The Thematic Apperception Test developed at Harvard University by Henry Murray during the 1930s. This test is less ambiguous than the Rorschach because it involves pictures of actual scenes rather than inkblots. In the series of pictures shown and asked to make up a story about each.

The test is intended to reveal the basic “themes” that recur in a person’s imaginative productions. Apperception means a readiness to perceive in certain ways, based on prior individual experience. Hence, the tests name implies that people interpret ambiguous pictures according to their individual readiness to perceive, and that they elaborate stories in terms of preferred plots or themes that reflect personal fantasies.