Depression is becoming a very widespread disorder not only in the United States, but globally (Wang & Gorenstein, 2013). Due to the growing number of depressed individuals, there have been different assessments created to measure and assess depression symptoms. One of the most popular measures used all around the world, is the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (Wang & Gorenstein, 2013). Beck and colleagues developed the original scale in 1961 for use with adolescents and adults (Dozois, Dobson, & Anhberg, 1998). Since the release of the original BDI, it has undergone two major revisions. Resulting from the third modification in 1996 was the Beck Depression Inventory II (BDI-II) (Wang & Gorenstein, 2013).
Consistent to the orginial BDI, the …show more content…
(2002) investigated the use of the BDI-II in a general population sample in Japan. In order to begin the study, the BDI-II had to be translated into Japanese. The researchers followed the guidelines of back-translation techniques (Kojima et al., 2002). Two investigators translated the items and the initial translation was then back translated by a psychiatrist and a pathologist, both of whom fluent in Japanese (Kojima et al., 2002). It was then sent to TPC to be reviewed by a specialist and confirm that the translated version matched the original (Kojima et al., 2002). Some items were found to be problematic, so the translation and back-translation process was repeated until it was confirmed that the English and Japanese version was equivalent (Kojima et al., 2002). By doing this it also proves the face validity of the measure because it was assessed by experts and made sure the scales were correct. In the development of the Japanese version there was special attention put on the differences between North American and Japanese cultural difference. Results showed high internal consistency reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of .87 and the mean inter-item correlation of .24 (Kojima et al., 2002). Factorial validity was proven by conduction a factor analysis and the researchers found “an almost identical pattern matrix with the original two-dimensional model for somatic-affective and cognitive factors presented by Beck” (Kojima et al., 2002, p. 295). In terms of …show more content…
Some of the questions, such as “loss of interest in sex” might need to be omitted for this population because it is seen as “immodest” to discuss sexual matters openly (Kojima et al., 2002, p. 294). More consideration should be taken into some of items to make it more appreciate for this specific culture. According to this study, the researchers found that cultural differences between North Americans and Japanese do not have that much influence on the score of the BDI-II (Kojima et al., 2002). More research needs to be done to test the effectiveness of the scale on the larger Japanese
Consistent to the orginial BDI, the …show more content…
(2002) investigated the use of the BDI-II in a general population sample in Japan. In order to begin the study, the BDI-II had to be translated into Japanese. The researchers followed the guidelines of back-translation techniques (Kojima et al., 2002). Two investigators translated the items and the initial translation was then back translated by a psychiatrist and a pathologist, both of whom fluent in Japanese (Kojima et al., 2002). It was then sent to TPC to be reviewed by a specialist and confirm that the translated version matched the original (Kojima et al., 2002). Some items were found to be problematic, so the translation and back-translation process was repeated until it was confirmed that the English and Japanese version was equivalent (Kojima et al., 2002). By doing this it also proves the face validity of the measure because it was assessed by experts and made sure the scales were correct. In the development of the Japanese version there was special attention put on the differences between North American and Japanese cultural difference. Results showed high internal consistency reliability with a Cronbach’s alpha of .87 and the mean inter-item correlation of .24 (Kojima et al., 2002). Factorial validity was proven by conduction a factor analysis and the researchers found “an almost identical pattern matrix with the original two-dimensional model for somatic-affective and cognitive factors presented by Beck” (Kojima et al., 2002, p. 295). In terms of …show more content…
Some of the questions, such as “loss of interest in sex” might need to be omitted for this population because it is seen as “immodest” to discuss sexual matters openly (Kojima et al., 2002, p. 294). More consideration should be taken into some of items to make it more appreciate for this specific culture. According to this study, the researchers found that cultural differences between North Americans and Japanese do not have that much influence on the score of the BDI-II (Kojima et al., 2002). More research needs to be done to test the effectiveness of the scale on the larger Japanese