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A self-report version of the Ways of Responding: Reliability and validity in a clinical sample
Seohyun Yin1, Mary Beth Connolly Gibbons1, Caroline Diehl1
1a Department of Psychiatry , University of Pennsylvania , Philadelphia , PA , USA.
Objective:
The Ways of Responding (WOR) instrument measures compensatory skills, a central construct in some theories of the mechanism of cognitive therapy for depression. However, the instrument is time-consuming and expensive to use in community settings, because it requires trained independent judges to rate subjects' open-ended written responses to depressogenic scenarios. The present study evaluated the reliability and validity of a self-report version of the WOR (WOR-SR) in a community mental health sample with depressive symptoms (N = 467).
Method:
Subjects completed the WOR-SR, a modified version of the original WOR, and other measures of depressive symptoms, dysfunctional cognitions, functioning, quality of life, and interpersonal problems at multiple time points.
Results:
An exploratory factor analysis confirmed the two-factor structure of the WOR-SR. The positive and negative subscales both demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alphas = .91) and moderate convergent validity with other measures.
Conclusion:
The WOR-SR is a reliable and valid measure of compensatory skills in patients receiving treatment for depression at community mental health centers.
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