Childrens Apperception Test

The Childrens Apperception Test (CAT) is a projective personality measure for children aged 3-10 years. It is used to measure personality traits, and attitudes.

Developed by Leopold Bellak and Sonya Sorel Bellak and first published in 1949, it is based on the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT).

Cards are used as standardized stimuli. There are a number of series
 * Pictures of animals (CAT-A) or
 * Pictures of humans (CAT-H) in common social situations.
 * In a supplement (CAT-S) stimuli include pictures of children in common family situations such as births, deaths, chronic illnesses, and separations from parental figures.

Administration
A series of pictures are presented and children are asked to describe the situations and make up stories about the people or animals in the pictures. The test takes between 20-45 minutes.