The Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test in forensic psychiatric assessments - a validation study

The Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test (HORMANN & MOOG 1957) is a semi-projective method used in forensic psychiatric expert assessments to measure frustration tolerance. Standard values corresponding to a forensic psychiatric sample are still missing. On that account, the present study provides a comparison of PFT results of a sample of N = 469 subjects, having completed the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test in the course of a forensic psychiatric expert assessment, to the most recent norm sample consisting of non-forensic subjects (N = 1040) reported by RAUCHFLEISCH (1979). Significant differences between forensic and non-forensic subjects were found and within the forensic subjects, age and gender were identified as influencing factors. There were significant correlations between the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Test and other psychological test procedures measuring aggressive tendencies and social desirability. Moreover, the PFT shows high interrater reliability among trained assessors. In consideration of methodological shortcomings, the importance of a forensic norm sample for an appropriate diagnostic interpretation of the PFT results in a forensic setting is emphasized.