Psychological Measures - Article Example

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is frequently used to measure depression levels in an individual. Depression is a mental illness that greatly reduces the quality of life of a person when it is severe. Depression creates feelings of anxiety, passiveness, and causes a person to enjoy their lives less than they would if they were not depressed. The Beck Depression Inventory is a scale composed of 21 measures to analyze how depressed a person is. Originally, it was used to diagnose mental hospital patients in a psychiatric facility, however many other environments use it to determine a person's level of depression or if they have depression at all.

A person can be diagnosed properly once a Beck Depression Inventory has been administered. The score ranges from 0 - 63 because 21 measures of behaviour are either at a level of 0 (never), 1, 2 or 3 (frequently) allowing a concrete measure to establish whether an individual has depression or not. An analysis of the Beck Depression Inventory measure, the environment where a Beck Depression Inventory result will be most effective, and a description of who can determine a person's BDI are listed in the following paragraphs.

A Beck Depression Inventory scale asks four questions, each increasingly more representative of a depressive disorder diagnosis, in 21 different categories. The 21 items in a Beck Depression Inventory are feelings of sadness, frustration over the future, being a failure, anhedonia, guilt, deserving punishment, disappointment with self, self-blame, suicidal ideation, crying, irritability, losing interest in others, indecisiveness, physical appearance, ability to work, sleep problems, fatigue, appetite, weight loss, concerns about health, and sexual disinterest.

A measure of 17 is the cutoff point to the Beck Depression Inventory score. One article uses a sample of 16 grade 9 students and 16 grade 11 students to create an analysis that demonstrates a Beck Depression Analysis. Factors for these students include class, age, gender, social security, having a boyfriend or girlfriend, assessing one's own health, amount of tobacco and alcohol consumption, having a weapon while at school, violence and temper factors, being exposed to violence by family or friends, and chronic mental or physical illness.

This study determines the statistics surrounding young people and their depression status and demographics surrounding this topic. The environment that this inventory is usually needed is any institutional setting like a school or a hospital. The people that can administer the test are psychiatrists because they can diagnose and in turn treat depression. A psychotherapist, social worker, and psychologist can also refer a person to a psychiatrist. In a school or other institution that is not a hospital, the primary people in charge can provide consent to take the tests and can later refer a student to a psychiatrist.

In this particular study, the National Education Directorate of the province and school administration must provide written consent to the students that are going to be tested and the process that follows once a student is diagnosed with depression. If the severity is extreme, the National Education Directorate is going to need to ensure all confidentiality measures and the necessary processes to get treatment are completed. Any member of the classroom that was a risk to themselves or others, was taken to the Adolescent Psychological Consultancy Centre with the help of their guidance counsellor.

Places that the Beck Depression Inventory can be carried out include high school environments and places where depression rates are common. Places that require whether a diagnosis is important are also included. There are 21 items in total as previously mentioned and it is important that the people who administer the test, explain the questions clearly before the test is done. The article, "The Validity of Beck Depression Inventory and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression Items in the Assessment of Depression Among Patients with Multiple Sclerosis," discusses how this test can be used to measure depression for disabled people also.

A person who is disabled can definitely have depression even though the symptoms of depression are similar to the symptoms of many disabilities. Disability ties into depression because if one is disabled, it is easier for them to be depressed. Also an individual with a disability is more likely to have the test offered to them. In conclusion, the Beck Depression Inventory is a test that asks about 21 areas using four questions of varying levels to determine whether a person has no, mild, mid-level, or severe depression.

It is a common test and it provides very accurate results because it has been proven to measure whether medication is needed in the treatment of depression for many individuals. There are other tests that measure levels of depression in a person as well. Works Cited Moran, P. J., Mohr, D. C. (2004). The Validity of Beck Depression Inventory and Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression Items in the Assessment of Depression Among Patients with Multiple Sclerosis. Journal of Behavioural Medicine, 28(1), 35-41. Uner, S. (2008).

Assessment of Depression and Risk Factors using Beck Depression Inventory in Highschool Students. Erciyes Medical Journal, 30(4), 250-258.