William B Ridgway, James J Picano, Charles A Morgan, Robert R Roland, Yaron G Rabinowitz
{"title":"Unmasking Verbal Defensiveness: The Role of Psychological Threat in Sentence Completion Tests.","authors":"William B Ridgway, James J Picano, Charles A Morgan, Robert R Roland, Yaron G Rabinowitz","doi":"10.1080/00223891.2024.2326941","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Shedding light on the validity of sentence completion test (SCT) verbal defensiveness as an index of defensive behavior, the current two-part study examined the relationship between psychological threat and verbal defensiveness among military security and mission-critical team candidates using SCTs. Our study showed that as the threatening nature of SCT stems increased, defensive responses also increased, substantiating the link between psychological threat and defensive behavior. In addition, expert ratings of stem content revealed moderately strong relationships with defensive responses across two different SCTs, irrespective of their structural characteristics. In contrast to previous studies using total verbal defensiveness scores, we examined specific defensive response types and their associations with stem threat ratings, finding that omissions, denial, and comments about the test were linked to stem threat levels. Lastly, our study extends the application of the SCT verbal defensiveness index beyond specialized personnel selection, finding no significant differences in verbal defensiveness based on gender or military status. Overall, these findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of defensive behavior and its contextual variations.</p>","PeriodicalId":16707,"journal":{"name":"Journal of personality assessment","volume":" ","pages":"810-818"},"PeriodicalIF":2.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of personality assessment","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2024.2326941","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2024/3/15 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Shedding light on the validity of sentence completion test (SCT) verbal defensiveness as an index of defensive behavior, the current two-part study examined the relationship between psychological threat and verbal defensiveness among military security and mission-critical team candidates using SCTs. Our study showed that as the threatening nature of SCT stems increased, defensive responses also increased, substantiating the link between psychological threat and defensive behavior. In addition, expert ratings of stem content revealed moderately strong relationships with defensive responses across two different SCTs, irrespective of their structural characteristics. In contrast to previous studies using total verbal defensiveness scores, we examined specific defensive response types and their associations with stem threat ratings, finding that omissions, denial, and comments about the test were linked to stem threat levels. Lastly, our study extends the application of the SCT verbal defensiveness index beyond specialized personnel selection, finding no significant differences in verbal defensiveness based on gender or military status. Overall, these findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of defensive behavior and its contextual variations.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Personality Assessment (JPA) primarily publishes articles dealing with the development, evaluation, refinement, and application of personality assessment methods. Desirable articles address empirical, theoretical, instructional, or professional aspects of using psychological tests, interview data, or the applied clinical assessment process. They also advance the measurement, description, or understanding of personality, psychopathology, and human behavior. JPA is broadly concerned with developing and using personality assessment methods in clinical, counseling, forensic, and health psychology settings; with the assessment process in applied clinical practice; with the assessment of people of all ages and cultures; and with both normal and abnormal personality functioning.