About
72
Publications
57,867
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
1,275
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
I am a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. My research focuses on individual differences in personality. I am particularly interested in aspects of personality related to emotional regulation and interpersonal relationships (romantic and otherwise). I am very interested in adult attachment. I also study the tools clinicians and researchers use to assess individuals.
My lab's webpage is:
http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~csiefert/
Additional affiliations
September 2010 - present
September 2010 - May 2014
January 2007 - August 2010
Innerscope Research
Position
- Senior Researcher
Publications
Publications (72)
Research shows that the subscales of the Relationship Profile Test (RPT) are related to adult attachment. Gender differences have been implicated, but findings are inconsistent in terms of replication. A limited amount of research has been conducted on ethnic differences in the context of interpersonal dependency. This study aims to bridge the gap...
Over the last decade, there has been a major paradigm shift in the way researchers and clinicians conceptualize and assess personality pathology (e.g., Herpertz et al., 2017; Waugh, 2019). New diagnostic systems have been developed (e.g., Alternative Model of Personality Disorders [AMPD; APA, 2013] and the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual, 2nd Editi...
While understanding how internalized representations of others (i.e., object relations) change over the course of treatment is essential for treatment planning and evaluation of progress, few studies have examined the nature of these changes through repeated psychological assessments. In this study, we applied the SCORS‐G to Thematic Apperception T...
In recent years, there has been growing interest in examining the stimulus pull effects on respondent narratives to the Thematic Apperception Test (Murray, 1943) using standardized coding methods such as the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global Rating Method (SCORS–G; Stein, Hilsenroth, Slavin-Mulford, & Pinsker, 2011; Westen, 1995)....
The Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) construes personality disorder diagnosis in terms of levels of personality functioning (LPF) as well as dimensions of pathological personality traits. The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (HiTOP), which offers a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing psychopathology, integrates pat...
Brief psychodynamic psychotherapy (BPP) begins with an assessment to gauge client appropriateness for treatment, generate treatment goals, and build a dynamic focus. During this assessment, other goals must also be achieved for treatment to have a successful start. Building a strong alliance, empathizing and bonding with the client, and clarifying...
Assessors using storytelling assessment techniques have debated the relative importance of picture imagery (card pull) versus story content for interpreting clients’ stories. This study used generalizability theory to compare sources of variance in scores for Feffer’s Interpersonal Decentering as a function of persons, cards, raters, or interaction...
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed. [DSM–5]; American Psychiatric Association, 2013 American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Publishing.[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) introduced the Alternative DSM–5 Model for Persona...
The ability to evaluate patients’ level of personality functioning in assessing personality disorders has become increasingly important since the DSM–5 Section III hybrid system of personality disorder assessment was released. One measure developed to assess this criterion is the DSM–5 Levels of Personality Functioning Questionnaire (DLOPFQ; Hupric...
The social cognition and object relations scale‐global rating method is a clinical rating
system assessing 8 domains of self and interpersonal functioning. It can be applied to
score numerous forms of narrative data. In this study, we investigate the SCORS‐G
relationship to measures of alliance and readiness for psychotherapy with an adolescent
inp...
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...
With the introduction in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) of a hybrid system of personality disorder assessment, the ability to assess patients' traits, as well as their level of personality functioning, has become increasingly important. To assess this criterion, the DSM-5 Levels of Personality Funct...
The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scales-Global Rating Method (SCORS-G) contains eight scales for coding narrative content. This study explores the factor structure of this measure using college (n = 171), outpatient (n = 239), and inpatient (n = 78) samples. Participants told stories to the Thematic Apperception Test cards (Murray, 1943)....
The content of Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) cards can, in some cases, influence how respondents form narratives. This study examines how imagery from select TAT cards affects the narratives of respondents from a nonclinical setting. The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global Rating Method (SCORS–G; Stein, Hilsenroth, Slavin-Mulford,...
The current study investigated the inter-rater reliability and validity of prototype ratings of five common adolescent psychiatric disorders: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Conduct Disorder, Major Depressive Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. 157 adolescent inpatient participants consented to this...
Objective: We sought to identify patients at risk of incomplete transvaginal oocyte retrieval, develop a risk assessment formula to identify patients who would benefit from a transabdominal approach, and compare complication and pregnancy rates between these two approaches.
Materials and Methods: In this retrospective case control study in a privat...
Interpersonal dependency has been linked to psychological distress, depression, help seeking, treatment compliance, and sensitivity to interpersonal cues in adult samples. However, there is a dearth of research focusing on dependency in child and adolescent samples. The current study examined the construct validity of a measure of interpersonal dep...
The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Ratings Method (SCORS-G; Stein, Hilsenroth, Slavin-Mulford, & Pinsker-Aspen, 2011) is a reliable system for coding narrative data, such as Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) stories. This study employs a cross-sectional, correlational design to examine associations between SCORS-G dimensions and...
This study assessed the construct validity of the Relationship Profile Test (RPT; Bornstein & Languirand, 2003) with a substance abuse sample. One hundred-eight substance abuse patients completed the RPT, Experiences in Close Relationships Scale (ECR-SF; Wei, Russell, Mallinckrodt, & Vogel, 2007), Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991)...
Psychologists in medical settings are frequently tasked with providing comprehensive evaluations of patients with complex medical and psychiatric conditions. In order to achieve these aims, standardized measures of neurocognitive and psychological functioning are often employed to empirically assess a patient's level of functioning across an array...
Growing economic pressure on inpatient services for adolescents has resulted in fewer clinicians to provide individual psychotherapy. Inpatient treatment trends have favored group psychotherapy modalities and psychopharmacological interventions as a result. Currently, no clinician-rated measures exist to assist clinicians in determining who would b...
Key practitioner message:
Assessing client attachment status can provide clinicians with information that helps them identify clients at risk for difficulties establishing a therapeutic alliance.Clients high in attachment security are more likely to develop strong bonds with therapists during the early portion of treatment.Clients high in fearful...
Growing economic pressure on inpatient services for adolescents has resulted in fewer clinicians to provide individual psychotherapy. As a result, inpatient treatment trends have favored group psychotherapy modalities and psychopharmacological interventions. Currently, no clinician-rated measures exist to assist clinicians in determining who would...
The purpose of this study was to extend the validity and clinical application of the Level of Care Index (LOCI) from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) in 2 independent psychiatric samples. In Study 1 (N = 201), the LOCI effectively differentiated level of care (inpatients from outpatients), and was also meaningfully associated with risk fa...
The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method (SCORS-G) is a clinical rating system assessing eight domains of self and interpersonal relational experience which can be applied to narrative response data (e.g., Thematic Apperception Test [TAT; Murray, 1943]; early memories narratives) or oral data (e.g., psychotherapy narrati...
The current study looks to evaluate the validity and reliability of a brief measure of overall functioning for adolescents. Clinicians were asked to complete the Overall Functioning Scale for 72 adolescents consecutively admitted to the adolescent psychiatric inpatient service of a community safety net medical center. The results revealed that this...
Unlabelled:
The link between alliance and treatment outcome is robust. Nevertheless, few, if any, self-report measures exist to assess the alliance between hospitalized adolescents and their treatment team as a whole. The present study looks to extend the use of a brief self-report measure of inpatient treatment alliance designed for adult inpatie...
The proliferation of media platforms raises questions among marketers about their relative value. This study tests a neuroscience-informed model of immersive-versus-flexible audience engagement and demonstrates television's heightened ability to sustain nonconscious emotional response over online viewing. Employing biometrics and eye tracking, 251...
Personality's link to emotional experience has been demonstrated, but specific biological responses to emotion as a function of personality have not been well-established. Here, the association between personality and physiological responses (heart rate, skin conductance, and respiration) to emotional videos was assessed. One-hundred sixty-nine par...
There has been surprisingly little research into the stimulus properties of the Thematic Apperception Test Cards (TAT; Murray, 1943). This study used the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global Rating Method (SCORS–G; Stein, Hilsenroth, Slavin-Mulford, & Pinsker, 201131.
Stein , M. B. ,
Hilsenroth , M. ,
Slavin-Mulford , J. and
Pinsk...
The heterogeneity of violent behavior is often overlooked in risk assessment despite its importance in the management and treatment of psychiatric and forensic patients. In this study, items from the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) were first evaluated and rated by experts in terms of how well they assessed personality features associated wi...
Background:
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) continues to be an effective treatment option for patients who fail to respond to pharmacological interventions, are unable to tolerate medications, and show a suboptimal response to behavioral and psychotherapeutic treatments. However, risks for cognitive impairment may contribute to some patients' refu...
Research over the last decade has been promising in terms of the incremental utility of psychometric tools in predicting important clinical outcomes, such as mental health service utilization and inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a new Level of Care Index (LOCI) from the Personality Assessm...
The goal of this investigation was the development of an Inconsistency scale (ICN-SF) for the Personality Assessment Inventory-Short Form (PAI-SF). In Study 1, 503 inpatient profiles were randomly assigned to a derivation or cross-validation sample. Ten correlated item pairs were identified using the derivation sample and placed on the ICN-SF. Psyc...
The Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale–Global rating method (SCORS–G; Stein, Hilsenroth, Slavin-Mulford, & Pinsker, 201141.
Stein , M. ,
Hilsenroth , M. ,
Slavin-Mulford , J. and
Pinsker , J. 2011. Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale: Global rating method (SCORS–G; 4th ed.), Boston, MA: Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvar...
Understanding how individuals change over the course of therapy is an important area of investigation for psychotherapy researchers. It is generally appreciated that there are many ways for individuals to change and different types of treatments seek to promote different types of change. While efficacy studies have tended to focus on symptom change...
As part of their overall care, patients with borderline personality disorder may require inpatient hospitalization for containment and stabilization in the context of severe distress, increased risk for self-harm, or after self-harming acts. Though data suggests that such patients are frequently hospitalized, the benefits of brief hospitalizations...
This present study examined the relationship between the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS) and two measures of adult attachment: the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) and the Experiences in Close Relationships Questionnaire-Revised (ECR-R). Forty-five patients (76% female) at a university-based outpatient treatment clinic participat...
Health care professionals are coming under increased pressure to empirically monitor patient outcomes across settings as a means of improving clinical practice. Within the psychiatric and primary care communities, many have begun utilizing brief psychometric measures of psychological functioning to accomplish these goals. The purpose of this study...
We examined effects of exposure to unreportable images of spiders on approach towards a tarantula. Pretests revealed awareness of the stimuli was at chance. Participants high or low (top and bottom 15%) on fear of spiders were randomly assigned to receive computer-generated exposure to unreportable pictures of spiders or outdoor scenes. They then e...
Research focusing on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) has increased substantially over the past decade. However,
there has been relatively little focus on the PAI short-form (PAISF). The current study evaluated the psychometric characteristics
of the PAI-SF clinical scales using participants admitted to a large northeastern hospital under...
Delirium tremens (DT) in trauma patients is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Short interview tools have been used to determine the risk of DT but require an alert, compliant patient and a motivated physician. The mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels are parts of routine laboratory testing, in...
The present study looked to illustrate the convergent and divergent validity of the Relationship Profile Test (RPT), which is a 30-item self-report measuring destructive overdependence, dysfunctional detachment, and healthy dependence. The RPT items are written to draw upon Bornstein's (19921993) 4-component model as well as other essential compone...
This study investigated the relationship between individual differences in attachment and the free recall of childhood memories. Specifically, it focuses on how attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, using the Experiences in Close Relationship Scale self-report, relate to the affective quality and the presence of caregivers in memories from c...
Prevalence rates for Personality Disorders are higher in psychiatric settings. Nonetheless, the presence of a personality
disorder may go undetected for some time during the early phases of treatment. This is problematic as a failure to detect
a Personality Disorder as part of the initial evaluation can result in less beneficial treatment plans, ne...
Few studies have assessed the psychometric properties of the Personality Assessment Inventory short-form (PAI-SF) clinical scales, and none have conducted these evaluations using participants from psychiatric inpatient units. The present study evaluated item-level tests of scaling assumptions of the PAI-SF using a large (N=503) clinical sample of p...
Super Bowl advertisements have become almost as famous as the game itself. Between production costs and the price of air time, companies who advertise in the Super Bowl do so at considerable expense. Return on investment for Super Bowl advertisements is strengthened by wide viewership, pregame media chatter, and postgame buzz among consumers. Not a...
This study assessed factors associated with extended length of stay (ELOS) for patients presenting to a psychiatric emergency service (PES). Two hundred six subjects with a length of stay of 24 h or longer were compared with time-matched controls (patients that presented directly after the ELOS patient). Binary logistic regression was used to ident...
Multi-item multiscale self-report measures are increasingly used in inpatient assessments. When considering a measure for this setting, it is important to evaluate the psychometric properties of the clinical scales and items to ensure that they are functioning as intended in a highly distressed clinical population. The present study examines scale...
This 7-week trial assessed the efficacy and tolerability of aripiprazole combined with escitalopram in the acute treatment of major depressive disorder, with psychotic features (MD-Psy).
Sixteen male and female patients with a Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, diagnosis of MD-Psy were recruited for this study from S...
Research focusing on psychodynamic psychotherapy has grown considerably in the past three decades [1]. Recently, there has
been growing interest in studying the process of psychotherapy. The present chapter provides a brief review of some measures
that are useful for research into psychodynamic psychotherapy. We review ten measures designed to asse...
The Schwartz Outcome Scale-10 (SOS-10) is a 10-item questionnaire that measures the broad domain of psychological well-being and quality of life. The SOS-10 is easy to administer and score. Past research has shown its utility, reliability and validity in different clinical settings (i.e., inpatient, outpatient and non-psychiatry medical settings) a...
Despite increased research focusing on the impact of digital video recorder (DVR) use, there continues to be a notable lack of data on viewers' direct experience of time-shifted television ads. The current study was designed to increase understanding of information processing among DVR users by directly examining viewers' biometric responses, eye-g...
The present studies focus on strategies for detecting back irrelevant responding (BIR) on the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; L. C. Morey, 1991). Moderate BIR levels can greatly affect the clinical scales of the PAI. Further, the PAI's Inconsistency and Infrequency validity scales are less than optimal for detecting BIR. L. C. Morey and C. J...
In this study, we sought to explore the diagnostic accuracy of the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991) Validity scales (Negative Impression Management [NIM] and Positive Impression Management [PIM]) and indexes (Malingering index, Defensiveness index [DEF]; Morey, 1993, 1996; Cashel Discriminant Function; Cashel, Rogers, Sewell, & M...
This study investigates the relationship of patient defensive functioning, therapeutic alliance and therapists' use of technical interventions in Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapy (STPP; Book, 1998; Luborsky, 1984; Strupp & Binder, 1984; Wachtel, 1993). Participants in this study were 44 patients admitted for individual psychotherapy at a univ...
Thesis (Ph. D.)--Adelphi University, 2005. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 190-225) Photocopy.
Questions
Question (1)
I have used G-Theory to estimate variance components (VC) in the past, and I tend to use p x r x i crossed designs. I was recently approached by a colleague who has a singe-facet design (p x i). She's calculated VCs for p and i, but she is very confident that there is an interaction. I initially informed her that she'd be unable to generate a VC calculation for the interaction term because G-theory can't parse the interaction term from error (i.e. pxi, e). I was surprised when she showed me that by using SPSS (the variance component command in the GLM analysis option), she was able to get separate estimates (using MINQUE) for p, i, pxi, and error.
Does anyone know if this is valid? Is this somehow a non-addiditive model? If you can point me to resources that clarify for me I'd appreciate it.
Projects
Projects (2)
The purpose of this project is to examine the role of mindfulness in pain related stress proceses including cognitive stress appraisal, pain catastrophizing, and physiological responses (e.g., cortisol, HR, BP) and the resulting experience of pain including tolerance, threshold, and pain rating to an acute cold pressor task.
Assess whether dimensional assessment rather than categorical methods of personality pathology are more reliable and valid both with adult and adolescent samples