Short-Form Scoring for Mc Clelland's Version of the TAT

Time needed to score TAT protocols may be reduced one-half or more by using a short-form scoring method that includes only the scoring for need imagery rather than the entire range of subcategories. A rescoring of 478 TAT coding sheets for six previous studies by the present author shows correlations in the mid-80s for the single-item scoring version of need Achievement, need Affiliation, and need Power. Although raw scores from the short form and long form are not comparable, the short-form scores appear to predict the same dominant need profiles as the original McClelland TAT coding. It may be reasonable then to substitute the short-form scoring for the full TAT coding when time is an issue.