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.