Historical Use of the Terms
Meyer and Kurtz (2006) define the historical use of the term "objective" to classify
"Personality test as the instruments in which the stimulus is an adjective, proposition, or question that presents to a person who is required to indicate how accurately it describes his or her personality using a limited set of externally provided response options."
The term," "projective" refers to instruments in which the stimulus is a task or activity that is presented to a person who is required to generate a response with minimal external guidance or constraints imposed on the nature of that response (Meyers and Kurtz, 2006)." The design of the test is to allow an individual to respond to ambiguous stimuli, in the hopes that it will reveal hidden emotions as well as internal conflicts- such test would be of an Inkblot test- Rorschach Inkblot Test. (Cohen, Swerdlik, Sturman, 2013).
Problems classifying terms
Meyer and Kurtz (2006) suggestions to specific tests.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory- Adolescent (MMPI-A)