Stimulus Characteristics in Picture Story Exercise Cards and Their Effects on the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global Rating Method

Abstract

This study examined the effects of stimulus characteristics from the Picture Story Exercise (PSE; Smith, 1992) on the quality of social cognition and object relational functions as expressed in narrative responses. A nonclinical sample of 140 adults told stories to five PSE cards. Three trained raters scored the narratives using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global Rating Method (SCORS–G; Stein & Slavin-Mulford, 2018). Data were then analyzed to determine the extent to which different PSE cards elicited more pathological or more adaptive ratings on the 8 SCORS–G dimensions. Results showed that different cards produced reliable and significant differences in ratings on different SCORS–G dimensions. These results extend findings of previous research (Siefert et al., 2016; Stein et al., 2014) that used the SCORS–G with Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) cards to a unique and previously unexplored stimulus set. The implications of these findings on the use and interpretation of the PSE and SCORS–G are discussed.

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Caleb J. Siefert for his helpful input on the analyses used in this article and to Lewis Goldberg and Maureen Barckley of the Oregon Research Institute for generous sharing of data from the Eugene-Springfield Community Study.