Developing a rating scale for projected stories.

Abstract

The Six-part Story Method (6PSM) is a projective tool in wide use by dramatherapists in the UK, USA and Israel (Lahad & Ayalon, 1993). In contrast to projective tests used by psychotherapists and psychologists, the 6PSM has never been the subject of any validation or reliability studies. This study reports on the identification of scale items to describe the manifest content of six-part stories. In all, 26 statements with acceptable inter-rater reliability have been identified. These statements were used to rate stories produced by clinicians (N = 24) mainstream community mental health patients (N = 21) and patients with a borderline personality disorder (N = 19). Some features that were expected to be indicators of an author with a BPD diagnosis proved to be as common in stories from other authors. However, a scale of eight items was identified that differentiated well between authors with a BPD diagnosis and others, with adequate test-retest and inter-rater reliability. Concurrent validity was tested against the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II (SCID-II), the Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation Outcome Measure (CORE-OM) and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems--Short Form (IIP-32).