Regarding the Question about Projective Tests...
Objective and Projective tests are tests for personality or parts of personality of poeple- their behavior and motivations.
Objective methods are atheoreticla and/or empirical in the sense that they don't require any theory to interpret the results of tests. The results often derive their meaning from empirical procedures such as matching a person's results to those of a clinical sample. Objectives tests are not likely to be based on Psychodynamic (Freudian theory) theory, and therefore the results are considered less useful for providing insights into the dynamics of a person's interactions with the world. The earliest popular tests of this kind was Minnesota Multipurpose Personality Inventory.
Projective tests remain popular today but their hey-days were in the early half of 20th C. They are based on psychodynamic theory for explanation and a major assumption underlying these is that the stimuli which are prone to variety of interpretations will encourage clients to reveal information that they otherwise would not share in response to direct questioning. Thematic Appreciation Test (TAT) by Henry A Murray is a classic example of a projective device. It is measured on Qualitative scoring methods even though quantitative methods have been available.
Compared to most surveys and focus group research, Projective Techniques rely on "Indirect Questioning". For example in Marketing Research, rather than asking the respondent directly about their buying behavior and motivation, questions are framed in terms of other people or imaginary situations, e.g., asking to describe the "dream involving Swiss chocolates".
The stimuli here is relatively ambiguous so that repondent's ability to guess the the expected answers is reduced and bias of "socially desirable" answers is reduced. Some examples of proj. tech. are- Word Association; sentence completion; symbol matching; cartoon tests; objective personification; shopping list analysis; picture drawing; autodriving; thematic story telling; dream exercises; collage construction etc.
In a survey research the degree of freedom are usually less in number whereas, Proj. Tech. theoretically allow an infinite number of responses. Limitless variations exist, for example, in the ways consumers might imagine dreams about a BMW, or construct collages that represent their thoughts and feelings about United Airlines.
In the broadest sense, Proj. methods tend to generate data that originate in what neuroscientists characterize in lay terms as tea "right brain". they tend to encourage emotional, fanciful and visual expressions that materialize to illicit data that are more symbolic, metaphorical and aesthetic. Proj. techniques are able to access primary motivations that arise from an individual's urges and instincts that arise from different level of consciousness (Freud, 1911). Such interests are clearly the direct concern of the marketers with communication; product design; and brand positioning.
Dev, hope this is somewhere near to your expectations. I am not an expert in psychology but trying to find answers for interesting question.
Thanks
seema