Using personal scalings on life event inventories to predict dysphoria

The predictive ability of subjective weights of life events was examined. The focus of this study was the event 'doing very poorly on an important exam.' Two days before taking their midterm in an introductory psychology class, 164 students rated 120 life events as to the degree of negative impact on their life they believed the event did have (if it previously occurred) or would have (if it had not occurred). The subjects also filled out the Depressive Adjective Checklist (DACL) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). One week later, on the day the grades were returned to the students, the second testing session was held. One hundred thirty-two subjects returned to again complete the two measures of depression. Thirty-three of the students were identified as having experienced the event. The results of a hierarchical multiple regression showed that the subjective rating of negative impact was a significant predictor of post-exam DACL scores but not post-exam BDI scores. Previous experience with the event was not associated with either post-exam depression measure. It is suggested that the perception of life events is an important variable in life event research and that subjective weights can be utilized as markers of individuals who are vulnerable to the effects of stress.