Story Completions Research Articles

Group concept mapping strategies for collaborative continuation tasks

AbstractThe continuation task, which involves reading an unfinished story and completing its ending, offers good potential for language learning. To enhance students' story‐ending writing abilities, this study proposes two types of concept mapping strategies: group filling‐in‐the‐blanks of a teacher‐constructed guided map and group concept mapping, both of which are meant to help students clarify storylines by visualizing a story onto a concept map. A quasi‐experiment was conducted in three classes. Students in Class 1 collaboratively filled in the blanks on a concept map and then wrote completions to three stories. In Class 2, students collaboratively constructed their own concept map and then wrote completions to the same stories. Class 3 students collaboratively wrote completions to the same stories without any concept mapping. Students’ story completions, diaries, responses to questionnaires, the researcher's observation notes, and teacher interviews were collected and analyzed using ANOVAs (Analysis of variance), paired‐sample t‐tests and thematic and domain analysis. The results showed that concept mapping strategies assisted students’ story‐ending writing quality with students achieving higher scores when using the group concept mapping strategy compared to those not using any mapping strategies. Nine interactive patterns were identified, with the collaborative pattern dominating, and these patterns evolved dynamically as the co‐continuation tasks proceeded. Overall, both students and teachers perceived the proposed strategies positively.

Views of Older Adults on Using Support to Prevent Overload in Informal Caregivers: Results of a Story Completion Study

Older care recipients living at home increasingly rely on support from informal caregivers. As informal caregivers often combine these caregiving tasks with other tasks, such as paid work, they are at risk of becoming overloaded. To decrease informal caregiver burden, different forms of support are available that also affect older care recipients’ lives, such as respite care, technology, or home care. The aim of this qualitative study was to obtain more insight into the perceptions, potential concerns and preferences of older informal care recipients about the use of support to relieve informal caregivers. We performed a story completion writing task among 23 informal care recipients aged 65 years or older, using hypothetical situations to let them reflect on different caregiver relief support options. The task was followed-up by a story-mediated interview. We used thematic analysis to inductively analyze story completions and interviews. We found that older informal care recipients were often willing to use support to relieve their caregivers, to ensure their wellbeing. However, they were also concerned about how the use of such support may conflict with their interests, preferences and values (e.g. respect for their autonomy, privacy, having a trusting relationship with a caretaker, paying attention to human aspects in care). Older adults were most hesitant to use adult day care facilities and technological support options. While these areas of tensions cannot always be completely resolved, it is important to jointly identify and discuss these, and work towards solutions to balance the respective interests, values and needs of older adults and caregivers. Health and social care professionals and older adults’ personal networks may help in overcoming hesitation to use support.

VIEWS OF OLDER ADULTS ON SUPPORT OPTIONS TO RELIEVE THEIR WORKING INFORMAL CAREGIVERS: A STORY COMPLETION STUDY

Abstract Older care recipients living at home increasingly rely on support from informal caregivers, who often combine their caregiving tasks with a paid job. Because of this combination of tasks, working caregivers may become overloaded. Different caregiver support options are available, that also affect older care recipients’ lives, such as respite care, technology, or home care. The aim of this qualitative study was to obtain insight into the perceptions, concerns and preferences of older informal care recipients about the use of support to relieve their working informal caregivers. We performed a story completion writing task among 23 informal care recipients aged 65 years or older, using hypothetical situations to let participants reflect on different caregiver relief support options. The task was followed-up by a story-mediated interview. We used thematic analysis to inductively analyze story completions and interviews. We found that older adults were often willing to use support to relieve their caregivers, to ensure their wellbeing. However, they were also concerned about how the use of such support may conflict with their interests, preferences and values (e.g. respect for their autonomy, privacy, having a trusting relationship with caretakers, paying attention to human aspects in care). Older adults were most hesitant to use adult day care facilities and technological support options. While these areas of tension cannot always be completely resolved, it is important to jointly identify and discuss these, and work towards solutions to balance the respective interests, values and needs of older adults and caregivers.

Is Weight Bias Evident in Peer Interactions Between Young and Older Children?

This study aimed to investigate whether weight bias is apparent in young and older children's interactions during a paired reading activity. One hundred seventy-two children (57% girls) read a book in which the main character, "Alfie," was portrayed either as average weight or as having obesity. Younger children (mean = 6.1 years) were paired with a same-sex older child (mean = 9.5 years). Questions within and at the end of the story prompted discussion. Children's conversations were analyzed according to valence (emotional tone). Nonverbal behavior was noted via observation. Pairs of children reading about theAlfiecharacterwith obesity made significantly more negative and fewer positive comments when offering story completions. Just one pair of boys spoke about him being "fat." There was no evidence that older children passed negative attitudes to younger children. Covertly expressed weight bias was more common. There was more frequent laughter while reading about the characterwith obesity, and two pairs made nonverbal reference to Alfie's appearance. Covert weight bias was apparent in the interactions of some of these children, but overt weight bias was rare. There is a need to establish a better chronology of children's awareness of, and attitudes toward, obesity and how they are acquired.

Using Semi-Projective Doll Play Methods to Classify Middle Childhood Children Into Four Attachment Types: Types Associations With Distinctive Psychosocial Adaptation

This research presents an adapted version of the Attachment Doll Story Completion Task for children in middle childhood (ADSCT for m-c), a measure for classifying children’s representations of mother-child attachment relationships into four attachment types: secure, avoidant, ambivalent, and disorganized. The ADSCT enables interviewers to partially circumvent the sophistication and defensiveness of middle childhood children's story completions. A sample of 185 children in the 4th and 5th grades, and 50 mothers of children from one 4th and one 5th grade class of that sample participated in the study. Children underwent the ADSCT for m-c procedure. Homeroom teachers, classmates, and the child reported on the children’s psychosocial adaptation. A sub-sample of the mothers completed measures of maternal caring attitudes and practices. Associations between the different attachment types and distinct forms of adaptation showed that secure attachment exhibited positive social relationships and a low level of psychosocial and behavior problems; disorganized attachment showed the poorest adaptation, manifested in psychosocial problems, behavior problems, social problem, aggressiveness, and victimization. Avoidant attachment exhibited social problems, peer rejection, behavior problems, and compulsive thought. And ambivalent attachment showed social vulnerability, and intermediate level of adaptation, between the better functioning of the securely attached and the problematic functioning of the insecurely attached. Concurrent validity of the ADSCT for m-c with maternal attitudes and practices, and discriminate validity with reference to key cognitive variables were good.

Making a story make sense: Does evidentiality matter in discourse coherence?

ABSTRACTEvidentiality refers to the linguistic marking of the nature/directness of source of evidence of an asserted event. Some languages (e.g., Turkish) mark source obligatorily in their grammar, while other languages (e.g., English) provide only lexical options for conveying source. The present study examined whether or under what conditions firsthand source information is relied on more than nonfirsthand sources in establishing discourse coherence. Turkish- and English-speaking participants read a series of somewhat incongruous two-sentence narratives and were to come up with a way of completing each narrative so that it would form a coherent story. Each narrative contrasted two source types (firsthand vs. hearsay, firsthand vs. inference, or inference vs. hearsay) and two information types (general vs. particular information) each presented first or second. Analysis of story completions showed greater overall reliance on firsthand information when it was presented second and referred to a particular event. When the firsthand source occurred first and the particular event occurred second, the latter was favored, especially by Turkish participants. Taken together, the findings suggest that evidentiality interacts with information type in establishing discourse coherence and that both firsthand and particular information are relied on more when presented later rather than earlier in discourse.

Attachment representations and adoption: associations between maternal states of mind and emotion narratives in previously maltreated children

This paper reports on associations observed between Adult Attachment Interviews (AAIs) obtained from adoptive mothers, and emotional themes appearing in doll play narratives obtained from their recently adopted children. The children, aged 4 - 8 years, carried into their adoptive placements a history of consistently serious maltreatment, including neglect and abuse. Results reveal strong and significant influences of maternal state of mind regarding attachment upon their adopted children's story-completions. Mothers whose AAIs were judged insecure (either dismissing or preoccupied) were likely to have adopted children who, three months after placement, provided story-completions with higher levels of aggressiveness as compared to the stories provided by children adopted by mothers with secure-autonomous AAIs. Children whose adoptive mothers provided AAIs indicative of unresolved (as opposed to resolved) mourning regarding past loss or trauma provided story completions with higher scores for emotional them...

Readers' Trait-Based Models of Characters in Narrative Comprehension

Our experiments explore readers' application of trait-based situation models for narrative characters. In the first episode of each of our experimental stories, characters performed behaviors that allowed readers to construct trait inferences (e.g., Albert's shoes were “buried under old candy wrappers, crumpled magazines, and some dirty laundry.”). Control stories omitted trait-relevant information. The second episode of each story gave readers an opportunity to apply the trait inference to generate expectations about story outcomes. In Experiment 1, participants agreed more readily to explicit outcomes that were consistent with their trait-based models. Experiment 2 demonstrated that readers' expectations were narrowly defined by specific traits (e.g., Albert is sloppy) rather than by more general inferences (e.g., Albert is not a good person). Experiments 3 and 4 suggested that trait-based models have an impact on moment-by-moment reading: Participants were slowed in their reading when story completions were inconsistent with specific trait-based models. Our results have implications both for theories of situation models and readers' causal analyses of narrative texts.

The Impact of Early Experience on the Creative Process: Findings from a New Story Completion Task

This study presents evidence of convergent validity for the Narrative Completion Test (NCT), a new story completion task for adults. A sample of 263 college students completed the NCT and a battery of self-report instruments measuring current mood, quality of life satisfaction, psychiatric history, family demographics, life events, and early memories. NCT story completions were coded for clinical features (Depression, Anxiety, Malevolence, Impulsivity, and Abandonment) and adaptive features (Happiness, Affiliation, and Empathy). NCT scores on malevolence and depression correlated positively with self-report depression, low satisfaction with self, and low quality of life satisfaction. NCT Happiness scores correlated negatively with self-report depression. The NCT clinical scores were also sensitive to negative early life events and negative early memories of maternal caregivers, findings demonstrating the impact of early experience on the creative process.

Mother and fatherchild attachment themes in the story completions of pre-schoolers from post-divorce families: do they predict relationships with peers and teachers?

Based on Bowlby's claim that ‘internal working models’ of selfwith-parent influence the way a child approaches relationships with others, this study examined attachment representations of 66 pre-schoolers (39 boys, 27 girls) in relation to teachers' or child-care providers' perceptions of their social competence. The study goes beyond previous related studies in three ways: (1) all children were from post-divorce families; (2) mother- and father-child representations were examined separately; and (3) teachers rated their own relationship to the child in addition to children's socially competent behaviors and behavior problems with peers. Attachment representations were assessed with an expanded version of the Attachment Story Completion Task (see Bretherton, Ridgeway, & Cassidy, 1990) adapted for children of divorce by presenting the mother and father as living in separate houses. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that children's enactments of child-mother attachment behavior in their story completions were the best predictor of boys' and girls' teacher-rated social competence. However, boys' and girls' enactments of empathy toward mother and father as well as child-father attachment themes correlated with social competence in opposite directions: For boys, these narrative enactments were related positively to social competence, while for girls, these relationships were negative. Theoretical and methodological implications of the findings for children of divorce and for assessing the working model construct are discussed.

Mother– and father–child attachment themes in the story completions of pre-schoolers from post-divorce families: do they predict relationships with peers and teachers?

Mother– and father–child attachment themes in the story completions of pre-schoolers from post-divorce families: do they predict relationships with peers and teachers?

Mother– and father–child attachment themes in the story completions of pre-schoolers from post-divorce families: do they predict relationships with peers and teachers?

Mother– and father–child attachment themes in the story completions of pre-schoolers from post-divorce families: do they predict relationships with peers and teachers?

Cognitive Underpinnings of Narrative Attachment Assessment

Traditional story completion methods used to examine attachment representations in childhood draw heavily on socially significant content and clinical judgment. Using these methods with 37-month-olds, Bretherton, Ridgeway, and Cassidy (1990) found that attachment security scored from story completions were related to a wide range of secure base, personality, intellectual, and family variables. We examined story completions from 24 of Bretherton et al.'s (1990) subjects who had also produced story completions at 54 months, but scored passage length (idea units) and scriptedness. Results captured much of the attachment-related variance associated with the traditional scoring, but had better discriminant validity vis-à-vis general developmental level. These results indicate that analysis of cognitive variables underlying conventional scoring can advance understanding of attachment representations and their relations to the organization and content of attachment-related narratives.

Associations Between 3-Year‐Olds’ Narrative Co‐Constructions with Mothers and Fathers and Their Story Completions About Affective Themes

Oral narratives are important developmental attainments for young children, and they provide them with a new mode for organizing personal experience. Narratives are not only individual constructions, however; they are also shaped and transformed b y parent–child transactions. In this study the relations between mother– and father–child co-constructions of a narrative involving emotional themes and the emotional organization of children's narratives obtained using the MacArthur Sto ry-Stem Battery (MSSB) were investigated. The results showed associations between both mother– and father–child co-constructions and children's MSSB narratives. In addition, the findings highlighted the dyadic aspects of co-constructions and t he importance of taking into consideration children's co-constructions with both parents.

Associations Between 3-Year-Olds' Narrative Co-Constructions with Mothers and Fathers and Their Story Completions About Affective Themes

Oral narratives are important developmental attainments for young children, and they provide them with a new mode for organizing personal experience. Narratives are not only individual constructions, however; they are also shaped and transformed b y parent–child transactions. In this study the relations between mother– and father–child co-constructions of a narrative involving emotional themes and the emotional organization of children's narratives obtained using the MacArthur Sto ry-Stem Battery (MSSB) were investigated. The results showed associations between both mother– and father–child co-constructions and children's MSSB narratives. In addition, the findings highlighted the dyadic aspects of co-constructions and t he importance of taking into consideration children's co-constructions with both parents.

What are experts for?

Knowledge engineering is the term given to the process of developing expert systems and knowledge engineers are the people who acquire the requisite knowledge from experts and structure that knowledge into a useable computer program. As knowledge engineering becomes a more accepted technology, there is increasing concern about attendant social costs, such as job displacement or possible exploitation of experts. This paper reports on our efforts to explore this latter issue by scrutinizing how knowledge engineers think about the domain expert and the role that person plays in system development. To accomplish this aim, we asked several samples of novice engineers to write story completions to a preamble that describes a knowledge engineer encountering a reluctant expert who may be fearing job loss if the system is implemented. The resulting accounts were content-analysed for insights as to how novice system builders think about experts. The results indicate that experts are conceived more as a tool to be used rather than a person to be respected.

Is the medium the message?: An experimental comparison of the effects of radio and television on imagination

This study explored the hypothesis that radio would be more stimulating to the imagination than television. The hypothesis was tested using a within-subjects experimental design in which children at two different age levels (Grades 1–2 vs. 3–4) were exposed to one story in a television format, another in a radio format. Our measure of imaginative activity was the ability to complete an incomplete story by introducing original new elements that had not been part of the audio-visual or audio stimulus. In accord with the hypothesis, radio presentations led to more imaginative story completions than did television presentations. In addition, there was a carry-over effect such that a radio version at Time 1 led to more imaginative responses to a televised story at Time 2, while a television story at Time 1 led to less imaginative responses to a radio story at Time 2. As far as imagination is concerned, our results support Marshall McLuhan's (1964) thesis that “the medium is the message” (p. 23). While we found some specific effects on imaginative activity stemming from story content, all the more general effects are attributable to the medium in which the content is presented.

Causal explanations of male and female academic performance as a function of sex-role biases

The study was designed to assess whether attributions of causality vary as a function of sex-role attitudes. Thirty-two male and thirty-two female undergraduates were presented with one of four story completions about a medical student in which sex of the student and success versus failure were varied. Subjects were asked to account for the medical student's success (or failure) in terms of ability, motivation, ease of the goal, and luck. Results suggest that attributions do vary as a function of sex-role attitudes, as measured by the Attitudes Toward Women Scale. Subjects with liberal attitudes were less likely to offer sex-biased attributions about lack of motivation. Subjects' attributions with respect to lack of ability suggest, however, that sex-typed notions about competence may still be deeply ingrained despite recent social changes.

Sentence and Story Completions Offer Serviceable Information

The Personnel and Guidance JournalVolume 37, Issue 7 p. 504-508 Sentence and Story Completions Offer Serviceable Information GERTRUDE A. BOYD, GERTRUDE A. BOYD Gertrude A. Boyd is Associate Professor of Education at Arizona State College, Tempe.Search for more papers by this author GERTRUDE A. BOYD, GERTRUDE A. BOYD Gertrude A. Boyd is Associate Professor of Education at Arizona State College, Tempe.Search for more papers by this author First published: March 1959 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2164-4918.1959.tb01266.xCitations: 1 AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat Citing Literature Volume37, Issue7March 1959Pages 504-508 RelatedInformation

Adult aggression in the management of disturbed children

There have been a number of explorations of the elusive relationship between fantasy and actual behavior. Studies (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10o, II, 12, 13) of the connection between hostile fantasies and aggressive actions have dealt with populations ranging from delinquent boys to psychotic adults and have employed a number of measures, such as the TAT, doll play, and story completions, to assess the psychic activity of the individual. Without discussing the details of the findings in each study, it seems clear that the assessment of actual aggressive behavior on the part of the subject has been a chronic problem. Doll play, for example, can simulate a real life setting, but it remains, at best, a miniature and highly symbolic instance of free emotional expression. The fact that the doll victims of aggressive outbursts are inanimate and incapable of responding in kind places a severe limitation on the generalizability of these findings to other more complex