PROBLEM
The '(popular" response, the most quantifiable of all Roraschach variables, has received little attention from experimenters. Hertz(6) gathered in 1938 a list of '(populars" agreed upon by three or more scorers, among whom were Beck, Loosli-Usteri, Gardner, and Vernon. Not until 1950 when Beck's Spiegel study(2' appeared, were there any more than brief references to this variable. Then in 1951 Molish's article on the popular response in records of normals, neurotics, and schizophrenics( ) and in 1952 Friedman's study(4) were published.
The concept of popularity or communality(12. 13) has been interpreted as reflecting "ability to adjust to the practical requirements of life, to a sufficient participation in collective or common thinking" (Oberholzer, Piotrowski) ; "conformity in thinking processes"; "ability to adapt one's thinking to that of the common man, ability to experience communal thinking" (Molish) ; "F plus at its most concentrated", 'Lcooperativeness, ability to participate in common thinking or Kish, hence adaptability" (Beck). Recent studies of normals and schizophrenics in which P is shown to be a differentiating factor(g* l o ) support somewhat these interpretations.
Antecedent, however, t o any interpretation is the need for precise definition of the P factor which can be established objectively only on a statistical basis. A res- ponse thus may be defined as "popular" according to the frequency with which it occurs in a normal population, P responses are simply those most frequentIy given 'Developed under the inspiration of Joseph Zubin, in whose Manual of Projective and Cognate Techniques (12) the author's first version of the scale appeared.