Development of Self Made Situation Test to Measure the Behavior Flexibility

Abstract

Self Made Situation Test (SMST) was developed as a result of qualitative research insights to evaluate the spread of behavior and to reduce the prevalence of socially desirable responses in selection and recruitment settings for personality evaluation. Flexibility of behavior is a multifaceted idea that includes personal construct, identity, cognitive conflict, motivated forgetfulness, susceptibility, moral injury stressors, and hypocrisy. These factors work together to provide latitude and variances resulting flexibility in a person’s behavior. In the beginning, Study 1 was conducted to develop SMST as a semi-structured projective sentence completion test for qualitative personality assessment of teenagers through reaction behavior of a person across self-made situations of varying complexity of life. A 22-item test based on the grounded principles of the S-O-R model was developed to assess the flexibility of behavior in two key areas of the personality’s transformative growth, namely adaptability and resilience. Concurrent validity was found to have a correlation coefficient of 0.30 and split half reliability of 0.35. In Study 2, a confirmatory study of behavior manifestation in the social adaptability and resilience aspects of the Thematic Apperception Test with Sentence Completion Test and Self Made Situation Test was conducted. In terms of researching and objectifying projective measures that may objectively screen in/out intense emotions in the personality assessment, this test marks a new frontier.