Introduction to the Special Section on the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method: From...

There continues to be a need in the field of psychology for measures that quantify qualitative data in dynamically rich and clinically meaningful ways. The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method (SCORS-G; Westen, 1995) is a clinician-rated measure with a strong theoretical foundation that assesses sophisticated underlying constructs, specifically 8 dimensions of object relations (Stein & Slavin-Mulford, 2018 ). The SCORS-G has steadily increased in popularity and this special section of the Journal of Personality Assessment reflects this growing interest. In this introduction, we provide readers with a brief overview of the 5 articles in this special section and note ways in which they reflect and build on the existing SCORS-G empirical literature. Contextualizing these articles within the broader literature allows us to highlight how the measure is employed in clinical and research settings. Each of these 5 articles also highlights areas and opportunities for future research that would address gaps in the SCORS-G literature and strengthen the utility of the measure. We close by noting how each of studies can be seen as a model for future lines of research.