Sentence Completion Method Research Articles

Health behavior of young people: formation of typological attributes using the sentence completion method

The article actualizes the problems of typological analysis of young people according to character of health behavior, among them the issues of the formation of typological attributes are particularly highlighted. These are the theoretical constructs; characteristics on the basis of which the respondent is assigned to one or another typological group – the carrier of a certain social type. Various indicators of health behavior claim to be typological attributes. Their choice depends on many factors: on the specifics of the population being studied, on the basis of the typology, on the purpose for which the typological analysis is carried out, on the accumulated experience of research practices in using indicators, etc. The article presents the results of an exploratory research devoted to the study of young people’s representations about health behavior. The initial methodological premise was that the heuristic potential of indicators of health behavior as typological attributes in different groups of young people is different. The plausibility of this premise was confirmed in the process of analyzing text data obtained by the sentence completion method. Based on the construction of pyramids of generalizations (according to a survey of three age groups of young people), the structural elements of the image of “health behavior” (elementary justifications, elements, components) were identified, and the dominant elements and components were identified. As a result, assumptions have been made about the adequacy of certain methodical solutions in the formation of typological attributes.

The Phenomenon of Cognitive Polyphasia in Social Representations on the Mentally

The present study is focused on the phenomenon of cognitive polyphasia in the context of representations of mentally ill people by different groups of society. The authors put at the forefront the problem of finding the conditions for the actualization of cognitive polyphasia. The study was aimed at identifying manifestations of cognitive polyphasia in the structure of social representations (SRs) of the mentally ill in the groups of Orthodox respondents and non-believers. The sample consisted of Orthodox Christians: N = 114 (49 males and 65 females) and non-believers: N = 113 (76 males and 37 females) in the age ranges 18-23, 40-45 and 60-65 years, permanently residing in Moscow. The survey of the respondents at the main stage of the research was carried out using: (1) the authors questionnaire developed on the basis of the results of the search stage and including 29 statements; (2) a scale of self-assessed degree of religiosity; (3) a modified D. Feldes Psychological Distance Scale; (4) a modified sentence completion method; (5) the Bubbles technique and (6) a question pool for obtaining socio-demographic information. The results showed that the emotional component of SRs of the mentally ill changed their modality depending on the survey methods used. When the respondents evaluated the statements of the questionnaire, the core of SRs in both groups contained elements that were extremely sympathetic towards the mentally ill, and the statements revealing negative emotions (the possibility of contracting a mental illness or the need to isolate these people from society) were on the periphery of their representations. At the same time, the data of the projective methods showed that the negative representation background (as compared to the positive one) in relation to mentally ill people significantly predominated among both believers and non-believers. The negative representation of the mentally ill is most pronounced in the group of non-believers and reaches the highest rates in the group of 60-65-year-old respondents. We regard such ambivalence as a manifestation of cognitive polyphasia and, in particular, its variety, i.e., selective prevalence.

Are UX Evaluation Methods Providing the Same Big Picture?

The success of a software application is related to users’ willingness to keep using it. In this sense, evaluating User eXperience (UX) became an important part of the software development process. Researchers have been carrying out studies by employing various methods to evaluate the UX of software products. Some studies reported varied and even contradictory results when applying different UX evaluation methods, making it difficult for practitioners to identify which results to rely upon. However, these works did not evaluate the developers’ perspectives and their impacts on the decision process. Moreover, such studies focused on one-shot evaluations, which cannot assess whether the methods provide the same big picture of the experience (i.e., deteriorating, improving, or stable). This paper presents a longitudinal study in which 68 students evaluated the UX of an online judge system by employing AttrakDiff, UEQ, and Sentence Completion methods at three moments along a semester. This study reveals contrasting results between the methods, which affected developers’ decisions and interpretations. With this work, we intend to draw the HCI community’s attention to the contrast between different UX evaluation methods and the impact of their outcomes in the software development process.

The Opinion of "Teaching of Vocational Subjects and Practical Training" Students on the Practice Teaching Process

The main goal of this contribution is to present the views of students of pedagogy on the teaching practice, which is organized by the Institute of Lifelong Learning in cooperation with secondary technical schools. This teaching practice is organized by the Institute of Lifelong Learning in cooperation with secondary technical schools that agreed to be the training schools for our students. The teaching practice period lasts 14 days for each student. Students have to shadow their supervisor teacher for a specific number of lecture hours. Then they have to teach a couple of lectures on their own. The sources for this study were teaching practice diaries of students, who took part in this process and the students’ responses to the sentence completion method questionnaire that they completed after the teaching practice period. The method provided a deeper qualitative understanding of the issue. The qualitative analysis revealed four categories: teaching practice as a stressor; barriers in the teaching practice; stress reduction during the teaching practice; creating a personal teaching concept. This paper deals with the first three of these categories. The final part of the paper is a reflection on possible ways how to raise the quality of the teaching practice both for students and participating institutions.

Reading Personality: Assessing “Big Three” Traits with the Sentence Completion Method

<b>Background</b><br /> Performance-based personality assessment has advantages, and the sentence completion method is one of the most reliable of these techniques. We sought to derive rating scales for three major personality traits (Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism) based on Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank (RISB) protocols. <br /> <br /> <b>Participants and procedure</b><br /> Four successive samples of students (N = 231) completed the RISB and other measures. Rating scales were derived empirically and cross-validated against the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ-R). Additional validity evidence was obtained regarding symptomatic distress (SCL-90-R scales) and creativity (based on originality scores and expert judgments of student-generated drawings and poetry). <br /> <br /> <b>Results</b><br /> The scales could be applied reliably by undergraduate research assistants (mean individual intraclass correlation coefficients [ICCs] of .75, .79, and .71, respectively) and correlated well with self-reported traits (mean r values of .51, .57, and .58). Reliability of the finalized system was higher, with ICCs of .84, .83, and .79. RISB-rated traits correlated predictably with symptomatic distress. RISB-rated Psychoticism correlated strongly with the originality and judged creativity of drawings and poems. Psychoticism ratings were more strongly related to criterion measures than was the original self-report. <br /> <br /> <b>Conclusions</b><br /> The sentence completion method can be used to rate personality traits reliably. These ratings correlate fairly strongly with the results of self-report inventories but sometimes correlate more strongly with theoretically relevant variables than do self-report scores.

Creating Community Capacity through Youth Empowerment: A Case Study of Rural Nicaragua

Rural youth development in Nicaragua has experienced a rebirth with the re-introduction of 4-H (4-S in Spanish) after nearly two decades in dormancy. This case study explored 4-S through the eyes of 94 young club members, ages 9 to 13. Using sentence completion methods, youth provided insight into the activities they found most interesting and important. Their responses were then compared with the socioeconomic and demographic realities of the youth. Findings reveal deep connections between youth and their communities and culture. Entrepreneurial activities, agriculture, and work were important to the young people, indicating a strong sense of responsibility for contributing to their families and communities. Understanding 4-S members’ interests and ideas can serve local leaders in developing activities that reflect members’ interests and tap into their strengths.

Beyond sensory characteristics, how can we identify subjective dimensions? A comparison of six qualitative methods relative to a case study on coffee cups

This article compares six qualitative methods used to identify consumer perceptions: the sorting task with verbalization, the repertory grid method, the projective technique of word association and sentence completion, the projective technique of image association, a method based on the self-explanation of preferences and the focus group. We applied these methods to a set of coffee cups. For each method, eight different consumers assessed the same eight cups. The terms thus elicited were classified into two pre-established categories: product attributes (this cup is modern) and evocations (this cup reminds me of family time). We then proposed sub-categories: ten for product attributes and five for evocations. The methods were compared according to the number of different variables generated in each sub-category. The ease of implementation and pragmatic considerations relative to the methods are also presented. The test methods enabled the elicitation of different subjective dimensions distributed into several pre-defined categories. According to our criteria, the word association and sentence completion method appeared to be the most comprehensive technique to identify subjective dimensions.

PRADINIŲ KLASIŲ MOKINIŲ APLINKOSAUGINĖS NUOSTATOS

The main purpose of this article is to represent the results of research in which 66 third class students took part. The main valuable attitudes of scholars are showed. Analysis of the results revealed that primary school student scanidentify tragedy of life, can name feelings and senses, reasons which cause particular consequences. The fact that the majority of surveyed third class students had positive endings (78,8 %) in their works, shows that student stend to protect an drespectlife. Even works with negative endings showed that authors have a sense of reality, can realize tragedy when life can not be saved. Empathy develops compassion, altruism and compassion; it is foundation of many moral decisionsandactions, so it has to be developed. Key words: valuable attitudes, sentence completion method, primary school, third class students.

Developing a teaching restaurant as an R&D&I environment

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore how a teaching restaurant could be developed as an internal research (R), development (D) and innovation (I) environment based on the ideas of the students and the teachers. Design/methodology/approach – Theoretical framework is composed of constructivist pedagogy. The four types of internal environments, namely learning, development, research, and innovation are described. A case organization's pedagogical model of Learning by Developing is illustrated. Empirical data were collected by utilizing a sentence completion method from the students and the teachers at the case teaching restaurant. Findings – The empirical results illustrated that a teaching restaurant could be developed from the viewpoints of all four environments. However, the students and the teachers do not necessarily perceive a great difference between the aforementioned environments. Furthermore, the students identify more innovative research, development, and innovation (R&D&I) opportunities when compared to the teachers. The socio-cultural constructivist pedagogy was emphasized in the form of team work. Practical implications – When developing a teaching restaurant, both the students’ and teachers’ ideas could be collected. Also both cognitive and socio-cultural constructivist pedagogy proved applicable. Originality/value – A teaching restaurant offers possibilities for constructive learning, R&D&I which can be applied to skills, processes, and services for both individual students and students as team members.

Verbal Expressive Personality Testing With Older Adults: 25+ Years Later

This review builds on those conducted over 25 years ago by Panek and Hayslip in examining the literature dealing with the use of verbal expressive techniques with older adults. Such findings based on the Rorschach Ink Blot Test, Holtzman Inkblot Technique, Hand Test, Sentence Completion methods, and the Thematic Apperception Test and kindred thematic apperceptive techniques are presented and evaluated regarding the evidence for age differences, differential diagnosis, extraneous individual differences in performance, and adequacy of normative data. Although available evidence appears to warrant the continued use of verbal expressive techniques with older adults, more adequately designed studies are necessary to fully support the potential of these assessment tools for decision making with this population: assisting in diagnosis, recommending the appropriateness of various living arrangements, facilitating supportive care choices, and aiding in treatment planning.

A sentence completion procedure as an alternative to the Autobiographical Memory Test for assessing overgeneral memory in non-clinical populations

Overgeneral memory (OGM) has been proposed as a vulnerability factor for depression (Williams et al., 2007) or depressive reactivity to stressful life-events (e.g., Gibbs & Rude, 2004). Traditionally, a cue word procedure known as the Autobiographical Memory Test (AMT; Williams & Broadbent, 1986) is used to assess OGM. Although frequently and validly used in clinical populations, there is evidence suggesting that the AMT is insufficiently sensitive to measure OGM in non-clinical groups. Study 1 evaluated the usefulness of a sentence completion method to assess OGM in non-clinical groups, as an alternative to the AMT. Participants were 197 students who completed the AMT, the Sentence Completion for Events from the Past Test (SCEPT), a depression measure, and visual analogue scales assessing ruminative thinking. Results showed that the mean proportion of overgeneral responses was markedly higher for the SCEPT than for the standard AMT. Also, overgeneral responding on the SCEPT was positively associated to depression scores and depressive rumination scores, whereas overgeneral responding on the AMT was not. Results suggest that the SCEPT, relative to the AMT, is a more sensitive instrument to measure OGM, at least in non-clinical populations. Study 2 further showed that this enhanced sensitivity is most likely due to the omission of the instruction to be specific rather than to the SCEPT's sentence completion format (as opposed to free recall to cue words).

Nebaigtų sakinių metodas jaunesniųjų moksleivių tyrimui ir auklėjimui

Straipsnyje aprašoma nebaigtų sakinių metodika – viena iš dažniausiai taikomų vertinant asmenybę ir nuostatas. Analizuojamas metodikos rengimas ir taikymas bandomajame tyrime. Atsižvelgdami į bandomojo tyrimo duomenų preliminarią analizę teigiama, jog nebaigtų sakinių metodas – jautrus instrumentas mokinių nuotaikoms, asmenybei, jos ypatumams tirti – gali būti taikoma kaip papildoma priemonė ir jaunesniųjų moksleivių tarpusavio santykiams, požiūriui į mokyklą, mokytojus ir mokymąsi atskleisti. Nebaigtų sakinių metodas turi tiek diagnostinio lankstumo ir interpretacinės vertės, kiek tyrėjas turi kiekybinės bei kokybinės analizės ir lyginimo, taip pat abiejų procesų vertinimo patirties. Reakcijų į nebaigtus sakinius interpretavimas reikalauja visų pirma gilaus testo psichometrinių ribotumų supratimo, antra, patvirtinančios informacijos iš kitų šaltinių (kaip antai, kiti testai, rašiniai, pokalbiai, stebėjimai), trečia, jautraus sveiko proto tyrėjo praktiko, kuris supranta pašalinių veiksnių ypatumus atsakinėjančiam individui ir tyrimo aplinkai, pripažįsta ir savo paties teorinį šališkumą, o tai gali inicijuoti neteisingas interpretacijas ir veikimo rekomendacijas. Formuluoti teisingas išvadas, remiantis nebaigtų sakinių metodu, galima tada, jei tyrėjas yra įgijęs praktinių įgūdžių daryti pagrįstus sprendimus pagal subjektyvias nuomones.

Individualism—Collectivism and the Vocational Behavior of Majority Culture College Students

This study examined whether variation on the cultural constructs of individualism–collectivism in a sample of predominantly majority culture (i.e., Anglo American) college students accounts for significant amounts of variance in their occupational choices, career plans, and work values. Participants (135 women, 55 men) responded to the “I am” sentence completion method (Kuhn & McPartland, 1954), the Occupational Plans Questionnaire (Hershenson, 1967), and the Work Values Inventory (Super, 1970). Overall, results indicated no significant relationships between level of collectivism and the career‐related variables.

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.

Occupation-Related Differences in Levels of Death Anxiety

In order to ascertain the validity of the sentence completion method in the measurement of death anxiety, ten randomly selected items from the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Blank, Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), Collett-Lester Attitude toward Death Scale, and a metaphoric image task were administered to forty volunteers in death-related occupations (firemen, funeral personnel) and forty individuals in non-death related occupations (secretaries, accountants, teachers, etc.). While Templer DAS scores (measuring conscious death anxiety) did not differ across groups, a conscious concern for the deaths of others, and two of four dimensions of covert/subconscious death fear, differentiated those in death-related occupations and those with non-death-related jobs. Substantial between-group differences in relationships among measures of age and conscious, fantasy, and covert levels of awareness were consistent with the notion of an occupation X sex X levels of death anxiety interaction in the present study. Implications of these data for occupational choice and for the measurement of death anxiety are discussed.

Cross-cultural group counseling and the use of the sentence completion method

Abstract This article deals with cross-cultural group counseling, the sentence completion method, and the combination of the two through the use of eight cross-cultural sentence stems.

Self-Image Disparity and Adjustment in Young Adult Females

de Man ( 1 ) speculated that the larger discrepancies between real and ideal self found among young adult women who come from controlling or autonomy-granting family badgrounds were respectively the result of internal or external restrictions. In the present investigation an attempt was made to obtain at least some indirect support for this speculation. It was hypothesized that, i f self-image disparity indeed is the result of such restrictions, higher levels of conflict should be reported by women with large discrepancies than those with small discrepancies. In other words, as suggested by Rogers and Dymond ( 2 ) . high self-image disparity should be associated with greater ad justrnent problems. To test this hypothesis, the women who took part in the previous investigation were administered the adult form of the Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank ( 3 ) . This rest, an attempt to standardize the sentence completion method, is a semi-structured projective technique in which the subjects are asked to finish 40 sentences for which the first words are supplied. The completions are scored by comparing them against typical answer patterns in an empirically derived scoring manual and by assigning to each response a scale value which may vary from 0 to 6 according to the degree of indicated adjustment or maladjustment. The sum of the individual ratings provides a total adjustmenc/maladjustment score. Theoretically, the scores can range from 0 to 240 but Rotter indicated that practically they range from 70 to 200; scores of 110 to 150 are most common. Since the scoring plan involved judgments and matching sentences against criteria, the reliability of scoring was an important factor. Two experimentally naive scorers were requested to evaluate the answers of the subjects. The interscorer reliability was .957, and the difference between mean scores for the two raters (MI = 141.40, Mn = 138.92) was 2.48. Although these data suggested high agreement among the judges, it could not be assumed that the scorers always had arrived at exactly the same score per item for a particular subject. They were requested to compare their scores, to discuss variations in interpretation, and to arrive at a list of final scores acceptable to both. The resulting scores (range: 107 to 173) were subsequently intercorrelated with the subjects' disparity scores (range: 30 to 121). The coefficient of .48 ( p < .02) suggested that, at least for females at the young adult age, there is a moderate relationship between self-image disparity and degree of adjustment, as suggested (1, 2 ) .

Attitudes of Indian, Canadian, and American Teachers toward Authority, as Measured by the Sentence-Completion Method

Attitudes of Indian, Canadian, and American Teachers toward Authority, as Measured by the Sentence-Completion Method

Influence of stimulus properties of the Sentence-Completion-Method on projection and adjustment.

Summary The influence of stimulus properties of the Sentence-Completion-Method (SCM) were investigated by creating a two dimensional SCM. The first dimension consisted of positive, negative, or neutral stems, and the second dimension involved phrasing the stems in an impersonal manner or in the first person mode. Combining the two dimensions yielded six possible combinations which were utilized in an analysis of variance model with Belgian school children. The various combinations were scored for projection and “adjustment.” Results indicate that neutral items and first person items outdistanced impersonal items. For “adjustment,” positively toned items were judged more highly than negative or neutral ones and first person items more highly than impersonal ones.

The study of adolescent development using a sentence-completion method.

Summary. A new sentence‐completion test has been constructed in order to explore further the development of interpersonal relationships in adolescence, following an earlier study based on a different type of projective test. The responses of three different age groups of adolescent girls from a grammar school in a working‐class area are compared, and the results indicate that in the majority of interpersonal situations there are important differences between age groups, most of which are consistent with those reported in the previous study. The results support the view that a sentence‐completion test is an appropriate and significant means of studying interpersonal development.