Object representations and symptomatology: preliminary findings in young adult psychiatric inpatients

This study was designed to contribute to the empirical clarification of the object representation construct by assessing the relationships (a) among the levels of cognitive representation of four distinct and relevant individuals; and (b) among those cognitive object representations and dimensions of symptomatology. Subjects were 30 long-term inpatients of a private psychiatric hospital in Connecticut. Cognitive-developmental level of object representation was assessed according to the system described by Blatt, Brenneis, Schimek, and Glick (1976) and symptom dimensions via the SCL-90. Object representations all were interrelated significantly and tended to be related to depressive, but not other, symptomatology. Results could not be accounted for by variation in subjects' verbal production. Findings are discussed in terms of expected developmental increases in object-representation consistency; the potential influence of psychotherapy on object representations; the relative salience of different objects; unknown test-retest reliability of the instrument; and methodological and sampling issues. It is recommended that future empirical research investigate more systematically the nature of developmental level of object representation.