Subtypes of depression, efficacy, and the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire

The purpose of our study was to reanalyze the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, D'Afflitti, & Quinlan, 1976, 1979) and to evaluate relationships between the questionnaire's factors and other construct-related measures, the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961) and the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (Edwards, 1959). We argue that composite scores derived from this study's principal components analysis are more interpretively useful than the original factor scales reported by Blatt et al. (1976; Blatt, Quinlan, Chevron, McDonald, & Zuroff, 1982). Correlational evidence reported in this study does not support the Dependency and Self-Criticism factors as adequate representations of anaclitic and introjective depression (Blatt, 1974). The third DEQ factor scale, Efficacy, as revised for this study, demonstrated moderate to strong associations with other personality measures.