ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is 1) to briefly describe the Social Cognition and Object Relations (SCORS) scales, 2) to provide the reader with an overview of relevant research relating to child and adolescent populations, and 3) to illustrate the diagnostic and therapeutic interpretive possibilities the SCORS offers when applied to consideration of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) narratives produced by children and adolescents. To this end, the clinical vignette of a 13-year-old adolescent male with an array of behavioral and affect regulation difficulties is highlighted. The primary emphasis herein is to acquaint the reader with how the SCORS may be used in clinical work to enhance the developmental understanding and assessment of the child and to show how material may be translated into hypotheses that can guide and inform treatment direction and options.Realizing that TAT narratives offered a potentially rich source of information about an individual’s object relations because of the inherent nature of the task-consciously and unconsciously reflecting on one’s internal representations of self and others in order to create narratives-Westen and colleagues (Westen, Lohr, Silk, Kerber, & Goodrich, 1985) developed the initial version of an object relations scale designed to tap four main domains of psychological functioning representing cognitive and affective representations of self and others. Integrating information from research, clinical observation and theory, the original Social Cognition Object Relations Scale (SCORS) assessed four dimensions of object relations functioning: Complexity of Representations of People (CR)—the degree to which representations of people are rich, complex, and differentiated; Understanding of Social Causality (USC)—the degree to which attributions about social exchanges and interactions are defined by accurate and logical perceptions; Capacity for Emotional Investment in Relationships (CEI)—the degree to which relationships are defined by need-gratifying versus more mutual, reciprocal involvement; and Affect-Tone of Relationship Paradigms (AT)—the extent to which relationships are viewed as positive and benevolent versus destructive and malevolent. 169
Brief descriptions of these original four scales and the two more recently added scales (Westen, 2002) are given here, along with responses and scoring examples for each of the scales. Scoring examples for the Dominant Interpersonal Concerns scale, a component of the SCORS-R, is not included, because it is not a social cognition or object relations scale.
