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PtychologicaJ Assessment: Copyright 1990 by the American Psychological Association, Inc.

A Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 1040-3590/90/100.75


1990, Vol. 2, No. 2,191-197

Beck Self-Concept Test


Aaron T. Beck Robert A. Steer
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey
Center for Cognitive Therapy Department of Psychiatry
School of Osteopathic Medicine

Norman Epstein Gary Brown


University of Maryland University of California at Los Angeles

The development and psychometric characteristics of the Beck Self-Concept Test (BST) are de-
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

scribed. The BST is a 25-item self-report instrument that asks respondents to evaluate themselves
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

in relation to other people whom they know. An item analysis with 550 psychiatric outpatients
diagnosed primarily with DSM-III-R mood or anxiety disorders indicated that all of the BST's
items were significantly correlated with the corrected total scores; the coefficient alpha was .82,
indicating good internal consistency. The 1-week and 3-month test-retest reliabilities were .88 and
.65, respectively. The BST was significantly related to the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and displayed
both discriminant and convergent validities with respect to measures of psychopathology.

In her reviews of the self-concept literature, Wylie (1974, However, no published self-concept instrument appears to have
1979) described a variety of instruments for measuring the phe- been explicitly developed to address the theoretical relation be-
nomenal aspects of the self-concept. She broadly classified in- tween self-concept and psychopathology as postulated by an in-
struments into (a) those assessing overall self-regard, such as the tegrated model of psychopathology, such as Beck's (1967,1976)
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE; Rosenberg, 1965) and (b) cognitive model of psychopathology.
those measuring more specific aspects of the self-concept, such With respect to defining the self-concept, Beck considers this
as the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965). Although Wy- construct to consist of a number of characteristics that people
lie (1974) found that a number of self-concept instruments were ascribe to themselves, such as interpersonal attractiveness, and
reported in the psychological literature, she concluded that the to be operationally defined by descriptors such as attractive,
majority of these instruments had methodological and theoreti- kind, and efficient. The descriptors, in turn, are weighed by an
cal problems that were generally attributable to a lack of sys- individual with respect to how much they are valued by himself
tematic instrument development. In his discussion of self-es- or herself. The overall self-concept thus reflects the summation
teem instruments, Demo (1985) indicated that there are too of an individual's self-evaluations of the set of descriptors and
many poorly validated self-concept scales in the psychological represents how good the person feels about himself or herself.
literature. Robson (1988) also observed that there is little con- The self-concept is the product of input of self-relevant data
sensus about what these scales actually measure. and relatively stable structures (self-schemata) that serve as in-
Fleming and Watts (1980, p. 921) asserted that "most psy- formation processors. The stronger a self-schema, the greater its
chologists would probably agree on a general definition of self- influence on the input of self-relevant information (i.e., data
esteem as a personal judgment of one's own worth," and Wytie supporting the self-concept will be processed, whereas data not
(1974, p. 128) has used self-regard as a generic term to "include supporting the self-concept will be ignored). For example, in
self-satisfaction, self-acceptance, self-esteem, self-favorability, depression, individuals direct their cognitive processing toward
congruence between self and ideal self, and discrepancies be- critical self-evaluations, and self-schemata assume a crucial
tween self and ideal self." The operational definition and evalua- role. Data supporting a depressed person's negative self-concept
tion of the self-concept is important because persons with low are more readily acceptable to the individual than data foster-
self-esteem are more vulnerable to the development of psychiat- ing positive self-evaluations.
ric disorders than persons with high self-esteem (Ingham, Kreit- As part of his cognitive model of psychopathology, Beck
man, Miller, Sashidharan, & Surtees, 1986; Robson, 1988). (1967) proposed the negative triad as a framework for under-
standing the phenomenology of depression. He observed that
depressed patients systematically expressed negative views
about themselves, their present experiences, and their futures.
This research was supported by the Foundation for Cognitive Ther-
Over the last 30 years, Beck and his associates at the University
apy and Research and National Institute of Mental Health Grant
MH38843.
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine's Center for Cognitive
Correspondence concerning this article, including the availability of Therapy (CCT) have methodically been developing procedures
the BST, should be addressed to Aaron T. Beck at the Center for Cogni- for evaluating the negative cognitive triad. For example, the
tive Therapy, 133 South 36th Street, Room 602, Philadelphia, Pennsyl- Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS; Beck, Weissman, Lester, &
vania 19104. Trexler, 1974) was designed to evaluate a person's negative ex-

191
192 BECK, STEER, EPSTEIN, AND BROWN

pectations about the future. The negative interpretation of cur- dicate a positive self-concept. A total score is calculated by sum-
rent experiences was assessed by the Cognition Checklist ming the ratings for 25 traits to reflect a positive overall self-
(CCL), a scale to measure the frequency of automatic thoughts concept. Consequently, the total scores may range from 25 to
about one's current life experiences associated specifically with 125. It takes approximately 10 min for respondents to complete
anxiety or depression (Beck, Brown, Steer, Eidelson, & Riskind, the self-administered BST.
1987). The 25 traits composing the BST cover a broad spectrum of
Beginning in 1960, Beck and his associates (Beck, 1967; Beck characteristics representing personality, abilities, aptitudes, and
& Stein, 1961) began pilot-testing a self-report instrument de- virtues or vices. They include (1) looks, (2) knowledge, (3)
signed to assess self-concepts. The Beck Self-Concept Test greed, (4) telling jokes, (5) intelligence, (6) popular, (7) tidy, (8)
(BST) possesses the systematic developmental history that Wy- successful, (9) memory, (10) sex appeal, (11) kind, (12) person-
lie (1974) reported as deficient in most other self-concept mea- ality, (13) lazy, (14) athletic, (15) selfish, (16) reading ability,
sures; the BST was specifically designed to evaluate the negative (17) appearance, (18) good natured, (19) independent, (20) fin-
view of self that Beck (1963) observed in depressed patients and ishing things, (21) self-conscious, (22) learning things, (23) jeal-
later described more fully in his cognitive model of psychopa- ous, (24) working hard, and (25) cruel.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

thology(Beck, 1967, 1976).


This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

Although it might be argued that to elicit consistent re-


sponses the BST items should all represent the same part of
Development speech (e.g., all adjectives), the specific wording of the items
reflected speech variations (e.g., nouns, adjectives, and phrases)
The development of the original version of the BST in 1960 actually expressed by patients. Evidence for the BST's high in-
was described by Beck and Stein (1961). A series of characteris- ternal consistency (reported here later) indicates that the gram-
tics was selected as representative of those that psychiatric pa- matical variations in the item set consistently tapped the in-
tients considered important aspects of their own personalities. tended self-concept construct.
The initial set of self-descriptive words was systematically ad-
ministered to randomly drawn samples of psychiatric outpa- Method
tients and inpatients. Ultimately, a set of 25 items that patients
Several cohorts of patients have been used in studying the psychomet-
consistently endorsed was selected. In 1978, one item was re- ric properties of the BST over the past 28 years. This article focuses on
written for clarity, and the resulting version of the BST has been the three primary samples drawn to investigate the 1978 version of the
used at CCT since then. The instrument was designed so that reliability and validity of the BST.
high scores would reflect a positive self-concept. DSM-1I sample. The first sample that was systematically studied
In a preliminary study, Beck (1967) reported that in a sample was composed of 198 outpatients evaluated at the CCT between 1978
of 25 psychiatric inpatients and outpatients, BST scores were and 1979. There were 79 men (39.9%) and 119 women (60.1%). The
negatively correlated, r(23) = —.66, with depression as mea- racial composition was 93.4% White (n = 185) and 6.6% Black (n= 13).
The mean age was 38.22 years (SD - 12.73), and the mean educational
sured by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward,
attainment was 15.14 years (SD = 2.78). The patients' diagnoses, using
Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961).
the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders (DSM-II; American Psychiatric Association, 1975), were
Description made after conducting structured clinical interviews, but no reliability
studies were conducted concerning the diagnoses. The modal DSM-I1
The BST's standards of comparison are other people whom diagnosis was depressive neurosis (54.3%). This sample was primarily
the respondent knows. Beck assumed that if patients were asked used in testing the short-term stability and construct validity of the BST.
to make concrete comparisons of themselves with other people, DSM-III sample. A cohort of 110 patients admitted to the CCT
they would be less prone to make extremely negative judgments during 1982 and diagnosed according to DSM-III criteria (American
of themselves when depressed. Consequently, they would pro- Psychiatric Association, 1980) was used for testing the concurrent valid-
ity of the BST. It was composed of 48 men (43.6%) and 62 women
vide more stable ratings of their self-concepts. Respondents are
(56.4%). There were 105 Whites (95.5%) and 5 Blacks (4.5%). The mean
instructed to describe themselves on 25 traits in relation to
age was 35.79 years (SD = 13.45), and the mean educational attainment
other people by circling one of the five phrases beside each char-
was 14.56 years (SD = 1.27). Structured clinical interviews were used
acteristic that most accurately describes themselves. It repre- to determine the diagnoses, but no reliability studies were conducted
sents the type of self-concept scale that Wylie (1974) classified concerning these diagnoses. The majority of the diagnoses reflected
as assessing overall self-regard. affective disorders.
For 16 of the items, a 5-point scale representing decreasing DSM-IH-R sample. Most of the statistical analyses presented in this
degrees of the characteristics is used, whereas for 9 items a 5- article focus on a cohort of 550 outpatients evaluated at the CCT be-
point scale indicating increasing degrees of the characteristic is tween 1986 and June 1988. The majority of these patients were diag-
used. An example of the former is the response scale for telling nosed with DSM-HI-R (American Psychiatric Association, 1987) psy-
chiatric disorders, according to the Structured Clinical Interview for
jokes, which asks the respondent to indicate whether he or she
DSM-III-R (SC1D-OP; Spitzer, Williams, & Gibbon, 1987), but some
is (1) better than nearly anyone I know, (2) better than most
of the 1986 admissions were diagnosed according to the Structured
people I know, (3) about the same as most people, (4) worse than Clinical Interview for DSM-III (SCID; Spitzer & Williams, 1985).
most people I know, or (5) worse than nearly anyone I know. There were 315 women (57.3%) and 235 men (42.7%). The racial com-
Weights from 1 to 5 are assigned to the phrases to represent position was 93.3% White (» = 513), 4.9% Black (n = 27), and 1.8%
increasing ordinal gradations of a positive self-concept and are Asian (« = 10). The mean age was 36.78 years (SO = 10.0), and the
reversed where appropriate, so that high ratings consistently in- mean educational attainment was 14.51 years (SD = 1.23).
BECK SELF-CONCEPT TEST 193

Starting in the 1980s, the CCT became increasingly involved in devel- Table 1
oping innovative cognitive approaches for the treatment of anxiety dis- Means, Standard Deviations, and Corrected Item-Total
orders, especially panic disorder (Beck & Emery, 1985). Therefore, al- Correlations of Beck Self-Concept Test
though the CCT continued to attract a majority of patients with mood
disorders, as it had during the 1970s, it also attracted more patients with Item M SD
anxiety disorders. In the DSM-II1-R sample, there were 254 (46.2%)
primary mood disorders (225 depressive and 29 bipolar depressives); Looks 3.13 0.69 .35
247 (44.9%) primary anxiety disorders (116 panic, 57 generalized anxi- Knowledge 3.29 0.84 .42
ety, 28 social phobias, 18 obsessive-compulsive, 8 simple phobia, and 2 Greed 3.50 0.80 .17
Tellingjokes 2.55 1.00 .20
nonpanic agoraphobia); and 49 (8.9%) other disorders. The other cate-
Intelligence 3.41 0.77 .43
gory included 5 substance abusers and 26 patients with adjustment dis- Popular 2.78 0.86 .45
orders. A study of the reliabilities of these SClD-derived diagnoses, Tidy 2.99 0.96 .25
based on 75 patients drawn from this sample, is described by Riskind, Successful 2.71 0.94 .47
Beck, Berchick, Brown, and Steer (1987). The interrater kappas for the Memory 2.95 0.95 .41
major depression and generalized anxiety disorders were .72 and .79, Sex appeal 2.81 0.79 .43
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

respectively. Kind 3.63 0.68 .37


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Personality 3.06 0.85 .54


Lazy 3.03 0.95 .48
Results Athletic 2.84 0.95 .24
Selfish 3.28 0.88 .31
Reliability Reading ability 3.26 0.84 .31
Appearance 3.16 0.69 .50
Internal consistency. Table 1 presents the means, standard Good-natured 3.22 0.86 .44
deviations, and corrected item-total correlations of the 25 BST Independent 2.89 1.08 .28
items for the 550 patients in the DSM-III-R sample. Because Finishing things 2.79 0.93 .42
Self-conscious 2.11 0.81 .25
25 correlations were calculated, and the chances of making a
Learning things 3.27 0.82 .45
Type I error were thus increased, a Bonferroni adjustment was Jealous 2.89 0.91 .26
used by dividing the alpha levels by 25. As Table 1 indicates, all Working hard 3.30 0.91 .41
of the corrected item-total correlations were significant beyond Cruel 3.88 0.83 .24
the .01 level, one-tailed test, even after applying the Bonferroni
Note. N = 550. All of the corrected item-total correlations (r^J were
adjustment. Nevertheless, the magnitudes of the corrected
significant beyond the .01 level, one-tailed test, after using a Bonferroni
item-total correlations were low (<.55) and might reflect un- adjustment (alpha/25).
derestimates (lower limits) produced by constrictions in the
ranges of the ratings because the sample represented individuals
who were predominantly depressed, or anxious, or both. The Concurrent Validity
coefficient alpha was .82, indicating satisfactory internal consis-
tency. To test the concurrent validity of the BST, the DSM-HI sam-
The BST total score for the entire DSM-III-R sample was ple completed the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSE) (Rosen-
76.71 (SD = 9.47) and ranged from 35 to 101. The DSM-IU- berg, 1965), one of the most widely used scales for measuring
R sample's mean BST total score indicates that they had rated self-esteem (Demo, 1985; Wylie, 1974), as well as the BST. The

themselves with the 5-point scale as being about the same as correlation between the BST and the RSE for the 110 DSM-III
most people they knew on the specified dimensions. The score patients was .51 (df= 108, p < .001). The mean BST and RSE
frequencies were approximately normally distributed (Shapiro- scores for the DSM-III patients were 79.39 (SD = 8.95) and
Wilk statistic = .98, p > .05) with a skewness of —.41 and a 24.18 (SO = 4.83), respectively.
kurtosisof.59. Significant negative correlations were found between the
Stability. The stability of the BST over time was first esti- BST and the self-dislike item (7) from the Revised BDI (Beck
mated in the DSM-II sample, with 50 patients who were re- & Steer, 1987), r(108) = -.35, and between the BST and worth-
tested 1 week after their initial evaluation at the CCT. There lessness rating (24) from the 24-item version of the Hamilton
were 24 women (48.0%); the mean age for the 50 patients was Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD; Hamilton,
35.52 years (SD = 11.07). The correlation between the initial 1960; Guy, 1976), r( 108) = -.34, within the DSM-III-R sam-
evaluation and the 1-week posttest BST total scores was .88 ple (both ps < .001). Thus, as predicted, the BST was inversely
(df= 48, p < .001). Subsequently, the long-term stability of the related to self-reported self-dislike and clinically rated worth-
BST over a 3-month interval was studied in 24 of the DSM- lessness.
III-R patients evaluated before and after receiving cognitive
Construct Validity
therapy. The mean pretherapy BST total score was 74.75 (SD =
8.75), and the 3-month BST total score was 79.08 (SD = 9.43). Convergent and discriminant. Table 2 presents correlations
Although the mean difference of 4.33 indicated significant im- of the BST with a number of scales assessing aspects of psycho-
provement in the self-concept, ((22) = 2.78, p < .05, the correla- pathology, intellectual ability, and positive functioning. Because
tion between the pre- and posttest BST scores was .65 (df= 22, low self-esteem has repeatedly been found to be related to nega-
p < .001), indicating that the BST was measuring a relatively tive affect and psychopathology (Ingham et al., 1986), it was hy-
enduring characteristic of individuals and not exclusively mea- pothesized that the BST scores would be (a) negatively related
suring a transient psychological state. to scores or measures of psychopathology, (b) not correlated
194 BECK, STEER, EPSTEIN, AND BROWN

Table 2
Correlations of Beck Self Concept Test With Other Instruments

Instrument r df

DSM-III-R sample
Beck Depression Inventory -.38*** 548
BDI Self-dislike item -.35*** 548
Beck Anxiety Inventory -.08 505
Beck Hopelessness Scale -.41*** 548
Cognition Check List
Depression -.50*** 529
Anxiety -.19** 529
Scale for Suicide Ideation -.15** 526
Dysfunctional Attitude Scale -.21*** 539
Clarke-WAIS -.04 548
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Revised Hamilton Psychiatric


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Rating Scale for Depression -.34*** 548


Hamilton Worthlessness item -.34"* 548
Revised Hamilton Psychiatric
Rating Scale for Anxiety -.04 548

DSM-II sample
MMP1 scales
L .10 178
F -.42*** 178
K .01 178
Hypochondnasis -.17 178
Depression -.46*" 178
Hysteria -.11 178
Psychopathic Deviate -.27" 178
Masculinity and Femininity -.16 178
Paranoia -.25* 178
Psychasthenia -.51*** 178
Schizophrenia -.38"* 178
Hypomania .21 178
Social Introversion -.55*" 178
Ego Strength .33"* 178

SCL-90 scales
Somatization -.14 186
Obsessive-Compulsive -.30*** 187
Interpersonal Sensitivity -.42*** 187
Depression -.28** 184
Anxiety -.28** 185
Hostility -.10 190
Phobic Anxiety -.32"* 188
Paranoid Ideation -.07 190
Psychoticism .24* 178

Note. Levels of significance were adjusted using the Bonferroni method. DSM = Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (III-R = third edition revised; // = second edition); BDI = Beck Depression
Inventory; WAIS = Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale; MMPI = Minnesota Multiphastc Personality Inven-
tory; SCL-90 = Symptoms Check List-90.
*p<.05. "p<.01. *"p<.001.

with measures of nonpsychopathological constructs, such as vo- (DAS; Weissman, 1979; a measure of basic dysfunctional be-
cabulary knowledge, and (c) positively correlated with mea- liefs, such as perfectionism), the Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI;
sures of positive functioning. The scales administered to the Beck, Kovacs, & Weissman, 1979), the revised Hamilton Psy-
DSM-H sample were the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality chiatric Rating Scales for Depression (HRSD-R) and Anxiety
Inventory (MMPI; Hathaway & McKinley, 1983), including (HARS-R; Hamilton, 1959, 1960; Riskind, Beck, Brown, &
Barren's (1953) Ego Strength Scale, and the Symptom Steer, 1987), and the Clarke-Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale
Checklist-90 (SCL-90; Derogatis, Lipman, & Covi, 1973). The (WAIS) Vocabulary Test (Clarke-WAIS; Paitich & Crawford,
DSM-III-R sample completed the BST, the BDI, the Beck 1976).
Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988), The overall pattern of relations between the BST and the
the BHS, the Cognition Checklist's Depression (CCL-D) and other instruments for the DSM-III-R sample was generally as
Anxiety (CCL-A) subscales, the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale predicted. Because 12 correlations were calculated for this sam-
BECK SELF-CONCEPT TEST 195

pie, Bonferroni adjustments were derived by dividing the .05, the BDI beyond the .001 level. The incremental variance ex-
.01, and .001 alpha levels in a two-tailed test by 12. Therefore, plained by the BST over that added by the BHS (29%) was 14%.
for a correlation to be significant beyond the .OS level, it would The ability of the BST to predict eventual suicide in psychiat-
have to be significant beyond the .004 level. Despite such an ric outpatients was also tested. From a cohort of 1,683 consecu-
adjustment, the BST was significantly and negatively related to tive outpatients evaluated at the CCT from September 1978
the BDI, HRSD-R, BHS, DAS, CCL-D, and SSI. Because the through December 1983 for whom BSTs were available, 15 per-
self-dislike item in the BDI and the worthlessness item in the sons eventually committed suicide. The mean BST scores for
HRSD-R measure aspects that would spuriously inflate the the IS suiciders and 1,668 nonsuiciders were 68.47 (SD =
magnitudes of the relations of these instruments with the BST, 13.42) and 76.26 (SD = 9.63), respectively. Using an unequal-
separate correlations of the BST with the HRSD-R and BDI variance l test for independence, the t( 14) statistic for the mean
were also calculated without including these items in these in- difference between the suiciders and nonsuiciders was 2.24 (p <
struments' respective total scores. Again, the correlations of the .05, one-tailed test). The suiciders described less positive self-
BST with the BDI, r(548) = -.37, and HRSD-R, r(548) = concepts than the nonsuiciders did. Furthermore, using a BST
-.32, were significant beyond the .001 level in a two-tailed test. cutoff score of 78 or less to divide the sample according to high
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This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.

The CCL-A was also significantly and negatively related to or low self-concept, 14 out of the 15 suiciders had BST scores
the BST but less so than the BDI and CCL-D were. This is con- less than or equal to 78, whereas 960 out of the 1,668 nonsuicid-
sistent with Beck's (1967,1976) conceptualization of the nega- ers had BST scores less than or equal to 78. The BST's sensitiv-
tive cognitive triad in which a low self-concept is more charac- ity and specificity rates were thus 93.3% and 42.4%, respec-
teristic of depression than of other diagnostic groups. As pre- tively.
dicted, the Clarke-WAIS was not significantly correlated with Component structure. A principal-components analysis was
the BST. performed with the intercorrelations among the 25 BST items
Table 2 shows the correlations, based on the DSM-II sample, in the DSM-III-R sample (Beck, Steer, & Epstein, 1989).
of the BST with scales from the MMPI (to which AT corrections Seven self-concept dimensions were identified, representing (a)
were added) and the SCL-90. Again, a Bonferroni adjustment Intellectual Ability, (b) Work Efficacy, (c) Physical Attractive-
was applied to this sample's alpha levels by dividing them by ness, (d) Social Skills, (e) Vices and Virtues, (f) Effectiveness,
23. The MMPI F, Depression (0), Psychopathic Deviate (Pd), and (g) Self-Doubt. Only Social Skills had five items saliently
Paranoia (Pa), Psychasthenia (Pt), Schizophrenia (Sc), and So- (>.40) loading on it and suggested potential generalizability.
cial Introversion (Si) scales were negatively related to the BST, However, this component explained less than 8% of the total
whereas the MMPI Ego Strength (Es) scale was positively asso- variance and was considered not to reflect a regnant self-con-
ciated with the BST. Again, the majority of the MMPI clinical cept dimension. Thus, Beck et al. (1989) concluded that the
scales were correlated with the BST in the hypothesized direc- BST should be scored as a unidimensional scale.
tions; psychopathology was negatively related to a positive self-
concept and positively associated with ego functioning. The
Cognitive Specificity
mean BST score for 198 patients in the DSM-II sample was
74.87 (SD = 9.03). Beck's thesis (1967, 1976) about cognitive specificity of psy-
Six of the nine SCL-90 clinical scales assessing symptoms of chiatric disorders was evaluated by testing whether the measure
psychopathology were negatively associated with the BST as of low self-concept, assumed to be a specific characteristic of
predicted, and the SCL-90 Somatization, Hostility, and Para- depression, differentiated individuals with this disorder from
noid scales were not significantly related to the BST (Table 2). normal subjects and patients with other psychiatric conditions.
The SCL-90 Depression and Anxiety scales' correlations with Although the BST's psychometric properties have not been
the BST were comparable in the DSM-II sample. In contrast, thoroughly studied in normal adult populations, Wright (1986)
depression, as measured by the BDI and HRSD-R, was related indicated that the mean BST score of 42 depressed patients
to the BST in the DSM-III-R sample, whereas anxiety, as mea- (M = 70.7, SD = 11.9) was lower than that of 19 normal adults
sured by the BAI and HARS-R, was not related to the BST. (M = 82.8, SD = 6.9), f(59) - 4.7, p < .001. As expected from
This difference in results may be because the SCL-90 Depres- Beck's (1976) cognitive model of psychopathology, the de-
sion and Anxiety scales were derived from an oblique factor pressed patients described more negative self-concepts than did
analysis and are highly correlated with each other (Derogatis the normal adults.
et al., 1973), whereas the HRSD-R, HARS-R, and BAI were In the DSM-III-R sample, the correlation with age was .14
especially developed to differentiate depression and anxiety. (p < .001). The mean BST total scores for the 315 women was
The latter instruments thus produce relatively unconfounded 75.97 (SD = 9.35) and for the 235 men was 77.70 (SD = 9.56),
assessments of depression and anxiety, which the SCL-90 does r(548) = 2.12, p < .05). Although these associations represented
not produce. small amounts of shared variance, it was considered important
To estimate whether the BST contributed unique variance to to control for both sex and age in determining whether the BST
the explanation of self-reported depression as measured by the discriminated patients with different DSM-III-R diagnoses.
BDI, we performed a multiple regression analysis in which the A multiple regression analysis of the BST by three broad
BST and BHS were simultaneously regressed on the BDI, con- types of DSM-III-R disorders (affective, anxiety, and other)
trolling for each other's effects, «2 = .43, F(2, 547) = 209.62, was conducted, controlling for sex and age. The variables were
;><.001. The BST, f{ 1,547)= 14.64, and the BHS, f* 1,547) - entered into the regression in a stepwise manner, with sex being
282.31, both contributed unique variance to the explanation of entered first, F(l, 545) = 4.77, p < .05, followed by age, F(l,
196 BECK, STEER, EPSTEIN, AND BROWN

545) = 10.31, p < .01, and then type of disorder, F(2, 545) = ity studies maximize the possibility that the present samples
11.41, p < .001. On the basis of Beck's (1967, 1976) negative will be comparable to other patient samples diagnosed with
cognitive triad, it was hypothesized that the self-concept level similar disorders on the basis of the use of the SC1D at other
of the patients with DSM-III-R depressive disorders would be treatment and research centers.
lower than the self-concept levels of patients with other DSM- In summary, the BST has displayed sufficient validity and re-
III-R disorders. The BST did differentiate the disorders, even liability to suggest that it is potentially useful for clinical re-
after controlling for sex and age. The mean BST total scores for search and practice. However, its usefulness in clinical assess-
the 254 affective, 247 anxiety, and 49 other outpatients were ment and prediction still requires more research. In terms of
74.78 (SD = 10.16), 78.14 (SD = 8.80), and 79.53 (SD = 6.81), theory, the BST fills the gap concerning previous instruments
respectively. Bonferroni comparisons indicated that patients that have been developed to measure aspects of Beck's (1976)
with primary mood disorders described less positive self-con- cognitive model of psychopathology and affords another instru-
cepts than either the patients with anxiety or other psychiatric ment for other self-concept researchers, such as Ingham et al.
disorders did (p < .001). The mean self-concept levels of the (1986) and Robson (1988), who view the self-concept as an im-
patients with anxiety and other psychiatric disorders were com- portant variable for determining an individual's vulnerability
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

parable.
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for developing psychiatric disorders. Because the BST is related


The mean BST scores for specific DSM-III-R anxiety and to suicidal ideation as well as eventual suicide, this instrument,
mood disorders for which 30 or more patients had been diag- along with the BHS, may have clinical usefulness as an indicator
nosed were 76.35 (SD = 9.62) for 57 generalized anxiety pa- of suicidal risk in psychiatric outpatients. Such a self-concept
tients, 78.38 (SD = 7.75) for 45 agoraphobia patients with instrument is particularly useful for therapists who are inter-
panic, 80.13 (SD = 8.99) for 71 panic patients, 76.00 (SD = ested in addressing specific cognitive aspects of their patients'
9.42) for 52 single-episode major depression patients, 74.77 problems. Finally, this instrument may be used to test the possi-
(SD - 9.71) for 130 recurrent-episode major depression pa- ble relation of negative self-concept to a variety of problems,
tients, and 71.57 (SD = 10.74) for 35 dysthmic disorder pa- such as academic difficulties, delinquency, and job failure.
tients. When we controlled for sex and age in this reduced sam-
ple of 390 patients, the BST differentiated the disorders, f{5,
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