Influence of a stimulus variable on stories told to certain TAT pictures

Ten TAT pictures were ranked by judges with respect to the happiness-sadness of the scene. Ss were instructed to "make up as happy a story as you can" to each picture, and stories were rated by judges as to the degree of happiness expressed. The happiness of the stories varied significantly with the happiness of the pictures. Response time and number of words per story increased as the happiness of the pictures decreased. Therefore, the features of the different TAT pictures affect the feeling-tone of the stories.