On mischaracterizations of the Occupational Depression Inventory

Abstract

This paper addresses specific aspects of the design of the Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI), including the instrument's reliance on causal attributions to work. Causal attributions, as a key component of how individuals make sense of the world, influence decisions and behaviors regardless of their accuracy. For example, attributing distress to work-related stressors can alter workers’ motivation and performance and affect decisions on whether to seek help, take sick leave, return to work, change careers, or retire early. In addition, it is underlined that, although causal attributions are of interest independently of their accuracy, this does not mean they should indiscriminately be dismissed as etiologically irrelevant. In many cases, workers have the best knowledge of their work, the workplace stressors, and how these stressors affect them. The available evidence indicates that the ODI assesses work-attributed depressive symptoms validly and reliably. If anything, the scale outperforms comparable measures of job-related distress.