Extension of Personal Time in TAT and Story Completion Stories

Summary In Study I, 42 5s responded to a variety of TAT and Story Completion (SC) stimulus cues. Eight sets of cues were constructed by empirically matching personal time scores. Study II, using these 8 sets, compared the reliability, stability, and magnitide of extension and its components under varying conditions of stimulus cue, order of presentation, and structure of the TAT administration, in a test-retest design with an interval of a week. The Ss were 160 men and women whose stories were scored reliably by independent observers. Results supported the bi-directional (past-future) and cognitive-empirical distinctions. Empirical pretension emerged as a quite stable variable that is the most important root common to both the SC and TAT methods. Later order and structured TAT administration tended to lengthen retrotension and pretension scores.