How dysfunctional are the dysfunctional attitudes in another culture?

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Cross-cultural Psychology

Background:

• The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-A) is widely used to assess depression vulnerability and cognitive therapy effectiveness.
• Previous research has not reported on the item validity of the DAS-A.
• Cultural adaptations are crucial for psychological assessment tools.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the item validity and psychometric properties of the DAS-A within the Turkish cultural context.
• To evaluate the cross-cultural applicability of the DAS-A.

Main Methods:

• A study involving 345 Turkish university students.
• Administration of the Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-A).
• Concurrent administration of the Beck Depression Inventory and Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire.

Main Results:

• The DAS-A demonstrated comparable reliability coefficients and factor structure to Western samples.
• An unusually high total mean score was observed in the Turkish sample.
• Ten reverse-scored items, reflecting autonomous attitudes, failed to discriminate between dysphoric and non-dysphoric groups, distorting mean scores.

Conclusions:

• The reverse items in the DAS-A may introduce cultural bias, particularly concerning autonomy, potentially distorting depression vulnerability measures.
• Cross-cultural comparisons using the current DAS-A may be compromised.
• Researchers are cautioned about potential biases when using the DAS-A in diverse cultural or minority groups.