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Beck Depression Inventory (BDI): Foundational depression assessment

The most-used depression assessment instrument in the world. Aaron Beck at the University of Pennsylvania developed the BDI in 1961, drawing on his clinical observations of cognitive patterns in depressed patients. The BDI later became foundational to Beck's cognitive theory of depression and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The current BDI-II (1996) is administered millions of times annually in clinical practice and research.

Read About the Test

About the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)

Aaron Beck was a young psychiatrist at the University of Pennsylvania in the late 1950s when he began noticing patterns in his depressed patients' cognitive content. Depressed patients consistently reported negative thoughts about themselves, their environment, and their future - what Beck later called the 'cognitive triad' of depression. In 1961 he operationalized these observations into a brief self-report depression assessment: the Beck Depression Inventory.

The original 1961 BDI had 21 items, each presenting four statements of increasing severity (e.g., 'I do not feel sad' / 'I feel sad' / 'I am sad all the time and I can't snap out of it' / 'I am so sad or unhappy that I can't stand it'). Patients selected the statement best describing their experience over the past week. Total score ranged from 0 to 63, with cutoffs for minimal, mild, moderate, and severe depression.

The BDI became extraordinarily influential. It is the most-cited depression assessment in the research literature (tens of thousands of studies have used it). Beck's clinical observations about depressive cognition also formed the basis of his Cognitive Therapy (1979), now called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) - the most empirically-supported psychotherapy for depression, anxiety, and many other conditions. CBT is now the standard psychotherapy taught in clinical training programs worldwide. The BDI went through revisions in 1971 (BDI-IA) and 1996 (BDI-II, current edition aligned with DSM-IV criteria). It remains the dominant brief depression assessment in clinical and research settings.

Copyright note: BDI and BDI-II items are copyrighted (Pearson). Public-domain alternatives include the PHQ-9 (Patient Health Questionnaire-9), which is freely available.

The 1 subtests

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21 depression symptom items Each item presents 4 statements of increasing severity for a specific depressive symptom (sadness, pessimism, sense of failure, dissatisfaction, guilt, etc.). Subject selects the best-matching statement.
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Sample Items (Illustrative)

Items on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) are presented as multiple-choice questions, with each question offering four statements of increasing severity related to a specific depressive symptom. The subject selects the statement that best matches their feelings over the past week. Responses are scored on a scale from 0 to 3, with higher scores indicating greater severity of depression.

Sample 1 · Sadness
Please select the statement that best describes how you have been feeling over the past week:1. I do not feel sad.2. I feel sad much of the time.3. I am sad all the time.4. I am so sad or unhappy that I can't stand it.
Example response: 2. I feel sad much of the time.
Sample 2 · Guilt
Please select the statement that best describes how you have been feeling over the past week:1. I don’t feel particularly guilty.2. I feel guilty over many things I have done or should have done.3. I feel quite guilty most of the time.4. I feel guilty all of the time.
Example response: 1. I don’t feel particularly guilty.
Sample 3 · Pessimism
Please select the statement that best describes how you have been feeling over the past week:1. I am not discouraged about my future.2. I feel more discouraged about my future than I used to.3. I do not expect things to work out for me.4. I feel my future is hopeless and will only get worse.
Example response: 3. I do not expect things to work out for me.
Sample 4 · Sense of Failure
Please select the statement that best describes how you have been feeling over the past week:1. I do not feel like a failure.2. I have failed more than I should have.3. As I look back, I see a lot of failures.4. I feel I am a complete failure as a person.
Example response: 2. I have failed more than I should have.
Sample 5 · Dissatisfaction
Please select the statement that best describes how you have been feeling over the past week:1. I am satisfied with my life.2. I am not as satisfied with my life as I used to be.3. I am dissatisfied with my life.4. I am completely dissatisfied with my life.
Example response: 1. I am satisfied with my life.

These are illustrative samples, not actual items from the protected test.

Source

All test materials and historical content on this page are transcribed from:

Aaron T. Beck (1961). Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).

BDI and BDI-II items are under Pearson copyright. We document the instrument's history and significance.

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Historical test materials are obsolete and are not valid modern IQ assessments. This page is preserved for educational, research, and historiographic purposes.

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