Visual analogue mood scales provide extremely rapid, single-item assessment of affective states. This study examined discrimination on a single-item visual analogue depression scale between dysphoric or mildly depressed and nondepressed individuals in a sample of 284 college students. The visual analogue mood scale significantly discriminated subjects by mood category and achieved comparable hit rate, sensitivity, and specificity relative to other well validated mood scales.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ArrudaJ. E.SternR. A.LegendreB. A. (1997) Assessment of mood states in patients undergoing electroconvulsive therapy: the utility of visual analog mood scales developed for cognitively impaired patients. Convulsive Therapy, 12, 207–212.
2.
BeckA. T. (1987) Beck Depression Inventory: manual. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corp.
3.
BeckA. T.SteerR. A.GarbinM. G. (1988) Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 77–100.
4.
BeckA. T.WardC. H.MendelsonM.MockJ.ErbaughJ. (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
5.
CellaD. F.PerryS. W. (1986) Reliability and concurrent validity of three visual-analogue mood scales. Psychological Reports, 59, 827–833.
6.
FolsteinM. F.LuriaR. E. (1973) Reliability, validity, and clinical application of the visual analogue mood scale. Psychological Medicine, 34, 479–486.
7.
HamiltonM. (1960) A rating scale for depression. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 23, 56–62.
8.
LuriaR. E. (1975) The validity and reliability of the visual analogue mood scale. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 12, 51–57.
9.
LuriaR. E. (1979) The use of the visual analogue mood and alert scales in diagnosing hospitalized affective psychoses. Psychological Medicine, 9, 155–164.
10.
MarsellaA. J.SanbornK. O.DambokaV.ShizuriL.BrennanJ. (1974) Cross-validation of self-report measures of depression among normal populations of Japanese, Chinese, and Caucasian ancestry. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 30, 281–287.
11.
MaruffP.WoodS.CurrieJ.McArthur-JacksonC.MaloneV.BensonE. (1994) Computer-administered visual analogue mood scales: rapid and valid assessment of mood in HIV positive individuals. Psychological Reports, 74, 39–42.
12.
McNairD. M.LorrM.DropplemanL. F. (1992) Manual: Profile of Mood States–Revised. San Diego, CA: Educational and Industrial Testing Service.
13.
PoinsoY. (1987) Depressivity and depression. Psychologie Medicale, 19, 413–414.
14.
RussoJ. (1994) Thurstone's scaling model applied to the assessment of self-reported depressive severity. Psychological Assessment, 6, 159–171.
15.
SpreenO.StraussE. (1991) A compendium of neuropsychological tests: administration, norms, and commentary. New York: Oxford Univer. Press.
16.
SternR. A.ArrudaJ. E.HooperC. R.WolfnerG. D.MoreyC. E. (1997) Visual analogue mood scales to measure internal mood state in neurologically impaired patients: description and initial validity evidence. Aphasiology, 11, 59–71.
17.
WhismanM.PintoA. (1997) Hopelessness and depression in depressed inpatient adolescents. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 3, 345–358.
