The average depression scores vary across countries rapidly which according to Goldberg and Lecrubier could be a result of differing cultural concepts of illness and ways of communicating symptoms. However the results of various studies indicate that depression is more compound than initially proposed and …show more content…
The present study tries to investigate further the geographical differences of depression mean scores by conducting meta-analysis measured by the Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition (BDI-II) (BDI; Beck et al., 1961) and asses the reliability and validity of the measures. Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition is a 21-item self-report instrument which purpose is to identify the presence of symptoms of depression as listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; 1994). Among other self-assessment instruments Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition is considered to be one of the most relevant instruments to measure the behavioral manifestations of depression in people thirteen years of age and older. The theoretical assumption of the original BDI relied upon the belief that negativistic distorted cognitions would be the