Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank

The test

The Rotter Incomplete Sentences Blank is a semi-projective psychological test designed to bring a standardized approach to sentence completion, particularly for college-aged individuals. It was developed by Julian Rotter and Janet E. Rafferty in 1950, and it exists in three versions: a school form, a college form, and an adult form. Each version contains 40 incomplete sentences, which the subject is asked to finish as quickly as possible, though the typical completion time is around 20 minutes. Responses are often just one or two words long, such as finishing prompts like "I regret ..." or "Mostly girls...".

Purpose

The test can be given to a single person or to a group, requires only brief instructions, and is easy to administer to large numbers of people. Scoring involves comparing each completed sentence against empirically derived manuals for men and women, with each response receiving a score from 0 to 6. The total of these scores serves as an indicator of maladjustment.

The sentence completion method

The underlying method, sentence completion, is a semi-structured projective technique. The subject is given the first word or words of a sentence and must finish it. As with other projective tools, it is assumed that the person's own wishes, fears, desires, and attitudes are reflected in their completions. This method is historically linked to the word association test.

While some incomplete sentence tests ask for only a single word or very brief reply, the main difference here is the length of the stimulus. In sentence completion tests, subjects may show hesitation or distort the meaning of the stimulus words, and their responses can be categorized in a way similar to word association methods. The specific set of 40 items in the Incomplete Sentences Blank was revised from an earlier version used by Rotter and Willermann in the army.

Development

That army form itself was a revision of blanks previously used by Shor, Hutt, and Holzberg at the Mason General Hospital. Two main goals guided the development of the ISB. First, it aimed to be an objective tool for screening and research, offering some benefits of projective techniques while remaining economical to administer and score. Second, it sought to provide specific diagnostic information useful for treatment planning.

Advantages

The general advantages of the sentence completion method include freedom of response, as the subject is not forced to answer yes or no but may respond in any way he desires. Some disguise in the purpose of the test is present; although the subject is made aware of the general intent, what constitutes a good or bad answer is not readily apparent to most subjects. Group administration is relatively efficient, and most incomplete sentences tests can be given to a group of any size without apparent loss of validity. No special training is ordinarily necessary for administration, though interpretation depends on the examiner's general clinical experience.

The method is extremely flexible in that new sentence beginnings can be constructed or tailor-made for a variety of clinical, applied and experimental purposes. Although susceptible to semi-objective scoring, it cannot be machine scored and requires general skill and knowledge of personality analysis for clinical appraisal and interpretation. There is not as much disguise of purpose as in other projective methods, so a sophisticated subject may be able to keep the examiner from knowing what he does not wish to reveal. Insufficient material is obtained in some cases, particularly from illiterate, disturbed or uncooperative subjects, and application as a group test also requires writing and language skills.