The Sacks Sentence Completion test was administered for self-concept, interpersonal relation and family environment.

1. Sach Sentence Completion Test
Reported by:
Iris Frani
BSE VE

2. What is Projective Techniques?
 Based on the phenomenon of projection.
 “Belief is to believe in something that is intangible and
invisible.” (Napoleon Bonaparte )
 Unstructured tests used for personality assessment that
rely on the subject's interpretation of ambiguous stimuli.
 Involve asking subjects to interpret or fill in visual stimuli,
complete sentences, or report what associations particular
words bring to mind.

3. Theoretical Foundations
 Uncover feelings, beliefs, attitudes and motivation which
many consumers find difficult to articulate.
 Discover the person’s characteristic modes of perceiving
his or her world and how to behave in it
 Enter the private worlds of subjects to uncover their inner
perspectives in a way they feel comfortable with

4. Practical Approach of Projective
Techniques
 A way of transcending communication barriers.
• Not always share their innermost feelings.
• Unaware of their underlying motives, aspirations,
values and attitudes
• Fear being considered irrational or stupid
• Reluctant to admit to certain types of behavior

5. • Instead of questioning them directly,
 In talking about a third party or an object, the subjects
project their covert feelings to the third party or object:
 Low literate consumers
 Children, adolescents
 Impulsive/compulsive/addictive buyers
 People in the face of catastrophe
 Gay and lesbian consumers

6. Advantages
(+) 1. The amount, richness and accuracy of the
information.
2. A view of the overall functioning of individuals.
3. “Breaking the Ice” in a focus-group discussion.

7. Disadvantages
(-) 1.The complexity of the data and the
corresponding skills
2.Expensive to administer
3.Sampling & Generalization
4.The reliability of measures

8. BACKGROUND OF THE AUTHOR
Dr. Joseph M. Sacks and other psychologist of the
New York Veterans Administrative Mental
Hygiene Service developed a sentence
completion test designed to obtain significant
clinical material in four representative areas of
adjustment.

9. Description of the Scale
 The Sacks Sentence Completion test was administered for
self-concept, interpersonal relation and family
environment.
 It provide respondents with beginnings of sentences,
referred to as “stems,” and respondents then complete the
sentences in ways that are meaningful to them.
 It has felt that items included in this test present sufficient
opportunities for the subject to express his attitudes so
that clinical psychologist may infer his
dominant personality traits or trends.

10. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCALE
It is a sixty (60) item-test, in the following group of
variables:
1. SCALE FAMILY: The family area included three
sets of attitudes namely:
a) those towards mother,
b) father,
c) family unit.

11. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCALE
2. The Sex Area
The sex area includes attitude towards woman
and heterosexual relationship.

12. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCALE
3. INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP
The area of interpersonal relationship includes
attitudes towards friends and acquaintances,
colleagues at work or school, superior at work or
school, and people supervised.

13. DESCRIPTION OF THE SCALE
4. SELF-CONCEPT:
The area of self-concept includes fear, guilt
feelings, goals and attitudes towards one’s own
ability, concept of himself as he is, he was and as
he hopes to be.

14. USAGE OF THE TEST
The uses of sach sentences completion test
include personality analysis, clinical application,
attitude assessment, achievement motivation
and measurement of other constructs. They are
used in several disciplines, including psychology,
management, education, and marketing.

15. Validity and Reliability
Usually, sentence completion tests can be interpreted
in two different ways:
subjective-intuitive analysis of the underlying motivations
projected in the subject's responses
objective analysis by means of scores assigned to each
completed sentence.
Multiple themes can occur in a short test, which gives
the examinee multiple opportunities to reveal
underlying motivations about each topic during data
analysis.

16. Validity and Reliability
It usually include some formal coding procedure or
manual. The validity of each sentence completion
test must be determined independently.
The validity of the rating is dependent of course
upon the clinical background of the examiner as
well as the materials produced by the subject.

17. A rating is made of the subject’s degree of
disturbance in this area according to the following
scale:
2 - SEVERELY DISTURBED Appears to require
the therapeutic aid in handling emotional
conflicts in this area.
1 – MILDLY DISTURBED Has emotional conflict
in this area but appears able to handle them
without therapeutic aid.
0 – No Significant disturbance rated in this area
X – Unknown, Insufficient evidence

18. • The following are the summaries and ratings of
the individual attitudes and outlines presented
for a general summary of the SSCT findings. This
includes the following:
1. Statement of those areas in which subject
shows the most disturbed attitudes. This may
provide significant clues for therapist.
2. A description of the interrelationships between
attitudes with respect to content. This often
illuminates dynamic factors in the case.

19. Certain influences on the subject’s personality
structure case be made on the basis of the SSCT,
such as:
1. The subject’s manner of response to impulse
from within or to stimuli from the environment.
2. The subject’s nature of response to stress –
impulsive or well-controlled.
3. The subject’s thinking content: realistic,
artistic, and fantastic.

20. References:
http://psychology.jrank.org/pages/506/Projective-
Techniques.html#ixzz3gy6afUeW
http://legendarycon.blogspot.com/2010/07/sacks-sentence-completion-test-
nature.html
https://prezi.com/jvkx9avef9bo/sacks-sentence-completion-test/