Biomedical subjects

A T Beck

Publications and source records attributed to A T Beck.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

PubMed1995

Psychometric characteristics of revised Sociotropy and Autonomy Scales in college students.

Beck, Epstein, Harrison and Emery (unpublished manuscript, 1983) developed the Sociotropy-Autonomy Scale (SAS) to assess personality constructs that were considered possible vulnerability factors to reactive depression. Principal components and factor analyses of an expanded 93-item version of the SAS were performed with successive samples of undergraduates totalling 2041 Ss. Only 59 items were needed to establish the generalizabilities of one dimension of Sociotropy and two dimensions of Autonomy. Three subscales reflecting Sociotropy, Solitude and Independence were constructed from these items. The convergent and discriminant validities of the three subscales were assessed with respect to a variety of other psychological tests. The overall pattern of relationships indicated that Solitude was positively correlated with dysphoria, perfectionism, self-criticalness, and loneliness. In contrast, Independence was positively correlated with perfectionism and self-efficacy, but inversely related to concern about approval from others. Sociotropy was correlated with dependency, self criticalness, and affiliation motivation. The findings supported the construct validity of the three revised SAS subscales.

Adjustment Disorders↗

PubMed1995

Perspectives on depressive realism: implications for cognitive theory of depression.

Beck's cognitive theory of depression has provided a successful description of depressive thinking, with one major exception. The hypothesis that depressed people show biased negative thinking seems contradicted by research indicating that Ss scoring 9 or above on the Beck Depression Inventory were more accurate than their nondepressed counterparts in judging contingencies between their responses and outcomes, seemingly showing "depressive realism". Depressive realism research has attracted attention in numerous areas of psychology, along with critical commentary focused on such issues as whether realism is limited to mild depressive states, whether laboratory tasks are sufficient to document realism, and whether realism is a general characteristic of either depressed or nondepressed people. We analyze the main critiques and show how debates about depressive realism can be heuristic for refinement of cognitive theory of depression.

Attention↗

PubMed1995

Common and specific dimensions of self-reported anxiety and depression: a replication.

To investigate the generalizability of D. A. Clark, R. A. Steer, and A. T. Beck's (1994) findings about the common and specific dimensions of self-reported anxiety and depression, the authors administered the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories to 1,000 outpatients diagnosed with various types of psychiatric disorders. Iterated principal-factor analyses with oblique rotation, followed by a Schmid-Leiman transformation, indicated that the amounts of extracted variance and symptom compositions of the resultant factors were comparable to those found in the previous study. The results from both studies are discussed as supporting the tripartite (L. A. Clark & D. Watson, 1991) and cognitive-specificity (A. T. Beck, 1976, 1987) models of anxiety and depression.

Adult↗

PubMed1995

Use of the Beck Anxiety Inventory with adolescent psychiatric outpatients.

The Beck Anxiety Inventory was administered to 105 outpatients between 13 and 17 years old who were diagnosed with various types of psychiatric disorders. A principal factor analysis was performed, and two factors were found representing subjective and somatic symptoms of anxiety. The item compositions of these factors were comparable to those previously described for adolescent inpatients. The results are discussed as supporting the use of the inventory for evaluating self-reported anxiety in outpatient adolescents.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Differentiating major depression and panic disorders by self-report and clinical rating scales: ROC analysis and information theory.

The revised Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, the Cognition Checklist Depression and Anxiety subscales, revised Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD-R), and the revised Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale were administered to 92 outpatients diagnosed only with major depression disorders and 50 outpatients diagnosed only with panic disorders. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used to evaluate each instrument's ability to discriminate the two diagnostic groups. The optimum cut-off score for each scale was determined as a function of prevalence by maximizing information gain. The results indicated that the depression scales were better than the anxiety scales in discriminating the two groups. The HRSD-R was superior to the other depression scales, whereas all the anxiety scales displayed similar discriminating power.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Cognitive therapy of delusional beliefs.

The present article articulates a cognitive theoretical perspective of delusional beliefs. In contrast to the focus of psychoanalytic therapy (theoretically-derived phenomena beyond personal awareness), the cognitive therapist focuses primarily on the conscious cognitive-experiential level in the treatment of delusional beliefs, thereby emphasizing a 'common-sense' level of analysis or reasoning shared by the delusional patient. Unlike noncognitive behavioral approaches, which focus on topographical 'verbal behavior' as such, cognitive therapy directly targets specific delusional beliefs which theoretically give rise to the disordered verbal behavior. In this article, the adaptation of cognitive therapy to the treatment of delusions is described, with special attention to the following issues: special problems in collaboration; difficulties in obtaining conviction ratings; how to avoid and reduce confrontation through the Socratic method; the collaborative design of homework experiments; distancing strategies; interpersonal relationship issues; and the necessity to identify and explore the emotions associated with the various delusions, especially feelings about the possibility that the delusions may be incorrect.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Prevalence of personality disorders among patients with anxiety disorders.

Outpatients with a principal diagnosis of an anxiety disorder (n = 347) were administered the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-III-R/Axis II Disorders (SCID-II) during their intake evaluation. At least one personality disorder was found in 35% of these patients. Patients with social phobia (61%) and generalized anxiety disorder (49%) were most often diagnosed with a personality disorder. Patients with simple phobia were rarely diagnosed with a personality disorder (12%). The most commonly diagnosed personality disorders were from the "anxious/fearful" cluster (27% received at least one diagnosis from cluster C), most notably avoidant and obsessive-compulsive personality. Our findings suggest that personality disorders, in general, are less prevalent among anxious patients than among depressive patients.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Subtyping major depression: a taxometric analysis.

Taxometric procedures were used to test claims for the content and latent structure of 5 proposed subtypes of major depression: an endogenous form, sociotropic and autonomous forms proposed by A. Beck (1983), a self-critical form proposed by S. J. Blatt (e.g., S. J. Blatt & E. Homann, 1992), and a hopelessness form proposed by L. Y. Abramson, G. I. Metalsky, and L. B. Alloy (1989). Analysis of self-reported symptom and personality profiles of 531 consecutively admitted outpatients with a primary major depressive diagnosis sought to determine whether the clinical features proposed by the respective accounts systematically covary; which features are central to the respective latent structures; and whether these structures are discrete or continuous. Clear evidence for discreteness was found only for the endogenous subtype. The other proposed forms lacked internal coherence or were more consistent with a continuous or dimensional account.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1994

Symptom differences in major depression, dysthymia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder.

OBJECTIVE: The authors compared symptom features of specific subtypes of depressive and anxiety disorders. METHODS: Psychiatric outpatients with moderate levels of psychopathology and DSM-III diagnoses of major depression, dysthymia, panic disorder, or generalized anxiety disorder were given five standard measures of symptoms of anxiety and depressive disorders. Most of the outpatients were white, and most were middle-class. RESULTS: Principal components analysis revealed 12 orthogonal symptom components. Discriminant function analysis indicated that anxiety was distinguished by specific autonomic arousal symptoms, threat-related cognitions, and subjective anxiety and tension. Discriminant function analysis also indicated that depression was distinguished by anhedonia, cognitions of personal loss and failure, and dysphoric mood. CONCLUSIONS: As nosological categories, major depression and panic disorder were better differentiated by specific symptom markers than dysthymia and generalized anxiety disorder.

Adult↗

PubMed1994

Common and specific dimensions of self-reported anxiety and depression: implications for the cognitive and tripartite models.

The common and specific symptom dimensions of anxiety and depression proposed by the tripartite (L.A. Clark & D. Watson, 1991 c) and cognitive (A.T. Beck, 1976, 1987) models were investigated in 844 psychiatric outpatients and 420 undergraduates. Principal-factor analyses with oblique rotations performed on the 42 items of the Beck Depression Inventory and Beck Anxiety Inventory for both samples revealed that there were 2 correlated factors. Depression and Anxiety. Second-order factor analyses of the interfactor correlation matrices indicated a large general distress or negative affect factor underlying the relationship between the 2 first-order factors. Specific depression and anxiety dimensions were apparent even after we controlled for negative affect. The results were consistent with both the tripartite and cognitive models, with the cognitive and motivational symptoms specific to depression and the physiological arousal symptoms unique to anxiety.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Classification of suicidal and nonsuicidal outpatients: a cluster-analytic approach.

The revised Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Hopelessness Scale (BHS), Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI) were administered to 1,172 outpatients diagnosed with mixed psychiatric disorders. The SSI then was used to classify the patients into 127 (10.8%) suicide ideators and 1,045 (89.2%) nonideators. Both agglomerative-hierarchical and nonhierarchical cluster analyses then were employed to identify three types of nonideators, who represented anxious depressed, hopeless depressed, and below-average overall symptomatology, and four types of ideators, who reflected hopeless, anxious depressed, severely suicidal, and below-average overall symptomatology. Implications of these classification systems for describing psychopathology were discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Dimensions of suicidal ideation in psychiatric inpatients.

The computer-assisted version of the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSI; Beck, Steer & Ranieri, Journal of Clinical Psychology, 44, 499-505, 1988) was administered to 330 psychiatric inpatients diagnosed with mixed disorders. The BSI is a 19-item self-report instrument for measuring the intensity, duration and specificity of a patient's thoughts and plans about committing suicide. Of the 330 inpatients, 115 (34.8%) were classified as suicide ideators according to the BSI. Controlling for gender, a maximum-likelihood principal factor analysis of the partial intercorrelation matrix among the ideators' BSI items was conducted using an oblique rotation. Three factors were found that reflected Desire for Death, Preparation for Suicide and Active Suicidal Desire. The importance of assessing specific factors of suicidal ideation was discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Cognitive therapy: past, present, and future.

Proponents of cognitive therapy have striven to establish this approach as a mature system of psychotherapy for over 3 decades. The theoretical formulations have been enriched by clinical extrapolations from the neopsychoanalysts and experimental findings from cognitive psychology. The therapeutic strategies and techniques have been refined as a result of interaction with behavior therapy, which also influenced the emphasis on empirical testing of the theoretical formulations and the therapeutic applications. Outcome trials have demonstrated efficacy in a number of common disorders. New emphasis on the crucial importance of specific formulations (especially dysfunctional beliefs) has provided important clues to the treatment of a large number of other disorders. I conclude that cognitive therapy has fulfilled the criteria of a system of psychotherapy by providing a coherent, testable theory of personality, psychopathology, and therapeutic change; a teachable, testable set of therapeutic principles, strategies, and techniques that articulate with the theory; and a body of clinical and empirical data that support the theory and the efficacy of the theory.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy↗

PubMed1993

Self-reported suicidal ideation in adolescent psychiatric inpatients.

In an investigation of the psychosocial correlates of suicidal ideation in adolescent inpatients, the Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSI) was administered to 108 inpatients between 12 and 17 years of age who were diagnosed with mixed psychiatric disorders. A series of multiple regression analyses that controlled for gender, ethnicity, age, diagnosis of a mood disorder, and a history of a past suicide attempt were then used to examine the relationships of the Beck Depression Inventory, Anxiety Inventory, and Hopelessness Scale (BHS) with the BSI. Regardless of the series, the BHS contributed unique variance to the explanation of the BSI scores. The results are discussed as supporting the use of the BSI with adolescent inpatients and indicating that hopelessness is related to suicidal ideation when depression is controlled for.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Categorization of major depression in an outpatient sample.

Intake Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) item scores of 400 outpatient major depressives were submitted to a categorization algorithm developed for artificial intelligence applications. The algorithm maximizes a function of "category utility" that is preferable in several respects to available clustering methods, and has demonstrated its capacity to locate the most informative, or "basic," level of categorization. The analysis yielded four syndromal subtypes: a common, general depressive type; a common and relatively severe melancholic type; an infrequent type characterized by self-critical features, generalized anxiety, and an absence of melancholic features; and an infrequent, mild type distinguished by enervation and anhedonic features. Implications for the classification of depression are discussed.

Affective Symptoms↗

PubMed1993

Structure of the computer-assisted Beck Anxiety Inventory with psychiatric inpatients.

To determine the dimensions of self-reported anxiety in psychiatric inpatients, the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck & Steer, 1990) was administered by computer to 250 inpatients diagnosed with mixed disorders. An iterated principal-factor analysis was performed on the intercorrelations among the 21 BAI items using a Promax rotation. Two factors were found representing somatic and subjective symptoms of anxiety. These dimensions significantly matched those previously described by Beck, Epstein, Brown, and Steer (1988) for outpatients diagnosed with mixed psychiatric disorders. The generalizability of the somatic and subjective dimensions for inpatients and outpatients is discussed.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Hopelessness in adolescent psychiatric inpatients.

To study hopelessness in adolescent inpatients, we administered the Beck Hopelessness Scale to 108 inpatients between 12 and 17 years old who were diagnosed with mixed psychiatric disorders. Moderate to severe pessimism about the future was described by 42.6%. A principal components analysis of the correlations among the scale's 20 items was conducted, and three components reflecting rejection of the possibility of a hopeful future, acceptance of the inevitability of a hopeless future, and resignation to the futility of changing the future were identified. These dimensions were comparable to those previously reported for adults, and the usefulness of the scale for evaluating hopelessness in adolescent inpatients was discussed.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

Cognitive therapy of substance abuse: theoretical rationale.

In this chapter, the authors assert that drug-related beliefs are an important factor in drug abuse and its treatment. Three types of acute drug-related beliefs have been described that contribute to urges, cravings, and ultimate use of drugs: anticipatory beliefs, relief-oriented beliefs, and permissive beliefs, and various ways have been described to assess more general, long-term beliefs pertinent to drug use. The role of the cognitive therapist is to assess, examine, and test these beliefs with the patient in order to ultimately develop more adaptive beliefs. The active application of skills and homework that tap into the patient's adaptive beliefs helps the patient to become and remain drug-free.

Adaptation, Psychological↗