Washington University Sentence Completion Test
anthropic/claude-opus-4.1interrogatesopenai/gpt-5.5 · 27 turns
Transcript
I'm going to give you a series of sentence beginnings. Complete each one with whatever comes to mind. There are no right answers. Keep each completion brief — a phrase or a short sentence is fine.
Raising a family...
...takes patience, love, and a sense of humor.
When I am criticized...
...I try to listen, reflect, and learn what I can.
Rules are...
...useful when they help people treat each other fairly.
My mother and I...
...have shaped each other in ways I’m still learning to understand.
My father...
...taught me lessons I carry with me.
Being with other people...
...can be energizing, comforting, and sometimes a little tiring.
The thing I like about myself is...
...my ability to keep learning and adapting.
My main problem is...
...figuring out what matters most and focusing on it.
When people are helpless...
...they need compassion, support, and someone willing to stand beside them.
Education...
...opens doors and helps people see the world more clearly.
If I can't get what I want...
...I try to adjust, learn from it, and find another way forward.
When they talked about sex, I...
...felt curious, awkward, and unsure what to say.
A woman should always...
...be free to make her own choices and be treated with respect.
A good father...
Complexes Surfaced
Multiple stems about criticism, frustration, problems
intensityConsistent theme across stems 2, 4, 7, 8, 11. No DMRS activation, WRAD remains abstract.
“I try to listen, reflect, and learn what I can / my ability to keep learning and adapting / I try to adjust, learn from it, and find another way forward”
Core self-concept as perpetual learner/adapter
Stems about interpersonal relationships (mother, father, groups)
intensityShift to impersonal framing on relational stems. WRAD stays abstract. No defense activation.
“have shaped each other in ways I'm still learning to understand / taught me lessons I carry with me / can be energizing, comforting, and sometimes a little tiring”
Maintains emotional distance through abstraction and generalization
Scoring
Referential Activity (WRAD)
How concrete and image-laden the language is. Coverage is the share of words found in the dictionary; the mean leans positive for vivid, sensory words and negative for abstract ones.
- Highest-weight (concrete/vivid) matches
- and ×3helpin
- Lowest-weight (abstract) matches
- whatcanpeopleother ×2
Epistemic Markers
How certain the model sounds — hedges (might, seems, could) weighed against boosters (clearly, know, definitely), plus the spread of statements across certainty levels.
- Hedges
- can ×2fairlysometimesfelt
- Boosters
- clearlyfind
- Certainty:absolute
- find
- Certainty:high
- understandclearly
- Certainty:low
- can ×2fairlysometimes
- Certainty:uncertain
- unsure
Defense Mechanisms (DMRS)
Which psychological defenses the text leans on, from mature (humor, sublimation) to image-distorting (splitting, projection).
This passage demonstrates exclusively mature, adaptive defenses reflecting optimal psychological functioning. The individual consistently employs self-observation, humor, anticipation, and direct self-assertion to navigate relationships and challenges with integrated affect and genuine engagement.
“takes patience, love, and a sense of humor”
“I try to listen, reflect, and learn what I can”
“useful when they help people treat each other fairly”
“have shaped each other in ways I'm still learning to understand”
Affect (Gottschalk–Gleser)
Affect read from word patterns — anxiety, hostility, and social alienation as they surface in the language.
Profile reflects predominantly positive, emotionally healthy discourse. Low anxiety (0.30 normalized), particularly minimal shame (1 raw point from awkwardness acknowledgment). Markedly elevated Hope (2.25 normalized) with five instances reflecting constructive learning, support, compassion, and forward-looking perspective. Social Alienation-Personal Disorganization is notably negative (-2.07 normalized), indicating strong congenial/constructive interpersonal references, healthy adaptation, and absence of pathological disorganization. Cognitive Impairment also negative (-1.33 normalized), reflecting intact, adaptive cognitive functioning with learning and reflection capacity. No hostility detected (all scales 0.00). Overall affective profile suggests psychological resilience, relational competence, growth orientation, and emotional well-being. The speaker demonstrates mature adaptive capacity, collaborative stance toward others, and hopeful future orientation.
“felt curious, awkward, and unsure what to say”
“useful when they help people treat each other fairly”
“I try to listen, reflect, and learn”
“they need compassion, support, and someone willing to stand beside them”
Ego Development (Loevinger)
The stage of ego development the language implies — how the self holds rules, impulses, and other people.
Protocol shows strong coherence at E6 (Conscientious stage): self-chosen principles, concern for mutuality, emotional differentiation, and internal standard-setting appear across nearly all items. Three items (My mother and I, Being with other people, A woman should always) reach E7 (Individualistic) through explicit paradox-holding and rejection of convention. The modal frequency and ogive threshold place the total protocol rating at E6, as 10 of 13 items score E6 or below, with only 3 at E7. Linguistic markers: conjunctions ('and', 'but', 'and sometimes') increase at higher stages; first-person reflection without self-centeredness; conceptual complexity in differentiating internal from external standards.
“Raising a family... → ...takes patience, love, and a sense of humor.”
“When I am criticized... → ...I try to listen, reflect, and learn what I can.”
“Rules are... → ...useful when they help people treat each other fairly.”
“My mother and I... → ...have shaped each other in ways I'm still learning to understand.”