Preview

Sentence Completion Test

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
5802 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Sentence Completion Test
JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT, 74(3), 371–383 Copyright © 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Sentence Completion Tests: A Review of the Literature and Results of a Survey of Members of the Society for Personality Assessment
Margot Holaday, Debra A. Smith, and Alissa Sherry
Department of Psychology University of Southern Mississippi

Test usage surveys consistently find that sentence completion tests (SCTs) are among the most popular personality assessment instruments used by practitioners. What is not noted is which SCTs practitioners are using, why these tests are so popular, and whether practitioners are using formal scoring. We surveyed a random selection of 100 members of the Society for Personality Assessment. With a 60% return rate on a single mailing, we found that most psychologists who use incomplete sentence tests use the Rotter (1951) Incomplete Sentences Blank with children (18%), adolescents (32%), and adults (47%). Most practitioners said they do not read stems aloud and record answers themselves, and even fewer said they use formal scoring. The most common reasons for using an SCT are (a) to use it as part of an assessment battery (41 endorsements), (b) to determine personality structure (18 endorsements), and (c) to elicit quotable quotes (17 endorsements). Implications for practitioners and training suggestions for academicians who prepare future psychologists are noted.

Test usage surveys consistently find that sentence completion tests (SCTs) are among the most commonly used personality assessment instruments. They were ranked second by Japanese clinicians (Ogawa & Piotrowski, 1992, as cited in Piotrowski, Keller, & Ogawa, 1993), third by clinical psychologists (Goh & Fuller, 1983), fifth by clinicians working with adolescents (Archer, Maruish, Imhof, & Piotrowski, 1991), fourth by school psychologists (Kennedy, Faust, Willis, & Piotrowski, 1994), fifth by representatives of mental health service providers, and third by members



References: Archer, R. P., Maruish, M., Imhof, E. A., & Piotrowski, C. (1991). Psychological test usage with adolescent clients: 1990 survey findings. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 22, 247–252. Aronoff, J. (1967). Psychological needs and cultural systems. Princeton, NJ: Van Nostrand. Brown, L. H., & Unger, M. A. (1998). PAR comprehensive catalog. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources. Consulting Psychologists Press. (1998). Consulting Psychologists Press catalog. Palo Alto, CA: Author. Forer, B. (1960). Word association and sentence completion methods. In A. I. Rabin & M. R. Haworth (Eds), Projective techniques with children (pp. 210–224). New York: Grune & Stratton. Forer, B. R. (1993). The Forer Structured Sentence Completion Test. Los Angeles: Western Psychological Services. Goh, D. S., & Fuller, G. B. (1983). Current practices in the assessment of personality and behavior by school psychologists. School Psychology Review, 12, 240–243. Gough, H. G. (1971). Preliminary manual for the “Personnel Reaction Blank.” Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press. Hamberger, M. J., Friedman, D., & Rosen, J. (1996). Completion norms collected from younger and older adults for 198 sentence contexts. Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, and Computers, 28, 102–108. Holsopple, J. Q., & Miale, F. R. (1954). Sentence completion: A projective method for the study of personality. Springfield, IL: Thomas. Holt, R. R. (1980). Loevinger’s measure of ego development: Reliability and national norms for male and female short forms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 909–920. Hy, L. X., & Loevinger, J. (1996). Measuring ego development. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Kennedy, M. L., Faust, D., Willis, W. G., & Piotrowski, C. (1994). Social emotional assessment practices in school psychology. Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 12, 228–240. Lanyon, B. P., & Lanyon, R. I. (1979). Incomplete Sentence Task instruction manual. Chicago: Stoelting. Loevinger, J. (1987). Paradigms of personality. New York: Freeman. Loevinger, J. (Ed.). (1998). Technical foundations for measuring ego development: The Washington University Sentence Completion Test. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaun Associates, Inc. Loevinger, J., & Wessler, R. (1970). Measuring ego development (Vol. 1). San Diego, CA: Jossey-Bass. Loevinger, J., Wessler, R., & Redmore, C. (1970). Measuring ego development (Vol. 2). San Diego, CA: Jossey-Bass. Mayers, K. S. (1991). A sentence completion task for use in the assessment of psychotic patients. American Journal of Forensic Psychology, 9, 19–30. Murray, H. A., & MacKinnon, D. W. (1946). Assessment of OSS personnel. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 10, 76–80. Peck, R. F. (1959). Measuring the mental health of normal adults. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 60, 197–255. SENTENCE COMPLETION TESTS 383 Piotrowski, C. (1985). Clinical assessment: Attitudes of the Society for Personality Assessment membership. Southern Psychologist, 2, 80–83. Piotrowski, C., Keller, J. W., & Ogawa, T. (1993). Projective techniques: An international perspective. Psychological Reports, 72, 179–182. Potash, H. M., de Fileo Crespo, A., Patel, S., & Ceravolo, A. (1990). Cross-cultural attitude assessment with the Miale–Holsopple Sentence Completion Test. Journal of Personality Assessment, 55, 657–662. Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (1998). PAR comprehensive catalog. Odessa, FL: Author. Rabin, A. I. (1965). Growing up in the kibbutz. New York: Springer. Rabin, A. I., & Zltogorski, Z. (1985). The Sentence Completion Method: Recent research. Journal of Personality Assessment, 49, 641–647. Rohde, A. R. (1946). Exploration in psychology by the Sentence Completion Method. Journal of Applied Psychology, 30, 169–181. Rohde, A. R. (1957). The Sentence Completion Method. New York: Ronald. Rohde, B. R. (1960). Word association and sentence completion methods. In A. I. Rabin & M. R. Haworth (Eds.), Projective techniques with children (pp. 210–224). New York: Grune & Stratton. Rotter, J. B. (1951). Word association and sentence completion methods. In H. H. Anderson & G. L. Anderson (Eds.), An introduction to projection techniques (pp. 279–310). New York: Prentice Hall. Rotter, J. B., Lah, M. I., & Rafferty, J. E. (1992). Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank. San Antonio, TX: Harcourt Brace. Rotter, J. B., & Willerman, B. (1947). The Incomplete Sentences Test as a method of studying personality. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 11, 43–48. Sacks, J. M., & Levy, S. (1950). The Sentence Completion Test. In L. E. Abt & L. Bellak (Eds.), Projective psychology (pp. 357–402). New York: Knopf. Stein, M. I. (1947). The use of a sentence completion test of the diagnosis of personality. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 3, 45–56. Stein, M. I. (1949). The record and a sentence completion test. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 13, 448–449. Tendler, A. D. (1930). A preliminary report on a test for emotional insight. Journal of Applied Psychology, 14, 122–136. Western Psychological Services. (1998). Western Psychological Services catalog. Los Angeles: Author. Williams, R. E., & Vincent, K. R. (1985). Loevinger’s Washington University Sentence Completion Test. In D. J. Keyser & R. C. Sweetland (Eds.), Test critique (Vol. 3, pp. 395–401). Kansas City, MO: Westport. Margot Holaday Department of Psychology University of Southern Mississippi Box 5025 Hattiesburg, MS 39406–5025 Received March 4, 1999 Revised April 30, 1999

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    References: Hogan, T. P. (2007). Psychological testing: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Radioshack's Woes

    • 2905 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Meyer, John P.; Becker, Thomas E.; Vandenberghe, Christian. Journal of Applied Psychology89. 6 (Dec 2004): 991-1007. http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy1.apus.edu/10.1037/0021-9010.89.6.991…

    • 2905 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    References: Cohen, R. J., Swerdlik, M. E., & Sturman, E. D. (2013). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement (8th Ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.…

    • 1252 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rorskblot Test Validity

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages

    People walk around every day assessing the personalities of other people, deciding whether their personality compatible with others or not. This is relevant in situations such as new relationships, employers screening applicants for grad schemes or open positions and schools trying to find out a child’s optimum way of learning in order to achieve the best results. The fact that we have different personalities suit us to different things. Funder (1997) believed that personality refers to our individual patterns of behaviours, thoughts and emotions as well as the psychological mechanisms which cause these patterns. Although Feist and Feist (2009) argued that no one definition of personality is acceptable for all personality psychologists, but…

    • 1012 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    References: American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The worn path written by Eudora Welty (1941) is a great short story about Phoenix Jackson, an old African American woman who beats all odds to make a trip into town for medicine for her grandson, she overcomes many challenges that test her courage and will. Because of her loyalty and love, Phoenix has sacrificed her own well-being on this dangerous path for the well-being of her grandson.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    look at this

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages

    References: American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.…

    • 499 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Butcher, J. N. (2010). Personality Assessment from the Nineteenth to the Early Twenty-First Century: Past Achievements and Contemporary Challenges. The Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, Vol 6,, 1-20. doi:10.1146/ annurev.clinpsy.121208.131420…

    • 846 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Psychology 1101

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Additional readings may be assigned. If so, they will be made available via the library’s electronic reserves.…

    • 1072 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Varied Selection Tools

    • 1502 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Miller, L. A., Lovler, R., & McIntire, S. A. (2013). Foundations of psychological testing: A…

    • 1502 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Girl Interrupted

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Blais MA, Smallwood P, Groves JE, Rivas-Vazquez RA. Personality and personality disorders. In: Stern TA, Rosenbaum JF, Fava M, Biederman J, Rauch SL, eds. Massachusetts General Hospital Comprehensive Clinical Psychiatry. 1st ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Mosby Elsevier;2008:chap 39.…

    • 1325 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Applied Project

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages

    References: Landrum, R. E. (2012). Applied project: Capstone in psychology. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Biblical vs Humanistic

    • 3058 Words
    • 13 Pages

    References: Ammerman, R. T. (2006). Comprehensive Handbook of Personality and Psychopathology Volume 3. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.…

    • 3058 Words
    • 13 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Better Essays

    psychology testing 1

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Psychological tests come in many shapes and forms; all of them are set to measure the performance of the person taking them. Reliability and validity take place in testing, both are important but it should be noted there could be no validity without reliability. The reliability and validity of psychological testing affect the field because the psyche of the human mind is too intricate to be fully understood.…

    • 757 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    This paper will evaluate validity scales in relation to personality assessments. An argument supporting and in favor of validity scales will be made. Personality theory will also be discussed as it pertains to test development. An argument in favor of personality theory as a guide to test development will also be developed. Additional information may be included as it pertains to the topic being evaluated, or to clarify relevant terms or issues.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays