The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), was developed in 1961, by Aaron Beck and his coworkers. The purpose of this test was to measure the behavioral manifestations of depression. In other words, the Beck Depression Inventory was developed as a way to diagnose the severity of one's depression. This test is not based on a theoretical basis, however it is based on a clinical observation of symptoms (Van Hemert et al., 2002). With all of the stressors in today's world, a significant amount of the population has experienced depression at one point in their lives. There are many tests out there that have been designed to measure depression, however, Beck Depression Inventory is one of the most popular measures of depression throughout the world. In
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Convergent validity refers to testing to make sure that constructs that are expected to be related, do in fact correlate with each other, while discriminant validity tests that constructs that should not be related to each other, are in fact, not related. The BDI-II has shown to have convergent validity with tests that assess anxiety and scales that assess general psychopathology. The BDI-II has correlation coefficients ranging from 0.37 to 0.83 with the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Yuan-Pang and Gorenstein, 2013). Regarding discriminant validity, the results have been lackluster. Studies have shown a low correlation, an average of 0.4, with tests that measure alcohol and drug use, and chronic pain. Suicidal thoughts, which is a central characteristic of depression and, in fact, an item on the BDI-II, showed a poor relationship (Yuan-Pang and Gorenstein, 2013). It's worth noting that the Beck Depression Inventory was created to only measure the intensity and severity of depression. Numerous studies have been done to try and show the discrminant validity of the BDI in distinguishing psychiatric patients from normal patients. Psychiatric patients have been shown to have higher mean scores on the BDI than normal patients, therefore showing that the BDI is able to tell the difference between psychiatrics and normal patients (Beck et al.,
Convergent validity refers to testing to make sure that constructs that are expected to be related, do in fact correlate with each other, while discriminant validity tests that constructs that should not be related to each other, are in fact, not related. The BDI-II has shown to have convergent validity with tests that assess anxiety and scales that assess general psychopathology. The BDI-II has correlation coefficients ranging from 0.37 to 0.83 with the Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale, and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Yuan-Pang and Gorenstein, 2013). Regarding discriminant validity, the results have been lackluster. Studies have shown a low correlation, an average of 0.4, with tests that measure alcohol and drug use, and chronic pain. Suicidal thoughts, which is a central characteristic of depression and, in fact, an item on the BDI-II, showed a poor relationship (Yuan-Pang and Gorenstein, 2013). It's worth noting that the Beck Depression Inventory was created to only measure the intensity and severity of depression. Numerous studies have been done to try and show the discrminant validity of the BDI in distinguishing psychiatric patients from normal patients. Psychiatric patients have been shown to have higher mean scores on the BDI than normal patients, therefore showing that the BDI is able to tell the difference between psychiatrics and normal patients (Beck et al.,