

Next GenerationProjective Techniques:Combining Psychological Content Analysisand Text Mining in Market Research

Authors:Tom AndersonAnna Song, PhD.

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email: [email protected]: www.andersonanalytics.com

telephone:203.912.7175

Abstract:This Anderson Analytics white paper explores the history of Thematic Appreciation Testsalso known as Picture Story Telling Exercises (TAT/PSE), and explains how the combina-tion of new technology such as text mining and psychological coding software can beused to apply this previously qualitative technique on large numbers of respondents fornot only deep and meaningful insights, but statistically valid and projectionable results.The paper concludes with an Anderson Analytics case study: a PSE conducted onlinefor a clothing manufacturer.

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Market Researchers have experimented with vari-ous types of projective techniques in qualitativeresearch. Often though, these experiments werelacking in three important ways. First, they werenot carried out with the same methodological rigoras their predecessors in the psychology field.Second, due to their small sample sizes, resultscould not be statistically validated nor couldresults be projected to the general population,important prerequisites for buy-in with seniormanagement. Finally, results stood alone withoutthe supporting demographic and behavioral datawhich is necessary in market analysis.

This paper explores the history of content analysisused in Thematic Appreciation Tests (TAT's), alsoknown as Projective Story Exercises (PSE's), andtheir recent rebirth and use as a powerful hybridtechnique by Anderson Analytics. Combining theadvanced coding schemes of psychology with newtechnologies such as text analysis and text min-ing, and adding an interface which today's respon-dents more easily identify with, the future ofPSE's as a meaningful research tool looks verypromising, and represents one of the betteropportunities for consumer insights with deepermeaning.

Introduction: Content Analysis in Market Research

Content analysis is the examination of verbal textfor words or themes associated with psychologicalconstructs. Verbal text includes a wide berth ofmaterials/speeches (Winter, 1987, 1988), letters(Suedfeld, Corteen, & McCormick, 1986), therapytranscripts (Peterson, Luborsky, & Seligman,1983), plays (Simonton, 1983), poems and son-nets (Simonton, 1990), song lyrics (Zullow,1991), spontaneous remarks (Hermann, 1980),and corporate annual reports (Zajac & Westphal,1995). Content analysis has also expandedbeyond the bounds of words and into nonverbaltext, such as musical pieces (Simonton, 1980)and comic book strips (Sales, 1973).

The genesis of content analysis in personality psy-chology can be traced to work by Morgan andMurray (1935, 1938) on the ThematicApperception Test. The scoring for this projectivetest involves showing participants ambiguousimages and asking them to write stories about thepicture. The stories are then analyzed for themesand imagery associated with specific motives andneeds. McClelland (1953) and his student JohnAtkinson furthered this work by developing a con-tent-analytical scoring system using experimental

manipulation of motives. Unlike the TAT scoringsystem by Morgan and Murray (1938) that wasbased on clinical intuition or theoretically basedcriterion, Atkinson and McClelland (1948)aroused motives in randomly assigned subjects,administered the TAT, then compared the resultswith a control group. Systematic cross-validationon stories would identify themes and imageryspecifically associated with experimentallyaroused motive. Winter (1973) continued Atkinsonand McClelland's (1948) work by adapting theirscoring scheme to verbal text --- the codingscheme yields an imagery score per 1000 wordsof any oral or written text. This technique allowedresearchers to measure motives from virtually anyhistorical document about their subject. For example, in their analysis of President Nixon,Winter and Carlson (1988) quantitatively meas-ured Nixon on three personality motives, the needfor power, achievement, and affiliation.

Winter and Carlson content analyzed Nixon's inau-gural addresses using Winter's (1973) at-a-dis-tance scoring scheme for each motive. From hisaddresses, Winter and Carlson determined a per-sonality profile for Nixon --- he was high in

Historical Background

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now quantitatively measure levels of integrativecomplexity by scoring documents fromletters to speeches to interviews. Forexample, Suedfeld, Corteen, andMcCormick (1986) measured GeneralRobert E. Lee's level of integrative com-plexity during six major battles. Theyscored dispatches, orders and privateletters written by Lee and his opposinggenerals. They found that when Lee washigher in integrative complexity than hisopposing commanders, Lee would winthe battles. Only General Ulysses Grant

was higher in complexity, and Lee lost both bat-tles to Grant.

Content analysis involves coding categories thatsignify the presence of some personality dimen-sion. These categories are determined in one oftwo ways: a priori construction and experimentalderivation. A priori construction coding schemesidentify categories well before data collection andthe construct identifiers are developed in conjunc-tion with theory, research findings, or even a pre-existing psychometric scale. Two examples illus-trate this first method of identifying categories.McCrae (1996) investigated behaviors and corre-lates of the Five-Factor Model dimension ofOpenness. In this study, McCrae identified severalbehaviors and thoughts akin to Openness. He alsoexpanded the scope of the construct by linking itwith other established personality characteristics,such as authoritarianism, attitude formation, andpolitical affiliation. Using these characteristics ofOpenness as his construct identifiers, he contentanalyzed Jean-Jacques Rousseau's biography andused the French philosopher as a an example ofan individual high in Openness.

Another example of a priori construction is the

achievement and affiliation, and moderate in thepower motive. They also found that hisparadoxical behavior in office, such asthe Watergate scandal, corresponded tothis personality profile, thus providing apsychological explanation for one of themost perplexing presidents in history.

The at-a-distance technique used byWinter and Carlson (1988) is not limit-ed to the measurement of personalitymotives. Suedfeld, Tetlock, andStreufert (1992) devised an at-a-dis-tance scoring technique for integrative complexity.To assess how political figures might differentiateor integrate complex information, researchers can

Creating a Coding Schemeadaptation of preexisting standard instruments forcontent analytical use. For instance, Simonton(1998) used the Holmes-Rahe SocialReadjustment Scale (Holmes & Rahe, 1967), anestablished psychometric tool, and adapted it tomeasure King George III's stress level at-a-dis-tance. King George was the infamous Britishmonarch who reigned during the AmericanRevolution. His time on the throne was markedwith bouts of mental and physical breakdownsthat branded him as Mad King George. Numerousacademics have posited their theory for his break-down (see Runyan, 1983 for a review), yet no oneever tested the very simple possibility that KingGeorge was stressed. Raters, blind to the subjectand hypothesis of the study, read biographicaltimeline of King George's life and rated his levelof stress using the adapted Holmes-Rahe scale.Simonton was able to uncover a relationshipbetween breakdowns and stressful events, a corre-lation that was overlooked because stressfulevents preceded breakdowns by an average of sixmonths.

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Need for Standard Coding

In contrast to a priori schemes that are the resultof top-down processing, experimentally derivedcontent analysis schemes are somewhat "datadriven." Coding schemes are derivedfrom a comparison between a controlgroup and a group known to exhibit acertain characteristic. Atkinson andMcClelland (1948) devised this tech-nique to investigate how theoreticallyrelevant manipulations in a laboratorywould affect subject's imagery on theTAT. They chose to study hungerbecause it would be easier to manipu-late levels of this motivation. They sys-tematically controlled subjects' eatingschedules and found imagery on the TAT variedaccording to hours since subjects last ate. Inaddition, they found that images were not neces-sarily affected the way they had anticipated. Theyconcluded that implicit motives could not becoded with a priori schemes, since experimenters

may not be able to accurately anticipate imagesassociated with particular motives.

As a result of Atkinson and McClelland'sdiscovery, subsequent coding schemesfor implicit measure have utilized exper-imental or quasi-experimental designsto identify coding categories (Suedfeld& Rank, 1976; Winter, 1973). Forexample, Donley and Winter (1970)experimentally aroused power motiva-tion in a group of college students byshowing them a video clip of PresidentKennedy's 1961 famous inauguraladdress and administered the TAT

immediately afterwards.

He compared and blind cross-validated the TATstories from this group with TATs from a controlgroup. The resulting images and themes unique tothe experimental group were used as the powermotive at-a-distance scoring scheme.

Applications for Marketing Research

The possible application of content analysis inmarketing research are many and range from cus-tomer satisfaction, attitudeand usage, and advertisingstudies to customer segmen-tation. For instance in adver-tising or copy testing, thesample can be split intothree groups: a control group,a group exposed to advertise-ment "A", and a groupexposed to advertisement "B".Each might see a TAT/PSEimage of a particular scene.For instance if the commercial is for an auto man-

ufacturer a TAT showing a customer and a carsales person talking might be shown.

In the survey the first groupwould directly be asked to tella story about what is takingplace in the picture, whattook place immediately beforethe picture, and what willtake place afterwards. Groups2 and 3 would be asked tocomplete the same exercise,but would first be exposed tothe priming condition, such as

one of the two different ads, or the same ad but

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While these projective techniques work well in tra-ditional focus groups, the special conditions ofonline discussion boards are even more ideal.Here the more iterative approach, with groups run-ning two to five days, allows additional time for

psychological analysis and subsequent probing.Discussion boards cut down on costs as partici-pants can be recruited from different cities andtime zones, and the moderator or psychoanalystcan easily join in.

TAT/PSE in Online Discussion Boards

TAT/PSE in Online SurveysDue to advances in text analysis, specifically textcoding and text mining software such as SPSSText Analysis, SPSS Clementine's Text Mining,ProfilerPlus, and Leximancer, etc. TAT/PSE's canactually be incorporated into online surveys, final-ly bridging the gap between qualitative and quan-titative research.

This allows for not only quantitative/statistical val-idation and projectionability of results, but themerging of these projective techniques with

behavioral and demographic data also collected inthe survey.

Respondents can be classified into specific seg-ments based on their answers to the TAT/PSE,and/or standard likes, dislikes and product men-tions can be tabulated and t-tested just like nor-mal quantitative data. The combination of thetwo approaches can finally satisfy both the mar-keting manager who asks, who?, how many?, howoften? With the marketing manager who asks, butwhy? What else?

Attitudes, psychological profiling, and brandtracking: Case study of "Momentum Clothing"

Like many companies who wish to increase theirposition in the Youth Market, Momentum ClothingCompany (MCC) hoped to implement a two-foldstrategy. First, they needed to investigate whatyoung people thought of their clothing line.Second, they hoped to gain a better understand-ing of what factors were most important to thisdemographic group. Specifically, they desired toknow what makes products attractive or repulsiveto teens, issues that tend to weigh heavily on their

minds, and most importantly, what motivates theirbuying decisions.

Initially, MCC surveyed 2,000 high school andcollege students across the nation. They askedpoignant questions that required teens to ratetheir preference for different clothing brands,including their own. In addition, they asked theyouth to rate how important different factors werewhen deciding to purchase clothing. To thisregard, the survey contained 15 different brandsof clothes and 50 different factors that MCCthought would influence decisions to buy clothes.

TAT/PSE Case Study

featuring different manufacturer brands or prod-ucts. The stories are then analyzed, not only asexplicit qualitative feedback, but also for deeperpsychological motivation. The resulting insights

are far more telling than traditional focus group orsurvey information, as they help explain the deep-er emotive impact brands and advertising have onconsumers within a specific context.

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After analyzing the results, MCC was disappointedto find that there was very little variability in stu-dents' answers to their questionnaire. Even withadvanced statistical analysis, MCC learned littleabout their target population. All MCC had learnedwas that youth had placed MCC on par with otherleading clothing brands. Even worse, MCC stillhad no idea what made youth tick or what the keydrivers behind purchasing were. It was clear thatthe factors they had included in the survey wereeither obvious, or showed little variability, andwere not insightful factors in consumer behavior.The question remained, what factors drive con-sumer behavior in this category?

MCC decided to employ Anderson Analytic's AA-Projective techniques to help better understandthe Youth Market. Anderson Analytics adminis-tered two TAT/PSE exercises to 300 high schooland college students over the internet. The initialassessment provided a baseline psychological pro-file of young people without the influence ofbrands or marketing messages.

In the second part of the survey the students wererandomly assigned to one of three cells/groups.The first group watched an MCC commercial cur-rently in circulation. The second group watched acommercial from MCC's direct competitor,"Expedite Clothing, Inc" (ECI). The third group didnot watch any commercial. This last group servedas a control group for the purpose of comparison.Finally, all three groups were given an additionalround of TAT/PSE tests.

To track MCC as a brand, or specifically, howteens perceive MCC in comparison to competitors,Anderson Analytics compared the last round ofTAT/PSEs with the first round of tests. Afterwatching commercials for MCC or ECI, the storieswritten directly reflect the influence these com-

mercials had on youth's perceptions of the catego-ry. Therefore, any differences between the firstand second rounds of TAT/PSE could directly beattributed to the commercials. In this regard, AA-Projectives yielded important, yet subtle, differ-ences in how the MCC brand messaging impactsyouth.

With respect to gaining insight on attitudes,Anderson Analytics compared the last round ofTAT/PSEs from the MCC commercial group againstthe other two groups. Using content analysis,Anderson Analytics coded responses forpositive/negative affect, action/attraction versuspassive/repulsion dimensions, and operationalcodes to discern two important factors. First, wereyouth who watched MCC commercials more or lesslikely to buy clothing? Second, did MCC leave adifferent impression on youth than ECI or no com-mercials?

Since the youth write their own answers, the atti-tudes and potential behaviors are "projected" ontothe TAT/PSE images. Therefore, information fromthese test are "organic," or true assessments ofwhat goes on in consumers/ minds. In addition,since content-analysis was used in conjunctionwith text analysis on a large sample, results wereboth rigorous and objective, in essence, thedesign merged the strengths of both quantitativeand qualitative analyses.

As a result of the study, MCC was able to finetune messaging to better coincide with the deeperpsychological needs of youth in the category.Further more results indicated that two very differ-ent groups of youth, both potentially valuable,existed. Ultimately, MCC was able to address theneeds of both groups in the same advertising cam-paign.

next generation projective techniquespersonal.kent.edu/~lmarks/consumerbehavior/tat.pdftion of new...

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