SCOPES is a holistic biopsychosocial model of human flourishing that organizes data from six domains of functioning commonly discussed in psychological research and clinical practice. The SCOPES model helps researchers and clinicians organize tests or questionnaires that measure different dimensions within one or more of the six domains. In addition, when clinicians organize patient information using the SCOPES model, or a similar holistic model, they may be able to help patients select treatment strategies that address multiple areas related to the primary concern or diagnosis.
In this post, I provide an overview of the SCOPES model followed by a description of each domain.
For example, clinicians know that depression may affect many areas of functioning. The SCOPES model is one way to consider the impact of depression on multiple areas of functioning such as distressing thoughts (C), feelings (E), behavior patterns (O: e.g., avoidance of engaging activities), physiological symptoms (P: e.g., appetite, sleep, sex), and Social Context (S: e.g., relationships that may help or worsen symptoms). Finally, clinicians and patients may consider core effects on the self (S) where self-esteem and self-identity may be negatively affected by depression. When applicable, treatments may include Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, physical activity, increasing social connections, and medication.
Focusing on only one domain of human functioning can lead to unrealistic views if we forget that each domain of functioning interacts with the others. For example, our memories of important people from childhood are part of cognition but affect our emotions, behavior, and even our physiological reactions. Memories are part of our self-identity and may affect our spirituality too. Finally, our memories can be triggered by events in our social context like a photograph, a trip to our home town, or a movie.
THE SIX COMPONENTS OF THE SCOPES MODEL
S SELF
Each of us has a core self, which integrates all of the information about ourselves. We use a variety of self terms like self-concept, self-esteem, and self-identity. Here I focus on self-identity.
Self-identity is a composite of several broad core features (see COPE below) that we recognize as who we are. We usually have more than one identity based on our roles in life (e.g., spouse/partner, parent, child, supervisor), personal characteristics (e.g., degree of fitness, health, intelligence, attractiveness, age), and groups (e.g., political, interest, sports fan, religious). One or a few identities stand out as highly important such as spiritual identity (see below), gender identity, or identities linked to subjectively important life roles (e.g., parent, doctor, grandparent, spouse).
We project ourselves to others through our core dimensions of expressed thoughts (cognition), feelings (emotion), observable behaviors (personality traits), and observed physical attributes. We may express ourselves differently in different social contexts such as at work or school, with our families, and with our friends.
One multidimensional model that organizes several features of the self is the tetrapartite model (Cheek & Cheek, 2018). The model organizes over 40 potential aspects of identity into four categories of self-identity: personal, relational, collective, public.
One of my research interests is in the psychology of religion and spirituality so let me give an example of the spiritual aspect of identity. Spirituality includes religious and other ways people find meaning in life. Most organized religious faiths include a set of specific beliefs and prescribed practices but these are integrated with each person’s spiritual experience. For example, a person’s dreams and visions, and culture influence how they pray and what they identify as right and wrong. Atheists and those with nontraditional spirituality may describe meaningful experiences when they are inspired by the beauty of nature or music. For some, the spiritual dimension is so vital to their identity that it dominates their clothing choices, communicated beliefs, daily practices like prayer, interactions with others, music they enjoy, and what they eat or refuse to eat.
Following is an illustration of the SCOPES model where the primary self-identity is spiritual and the person has a particular religious or spiritual worldview.
Examples of Test Categories Related to the Self Domain
Self-concept scales
Self-esteem scales
Self-efficacy scales
Spirituality and religiosity scales
Gender Identity scales
C COGNITION
It doesn’t take long to form an impression of a person’s general intelligence. Sometimes we are awed and sometimes—not so much. But there’s more to cognition than solving problems on intelligence tests. We can include many neuropsychological processes such as memory, attention and concentration, language skills, and visual-spatial skills as well as cognitive biases and prejudices.
Some aspects of cognition have a huge impact on identity such as extreme deficits in attention span, incredible ability to solve complex problems, or persistent declines in memory for self and others. Cognition not only affects how well we learn in formal settings like schools and universities but in life spaces like new tasks at work or adapting to new communities and learning to love and relate to new friends and family members.
Examples of Test Related to the Cognitive Domain
Tests of intelligences
Tests of achievement
Tests of language and verbal skills
Tests of creativity
Tests of memory
Mental status exams
O OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR PATTERNS OR PERSONALITY
I used the letter O so it works with the acrostic. Essentially, people may be described in terms of a few or many durable traits like the famous Big Five listed below.
Openness: intelligent, imaginative, insightful
Conscientious: organized, thorough, planners
Extraversion: talkative, outgoing, energetic, assertive; contrasted with introversion
Agreeable: forgiving, sympathetic, kind, affectionate
Neuroticism (v. stability) tense, moody, anxious
In the HEXACO model, a sixth dimension is Honesty / humility.
Within each of the five or six meta traits are smaller behavior patterns that may be called facets or subtraits depending on the researcher. All of these details enrich our understanding of ourselves and others.
There are other traits or characteristics that may be added like dominance and psychopathy. People are different. We usually act in fairly predictable ways--habit patterns and traits that are part of who we are. For example, we may be known to ourselves and others as agreeable or shy.
Examples of Test Related to the Observable Behavior or Personality Domain
Behavioral observations
P PHYSIOLOGY OR BIOLOGY
We all come with bodies and many of us with less than culturally desirable bodies protest that we are more than mere bodies. We want to be known for what’s "inside". Nevertheless, our physiology is a critical part of who we are. Drives for hunger, thirst, sleep, and sex vary from person to person and those biological factors vary for each of us during a day, week, or year. Measures of biological status can change and influence other aspects of who we are- height, weight, blood pressure, and more. Biology shapes our identity and we influence our biology and that of others.
We know that despite protests, people think of others in terms of a biological factors like blindness or deafness or another challenge. I am deaf in my left ear, but I did not think of myself as hearing impaired until I began to have difficulty hearing with my right ear. Now I wear a hearing aid. Some have a mental health diagnosis and are referred to by that diagnosis such as alcoholics or Schizophrenics. Some are known by a disease they have or survived such as cancer. One aspect of our entire personal identity can be a physiological status that is defining or confining. We know that we and others are more than a biological fact but somehow, we often fail to think beyond the “P” dimension. Physiology is a powerful part of self-identity.
Examples of Assessment Related to biopsychology
Tests of motor functioning e.g., grip strength, finger tapping
Tests of brain functioning e.g., MRI, EEG
Various lab tests (e.g., blood, urine) detecting factors affecting the other domains
Tests of stress that include biopsychological symptoms
Tests of balance as we learn to walk after injuring a leg or hip
Questionnaires about sexual functioning
Questionnaires about alcohol and other drugs
Questionnaires about sleep, diet, and other health habits affecting other domains
Questions asking us to rate our level of pain on a 0 to 10 scale
E EMOTIONS or feelings
Our emotions influence our identity and our judgments about others. There are many ways to show our emotions. Psychological scientists disagree on what may constitute core emotions. As a psychologist, I was tuned in to sadness, anxiety, and anger as well as joy and a sense of calm. More common emotions include fear, worry, hate, guilt, and that complex we call love. Feelings are critical to understanding who we are and why people do what they do. In some cases, our feelings can represent an important part of our identity as in I am a happy person despite times of sadness. And sometimes an "emotional identity" is less desirable.
Examples of Tests Related to the Emotional Domain
Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS)
S SOCIAL: OUR SPACE-TIME CONTEXT
The people in our lives and where we live out our day-to-day existence influences who we are even as we influence others. Our personal timeline is a factor too. We and others see common threads of who we are since childhood but we also see changes. Looking back, we may see events, people, or places that resulted in major changes in who we are today. Like many immigrants, the move from one country to another was a big deal for me and my parents.
Our relationships matter. Relationships affect our spiritual faith, thoughts, feelings, behavior patterns and even our health. A recently divorced cantankerous fifty-year old man with a history of alcohol abuse may feel anger, distress, and worry. A 35 year-old woman may feel happy and enjoy a sense of freedom as she boards a cruise with a friend. People are different in their relationships. Some feel liberated by divorce whilst others feel devastated. Some worry about finding a mate whilst others intentionally live a single life. Some prefer frequent interaction with friends whilst others require large periods of aloneness.
The people we identify as "my people" or "my family" and places (e.g., my hometown, my country) and epochs of time (I grew up in the 50s and 60s) may also be a part of our identity.
Examples of Tests Related to the Social Domain
Tests of relationships at home, work, places of worship, and other social settings
SCOPES and HUMAN NATURE
The SCOPES model is a way of organizing information about ourselves and others. It is a way of recognizing we are complex beings who change in many ways. We respond to others and our environments in ways that change us. And we have an effect on others and our environment. At any given point, a few dimensions may be more important than others such as when we feel depressed at the loss of a loved one or joyful when we celebrate a birthday.
We should also be aware that activity in one or two dimensions affects the other dimensions even when we are not aware of the effects. A loud noise like a gunshot can produce fear, thoughts of safety, memories of past terror, crouching behavior, increased heart rate and even a cry for divine intervention.
SCOPES in CONTEXT
As the core self-concept within the SCOPES model interacts with the social dimension, a person develops their worldview, which is their major organizing schema for interacting with the people, objects, and other entities within their social context.
Read More
I have included specific names of more tests in the research text, Creating Surveys used in universities and by clinicians.
I have applied the SCOPES model to analyzing moral-social judgments in A House Divided: Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures.
The science behind the SCOPES model.
Those familiar with psychology will recognize the common Cognitive-Affective-Behavior constructs in Cognitive-Behavioral-Therapy and attitude theory, which involved the COE dimensions. Most clinicians have coursework in the biological basis of behavior hence, the P dimension. The Social dimension includes a recognition of social contexts and time contexts, which draw upon studies in social psychology and developmental psychology-- an S dimension. Finally, the other S is for the Self, which is our way of integrating all the dimensions of ourselves into a few key identities.
Many will also recognize the importance of the environment, which I include in the Social dimension. I have also been influenced by the BASIC-ID of Arnold Lazarus—a part of his work in Multimodal Therapy and Kurt Levin’s field theory or concept of lifespace.
Cite this post (APA)
Sutton, G. W. (2022, August 24). SCOPES model of human functioning. Psychology concepts and theories. https://suttonpsychology.blogspot.com/2021/07/scopes-model-of-human-functioning.html
Cite this book reference for the SCOPES Model.
Sutton, G. W. (2021). Creating surveys: Second Edition| How to create and administer surveys,
evaluate workshops & seminars, interpret and present results. Sunflower.
AMAZON Paperback ISBN-13: 9798712780327 website
Test Resources
You can read about tests and survey items to measure the SCOPES dimensions in my 2017 book, Creating Surveys. Available on AMAZON and Google
The SCOPES model was applied to understanding morality in Christian cultures in A House Divided.
Sutton, Geoffrey W. A House Divided: Sexuality, Morality, and Christian Cultures. Eugene, OR: Pickwick. Also available on AMAZON.
Counseling and Psychotherapy with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians Available from Amazon and Google
This post updated February 8, 2023
Publications referring to the SCOPES model.
Sutton, G. W. (2021).
Counseling and psychotherapy with Pentecostal and Charismatic Christians:
Culture & Research | Assessment & Practice. Springfield, MO:
Sunflower. ISBN-13 : 979-8681036524
Sutton, G. W. (2017). Creating surveys: Evaluating programs and reading
research. Springfield, MO: Sunflower.
AMAZON Paperback ISBN-10: 1522012729 ISBN-13:
9781522012726 website Sutton, G. W. (2016). A House Divided: Sexuality, morality, and
Christian cultures. Eugene, OR: Pickwick. ISBN: 9781498224888
Sutton,
G. W. & Mittelstadt, M. W. (2012). Loving God and loving others: Learning
about love from psychological science and Pentecostal perspectives. Journal of Christianity and Psychology, 31, 157-166. Academia
Link Research Gate Link Sutton,
G.W. & Schmidly, B. (eds.) (2016). Christian
morality: An interdisciplinary framework for thinking about contemporary moral
issues. Eugene, OR: Pickwick. ISBN: 9781498204767
Worthington, E. L. (2020). How to Discuss Controversial Sexual Issues with Christians Who Don’t (and Do) Agree with You. Journal of Psychology and Theology, 48(3), 229–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0091647120908017
