The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale‐Global Rating Method (SCORS‐G) measures the quality of object relations in narrative material. The reliability and validity of this measure have been well established. However, a psychometric oddity of this scale is that default ratings are given to select dimensions when the relevant construct is not present. This can result in narrative ‘blandness’ and may impact clinical findings. The aim of these two studies is to understand these phenomena both psychometrically and clinically. In the first study, we identified 276 outpatients who had SCORS‐G ratings for TAT Cards 1, 2, 3BM, and 14, set criteria for narrative ‘blandness’ across all eight dimensions, and examined group differences. In Study 2, we used a subset (N = 99) of Study 1 and examined how percentage of formal default ratings for Emotional Investment in Values and Moral Standards (EIM), Experience and Management of Aggressive Impulses (AGG), Self‐Esteem(SE), and Identify and Coherence of Self (ICS) impacted robustness of correlations across tests of intelligence, psychopathology, and normal personality functioning. Taken together, we identified clinical characteristics of patients who are more likely to produce ‘bland’ narratives and increased percentages of formal default ratings. Also, an excess of default ratings per protocol impacts robustness of correlations and weakens significant correlations. As cut‐off scores increase (>25% and >28.12%), the likelihood of being able to interpret EIM, AGG, SE, and ICS decreases. Psychometric and clinical implications are discussed.
<b><i>Background:</i></b> Empirical evidence suggests that individuals who have experienced the death of a parent early in life endorse interpersonal difficulties in adulthood. However, little is known about the underlying experiences that may lead to such distress. The current study examined whether individuals who experienced early parental death would endorse greater levels of alexithymia than individuals raised in intact families, and whether early parental death and interpersonal distress were linked through alexithymia and grief. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> A total of 160 participants in a parental death group and 183 in a comparison group completed self-report measures online. Statistical analyses were conducted using ANCOVA, mediation analysis, and regression. <b><i>Results:</i></b> We observed that the parental death group reported greater levels of alexithymia than the comparison group. Second, alexithymia mediated the relationship between early parent death and global interpersonal distress. Third, greater levels of complicated grief were related to greater levels of alexithymic traits in the parental death group. <b><i>Conclusion:</i></b> Results suggest that early parental death results in higher levels of alexithymic traits. Furthermore, alexithymia indirectly leads to interpersonal distress in this population. Finally, the link discovered between grief and alexithymia has important clinical implications.
Childhood trauma (CT) is associated with mood and anxiety disorders in adulthood, especially with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). These disorders frequently co-occur, yet few PTSD comorbidity studies have focused on samples with a range of CT severity and none have included participants with adulthood-only trauma in the same study. We investigated SCID diagnoses of comorbid mood and anxiety disorders among 69 adult PTSD patients (M age = 37.94, SD=11.13; 53.6% female), with CT exposures (CTQ scores) ranging from absent to extreme. The CAPS and QIDS-SR measured PTSD and depression severity, respectively. Total CT exposure correlated with having at least one comorbid anxiety disorder diagnosis (r pb=.42, p<.001) and logistic regression indicated that CT exposure predicted comorbid anxiety disorder diagnosis after controlling for demographics, mood disorder, and PTSD severity. Significant correlations were also identified between particular CT subtypes and the presence of a comorbid anxiety disorder. Total CT exposure did not predict current or past mood disorder diagnosis or depression severity. These findings support a relationship between CT and the presence of additional anxiety disorders in adult patients with PTSD, and highlight the need for thorough diagnostic assessment and special treatment planning to address the full spectrum of psychopathology in adult PTSD patients with significant histories of CT
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