Assessments for

Depression
 Beck Depression Inventory-II
(Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996)
To measure the presence and severity of depressive and symptomology,
in both normal populations and psychiatrically diagnosed patients
21 items
4-point
The top 10 most frequently used psychological tests
Covers all of the DSM-IV symptom criteria
5-10 minutes administration
Internal consistency: .73 to .95
Strength:
Consistency with DSM-IV criteria
Strong psychometric properties
Ease of use and administration
Sensitivity to treatment change
Large empirical database
 Beck Depression Inventory for Malays
(BDI-Malay) (Mokhtar & Tian, 2008)

A total of 1090 Malays in four samples (students,

general community, general medical patients,
and patients with major depressive disorders)
were recruited in this study
Two factors of the BDI-Malay: Cognitive/Affective
and Somatic/Vegetative were extracted EFA,
confirmed with CFA
Internal consistency (Cronbachs ) from.71 to .
91
Good concurrent and divergent validity
 Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression
(HAMD; Hamilton, 1960, 1967)

For use as an index of severity in individuals

already diagnosed with clinical depression
Focus: behavioral and somatic symptoms
and assess symptoms such as early, middle,
and late insomnia, psychomotor retardation,
agitation and anxiety, loss of appetite and
weight loss, and muscular aches and pains.
30 minutes
Internal consistency estimate: above .70
 The Center for Epidemiologic Studies
Depression Scale
(CES-D; Redloff, 1977)

For identification of depression in the

general community
20 items that measure frequency of
depressive symptomatology
4-point scale ( from rarely to most of the
time)
Coefficient alpha of .90 and .85 for patients
and non-patients respectively
CES-D items do not cover all of the DSM-IV
criteria
 The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales
(DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995b)

Measures sadness, loss of interest,

self-deprecation, devaluation of life,
inertia and anhedonia
4-point scale (0= Did not apply to me
to 4= Applied to me very much or
most of the time)
Alpha coefficient: .95 to .95
Limitation: a ceiling effect that limits
its sensitivity to treatment changes
DASS-21 Malay version (Ramli et. al, 2009)

Good Cronbachs alpha values of .84, .74 and .79,

respectively, for depression, anxiety and stress.
Good factor loading values for most items (.39
to .73).
Correlations among scales were between .54
and .68.
 Beck Hopelessness Scale
(BHS; Beck & Steer, 1988)

Measures the degree to which an

individual is pessimistic about his or
future
11 items are keyed positively and 9
items are keyed are keyed negatively
Scores range from 0 (No
hopelessness) to 20 (extreme
hopelessness)
5 minutes administration
Alpha coefficient range: .84 to .93
 Dysfunctional Attitude Scale
(DAS; Weissman & Beck, 1978)

Measures silent assumptions,

dysfunctional cognitions and
maladaptive beliefs that depressed
individuals tend to exhibit
Alpha coefficient range: .88 to .97
7-point Likert scale (1=Totally Agree
to 7=Totally disagree)
Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-Malay) (Mokhtar & Tian, 2009)

The 40-item DAS-Malay was completed by 315

university students, 495 members of the general
community, 167 medical patients, and 113
patients diagnosed with major depressive
disorder.
Through principal axis factoring, with varimax
rotation, two factors were extracted; performance
evaluation and self-control.
Correlation with depression and other variables
indicated that the DASMalay held good
concurrent validity.