Internal consistencies of the original and revised Beck Depression Inventory

Studied internal consistencies of the 1961 and 1978 versions of the Beck Depression Inventory in two different samples of psychiatric patients. The alpha coefficient for the 598 inpatients and outpatients who were administered the 1961 version was .88, and the alpha coefficient for the 248 outpatients who were self-administered the 1978 version was .86. The patterns of corrected item-total correlations were also similar, and it was concluded that the internal consistencies of both versions were comparable.