Quantitative assessment of changes in self experience: an overview of research of the Scale to Assess Narrative...

Studies of the long-term course of severe mental illness suggest movement towards and the attainment of recovery is more the rule than exception. While this has spurred on the development of ways to assess many of the objective forms of recovery, less work has been devoted to designing tools to assess subjective aspects of recovery, in particular, aspects of recovery linked to changes in sense of self. In this paper we present information on our efforts to develop a quantitative measure to assess qualities of self-experience in severe mental illness. This instrument, the Scale to Assess Narrative Development, contains four subscales which can be used to assess, on the basis of a spontaneous speech sample, the extent to which persons understand themselves as active agents in their own lives who are connected to others, possess basic social value and who can coherently describe challenges they face. Results of cross-sectional studies and case analyses are presented which provide promising support for the reliability, validity and utility of this instrument. Needs for future research are detailed.