When evaluated as psychometric instruments, most projective tests:. A) do not fare very well.
B) have validity but little reliability.
C) have generalizability but little validity.
D) do as well as objective tests like the CPI and MMPI.

The correct answer is A.

Explanation:

Projective techniques constitute, together with psychometric techniques, the bulk of traditional evaluation. Projective techniques are usually separated from psychometric techniques, considering  that the former essentially seek to understand, while the latter are concerned with measuring and evaluating.  Projective techniques are sensitive instruments to reveal unconscious aspects of behavior, which provoke a great variety of subjective responses; they are highly multidimensional and evocative of unusually rich data with minimal knowledge on the part of the test target. They have also been effective in evaluating aspects of the cognitive and affective world that can serve as indicators for the diagnosis or description of the individual. Psychometric tests are constructed with the aim of measuring the degree to which a subject possesses a certain attribute. Commonly these attributes cannot be measured directly, their measurement can only be inferred from behavior samples or tests. It is clear that many projective techniques are deficient when evaluated according to psychometric standards. But the use of the techniques remains over the years. The validity and reliability of these techniques depends on an adequate contextual use, in which all kinds of evidence are used in combination.