TABLE 1.

R-PAS Variable Abbreviations, Their Full Expression, and Psychological Meaning

Abbreviation	Full Expression	What Is Measured	Associated With/Interpretation
R	Number of responses	Number of responses	Associated with variability in cognitive ability and motivation.
Complexity	Complexity	Measures rich use of various features of the inkblots.	When responses correspond well with features of the inkblots and are organized, differentiated, and integrated, higher scores indicate cognitive strengths and flexibility and are associated with age, education, and intelligence. When combined with critical content and poor form quality, complexity may be related to confusion, poor psychological boundaries, and being overwhelmed with upsetting and poorly controlled ideas and emotions.
CF + C	Color-Dominated responses	Color responses with vague or lacking form.	Related to poor cognitive control and modulation of emotional reactions. Even a lower mean, in the relative absence of FC, i.e., color responses with definite form, signifies emotional regulation problems.
EII-3	The Ego Impairment Index–3	An index combining scores on impaired reality testing, disturbing thought content, and disturbed relation to self and others.	A broadband measure of cognitive disturbance and severity of psychological problems, indicating general personality dysfunction.
SevCog	Severe Cognitive Codes	Responses demonstrating disorganized thinking and speech.	Associated with serious lapses in conceptualization, reasoning, communication, and thought organization, often indicative of psychotic-level disturbance.
FQ−%	Form Quality–minus percentage	Visual misperceptions or misinterpretations.	Related to visual misperception and problems with reality testing.
MAP	The Mutuality of Autonomy–Pathology	Responses describing interactions that are aggressive, harmful, or dominating and that compromise the autonomy of another object, i.e., with a marked power imbalance and a marked lack of mutuality.	Associated with difficulties in relating to others in mature and mutually supportive and autonomous ways, and interpersonal relationships that are characterized by destructive, self-centered, and malevolent attributions.
PHR	Poor Human Representations	Responses where humans are perceived as distorted, damaged, malevolent, unrealistic, or vulnerable.	A measure of problematic or less adaptive understanding of oneself and other people, indicating problematic ways of perceiving self and others, such as distorted, confused, illogical, damaged, aggressive, unrealistic, and/or vulnerable.
CritCont%	Critical Contents percent	Responses with trauma-related, aggressive, anatomical, sexual, and morbid content.	A measure suggesting trauma, abuse, and dissociative propensities.

R-PAS variables. Reference: Meyer et al. (2011).