Use of the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank with adolescent populations: implications for determining maladjustment

Three hundred sixty-eight high school students and 136 college students were administered the Rotter Incomplete Sentence's Blank (RISB; Rotter & Rafferty, 1950) and the Maudsley Personality inventory (MPI; Eysenck, 1962). Scores on the RISB and MPI were compared to scores for the normative samples published in each test's manual. Using the RISB manual scoring criteria, over half of high school students (55%) and over 40% of college students scored above the RISB cutting score, signifying "maladjustment." Reasons for this high proportion of adolescents scoring in the maladjusted range include the fact that the RISB was normed on a college student sample from the late 1940s and the fact that the manual has never been updated. These results indicate that extreme caution should be exercised when using the RISB with adolescent populations. In addition, suggestions are made for revisions to the RISB and raising of the maladjustment cutting score.