USE OF THE COMPUTER-ADMINISTERED BECK DEPRESSION INVENTORY AND HOPELESSNESS SCALE WITH PSYCHIATRIC-INPATIENTS

Computer-administered versions of the revised Beck Depression Inventor y (BDI) and Hopelessness Scale (BHS) were administered to 330 inpatien ts diagnosed with mixed psychiatric disorders. The coefficient alpha f or the BDI was .92, and the Kuder-Richardson-20 (KR-20) for the BHS wa s . 91. All of the corrected-item correlations for both the BDI and BH S were significant (p < .001), and the pre- and posttest correlations for the BDI (r = .56) and BHS (r = .53) scores over an average of 9 da ys were also highly significant (p < .001). A one-way multivariate ana lysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that both the BDI and BHS differe ntiated 145 inpatients diagnosed with mood disorders from 185 inpatien ts diagnosed with nonmood disorders (p < .01). Neither instrument was significantly related to gender, ethnicity, or age. The reliabilities and validities of the computer-administered BDI and BHS are discussed as being comparable to those previously reported for the printed versi ons of these instruments.