Module Code: MKT216SL
Business And Market Research
University Of Plymouth
Projective Techniques
• An unstructured and indirect form of questioning that encourages the respondents
to project their underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings regarding the
issues of concern.
• Projective techniques attempt to disguise the purpose of the research.
• In projective techniques, respondents are asked to interpret the behavior of others
rather than describe their own behavior.
• In interpreting the behavior of others, respondents indirectly project their own
motivations, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings into the situation. Thus, respondents’
attitudes are uncovered by analyzing their responses to scenarios that are
deliberately unstructured, vague, and ambiguous.
• The more ambiguous the situation, the more respondents project their emotions,
needs, motives, attitudes, and values, as demonstrated by work in clinical
psychology on which projective techniques are based.
• As in psychology, these techniques are classified as association, completion,
construction, and expressive.
A Comparison of Focus Groups, Depth Interviews, and Projective Techniques
Criteria!
Focus,Groups!
Depth,
Interviews!
Projective,
Techniques!
Degree,of,structure!
Relatively!high!
Relatively!
medium!
Relatively!low!
Probing,of,individual,
respondents!
Low!
High!
Medium!
Moderator,bias!
Relatively!
medium!
Relatively!high!
Low!to!high!
Interpretation,bias!
Relatively!low!
Relatively!
medium!
Relatively!high!
Uncovering,subconscious,
information!
Low!
Medium!to!high!
High!
