Sentence Completion Test

JOURNAL OF PERSONALITY ASSESSMENT, 74(3), 371–383 Copyright © 2000, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Sentence Completion Tests: A Review of the Literature and Results of a Survey of Members of the Society for Personality Assessment
Margot Holaday, Debra A. Smith, and Alissa Sherry
Department of Psychology University of Southern Mississippi

Test usage surveys consistently find that sentence completion tests (SCTs) are among the most popular personality assessment instruments used by practitioners. What is not noted is which SCTs practitioners are using, why these tests are so popular, and whether practitioners are using formal scoring. We surveyed a random selection of 100 members of the Society for Personality Assessment. With a 60% return rate on a single mailing, we found that most psychologists who use incomplete sentence tests use the Rotter (1951) Incomplete Sentences Blank with children (18%), adolescents (32%), and adults (47%). Most practitioners said they do not read stems aloud and record answers themselves, and even fewer said they use formal scoring. The most common reasons for using an SCT are (a) to use it as part of an assessment battery (41 endorsements), (b) to determine personality structure (18 endorsements), and (c) to elicit quotable quotes (17 endorsements). Implications for practitioners and training suggestions for academicians who prepare future psychologists are noted.

Test usage surveys consistently find that sentence completion tests (SCTs) are among the most commonly used personality assessment instruments. They were ranked second by Japanese clinicians (Ogawa & Piotrowski, 1992, as cited in Piotrowski, Keller, & Ogawa, 1993), third by clinical psychologists (Goh & Fuller, 1983), fifth by clinicians working with adolescents (Archer, Maruish, Imhof, & Piotrowski, 1991), fourth by school psychologists (Kennedy, Faust, Willis, & Piotrowski, 1994), fifth by representatives of mental health service providers, and third by members

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