Empirical analysis of factors in depressive cognition: the cognitive triad inventory

The purpose of this study was to examine the factor analytic evidence for the three components of Beck's cognitive triad (view of self, world, and future). Two hundred sixty college undergraduates participated in the study. Factor analytic results indicated that the three scales of the CTI generate five factors, which represent positively phrased "future" items, negatively phrased "future" items, positively phrased "world" items, negatively phrased "world" items, and positively phrased "self" items. The negatively phrased "self" items were distributed among the negatively phrased "world" and negatively phrased "future" factors. These findings partially support the utility of categorizing depressogenic cognitions into three constructs (self, world, and future) and also the notion that different cognitive operations or response styles may be elicited from positive vs. negative items.