The research of political perception is aimed to the study of the images of different political objects in the public mentality. One of the main features of such studies is a necessity to reveal together with rational opinions of people about politicians, authorities, state, parties etc., those components of political images that respondents are not aware of. The standard quantitative methods like electoral surveys do not permit to find out this level of perception and demand more sophisticated psychological instruments. The paper shows how the use of a survey with open-ended questions and a projective test “Picture of authorities” enable a student of power (authorities) to obtain a multi-level and systematic knowledge of public images of authorities. The projective test is a mainly qualitative technique that permits us to analyze visual components of image of authorities that is completely unconscious.
