Sentence Completion Correlates of Airline Pilot Attitude and Proficiency

Sentence completion scores for dependency, anxiety, and hostility were correlated with sentence completion measures of good flying attitude and omissions for 300 male airline pilot candidates. The scoring-by-example method used with the first three variables was highly reliable and avoided scoring overlap. All sentence completion scores were also correlated with 15 traditional measures of pilot qualification such as mechanical information and signal reaction time. While the proficiency measures were generally unrelated to the projective measures, a good attitude towards flying was positively associated with coping (not omitting sentence completion items) and the extreme suppression of anxiety and hostility under stress. Civilian airline pilots appear similar to military pilots in their exaggerated display of good adjustment.     

A Sentence Completion Test Assessing Safety and Esteem Motives

This study was concerned with establishing the construct validity of a sentence completion test to assess safety and esteem motives, as characterized by Maslow (1970). A large number of students were given the test and 36 safety-oriented and 36 esteem-oriented Ss were selected and given the manifest anxiety (At), dominance (Do) and dependency (Dy) subscales from the MMPI. As predicted, the results indicated that safety-oriented Ss were significantly higher on manifest anxiety and dependency and lower on dominance than esteem-oriented Ss. Considerations of construct validity in the use of the test were discussed.     

Response to two presentations of the Sentence Completion Test of ego development

This was a study of the differences among individuals on their performance on oral and written versions of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of ego development. The study included 192 subjects from three age groups: College age, community residents, and retired people. No oral versus written differences were found in scores. Gender was the only factor to exhibit a consistently significant effect on Sentence Completion Test score differences.     

The Adjustment of Drug Addicts as Measured by the Sentence Completion Test

The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank was administered to fifty out-patients at a rehabilitation center for narcotic addicts. There were twenty male heroin users, twenty male pill users, and ten female heroin users. Interscorer, intrascorer, and split-half reliabilities were all high. It was found that a cutting score of adjustment of 135 correctly identified 80 per cent of the male heroin users, 90 per cent of the male pill users, and 100 per cent of the female heroin users.     

The Sentence Completion Method--recent research

The present article reviews recent work with the Sentence Completion Method (SCM) and examines the method's effectiveness as an assessment instrument. Studies in which the SCM was employed in testing hypotheses concerning personality and its development, as well as reports that deal with maladaptive functioning and psychopathology are covered. Also reviewed is some work that investigates the nature of the method itself. The overall conclusion is that the SCM is flexible, readily adaptable in various research and clinical settings, and to be recommended for continuing use and application.     

Effects of modified instructions on the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development

This research project was designed to investigate the possibility that asking subjects to respond in a mature manner when they take the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development (WUSCTED) would result in higher test scores and improve the test-retest reliability of the measure. The results showed that there was a significant increase in Total Protocol Ratings (TPRs) and item sums in the experimental group (n = 32) over the control group (n = 32). In addition, the experimental group spent more time and used significantly more words in its response than did the control group. The question of improved test-retest reliability remains only tentatively resolved. The item sum scores showed a significantly higher correlation for the experimental instruction than for the control, although the test-retest agreement between TPR levels was insignificantly different in the two instructional groups.     

Psychometric properties of Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test in an adult psychiatric outpatient sample

Little research has been conducted on Loevinger's Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development in adult psychiatric outpatients. The measure is a promising method of assessing a construct of personality and character functioning that should be useful in research on psychopathology and in choosing treatment modalities. The data presented in this study address the question of the psychometric adequacy of the measure in this segment of the subject population. Specifically, estimates of interrater reliability, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability are presented for a sample of 42 adult outpatients. In addition, the relationship between total protocol ratings and item sum scores is explored.     

Psychometric Properties of Loevinger's Sentence Completion Test in an Adult Psychiatric Outpatient Sample

Little research has been conducted on Loevinger's Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development in adult psychiatric outpatients. The measure is a promising method of assessing a construct of personality and character functioning that should be useful research on psychopathology and in choosing treatment modalities. The data presented in this study address the question of the psychometric adequacy of the measure in this segment of the subject population. Specifically, estimates of interrater reliability, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability are presented for a sample of 42 adult outpatients. In addition, the relationship between total protocol ratings and item sum scores is explored.     

Assessing inhibitory control in early-stage Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease using the Hayling Sentence Completion Test

The ability to inhibit irrelevant information is essential for coping with the demands of everyday life. Inhibitory deficits are present in all stages of dementia and commonly observed in people with Parkinson's disease (PwPD). Inhibition is frequently tested with the Stroop test, but this may lack ecological validity. This study investigates inhibitory control in people with Alzheimer's disease dementia (PwD) and PwPD using the Hayling Sentence Completion Test (HSCT), which aspires to be a more ecologically valid task. A total of 117 people completed the HSCT, a test where participants have to complete a sentence with an unrelated word. The sample comprised 30 PwD, 33 PwPD, and 54 healthy older controls. We compared response times and the number and type of errors across the three groups. Completion time in Part B (Inhibition) did not distinguish between PwD, PwPD, and controls when controlling for the initiation speed, but a higher proportion of Category A errors (producing a word that fits the sentence when instructed otherwise) was a unique characteristic of inferior performance in PwD and PwPD. While not part of the standard test scoring protocol, controlling for the initiation speed and distinguishing between speed and accuracy in test performance appear to be essential for accurate evaluation of the inhibitory control in HSCT in older people. The findings suggest that the HSCT may be sensitive to verbal suppression deficits and may provide insight into inhibitory control in PwD and PwPD.     

Considerations for the Use of Sentence Completion Tests

Often, sentence completion tests are administered to clients without a clear sense of the clinical questions to be investigated, and, therefore, the appropriate sentence completion instrument to be used. The multitude of forms that have evolved in the last fifty years have made it difficult for clinicians to make informed decisions about which form to use and for what purpose. This article presents ten general guidelines or considerations for the effective use of this popular but sometimes misused psychological assessment method. Practitioners are urged to consider such issues as oral versus written presentation of items, item content in terms of positive or negative stimulus pull, the structure of sentence stems, the original purpose of a given test in regard to intended population and theoretical orientation of the author, and the empirical validity of tests.     

Ego development and conformity: a construct validity study of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test

Loevinger's conception of ego development predicts a curvilinear relation between it and conformity. Using 107 private-school boys in grades 8, 9, and 11, self-report, peer-nomination, and experimental (Willis) measures of conformity were given. An archival measure, number of demerits, was also obtained. As predicted, the self-report and archival measures show maximum conformity between the Self-Protective and Conscientious Stages as measured by the sentence completion test. These results are not artifacts of age or IQ. The Willis test does not correlates significantly any other variable, and the peer ratings were methodologically suspect. Thus one aspect of the conception of ego development is partially confirmed. Conformity. as measured by these typical tests, is shown not to be a unitary variable.     

Sentence Completion Responses and Classroom Social Behavior

To develop a scoring scale to differentiate “behaving” from “misbehaving” children, sentence completion responses of 96 children whose classroom behavior was socially approved were compared with responses of 96 children whose behavior was disapproved because they were aggressive and disruptive. Applied to a cross-validation sample of 96 approved and 96 disapproved children, it was found that scoring reliability was satisfactory, that the total scale score could be used to discriminate between these groups, and that inspection of individual protocols might yield valuable insights concerning a child's personal problems.     

The Sentence Completion Blank In Assessing Student Self-Actualization

A 40-item self-oriented sentence completion blank with stems designed to elicit responses to frustrations, conflict, and personal identity was administered to college students at two levels of maturity and to industrialists in supervisory positions. Responses were classified with satisfactory reliability into self-actualizing (A), self-defeating (D), and immobilizing-affective (I) categories. Ratio scores (A/A + D + I) for individuals show reliability over a 2-day period and 14-week period and significant difference between college underclassmen and industrialists. The technique has counseling utility in that trends toward self-actualizing or defensive tendencies are evident in individual blanks. Ratings of responses to the stems by the subjects on a 5-point good-bad scale yielded “feeling” score patterns with impressive reliability, but the meaning of these scores needs further exploration.     

Five Factors in Sentence Completion Test Categories: Toward Rapprochement between Trait and Maturational Approaches to Personality

Ego level is a maturational construct assessed using sentence completions. The five factors are relatively static and are typically assessed using ratings or questionnaires. The current investigations explored relations between these two approaches using the Sentence Completion Test (SCT). In the first of two studies, persons with extreme scores on the five factors could be readily identified from the SCT. In the second study, measures of the five factors were derived from the response categories that are generated in the standard scoring of the SCT. These category-based measures converged with both the Revised NEO Personality Inventory and an existing content analytic measure of the five factors. These results suggest both that a developmentally tuned approach to measuring the five factors may be productive and that there is meaningful variation in the routinely scored (but typically discarded) SCT category ratings.     

Test Adaptation and Cross-Cultural Assessment From a Business Perspective: Issues and Recommendations

Test adaptation and cross-cultural assessment activities are skyrocketing as the demand for educational opportunities and personnel selection grow both within the United States and across the industrializing world. We chose a qualitative, case study approach to identify central themes encountered by ACT, a not-for-profit organization that has accumulated considerable experience in cross-cultural assessment and test adaptation. Based on 16 projects and 28 interviews, we present a cross-cultural assessment guide within the context of how business administration, marketing, and research and technical issues interplay. It is apparent that business expectations and cultural differences in client groups have an important influence on technical and research decisions during the test adaptation and validation processes of testing institutions. Recommendations for future research regarding this interplay of issues are discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Diagnostic Applicability of the Pictogram Test

The aim of this study was to determine whether the Pictogram Test (PT; Vygostsky, 1960) a test of logical memory that was developed in Russia, is applicable for diagnosing and understanding thought disturbances in schizophrenia within an English-speaking population. Participants included 62 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders and 80 community nonpatients from Russia and the United States. We used correlational analysis to organize PT variables into Concrete (CI), Attribute (AI), and Geometric (GI) indexes. Discriminant function analysis revealed that only AI and GI had significant discriminatory power. These indexes correctly classified 91% of English-speaking and 86% of Russian-speaking participants as either patients or nonpatients. Controlling for age and education, multivariate analysis revealed that patients had significantly lower AI and significantly higher GI scores relative to nonpatients, and those differences were similar across languages. These results indicate that the PT can discriminate between patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders and nonpatients, which suggests that characteristics of the PT could be used to understand the mechanism of logical thinking in patients and nonpatients.     

The Self Focus Sentence Completion: A Study of Egocentricity

A 30-item sentence completion blank (SFSC), in which most of the stems contain a self-reference (I, my, me, etc.) is described. Normative data are provided for 2,592 non-psychiatric subjects representing five different kinds of populations, and 273 psychiatric patients from nine different diagnostic groups. Reliability data are presented and the results of six validation studies are discussed. It is suggested that the SFSC, which yields six scores, may provide a useful index of egocentricity as a response orientation or style. The data are discussed in the context of “egocentric balance,” a postulate seemingly compatible with several theoretical positions.     

Ego development and sociometrically evaluated maturity: an investigation of the validity of the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development

The reported study was an attempt to validate the Washington University Sentence Completion Test of Ego Development (WU-SCT), using a broad, sociometric index of maturity as the criterion variable. Sixty college women living in a sorority house completed the WU-SCT and evaluated one another's readiness for mature functioning in each of four adult social roles: career, marriage, parenthood, and community involvement. The reliabilities and the intercorrelations of the ratings suggested that peers distinguished two facets of maturity. While results support the hypothesized relationship between WU-SCT scores and a global sociometric index of maturity, the test's substantial correlations with indices relating to relatively impersonal roles (career and community) and apparent lack of correlation with indices relating to intimate interpersonal roles (marital and parental) suggests that the validity of the WU-SCT may be less broad than Loevinger's theory would imply. Several alternative interpretations of the data are suggested.