The common beliefs survey III and its subscales: Discriminant validity in clinical and nonclinical subjects

Scores on irrational beliefs inventories usually correlate well with scores on questionnaires about emotional feeling states, consistent with central tenets of RET and cognitive therapy. However, without specific demonstrations of beliefs inventories' discriminant validity, it is possible that they would correlate well withany questionnaire about negative states or events, thus limiting conclusions about links between thoughts and feelings. In a test of the discriminant validity of the Common Beliefs Survey (CBS), we examined responses to a battery of questionnaires on beliefs and emotional states that had been administered to 151 subjects drawn from samples of college students, hospital staff members, mental health center outpatients, and state hospital inpatients. Results were that the CBS shows (a) satisfactory internal consistency; (b) discriminant validity in that its subscales on self-criticism and perfectionism clearly differentiate clinical from nonclinical subjects; (c) the predicted strong correlations with questionnaires on emotional feeling states; (d) convergent validity in showing a strong correlation with another beliefs inventory; and (e) discriminant validity in correlating more strongly with the other beliefs inventory than with most of the questionnaires on feeling states. The CBS thus shows some respectable psychometric properties that justify its further refinement as a clinical instrument.Geoffrey L. Thorpe is associate professor and Director of Clinical Training in the psychology department of the University of Maine.Jefferson D. Parker is a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Maine.ary S. Barnes received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology at the University of Maine in 1989.