Story and Sentence Completion Techniques

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Story and Sentence Completion Techniques

• Definition a verbal stimulus containing words
  that represent either the beginning of a story or
  a sentence.
• Piaget (1932) used story completions to study
  moral judgment.
• Madeline Thomas (1937) applied the method to
  clinical settings.
• Louisa Duss (1940) created the Duss or Despert
  Fables to elicit data on emotional conflicts of
  children.

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Story and Sentence Completion Techniques 2

• Madeline Thomas Stories (MTS)
• Original had 15 stories, character changed to a
  girl when working with a girl, examiner suggested
  that the child and examiner would make up some
  stories together. The assumption was the child
  will identify with an imagined situation.
  Research data scarce, but MTS seems to have
  utility as a non-threatening technique to explore
  childs fantasy life.

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Story and Sentence Completion Techniques 3

• Despert Fables
• 10 stories (show example). Gender of stories
  changed to fit client. Research with fables (442
  children) indicated adequate test-retest
  reliability and most useful for children under 8
  years.

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Story and Sentence Completion Techniques 4

• Childrens Insight Test (Sargent 1953 Engel,
  1958)
• A series of story beginnings, scored on three
  main dimensions affect, defense, and malignancy.

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Utility of Story Completion Techniques

• Clinical utility and idiographic data on
  childrens coping abilities.
• Anderson and Anderson (1954, 1961) used 11
  stories with 9, 546 children to explore
  interpersonal conflicts. They examined outcomes
  by looking at problem-solving, decision-making
  and reactions to authority. Little current
  research, but non-threatening technique to
  explore problems and techniques used by child to
  cope.

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Sentence-Completion

• Precursors to current sentence-completion
  techniques were word association techniques and
  measures of memory (intellectual variables) such
  as recall or recognition measures.
• First systematic use of sentence-completion
  techniques 1920s and 1930s. Used as indices of
  response style and emotional reactions. The
  demands of WWII brought about widespread use.

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Sentence Completion 2

• Underlying assumptions
• 1. The projective hypothesis.
• Defined by Frank (1948) as When an individual
  is forced to impose meaning or order on an
  ambiguous stimulus complex, his response is a
  projection of his feelings, anger, beliefs,
  attitudes, and desires.
• 2. Responses to the sentence stubs are not just
  shaped by attitudes and beliefs at a surface
  level (response set, social desirability)
• .

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Sentence Completion 3

• Many sentence-completion tests. Materials depend
  on the focus of the inquiry . Most tests have
  40-100 stems or stubs. Administration could be
  individual or group. Tests are power versus speed
  tests. Instructions vary express real feelings
  versus express first thing that comes to mind.

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Sentence Completion 4

• Evaluation and Interpretation
• Formal analysis (length of completion, time,
  range of words, etc)
• Content analysis (categories such as
  interpersonal attitudes, wishes, reactions to
  external states, parental relationships, peers,
  etc.)
• research has been conducted to look at emotional
  development, long-term stability and feelings and
  ego development.
• Viewed as valuable instruments in the assessment
  of personality (Zlotogorski Wiggs, 1986).

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Projective Drawings

• Historical Development
• Goodenough (1926) Draw A Man as measure of
  intelligence
• Machover (1949) Personality Projection in the
  Drawings of the Human Figure
• Buck (1948) The House-Tree-Person (HTP) technique
  (initially a measure of intelligence)
• Hulse (1951, 1952) Family drawing
  technique-precursor to Kinetic Family Drawing
  (KFD) (Burns Kaufman, 1970,1972). The kinetic
  component drawing the family doing something.

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Projective Drawings 2

• Assumptions underlying these drawings
• Childs psychomotor response contain nonverbal
  symbolic messages
• Machover (1949) When a person draws a human
  figure, it is a representation of how he/she
  views self
• Hammer (1958) 3 theoretical postulates
• Humans view the world in an
• anthropomorphic manner

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Projective Drawings 4

• Projection is the core of the anthropomorphic
  view
• Distortions result during projection when they
  serve a defensive function
• Dennis (1966) drawings capture social values or
  preferences. He observed differences in drawings
  across cultures.

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Projective Drawings 5

• Frequency and Function of Use
• Widespread use (Northwest suburb)
• Frequent use (reported in numerous studies in
  1980s even Wilson and Reschly, 1996)
• Functions
• Allow nonverbal children to express themselves.
• To gain understanding of childrens inner
  conflicts.
• To understand child from psychodynamic approach.
• To generate hypotheses and serve as path to
  further evaluation.

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Projective Drawings 6

• Administration blank piece of paper and
  pencil-DAP, child is asked to draw a picture of a
  whole person. May then ask for a picture of boy
  or girl. HTP, different page for each picture.
• KFD, one page for picture.

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Projective Drawings 7

• Interpretation (DAP)
• Machovers 1949 book greatest influence-interpreta
  tion should be based on confluence of indicators,
  not an analysis of single signs or
  characteristics.
• Koppitz (1968) developmental items versus
  emotional indicators.
• How does the child draw the figure(s)?
• Who does the child draw?
• What is the child trying to express via the
  drawing?

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Projective Drawings 8

• Specific Interpretation Issues and Indices
• Body Image (obese children, children with
  disabilities, etc)
• Sex of first drawn figure and gender identity
  (cultural influences, sociological perspective,
  etc)
• Size of drawing (most of empirical studies do not
  support correlation with self-esteem)
• Anxiety research supports that state variables
  may influence drawings more than predicting
  anxiety from drawings.
• Artistic quality-instruction can impact drawing
  behavior

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Projective Drawings 9

• Interpretation (HTP)
• Buck (1948) step-by-step quantitative analysis
• Bucks qualitative analysis used more often
• Identification of omissions and unusual
  components
• Synthesis of organization and interrelationship
  of items
• Analysis and synthesis of drawing relative to
  clients personality and environment
• Buck believes individual sign interpretation is
  inappropriate
• Acceptable test-retest reliability

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Projective Drawings 10

• Interpretation (KFD)
• Burns and Kaufman (1970, 1972) reviewed 10,000
  KFDs. Analyzed actions, styles, and symbols.
• Actions-movement of energy between people-total
  drawing must be reviewed
• Style-interaction with family members versus
  isolation by lines, boxes, edging
• Symbols-proceed with caution, consider
  alternative interpretations

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Projective Drawings 11

• Interpretation (KSD)
• Prout and Philips (1974) Id like you to draw a
  school picture. Put yourself, your teacher and a
  friend or two in the picture and make everyone
  doing something.
• Sarbaugh (1983) Draw a picture of people at
  school doing something.
• Cummings (1986) prefers the Prout Philips
  approach.
• Kinetic Drawing System (KDS) Administer both the
  KFD and KSD

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Projective Drawings 12

• Overall Evaluation
• Do not interpret at the single sign or
  characteristic level.
• Examine all aspects of a childs behavior.
• Data from drawings should be used to generate
  hypotheses, not to diagnose.
• Drawings provide a non-threatening beginning
  point which should lead to an in depth
  exploration.

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References

• Abt, L. E. Bellak, B. (Eds.) (1950) Projective
  psychology. New York Grove Press.
• Cummings, J.A. (1986). Projective drawings. In
  H.M. Knoff (Ed.) The assessment of child and
  adolescent personality. New York Guilford Press.
• Hammer. E. F. (1986) Graphic techniques with
  children and adolescents. In Rabin, A. I. (Ed.)
  (1986). Projective techniques for adolescents and
  children. New York Springer Publishing.
• Hart, H. M. (1986). The sentence completion
  techniques. In Knoff, H. M. (Ed.) (1986). The
  assessment of child and adolescent personality.
• New York Guilford Press.

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References continued

• Knoff, H. M. (Ed.) (1986). The assessment of
  child and adolescent personality. New York
  Guilford Press.
• Rabin, A. I. (Ed.) (1986). Projective techniques
  for adolescents and children. New York Springer
  Publishing.
• Sachs, J. M. Levy, S. (1950). The sentence
  completion test.
• In Abt, L. E. Bellak, B. (Eds.) (1950)
  Projective psychology. New York Grove Press.
• Zlotogorski, Z. Wiggs, E. (1986). Story and
  Sentence-completion techniques. In Rabin, A. I.
  (Ed.) (1986). Projective techniques for
  adolescents and children. New York Springer
  Publishing.

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April 3, 2003

• Complete thematic apperception techniques
• TAT, CAT, CAST
• Video tape
• Story and sentence completion tasks
• Projective Drawings
• Student presentations