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.