The responses given in the form of stories provide to the psychologist, valuable clues and indications about the candidate’s mental make-up and personality traits including leadership qualities and social adaptability. The stories throw-up to the surfacc the hidden motives, hopes, fears, prejudices, likes; dislikes, emotional stability, interests, and natural tendencies of the individual. It would thus be possible for the examiner to determine whether the candidate has a positive attitude and constructive orientation. One can also see the fear, guilt, frustration, under confidence, noncooperation and such similar negative or anti-social attributes readily reflected in the stories.
A positive person on the other hand will speak about courage, confidence, co-operation, friendliness, warmth, help, sympathy and such favourable traits in his narratives. One can readily experiment this technique in a practical manner. Here a picture has been presented, with four related stories written by different candidates. The examiner’s comments appear at the end of each story. To make a self assessment of yourself, please observe the picture for one minute. As soon as you have finished observing the picture, you write your story about what you saw. Thereafter read the stories written by the other candidates and the examiner’s comments. You can then evaluate your own personality rating. You will also understand why you must think positively to attain success.