Week 2 Assignment

One thing that is interesting about this kind of exercise is that language analyses can tell us many things about the writer that go far beyond power, achievement, and affiliation. Look at the table below. In it, you can determine some features of your own writing and can get a sense of your writing style compared with others:

Self-references:  People who use a high rate of self-references tend to be more insecure, nervous, and possibly depressed. They also tend to be more honest.

Social words:  Social words are words that make reference to other people (e.g., they, she, us, talk, friends). Generally, people who use a high level of social words are more outgoing and more socially connected with others.

Positive emotion words:  The more that people use positive emotion words (e.g. happy, love, good), the more optimistic they tend to be. If you feel good about yourself, you are more likely to see the world in a positive way.

Negative emotion words:  Use of negative emotion words (e.g., sad, kill, afraid) is weakly linked to people's ratings of anxiety or even neurotic. People who have had a bad day are more likely to see the world through negatively-tinted glasses.

Big words (words with more than 6 letters):  Use of big words is weakly related to higher grades and standardized test scores. People who use a high rate of big words also tend to be less emotional and oftentimes psychologically distant or detached.

The Big Picture:  The above interpretations should be considered with a grain of salt for your own writing. Your approach to the assignment may have been influenced by people bothering you, concerns about other things in your life, lack of sleep, etc. In addition, it is important to remember that the TAT is generally administered in a highly controlled situation and is always graded by a real-live human being. You will recall from the book that the TAT was devised to tap people's needs for achievement, power, and affiliation. Look at your own writings and see if you can pick up if you were in high in these motives. For example, if you said that one person was thinking about her future career, a TAT expert would probably say that you were higher in a need for achievement than if you said that the person was thinking about her lover (which would hint that you were higher in need for affiliation).

Your TAT description:  In this story, you have Mrs. Jackson to the right who is the teacher of this science class. She has given instructions to her students that they will be mixing chemicals to observe the reaction when the chemicals are mixed. Mrs. Jackson has given all instructions and is now making her way around the room to see if the students are following the directions and to answer any questions that any of the students might have. Mrs. Jackson approaches the student Sarah. She stands back to watch what Sarah is doing. Sarah is trying to maintain her calmness as she knows that Mrs. Jackson is observing her. Sarah is really wanting to do well so she is taking her time to make sure that she is following all the directions that were given to the class. Sarah takes chemicals from one tube and puts it in another tube. She and Mrs. Jackson is now waiting on the chemicals to mix and react to each other. Sarah seems to be nervous and Mrs. Jackson is observing patiently. She wants all of her students to succeed and she is willing to explain and provide assistance if the students need it. The chemicals begin to mix as Mrs. Jackson had explained to the class in the beginning. As the chemicals that Sarah mix starts to react, you can see the relief on her face. Mrs. Jackson tells Sarah "good job" and walks away.