Sentence completion tests: a review of the literature and results of a survey of members of the Society for Personality Assessment

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.     

Psychodiagnostic test usage: a survey of the society for personality assessment

The present survey investigated psychodiagnostic test usage and practices of the Society for Personality Assessment. A brief questionnaire was forwarded to 400 SPA members and 206 responded for a 51.5% rate of return. Projective techniques found popular in previous surveys of Division 12 were the major assessment instruments utilized by SPA members. Exner's comprehensive system was the preferred mode of Rorschach analysis, followed by the Klopfer and Beck systems. The Wechsler Scales and the MMPI were frequently included in conducting a psychological battery. Personality assessment was mainly utilized for diagnostic purposes and as an indicator for type of therapy.     

Effects of observing competitive and violent versions of a sport

Males were randomly assigned to view either (1) a film clip featuring hockey fights or (2) a film of nonaggressive hockey action or (3) a no-film control condition after having first been angered or treated politely by an experimental confederate. The dependent variable was represented by a measure of aggressive mood and a behavioral measure of retaliatory aggression. Analyses revealed that both angered and nonangered subjects exhibited an increase in aggressive mood following exposure to the fight film. However, the analysis involving retaliatory aggression against the confederate yielded an anger x film interaction. While angered subjects were more aggressive than nonangered, only angered subjects retaliated against the confederate after viewing the fight film. The results were discussed in terms of Berkowitz’s (1974) aggressive cue theory. A version of this paper was presented at the meeting of the North American Society for the Sociology of Sport, Edmonton, Canada, November 1987.     

An automated exercise wheel for primates

Both adult and juvenile nonhuman primates can be unpredictable, difficult to handle, and potentially dangerous. Accordingly, in evaluating their activity level, they must be carefully confined. We have modified and redesigned an exercise system for primates. The exercise wheel was originally described by Curran, Wiegel, and Stevens (1972) and later adapted by Elizondo (1989). Our modifications and training procedures, which allowed us to bring the behavior of the monkey under stimulus control within 4 weeks, are described here.     

Measuring Child Mental Health Status for Services Research

Epidemiological studies of the prevalence of mental health disorders typically contain multiple measures of mental health, using different instruments and different informants (child, parent, and interviewer). We used the Methods for the Epidemiology of Child and Adolescents Mental Disorder (MECA) study of U.S. youth to assess the effects of employing a range of these measures in mental health services research. We examined the effect of including various measures of mental health status in regressions of income on mental health service use. The estimated effect of income on service use varied widely, depending on the measure of mental health status used. Some measures of mental health status have little explanatory power in service use regressions. Measures of mental health status based on parental assessment of impairment or need, such as the Columbia Impairment Scale, are less costly to collect and also have good explanatory power, but are more strongly correlated with income. The Non-Clinician Child Global Assessment Scale (NC-CGAS) performs best in terms of explanatory power and correlation with income. Higher income parents appeared to judge behaviors differently from lower income parents, so analyses based on measures derived from parental report may lead to an understatement of the effect of income on service use.     

Evolution and the hormonal control of sexually-dimorphic spatial abilities in humans

A number of hypotheses have been proposed for the evolution of sex differences in spatial ability. Two of these hypotheses assume a sex-based division of labor in foraging during human evolutionary history, three propose sexual selection for spatial ability, and two suggest that human life history has imposed sex-specific selection on spatial abilities. We derive predictions from each of these models and test the predictions against recent data on the effects of hormones on spatial ability across the lifespan. Sexual selection for increased range size in males might be the evolutionary origin of the enhancing effects of testosterone on spatial ability, while the benefits of reduced mobility in women at different stages of reproduction could be the origin of the inhibitory effects of oestrogen on spatial ability.     

Changes in Behaviour and Body Weight Following a Single or Double Social Defeat in Rats

In a series of experiments, the consequences of a single and double social conflict on various behaviours and body weight in rats were studied. Animals were subjected to social defeat by placing them into the territory of an aggressive male conspecific for one hour, either once, or twice at the same time on two consecutive days. To assess the consequences of social defeat, three experiments were performed with independent groups of rats. In the first experiment, an open field test was performed two days after the last conflict. Locomotor activity was strongly reduced after social defeat. There were no differences between the single and double defeat group. To assess the effects of social defeat on subsequent social behaviour, a second experiment was performed in which experimental animals were confronted with an unfamiliar non-aggressive rat two days after a single or double conflict. Social defeat resulted in a reduction of social contact with the unfamiliar conspecific. There was no difference between the single and double conflict group. In the third experiment, the effects of social conflict on food intake, body weight and saccharine preference were measured. Food intake was not affected after a single conflict, but in the double conflict group food intake was decreased for several days. Body weight gain was decreased after both single and double social defeat. The decrease was stronger in the double conflict group. Water intake and saccharine preference were not significantly affected. This study revealed that social defeat in rats causes pronounced changes in various behaviours and body weight. Different aspects of behaviour are differentially affected by defeat with respect to the magnitude and time course of the changes induced. Moreover, different behavioural parameters are differentially sensitive to repetition of the stressor.     

Convergence between attention variables and factors of psychometric intelligence in older adults

The purpose of the present study was to examine the hypothesis that individual differences on measures of attention would converge with select factors of psychometric intelligence, especially fluid intelligence and short-term acquisition and retrieval. A sample of 83 elderly adults $\text{(}\text{X}\text{= 71}\text{years}\text{)}$ was administered a battery of 17 psychometric ability tests. Tests were selected to mark four psychometric ability factors (Cattell and Horn's dimensions of fluid and crystallized intelligence, short-term acquisition and retrieval, and perceptual speed). Also, seven tasks representing four aspects of attention—decoding processes, selective attention, attention switching, and concentration—were administered. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to examine the relationships among the four psychometric ability factors and 11 variables obtained from the attention tasks. Results were only partially consistent with the hypothesized pattern of convergence. Two attention measures had significant loadings on a fluid-type intelligence factor, and one had a marginally significant loading on a short-term memory factor. In general, the greatest convergence occured between attention variables and the ability factor of Perceptual Speed. Results were discussed with respect to previous research on psychometric abilities and cognitive processes, the theory of fluid-crystallized intelligence, and their implications for understanding intellectual aging.     

Effects of sexual attitudes and physical attractiveness on person perception of men and women

A sample of 180 males and 180 females completed person perception measures for stimulus women who varied in physical attractiveness and permissiveness of sexual attitudes. The results indicated that both physical attractiveness and sexual attitudes had strong effects on peson perception. Physically attractive stimulus women were rated higher than the unattractive stimulus women on a physical appeal factor and an item measuring interpersonal attraction. The sexually conservative women were rated higher on an evaluative factor, lower on a personability factor, and higher on the interpersonal attraction item than the sexually permissive stimulus women. It was also found that the effects of physical attractiveness were greater for males than for females and that women rated the sexually permissive stimulus women less favorably than did men.