Why are Projective Techniques needed in Research?
The Projective techniques were originally used in the field of psychology and the focus is to understand the subconscious aspects of a person’s personality. The projective techniques have the task of getting people to respond to ambiguous stimuli. It works on the fundamental that projection of the inner thoughts on to the stimulus would be not more threatening than actually talking directly about it.
Those techniques have created a way for themselves in the field of market research as well. The various ways in which we see it being used into market research is:
- A means of tapping into the subconscious of the consumer
- An easier way to get the consumer to express his point of view/opinion
Factors to be considered when developing projective techniques for research
It can be a lot of fun to use projective techniques for research. There are certain factors and points that the researcher needs to keep in mind.
The first important factor to be considered is:
1. Which one to use: These techniques become counterproductive if we do not consider the audience that we are talking to. The difference in the age group or the intellect of the audience makes a change in the responses. The profession of the respondent also changes the way they would respond to a particular question. For example, often housewives are found hesitant in responding to written questionnaires because of the apprehension of written expression.
2. How many to use: The researcher if becomes greedy and wants to execute many techniques in a short span of time, it is an act of greed and foolishness.
3. How to execute: The way in which the tool is going to get executed in also very important. Even if the purpose of the projective techniques is to facilitate expression, sometimes a switch from the normal mode in order to respond to the technique also becomes a barrier.
The ease in the expression can be achieved by first bringing the respondent in a comfort zone and the people should be able to relate to the activity that they have been asked to perform. The researcher should ensure to take into consideration that part of the research before actually moving forward.
