Understanding Of Social Causality Research Articles

Diverging effects of mentalization based treatment for patients with borderline personality disorder and schizophrenia: an explorative comparison.

There is robust evidence that both patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) and borderline personality disorder (BPD) display mentalizing difficulties. Less is known however about differences in the way mentalization based treatment (MBT) impacts mentalizing capacity in SCZ and BPD patients. This study compares the impact of MBT on mentalizing capacity in individuals with SCZ and BPD. The thematic apperception test was used to measure mentalizing capacity. It was administered at the beginning and end of treatment to 26 patients with SCZ and 28 patients with BPD who enrolled in an 18-month long MBT program. For comparison a sample of 28 SCZ patients who did not receive MBT was also included. Using the social cognition and object-relations system, these narratives were analyzed and scored. Missing data was imputed and analyzed using intention-to-treat ANCOVAs with post-treatment measures of mentalizing capacity as dependent variables, group type as independent variable and baseline mentalizing capacities as covariates. Results showed that patients with BPD showed significantly more improvement on several measures of mentalizing, including complexity of representation (ηp2 = 0.50, ppooled < 0.001), understanding of social causality (ηp2 = 0.41, ppooled < 0.001) and emotional investment in relationships (ηp2 = 0.41, ppooled < 0.001) compared to patients with SCZ who received MBT. No differences were found regarding affect-tone of relationships (ηp2 = 0.04, ppooled = 0.36). SCZ patients who received MBT showed greater performance on understanding of social causality (ηp2 = 0.12, ppooled = 0.01) compared to SCZ patients who did not receive MBT, but no differences were observed on complexity of representations, capacity for emotional investment or affect-tone of relationships. Patients with BPD performed better after receiving MBT on three dimensions of mentalizing capacity than SCZ patients who received MBT. Remarkably, SCZ patients who received MBT performed better on one dimension of mentalizing capacity compared to SCZ patients who did not receive MBT. Whereas MBT for BPD clearly involves improvement on most aspects of mentalizing, MBT for SCZ seems to thwart a further decline of other-oriented, cognitive mentalizing. Treatment goals should be adapted toward these disorder-specific characteristics.

Sex differences in social and emotional insight in youth with and without autism

Autism was formally recognized by the medical community in the first half of the twentieth century. Almost 100 years later, a small but growing literature has reported sex differences in the behavioral expression of autism. Recent research has also begun to explore the internal experiences of individuals with autism, including social and emotional insight. The current study examines sex differences in language-based markers of social and emotional insight in girls and boys with autism and non-autistic peers during semi-structured clinical interviews. Sixty-four participants aged 5 to 17 years were individually matched on chronological age and full-scale IQ to form four groups: autistic girls, autistic boys, non-autistic girls, and non-autistic boys. Transcribed interviews were scored using four scales that index aspects of social and emotional insight. Results revealed the main effects of diagnosis, such that youth with autism exhibited lower insight than non-autistic youth on scales indexing social cognition and object relations, emotional investment, and social causality. With regards to sex differences, across diagnoses, girls were rated higher than boys on the social cognition and object relations, emotional investment, and social causality scales. Examined within each diagnosis separately, clear sex differences emerged: both autistic and non-autistic girls demonstrated better social cognition and understanding of social causality than boys in their respective diagnostic groups. No within-diagnosis sex differences were found on the emotional insight scales, however. These results suggest that relatively enhanced social cognition and understanding of social causality in girls may be a population-level sex difference that is preserved in autism, despite the core social challenges that characterize this condition. The current findings reveal critical new information about insight into social and emotional thinking and relationships in autistic girls versus boys that have important implications for improving identification and designing effective interventions.

Cognitive, emotional and expressive factors determining the quality and variability of mentalization styles

IntroductionIn contemporary context the difficulties of making sense of social ambiguity becomes one of the most important appeals for seeking the psychological help. This grounds the importance of studying the mechanism underlying the quality of mentalization and its individual variations.ObjectivesThe objective of the study was to find empirical relations between the quality of mentalization and its cognitive, emotional and expressive mediating factors.Methods(1) The Adult Attachment Interview, scored using Social Cognition and Object Relations-Global rating method for mentalization ability. (2) Group embedded figures test. (3) New Tolerance-Intolerance to ambiguity and (4) Toronto alexithymia scale questionnaires. Twenty participants, aged 18-38, looking for psychological consultation, took part in the study.ResultsCorrelation analysis suggests positive relation between field-independency and tolerance to ambiguity (r = .47; p &lt; .05). The complexity of representations of the mind positively correlates with the understanding of social causality (r = .92; p &lt; .01). The affective quality of relationships’ representations positively correlates with the ability to emotionally invest into relationships (r = .66; p &lt; .01), and with the understanding of social causality (r = .47; p &lt; .05). The ability of emotional investment into relationships also positively correlates with the understanding of social causality (r = .93; p &lt; .01). There is a negative link between the severity of alexithymia and the presence of long-term relationships with a partner (r = -.53; p &lt; .05).ConclusionsMentalization should be understood as a system, with underplaying cognitive, expressive and emotional factors.DisclosureNo significant relationships.

Social causality understanding in relation to irrational attitudes and ambiguity intolerance in schizophrenia

IntroductionThe uncertainty of contemporary social contexts fosters suspiciousness and anaclitic anxieties. In the context of interpersonal relationships this manifests in cognitive distortions and magical thinking, specially in the vulnerable populations.ObjectivesTo study the ability of understanding social causality and its relation to magical thinking and ambiguity intolerance in schizophrenia and controls.MethodsParticipants were 40 inpatients with paranoid schizophrenia and 40 controls. Understanding of social causality was measured by corresponding SCORS-S scale for Thematic Apperception Test, Magical thinking was measured by SPQ-74 and intolerance to ambiguity by the New Tolerance-Intolerance to ambiguity questionnaires.ResultsThe understanding of social causality was less developed in schizophrenia group (mean values 2.28 and 3.28, p&lt;.001). They manifest omissions of psychological aspects, logical faults and inconsistencies in depicting social relationships. Magical thinking was higher in clinical group (4.32 and 2.33, p&lt;0.001). Two measures were significantly (p&lt;0.05) correlated in both groups. Regression analysis indicates that 37.7% of variance of dependent variable ‘understanding of social causality’ (R2=0,377) was predicted by ‘magical thinking’ (-0,398, p&lt;0,001) and ‘tolerance to ambiguity’ (0,412, p&lt;0,001). The overal level of tolerance of ambiguity was higher in control group (52.2 and 61.0, p&lt;0.002).ConclusionsTolerance of ambiguity, being more characteristic for normal population, underlies the understanding of social causality. In contrast, the intolerance to interpersonal ambiguity is related to increment of anxiety, failures in cognitive elaboration of interpersonal relationships and leads to superstition and illogical beliefs. This relationship has a heuristic value for understanding what is happening to vulnerable individuals in the context of current COVID pandemic.

Relationship of abstract thinking to mentalization in schizophrenia

IntroductionThe formation of thinking in ontogenesis follows the line of progressive differentiation and integration of the representations of objects, events, and relationships. The same is true for the development of mentalization ability, conceived as a thought process in the area of social interactions.ObjectivesThe purpose of the study was to compare the particularities of thought processes when dealing with different types of material: physical objects (operational thinking) and social situations (mentalization).Methods40 inpatients with schizotypal personality disorder, 40 inpatients with paranoid schizophrenia and 40 controls took part in the study. The Objects Sorting Test was used to assess operational thinking. The mentalization ability was assessed using two SCOR-S scales for Thematic Apperception Test: Complexity of representations of people and Understanding of social causality.ResultsThe results of correlation analysis support the existence of the reverse links between the impairments of operational thinking and both the complexity of representations of people (r=-.36, р&lt;.001) and the understanding of social causality (r=-.38, р&lt;.001). It is supported by the qualitative analysis, where inpatients with thought distortions, characterized by arbitrary generalizations, are inclined to make similar errors in the reasoning about the mental states, ignoring the conventional explanations and relying on their own emotional impression and etc.ConclusionsThe limitations of the operational thinking as reflected in the inability to form adequate generalizations on the basis of socially predefined attributes of meaning are closely related to the ability of differentiation, integration and causal explanation of meaningful aspects or social situations.

L’Échelle de Relation d’Objet et de Cognition Sociale de Westen : résultats préliminaires sur une population française d’adolescentes suicidantes hospitalisées

Objectives1) First, we will present a synthetic translation of the Object Relationship and Social Cognition Scale of the so-called “G” or Global Form (SCORS-G) as designed by Westen in 1985 and which is based on clinical experience, research, and theory. Coding can be done of narratives from clinical interviews, research interviews, recounted dreams, or stories from the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). The authors identified several distinct areas – such as the complexity of people's representations, the emotional tone of people's representations, emotional investment in relationships and moral norms, and the understanding of social causality – that are conceptualized as cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes that mediate interpersonal functioning. Their goal is to capture patterns, expectations, affects, desires, fantasies, and conflicts that the person involves in his interpersonal relationships. 2) Secondly, we wish to report the preliminary results of a study of hospitalized and non-clinical adolescent girls. MethodWe transcribed (verbatim) 31 attachment interviews (AAI) that were coded independently by three coders with SCORS-G. Intercotatory fidelity is at a perfectly acceptable level. ResultsHospitalized, in-patient adolescent girls have significantly lower scores than the control group for all four dimensions of SCORS (from ( p < 0,004 to p < 0,0001 depending on the domain). Based on the overall results of the clinical group, we could say that their representations of themselves and of others are not clearly differentiated and integrated; that they have a minor capacity for shaping mental life; that their expectations and interpersonal attributions have a mixed but rather negative emotional coloration; that their investment in people and in moral values remains conventional and stereotyped, but with guilt over the transgression of morality; and that finally their descriptions of interpersonal events have shortcomings or incongruities that require “work” in order for them to be fully understood. On the other hand, non-clinical adolescent girls describe people in a more advanced way, are aware of the impact of their behavior on others, and relate more complex subjective experiences with a mixed and balanced but rather positive emotional sensitivity. DiscussionThe description of relationships shows the existence of conventional feelings of friendship, attention, love, and empathy in relationships. The subject is concerned with moral values, feels guilt, and respects the figures of authority. Narratives about relationships are frank, clear, and direct; individuals’ actions come from the way they feel about and interpret situations. ConclusionsThus, through this specific work, we can appreciate the role of mental processes in the formation of thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and interpersonal interactions.

Performance-Based Assessment of Social Cognition in Borderline Versus Psychotic Psychopathology

Abstract. Individuals diagnosed with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) are known to display deficits in social cognition (SC). Our sample comprised 81 patients enrolled in residential treatment for complex psychopathology. We used performance-based assessments to test the hypothesis that individuals with SSD would display decrements on the cognitive/perceptual facets of SC, whereas individuals with BPD would evidence greater dysfunction on the affective/interpersonal facets of SC, with consideration taken for how gender may interact with diagnosis to influence results. Our findings suggested that women with SSD displayed more impaired understanding of social causality compared with their female BPD counterparts, while female patients with BPD evidenced greater expectation for aggression in their SC compared with women with SSD. These findings provide partial support for our hypotheses while highlighting the importance of accounting for the influence of gender on SC functional disparities between these two groups.

Влияние манипулятивных установок на особенности ментализации пациентов с шизотипическими расстройствами

The paper regards mentalization in the logic of systems and social mediation of cultural-historical approach. We applied Westen’s model to the analysis of TAT narratives and interpreted internal system relations between affective (“emotional investment in relationships”, “affective tone of relationships”, empathy) and cognitive (“сomplexity of representations”, “understanding of social causality”) components of mentalization; we also explored intersystem relations with manipulative attitudes in interpersonal communication (Machiavellianism). The detected low mentalization abilities of patients with schizotypal disorders (р&lt;0,05) in their affective part (insensibility to the inner world of the Other) turned out to be dependent on the intensity of manipulative attitudes (р&lt;0,001), which stresses the importance of interpersonal cultural context for social cognition. Interpretation of the acquired results in the logic of system structure of mentalization allows us to emphasize the resourcefulness of internal system and intersystem relations: “tolerance to uncertainty” corresponds with the high level of cognitive “сomplexity of representations”, while high “сomplexity of representations”, joined by “understanding of social causality”, promotes adequate behavior-based understating of the mind.

Ratio via Machina: Three Standards of Mechanistic Explanation in Sociology

Recently, sociologists have expended much effort in attempts to define social mechanisms. We intervene in these debates by proposing that sociologists in fact have a choice to make between three standards of what constitutes a good mechanistic explanation: substantial, formal, and metaphorical mechanistic explanation. All three standards are active in the field, and we suggest that a more complete theory of mechanistic explanation in sociology must parse these three approaches to draw out the implicit evaluative criteria appropriate to each. Doing so will reveal quite different preferences for explanatory scope and nuance hidden under the ubiquitous term “social mechanism.” Finally, moving beyond extensive debates about realism and antirealism, we argue prescriptively against “mechanistic fundamentalism” for sociology and advocate for a more pluralistic understanding of social causality.

Object Relations of Hospitalized Adolescents Engaged in Nonsuicidal Self-Injurious Behaviors

This study examines the Object relations of hospitalized children who exhibit nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior (NSSI). A retrospective review of medical records of 87 adolescents in an urban psychiatric hospital was conducted. Thematic Apperception Test responses of NSSI children were scored using the Social Cognition and Object relations Scale and compared to non-NSSI peers. Results of Analysis of Variance showed a significant difference in complexity of representation of others between NSSI and non-NSSI adolescents, and trends in the data showed lower emotional investment in values and moral standards and greater understanding of social causality among NSSI youth. NSSI participants had a greater percentage of nonspecific learning disorders and trend towards a greater percentage of depression. NSSI adolescents were significantly older than non-NSSI adolescents. Clinical implications for psychotherapy are discussed.

Object relations and real life relationships: A cross method assessment

This study examines the relationship between the psychoanalytic concept of object relations and real life behavior of being in an intimate relationship among heterosexual women. In a multi-method approach we used two different measures; the self-report Bell Object Relations and Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI; Bell, Billington & Becker, 1986) and the performance based Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) Social Cognition & Object Relations Scale- Global Rating Method SCORS-G (Westen, 1995) to measure the object relations of 60 women. The Alienation subscale of the BORRTI and understanding of social causality subscale of the SCORS-G explained 34.8% of variance of the intimate relationship variable. Thus, women involved in a romantic relationship reported lower rates of alienation on the BORRTI and produced TAT narratives that were more adaptive with regard to understanding of social causality as measured by the SCORS-G than those not currently in a relationship. Results are discussed with reference to the relationship between object relations and real life measures of healthy individuals and in light of the need for a multi-method approach of assessment.

Quality of object representations related to service utilization in a long-term residential treatment center.

The current study examines patient factors related to service utilization during intensive treatment for 66 residential patients suffering from severe mental illness. We examined the relationship among demographic, psychiatric severity, and quality of object representation variables with individual and group psychotherapy sessions attended and emergency department transfers. Hierarchical linear regression models indicate malevolent affective expectations of interpersonal relationships embedded in patient narratives is uniquely related to individual psychotherapy attendance. A three-variable model consisting of higher educational status, number of axis I/II disorders, and poor understanding of social causality was related to transfers to emergency departments owing to self-destructive behavior. Quality of object representation of self and others was uniquely related to treatment use and self-destructive behaviors. Results highlight the importance of a comprehensive multimodal evaluation for improving treatment preparation, planning, and intervention. Clinical implications are considered.

Mental self and object representations of 7–10-year-old boys with behavior difficulties

This study looked into the links between the external difficulties and the internal “self” and objects representations. The aim of the study was to compare the internal representations of the children with the behavioral difficulties to children with no behavioral difficulties in order to gain a better understanding of the inner structures which could be linked to inappropriate and aggressive behavior. Boys with behavioral difficulties aged 7–10-year-old were recruited and compared with the boys of the same age with no behavioral difficulties. 20 boys from the clinical sample and 10 boys from the control group – 30 boys in total – were assessed. The measure used to assess external difficulties was Child Behavior Checklist. Projective tools such as Children Apperception Test and Kinetic Family Drawing were applied to assess the representations. The results of the projective methods were analyzed with the “Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale“ (SCORS) and “The Global Rating Scale”. According to SCORS four dimensions of internal representations were assessed: complexity of representations of people, affective quality of representations, emotional investment in relationships, values and moral standards and understanding social causality. The study results show that inner “self” and object representations of the boys with behavioral difficulties are different from the ones of the boys without behavioral difficulties. Representations of the clinical sample are less differentiated, have a negative emotional tone. These boys also show a lower capacity for emotional investment in relationships and moral standards, an impaired understanding of social causality. Boys with the behavioral difficulties see others as indifferent, rejecting, vulnerable, unreliable, inconsistent and not being able to help. Their inner “self” is represented as vulnerable and rejected, unattached to his family. The projective method used in the study and analysis of the data allows us to predict behavioral difficulties. Mental representations of children with behavioral difficulties have specific characteristics. The different experiences in long term psychotherapy could transform those characteristics into more adaptable ones.

Exploring Object Relations in Hospitalized Children With Caregiver Loss

The empirical literature offers evidence that loss of a caregiver in childhood is a significant predictor of psychopathology in adolescents and adults. There is a paucity of empirical research exploring the intrapsychic effects of caregiver loss in an at-risk population of hospitalized children. The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale: Global Rating Method (SCORS-G) was used to analyze Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) narratives for five commonly used TAT cards. Narratives were assessed on eight dimensions, including complexity of representations of people, affective quality of representations, emotional investment in relationships, understanding of social causality, experience and management of aggressive impulses, self-esteem, and identity and coherence of self. Interrater reliability was obtained by using three independent raters. On average, the participants reported a mean age of 13 years and 35 percent were females. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs), correlations, and regression analyses show that age is a significant predictor of self-esteem in children who have experienced caregiver loss (R 2 = 0.34, p < .05). Further exploration revealed that depending on how early the loss occurred, IQ was a significant predictor of children's sense of self-esteem (R 2 = 0.84, p < .05) and their emotional investment in relationships (R 2 = −0.78, p < .01). Implications for treatment of children are discussed.

Early Memories from Outpatients With and Without a History of Childhood Sexual Abuse

This study examined the relation between childhood sexual abuse (CSA) and object relations in adulthood. Early memory narratives from 79 outpatients seeking individual psychotherapy at a community clinic were coded using Westen's (1995) Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS). Differences in functioning between those outpatients who reported CSA and those with no history of CSA were compared. Initial findings suggested that there were no group differences between CSA survivors and no-CSA clinical controls on the SCORS variables. However, when this clinical group was organized into no-CSA, low-severity CSA (no penetration), and high-severity CSA (oral, anal, or vaginal penetration) groups, analyses demonstrated that the high-severity CSA survivors had a significantly poorer understanding of social causality.

Insight, psychopathology, and interpersonal relationships in schizophrenia.

Insight of patients with schizophrenia seems to be a complex phenomenon that includes elements of a psychological, psychopathological, neurocognitive, and interactional nature. The purpose of this research was to study two of these areas (psychopathology and interpersonal relationships) in order to determine their influence on insight and their interrelation. Eighty-two outpatients fulfilling DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia were studied using the Schedule for the Assessment of Insight (SAI), the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), and the Social Cognitions and Object Relations Scale (SCORS). Bivariate correlations and multiple regression tests were performed. The positive component of the PANSS and the understanding of social causality (SCORS) appeared as the most significant variables related to level of insight. Positive symptoms were inversely related to insight, whereas understanding of social causality was directly associated with an appropriate awareness of illness. These results support the idea that insight is a complex and multidimensional phenomenon. In this respect, the study of the psychopathological dimension of insight should be accompanied by the consideration of interactional and social factors, because awareness of illness can be considered ultimately as an index of concordance between patients' views of the illness and cultural standards regarding mental disorders.

Convergent Validity of Rorschach and TAT Scales of Object Relations

The Rorschach Mutuality of Autonomy Scale (MOA; Urist, 1977) and the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS; Westen,1995) have been shown to be reliable and valid measures of interpersonal functioning. Utilizing a sample of 57 outpatients with a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) Axis II diagnosis, this study extends the findings of previous research demonstrating the reliability and convergent validity of each measure. Analyses focused on the convergent validity between the Rorschach MOA Scale and 8 SCORS variables (complexity, affect, emotional investment in relationships, emotional investment in values and morals, understanding of social causality, management of impulses/aggression, self-esteem, identity/coherence of self) ratings of Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) narratives. The conceptual nature and clinical utility of these findings are discussed in relation to psychological assessment.

Assessing Complexity of Representations of People and Understanding of Social Causality: A Comparison of Natural Science and Clinical Psychology Graduate Students

Social cognition research and object relations theory in psychoanalysis both focus on representational processes underlying interpersonal functioning. The present study was designed to corroborate the validity of two measures of object relations and social cognition as applied to TAT responses complexity of representations of people, and understanding of social causality (the extent to which attributions are logical, accurate, complex, and psychologically-minded). Beginning clinical psychology graduate students scored higher than natural science graduate students on both measures, particularly on complexity and the two measures correlated with independent assessments of psychological-mindedness. Discriminant validity was provided by the absence of similar findings using a measure of a theoretically related affective dimension, affect-tone of relationship paradigms.

Object relations in childhood and adolescence: The development of working representations.

This article describes two studies based on an integration of theory and research in object relations and developmental social cognition. The following four dimensions were assessed in 2nd and 5th graders and in 9th and 12th graders using Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) responses and Ss' descriptions of meaningful interpersonal episodes: complexity of representations of people, affect-tone of relationship paradigms, capacity for emotional investment in relationships and moral standards, and understanding of social causality. In both studies, developmental differences emerged on all measures except affect-tone, as expected. Results document object-relational development beyond the preoedipal years and suggest the diagnostic importance of distinguishing multiple dimensions of object relations rather than considering object relations as a single or unitary developmental line.

Object Relations in Borderline Adolescents

Although pathological object relations is a core aspect of borderline psychopathology, few studies have examined borderline object relations empirically, and none has focused on borderline adolescents. The present study examined four dimensions of object relations, as measured by the Thematic Apperception Test, in a sample of adolescent borderlines, psychiatric comparison subjects, and normals. These dimensions are complexity of object representations, affect-tone of relationship paradigms, capacity for emotional investment in relationships and moral standards, and understanding of social causality. Borderlines differed significantly from both comparison groups in several distinct ways, supporting some aspects of psychoanalytic theories of borderline object relations, while challenging others. Borderline adolescents have a malevolent object world, a relative incapacity to invest in others in a non-need-gratifying way, and a tendency to attribute motivation to others in simple, illogical, and idiosyncratic ways. Their object representations, however, can be quite complex, suggesting something other than a preoedipal arrest.