E-ISSN : 2733-4538
This study investigated the reliability and validity of three widely used self-report depression measures : the Beck Depression Inventory, the Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, and the MMPI Depression Scale. Each inventory was administered to 39 outpatients diagnosed dysthymia or major depression and 51 normal adults. And the BDI was administered to 159 university students and 256 community-bank clerk trainees. The three inventories were found to have high internal consistency, and the item-total correlation coefficients of BDI and SDS fall within acceptable range, but many of those of MMPI-D scale were low. The 2-week interval test-retest reliability coefficient of BDI was reasonably high in university student sample. The means of three measures of outpatient-group were significantly higher than those of normal adults, and all correlations between the measures were significant and respectably high. Most items of BDI and SDS showed good validity index. These findings suggest that the BDI and SDS are reliable and valid measure of depression. Three factors in university sample and four factors in trainee sample were abstracted from the BDI by factor analysis. We discussed the cutoff scores for diagnosis and screening, and the need for multiple assessment measures.