Last semester, in Psych Assessment II, we learned to administer and qualitatively evaluate the Rey. As with a lot of assessment tools, it is interesting to learn what something abstract might imply about an individual. I felt that much of what my professor discussed left me skeptical; did "A" really imply "B?"
In Child Psychopathology, we were discussing the Rey and our professor had us try to draw it from memory, without looking at an original. Needless to say, I missed a lot of details and performed much worse than I thought I would have, despite having seen the figure time and time again. The purpose of our drawing the Rey was not to analyze ourselves but to put us in the perspective of an child who is doing it for the first time (namely, befuddled).
However, minutes after completing my drawing, I looked at it and was alarmed at something that was striking about my drawing: how much my ANXIETY showed through. I'm pretty upfront about my neuroticism and how easily anxious I get about things; though I wasn't feeling particularly anxious about the task, somehow my underlying trait anxiety came out.
Conclusion: Knowing how to qualitatively evaluate a psychological test does not mean you can fool it.
D'oh.
