The Utility of the Self-Other Narrative Evaluation Scale (SONES) for Assessing Internal Representations in Interpersonal Narratives

Many psychoanalytically informed theories (e.g., attachment theory, object relations theory) view internal representations for self and others as key personality components. Systems for assessing internal representations using narratives often rely on expert raters. Respondents do not typically provide ratings for their own narratives. This article introduces the Self-Other Narrative Evaluation Scale (SONES), which elicits respondent ratings for how they feel interpersonal events in a narrative impacted their representations of self and others. The purpose of this article is to explore the psychometric adequacy, convergent validity, and construct validity of this newly created scale. In two studies, participants provided autobiographical narratives of interpersonal interactions and rated them with the SONES. Experts independently rated all narratives with the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method. Participants also rated their dispositional subjective well-being, self-esteem, and interpersonal problems. SONES scales were internally consistent; converged with the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale-Global Rating Method Affective-Relational factor and Self factor; were related to narratives' emotional tone ratings; and were associated with dispositional ratings of self-esteem, subjective well-being, and interpersonal problems. Overall, the findings provide preliminary support for the validity and utility of the SONES. Implications of the study are described, limitations are noted, and future directions for studying the SONES are suggested.