The Use of the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale in a Primary Care Setting

Moving Toward an Online Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): The Impact of Administration Modifications on Narrative Length and Story Richness

The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is the second most commonly used performance-based task. However, traditional TAT administration is time-consuming and raises accessibility issues. Research exploring administration modifications has found that within a lab setting, having participants type their own narratives leads to richer responses than when participants narrate the stories out loud to an examiner. The current study extends prior research by investigating the impact of card presentation (hard copy versus computer screen) and setting (in the lab versus online) on narrative quality. A four-card TAT protocol was administered to 134 college students in three separate conditions: in lab with hard copies of cards, in lab with images on the computer, and online in which participants could take the TAT wherever they wished. In all conditions, participants typed their narratives. The narratives were scored using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale- Global Rating Method (SCORS-G). MANOVA procedures showed that SCORS-G ratings were not affected by card presentation or setting and add to prior work to suggest that the TAT can be administered online without a diminution in the quality of SCORS-G ratings at least with some populations.

The Role of Object Relations in the Physician-Patient Relationship in a Primary Care Setting

ABSTRACT

A good physician-patient relationship is essential for the delivery of quality health care and is associated with better health outcomes. This study explored the association between patients' object relations and the physician-patient relationship. Primary care patients (n = 72) and physicians (n = 21) participated in the study. Patients' early memories were obtained prior to their medical visit and were coded with the Social Cognition and Object Relations-Global Method (SCORS-G). Patients and physicians independently rated the quality of the physician-patient encounter. Results indicated that object relations (SCORS-G Cognitive-structural and Self factors) incrementally predicted physician-patient relationship ratings, as rated by the patient, above and beyond psychological distress, somatization, and level of physician training. Patient education, psychological distress, and level of physician training predicted physician ratings of the medical encounter. The authors discuss the discrepancy between physician and patient ratings as they relate to patients' object relations.

Emotion regulation in adolescents: Influences of internal representations of relationships - An ERP study

Emotion regulation (ER) strategies can decrease the intensity or modify the experience of emotions. Deficits in emotion regulation are implicated in a wide range of psychopathologies. It is argued that interpersonal, socio-cognitive, and developmental variables play an important role in ER. This is the first study to explore the contribution of individual differences in internal representations of relationships (IRR) to neural correlates of ER in a sample of adolescents. Event related potentials of 53 adolescents (12 to 17 years old) were collected while performing an ER task. IRR was assessed with the social cognition and object relations scale (SCORS-G; Westen, 1995) coding of narratives from interviews. Results show that individual differences in IRR significantly predicted the modulation of emotional responses by expressive suppression in adolescents, accounting for 48% of the variance of changes in occipital late positive potentials (LPP). Thus, it appears that IRR are implicated in an individual's ability to regulate emotions. The clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

The relationship between prototype ratings of personality and self and interpersonal functioning with an adolescent inpatient sample

Personality pathology is conceptualized, in part, as impairments in self and interpersonal functioning. Although most of the research has focused on adult samples, fewer have looked at this relationship in adolescent samples. This paper investigates the relationship between clinician-rated personality prototypes, the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure-Prototype Matching Adolescent Version (SWAP-A-P) derived from the SWAP-II-A, and a measure of self and interpersonal functioning, the Social Cognition and Object Relation Scale-Global Rating (SCORS-G). Clinicians rated 66 adolescents hospitalized at a safety net teaching hospital in the northeast. The patient's individual and group therapist rated the patients at discharge using the SWAP-A-P and the SCORS-G at discharge blind to each other's ratings. Results showed that more severe personality pathology was linked with more impairments in self and interpersonal functioning.