The thematic apperception test or tat is a type of projective test that involves describing ambiguous scenes popularly known as the picture interpretation technique it was developed by american psychologists henry a murray and christina d morgan at harvard university in the 1930s. Thematic apperception test tat is a projective psychological test developed during the 1930s by henry a murray and christiana d morgan at harvard university proponents of the technique assert that subjects responses in the narratives they make up about ambiguous pictures of people reveal their underlying motives concerns and the way they see the social world 1. Thematic apperception test is a popular method of psychology assessment which uses projective hypothesis technique it differs from the more traditional ink blot tests in that the images used in tat thematic apperception test are not abstract ink blots but representational figures that are vaguely identifiable by the viewer. 12 thematic apperception test in 1935 morgan and murray introduced the thematic apperception test tat murray 1943 a series of provocative pictures used to explore the respondents dynamics the stimuli are more highly structured than inkblots and respondents are required to give more meaningfully organized verbal responses. Thematic apperception test also known as tat was first developed by the american psychologist henry a murray and lay psychoanalyst christiana d morgan in 1930s the idea for the test emerged after an student of murray cecilia roberts enquired to the professor about the possibility of using henrys test in a clinical setting to explore the underlying dynamics of her ill sons personality