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

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.