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Home/Historical IQ Tests/Beck Depression Inventory
1961 · AARON T. BECK AND COLLEAGUES · 8 SOURCES

Depression, in the patient's own words.

A 21-item questionnaire that people fill in about themselves. Each item offers four or more statements of rising intensity, scored 0 to 3. It grew from Beck's view that negative thinking sits at the centre of depression.2,6

See how one item changed →Cite this page
ITEM 1 OF 21SELF-REPORT
0
1
2
3
Four statements of rising intensity, scored 0–3 (wording hidden)
This is history, not a self-test.This page doesn't reproduce the inventory and can't assess you. If you're struggling or thinking about suicide, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line.

From the analyst's view to the patient's thoughts

BEFOREPsychodynamic

Most clinicians viewed depression through a psychodynamic, Freudian lens.6,8

BECK, 1961Cognitive

The inventory focused on the symptoms patients themselves described, including some that had been largely overlooked, such as loss of interest in sex. Beck argued that negative thoughts and beliefs about oneself can help cause depression, not just result from it.8,2

The original paper was An inventory for measuring depression by Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock and Erbaugh (1961).8 Its items cover negative thinking, low self-esteem and suicidal thoughts, as well as bodily symptoms such as poor sleep, appetite changes and fatigue.4

EXPLORE · ONE ITEM ACROSS THREE EDITIONS

What changed between 1961, 1978 and 1996

Switch between editions to see how the answer choices and the time window changed. Only the two published example statements are quoted; the rest are shown as placeholders.

MOOD ITEM · BDI (1961)5 STATEMENTS
0Statement not quoted here
1Statement not quoted here
2a"I am blue or sad all the time and I can't snap out of it"
2b"I am so sad or unhappy that it is very painful"
3Statement not quoted here
In the original, some items had two statements with the same score, labelled "a" and "b".
TIME WINDOW · PAST WEEK
14 days agotoday
Sources conflict. One paper says the original asked about today only and dates the BDI-IA to 1971 with a one-week window.5 Most sources give 1978, with the window growing from one week to two.4,1

Six of nine: why the BDI-II came in 1996

The BDI-IA was easier to use, but it covered only six of the nine DSM-III symptom criteria for major depressive disorder. That gap, plus the arrival of the DSM-IV, led to the 1996 BDI-II.4

The BDI-II doesn't depend on any one theory of depression, has been translated into several languages, and is designed for people aged 13 and over.2,1

123456789
DSM-III criteria: filled = covered by the BDI-IA. Which six isn't stated in the source.

Two ways to measure depression, a year apart

The Hamilton scale of 1960 is rated by a clinician. Beck's inventory, a year later, is filled in by the patient.

Beck (BDI)Hamilton (HAM-D)
Who answersThe patient, in writing3A clinician, after an interviewItems21317 in the severity totalScoringEach item 0–3; higher totals mean more severe symptoms6Items 0–4 or 0–2TimeAbout 10 minutes; needs a 5th–6th grade reading level3About 20 minutesSeverity bands10–18 mild · 19–29 moderate · 30–63 severe10–7 normal; 20+ for trial entry

Hamilton column as documented on our HAM-D 1960 page.

Card, computer and child versions

1961Original BDI21 items about the past week.6
1969Card formA card version by May, Urquhart and Tarran.3
1978BDI-IAThe copyrighted revision without a/b statements.1
1979Children's Depression InventoryMaria Kovacs modelled the CDI on the BDI.1
1996BDI-IIRevised for the DSM-IV by Beck, Steer and Brown.3
LaterShort and screening formsA 13-item short form, computerised versions, and the BDI Fast Screen for primary care.3
Today it's also used as a screening gate. Some clinical-trial protocols exclude volunteers who score 20 or more on the BDI-II, or who report any current suicidal ideation on item 9.7

References

  1. [1]Wikipedia contributors. Beck Depression Inventory (accessed 30 Sept 2026).en.wikipedia.org
  2. [2]Beck Depression Inventory. Occupational Medicine, 66(2), 174 (2016). Oxford Academic.academic.oup.com
  3. [3]Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). American Psychological Association, caregiver assessment tools.apa.org
  4. [4]Beck Depression Inventory. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation (2018). SAGE Research Methods.methods.sagepub.com
  5. [5]Towards knowledge-based mining of mental disorder patterns from textual data (2022). arXiv:2207.06254.arxiv.org/pdf/2207.06254
  6. [6]What is the Beck Depression Inventory? Mental Health Matters (2021).mental-health-matters.org
  7. [7]Phase 1 study of MMV533: protocol NCT04323306, §7.6 Beck Depression Inventory. ClinicalTrials.gov (PDF).cdn.clinicaltrials.gov
  8. [8]Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-I): history and citation of Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). Psycho-tests.com.psycho-tests.com
HOW TO CITE THIS PAGE
What's Your IQ. (2026). Beck Depression Inventory (1961). In Historical IQ Tests Archive. Retrieved September 30, 2026, from /en/historical-iq-tests/beck-depression-inventory-1961
EDITORIAL RECORD
First published2026
Last reviewed30 September 2026
Sources8, all from visible search results
Open questionsBDI-IA date (1971 vs 1978); original time window; which six DSM-III criteria
Canonical URLwhats-your-iq.com/en/historical-iq-tests/beck-depression-inventory-1961

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The clinician-rated rival1960
Hamilton Depression Rating Scale

Published a year earlier and rated by a clinician after an interview. Together with the BDI it set the two main approaches to measuring depression: observer rating and self-report.

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What Beck moved away from1935
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Reading level matters1959
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A scale filled in from an informant's reports of everyday functioning. It is the opposite of the BDI, where the only source is the person themselves.

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Part of the Historical IQ Tests Archive. Editorial content under CC BY-SA 4.0. The BDI-IA and BDI-II are copyrighted2; this page quotes only the two example statements published in reference sources.
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