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Article
The Effects of Stem Length and Directions on Sentence Completion Test Responses
Journal of Personality Assessment (1981)
  • Richard H. Dana, Portland State University
  • Karen Turnbow
Abstract

In an investigation of the effects of stem structure and direction set on sentence completion responses, 160 undergraduate males were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: Rotter ISB with "feelings" instructions, Rotter ISB with "speed" instructions, Sacks SCT with "feelings" instructions, Sacks SCT with "speed" instructions. Eight clinical judges derived hypotheses from the completed protocols; two judges evaluated each protocol. Interjudge reliability was measured by Pearson product-moment correlations and percents of agreement. There was a significant effect for amount of stem structure; the structured Sacks SCT stems yielded more clinical hypotheses. Structured stems also elicited significantly more feeling words. No significant effect was found for instructional set, nor was there a significant relationship between stem structure or instruction set and the numbers of words in completions.

Keywords
  • Sentence Completion Test,
  • Sacks Sentence Completion Test,
  • Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank
Publication Date
1981
Citation Information
Richard H. Dana and Karen Turnbow. "The Effects of Stem Length and Directions on Sentence Completion Test Responses" Journal of Personality Assessment Vol. 45 Iss. 1 (1981)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/richard_dana/81/