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Wertheim 1992
Wertheim 1992
Wertheim 1992
THE R E L A T I O N S H I P S AMONG
THE G E N E R A L ATTITUDE AND
B E L I E F SCALE, OTHER
D Y S F U N C T I O N A L COGNITION
M E A S U R E S , A N D D E P R E S S I V E OR
BULIMIC T E N D E N C I E S
Eleanor H. Wertheim
Zeffie Poulakis
La Trobe University
ABSTRACT: This study assessed the relationships between the General At-
titude and Belief Scale (GABS) and measures of 1) irrational beliefs derived
from Ellis' older and newer theorizing, 2) reasoning errors based on Beck's
theory, and 3) affective and behavioral disorder, specifically depression and
bulimia. Female undergraduates (n = 160) completed the GABS, Irrational
Beliefs Scale, Irrational Beliefs Test, Rational Behaviors Inventory, Dysfunc-
tional Attitude Scale, Cognitive Error Questionnaire and the Beck Depres-
sion Inventory, Center for Epidemiologic Studies - Depression Scale, and Bu-
limia Test. Results supported the internal consistency and construct validity
of the GABS; progressively higher correlations were obtained with measures
more similar to the GABS theoretically.
Dr. Eleanor H. Wertheim is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Psychology, La Trobe Univer-
sity in Melbourne, Australia. Zeffie Poulakis is associated with the Department of Psychology at
La Trobe University where she completed her honours degree, B.B.Sc. (Hons).
The authors thank Christine Brown for helping to recruit subjects and administer measures.
Address correspondence to the first author, Department of Psychology, La Trobe University,
Bundoora, Victoria 3083, Australia.
METHOD
Subjects
Procedure
to like me just because I want them to'). This style of item differs from
the Rationality statements in the scales used by Burgess (1986; 1990)
and DiGiuseppe and Leaf (1990) in which items are simply stated in
preferential rather than demand language (e.g., 'I want to be liked by
some people').
The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale - Form A (DAS; Weissman, 1979)
assesses "the presence of !diosyncratic dysfunctional beliefs or as-
sumptions postulated by Beck (1967) to characterize the thinking of
depressed individuals" (Gotlib, 1984, p.22). Items reflect the themes of
"approval, love, achievement, perfectionism, entitlement, omnipotence
and autonomy" (Parker, Bradshaw & Bignault, 1984, p.94). Reliability
estimates have been satisfactory (Dobson & Shaw, 1986; Zuroff, Igreja
& Mongrain, 1990).
The Irrational Belief Scale (IBS) is a single construct measure de-
rived from Ellis's original 11 beliefs (Malouff & Schutte, 1986). Most
items use absolutistic language; those that don't tend to reflect a belief
in an inability to change. The IBS has displayed high internal consis-
tency, test-retest reliability, and ability to differentiate groups as ex-
pected (Malouff & Schutte, 1986; Warren & Zgourides, 1989).
The Irrational Beliefs Test (IBT; Jones, 1968) is a test based on
Ellis' older theory. The original version of the IBT contained 100
items, and 10 subscales. A more recent factor analysis of the 100-item
IBT resulted in modifications to the IBT factor structure and scoring
system (Lohr & Bonge, 1982). This revised IBT scoring technique
(which was used in the present investigation) reduced the IBT to 70
items, with nine subscales: Demand for Approval, High Self-expecta-
tions, Blame-proneness, Problem Avoidance, Dependency, Helpless-
ness and Perfectionism (Lohr & Bonge, 1982). The IBT displays good
internal consistency, test-retest reliability, concurrent and convergent
validity (Jones, 1968), although discriminant validity relating to mea-
sures of emotional distress has been questioned (Smith & Zurawski,
1983; Zurawski & Smith, 1987).
The Rational Behavior Inventory (RBI; Shorkey & Whiteman, 1977)
is a 37-item scale which was also derived from Ellis' older theory of
irrational beliefs. In the present investigation, the Australian version
of the RBI was issued, which is comparable to the American version
(Whiteman, 1979). The RBI consists of 11 factors (or subscales) (Shorkey
& Whiteman, 1977; Whiteman, 1979); these are Catastrophizing, Guilt,
Perfectionism, Need for Approval, Caring and Helping, Blame and
Punishment, Inertia and Avoidance, Independence, Projected Misfor-
tune and Control of Emotions (Sanderman, Mersch, van der Sleen,
Emmelkamp & Ormel, 1987). The RBI displays test-retest reliability,
224 Journal of Rational-Emotive& Cognitive-BehaviorTherapy
RESULTS
Means and standard deviations of total scales and subscales are pre-
sented in Table 1.
Table 2 displays the intercorrelations among GABS subscales and
correlations between each subscale and the GABS Total Irrationality
score minus that subscale. These moderate to high correlations indi-
cate that the GABS subscales are measuring highly related but not
identical constructs.
Eleanor H. Wertheim and Zeffie Poulakis 225
Table 1
Standard
Variable Mean Deviation
GABS
Total Irrationality 126.14 23.01
Rationality 33.79 3.69
Self-downing 18.53 5.69
Need for Achievement 25.18 5.85
Need for Approval 18.59 4.79
Need for Comfort 25.26 6.45
Demand for Fairness 30.31 5.78
Other-downing 8.29 2.39
IBS 62.39 9.20
RBI total 22.40 5.94
IBT total 204.16 19.45
DAS 119.95 24.58
CEQ 18.48 11.32
CES-D 16.84 10.75
BDI (Short form) 5.38 4.44
BULIT 62.98 19.38
GABS total and subscale scores were correlated with the various
cognitive measures and subscales (see Table 3). The GABS total score
correlated between .55 (CEQ) and .75 (IBS) with the total scores of the
other cognitive scales. When the highest one or two correlations of
each of the IBT and RBI subscales with the GABS was examined,
some evidence of construct validity between subscales was evident,
particularly in relation to GABS Need for Approval, Self-downing, and
Other-downing. The GABS Need for Comfort subscale was strongly
represented in many total scales and RBI and IBT subscales.
The GABS was next correlated with the measures of depression
(CES-D, BDI) and bulimia (BULIT) (see Table 4). All GABS subscales
correlated moderately with measures of disorder.
It was next asked whether the GABS could replace the IBS, DAS
226 J o u r n a l of R a t i o n a l - E m o t i v e & C o g n i t i v e - B e h a v i o r T h e r a p y
Table 2
DISCUSSION
Table 3
RBI total -.61"* .31"* -.45** -.37** -.47** -.62** - .35** - .41"*
Catastroph -.42** .29** -.36** -.33** -.33** -.40** - .19" - .23**
b~
b~
b~
t,D
T a b l e 3 (Continued)
Need App -.50** .19" -.36** -.27** -.48** -- .49"* - .35** - .25**
Self Down - .36** .19" -.32** -.21" -.23** - .34** - .17" - .30**
Proj Misfort -.42** .23** -.39** -.27** -.27** - .41"* - .26** - .25**
Table 4
C o r r e l a t i o n s b e t w e e n t h e GABS a n d M e a s u r e s of D e p r e s s i o n
and Bulimia
scale) suggests that the subscales are all measuring a similar central
construct. This suggests that individuals who are prone toward irra-
tional beliefs in one content area (such as need for approval) are prone
to irrational beliefs in other areas (such as demanding fairness). Such
a finding is consistent with the idea that irrational beliefs derive from
a core process, which Ellis proposes to be absolutistic thinking (Ellis,
1984a; DiGiuseppe & Leaf, 1990).
Nonetheless, the subscale score intercorrelations were not uniformly
high, and there was some variation in correlations among GABS sub-
scales and between the GABS subscales and other measures. There-
fore, a number of manifestations of the core construct were suggested,
consistent with Bernard's (1990) previous factor analysis based on in-
dividual items.
In relation to construct validity, as expected the GABS correlated
moderately to highly with other total scale scores of dysfunctional cog-
nitions. Of the total scale scores, the GABS was most highly correlated
with the IBS, which is theoretically most similar, and least highly
correlated with the CEQ, which focuses on reasoning errors leading to
faulty interpretations, rather than the evaluative, demanding compo-
nent of irrational beliefs.
If one GABS subscale correlated highly with a particular cognitive
230 Journal of Rational-Emotive& Cognitive-BehaviorTherapy
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Eleanor H. Wertheim and Zeffie Poulakis 233