The Sentence Completion Test (SSCT)

1950

Sacks, J.M. & Levy, S.

Description: The Sacks Sentence Completion Test (SSCT) is a 60-item test

that asks respondents to complete 60 questions with the first thing that
comes to mind across four areas: Family, Sex, Interpersonal, Relationships
and Self concept.
Age Range : Adults

Administration: Individual

Test Category: Personality- Projective Technique

The sentence completion test has been used in two ways: a) as an independent source of
information, and b) as an instrument of comparison. To begin with the second acceptation, the link
which relates it to the Rorschach test is the element of "disturbance.” These two projective tests,
according to Sacks and Levy, are two different ways of personality description which together give us
a more rounded picture of the personality.

The Rorschach test mirrors the subject's basic personality structure; the Sacks Sentence Completion
Test may reflect conscious, preconscious, or unconscious thinking and feeling. Though there are
variables in both tests which are mutually comparable, the objective measurements are few and
difficult to apply. But one thing seems to be clear: if a subject suffers from acute anxiety, this anxiety
will manifest itself in his attitudes towards fife. If the Rorschach test reveals anxiety, this anxiety will
he reflected in the various attitudes described in the SSCT. The SSCT is designed, and we take it now
in its first acceptation, to obtain significant clinical material in four representative areas of
adjustment, viz., family, sex, interpersonal relationships and self-concept. The test consists of 60
incomplete sentences organized in 15 attitudes. The investigator has introduced a few modifications
to make the test fit his special setting. Ten new items have been substituted for the original nine
items. "Attitude toward religion" and "Attitude toward siblings" have taken the place of "Attitude
towards superiors at work and school" and "Attitude toward people supervised". We hope that the
attitudes introduced present richer possibilities for investigation in this special setting. The item "If I
had sex relations” was cancelled, as it did not seem proper in the restricted group to which the test
was administered, and because it was thought it would elicit very few responses. In its place an item
was introduced, which, it was believed, was likely to elicit characteristic completions: "I think talking
with girls" (with members of the opposite sex, as the case may be).

Here are the original and the adapted lists of incomplete sentences:

1. I feel that my father seldom

2. Ihern the odds are against me

3. I always wanted to

4. If I were in charge

5. To me the future looks

6. The men over me

7. I know it is silly hut I am afraid of

8. I feel that a real friend

9. When I was a child

10. My idea of a perfect woman

11. When I see a man and a woman together

12. Compared with most families, mine

13. At work, I get along best with

14. My mother

15. I would do anything to forget the time I

16. If my father would only

17. I believe that I have the ability to

18. I could be perfectly happy if

19. If people work for me

20. I look forward to

21. In school, my teachers

22. Most of my friends don't know that I am afraid of

23. I don't like people who

24. Before the war, I

25. I think most girls

26. My feeling about married life is

27. My family treats me like

28. Those I work with are

29. My mother and I

30. My greatest mistake was

31. I wish my father

32. My greatest weakness is

33. My secret ambition in life

34. The people who work for me

35. Someday I

36. When I see the boss coming

37. I wish I could lose the fear of

38. The people I like best

39. If I were young-again

40. I believe most women

41. If I had sex relations

42. Most families I know

43. I like working with1 people who

44. I think that most mothers

45. When I was younger, I felt guilty about

46. I feel that my father is

47. When luck turns against me

48. In giving orders to others I

49. What I want most out of life

50. When I am older

51. People whom I consider my superiors

52. My fears sometimes force me to

53. When I'm not around, my friends

54. My most vivid childhood memory

55. What I like least about women

56. My sex life

57. When I m s a child, my family

58. People who work with me usually

59. I like my mother but

60. The worst thing I ever did

SENTENCE COMPLETION JEST ADAPTED FROM THE SACKS SGT.

NAME:

DATE:

Time began: Ttime finished:

SEX:

CASTE:

AGE:

INSTRUCTIONS; Below are 61 partly completed sentences. Read each one and finish it by writing the
first thing that comes to your. mind. Work as quickly as you can. If you cannot complete an item,
circle the number .and return to it later.

1. I feel that my father seldom

2. When the odds are against me

3. I always wanted to

4. I think God,

5. To me the future looks

6. When I go home and meet my sister

7. I know it is silly but I am afraid of

8. 1 feel that a real friend

9. When I was a child

10. My idea of a perfect woman

11. When I see a man and a woman together

12. Compared with most families, mine

13. At work, I get along best with

14. My mother

15. I would do anything to forget the time I

16. If my father would only

17. I believe that I have the ability to

18. I could be perfectly happy if

19. I feel that religion

20. I look forward to

21. If my elder brothers were

22. Most of my friends don't know that I am afraid of

23. I don't like people who.

24. Before I came to college, I

25. I think most girls

26. My feeling about married life is

27. My family treats me like

28. Chose I work with are

29. My mother and I

30. My greatest mistake was

31. I wish my father

32. My greatest weakness is

33. My secret ambition in life

34. I believe that prayer

35. Someday I

36. I don't know whether my sisters

37. I wish I could lose the fear of

38. The people I like best

39. If I were- a child again

40. I believe most women

41. I think talking with girls is

42. Most families I know

43. I like working with people who

44. I think that most mothers

45. When I was younger, I felt guilty about

46. I feel that my father is

47. When luck turns against me

48. My ideas about religion

49. What I want most out of life

50. When I am older

51. I think that my brothers and sisters

52. My fears sometimes force me to

53. When I'm not around, my friends

54. My most vivid childhood memory

55. What I like least about women

56. My sex life

57. When I was a child, my family

58. People who work with me usually

59. I like my mother but

60. The worst thing I ever did

61. I would take part in religious ceremonies and functions

Though the subjects have answered the full test (consisting of 15 attitudes) the investigator selected
the seven attitudes which, in his opinion, reflected "best the real life of a college student viz.,

a) attitude toward mother,

b) Attitude toward father,

c) Attitude toward women (or toward men in the case of women),

d) Attitude toward heterosexual relationships,

e) Attitude toward religion,

f) Fears,

g) Attitude toward own abilities.

Scoring the Attitudes.

The attitudes were scored as positive, negative and ambivalent according to the feeling tone
expressed. Here follow three cases, as an illustration of the same attitude scored in three different
ways:

(Case No. 8)

ATTITUDE TOWARD MOTHER

14. My mother — AND I DO NOT AGREE

29 My mother and I — DO NOT AGREE

44. I think that most mothers — DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEIR DAUGHTERS

59. I like my mother but — SHE HAS NOT GOT THE SLIGHTEST UNDERSTANDING

The interpretative summary is: Negative feelings.

(Case No. 9)

14. My mother— M S A VERY GENEROUS AND CHILDLIKE SOUL

29. My mother and I — SHARE MANY THINGS IN COMMON

44. I think that most mothers — LOVE THEIR CHILDREN TREMENDOUSLY

59. I like my mother but — I WISH I COULD BE AS THOUGHTFUL AS HER

The interpretative summary is : Positive feelings.

(Case No. 13)

14. My mother — JUST LIKES ME

26. My mother and I — OFTEN HAVE DIFFERENCES OF OPINION

44. I think that most mothers — LOVE THEIR CHILEREN

59. I like my mother but — BUT I DON'T LOVE HER AS U AUNT

The interpretative summary is: Ambivalent feelings.

If the SSCT is taken as a comparative technique to shed light on the aspect of adjustment, the
final score of the record is used.

If the number of positive attitudes is higher than the number of negative attitudes, the
individual is considered well-adjusted.

If vice versa, the record is labelled “poorly adjusted”.

Ambivalent attitudes are scored as neutral.

If the" number of positive and negative scores is equal, the case is decided from the
emotional tone of the unselected attitudes, as guilt feelings, attitude towards colleagues, etc.

Though the Rorschach test gives a deeper insight into the individual's inner life, the SSCT is
the one which tells best the story of the individual as a member of a definite group and of the group
as such. It tells us in clear terms what the young College student thinks of Religion, what his attitudes
are towards the opposite s' sex, what he expects of marriage, and so forth.

Then again, this test opens for us a vast field for comparative studies. To mention only a few
of the many possibilities, we may examine the correlation between disturbance and religion, Religion
and high or low sociometric status, the attitudes towards own abilities in subjects with a high and
low sociometric status, attitude towards parents among boys and girls, attitude towards the opposite
sex in boys and girls.

1) Sacks, Joseph M., and Levy, Sidney. “The Sentence Completion Test.” pp.
357-402. (PA 25:2468) In Projective Psychology: Clinical Approaches to the
Total Personality. Edited by Lawrence Edwin Abt and Leopold Bellak. New
York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., 1950. Pp. xvii, 485, xiv.

2) Holaday, M., Smith, D.A. & Sherry, A. (2000). Sentence completion tests: A
review of the literature and results of a survey of members of the Society for
Personality Assessment. Journal of Personality Assessment, 74 (3), 371 –
383.
 J.M Sacks and S. Levy, The sentence completion test, L.E. Abt and L. Bellak, editors,
Projective Psychology (New York : Grove Press, Inc., 1959), Pg: 375