Do object relations measured using the Thematic Apperception Test correlate with object relations measured using psychotherapeutic dialogue

The concept of object relations has a long and rich psychoanalytic history. Object relations are thought to result from internalized models of a person's experiences with others and to, thereafter, mediate one's interpersonal interactions. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) has been used to elicit stories about human interactions. The Westen et al. (1989) system of scoring TAT stories has been shown to be a valid and reliable way to measure the object relations reflected in these narratives. Westen et al.'s (1989) scoring system measures four dimensions of object relations: two considered cognitive and maturational and two considered more emotionally determined.; This study explored the question of whether TAT narrative scores would correlate with those from unstructured narratives collected during psychotherapy sessions. A similar scoring method developed by Westen et al. (1993) as that used for TAT stories was applied to the therapy episodes. Seventeen subjects' TAT narrative and therapy narrative scores were compared. The four Westen et al. object relations dimensions for therapy narratives were all correlated with each other but did not correlate with their TAT story counterparts, suggesting an inability to separate cognitive dimensions from the more affective dimensions. Further factor analysis revealed a single factor underlying the psychotherapy narrative scores as opposed to a two-factor structure for the TAT-derived scores. These findings suggest that more emotionally salient dialogue about important others in one's life may prevent the cognitive distancing which occurs in a testing situation and which allows separation of these object relations dimensions from each other.