Abstract
The purpose of this study was to develop and validate a questionnaire to measure a depressive mood and an anxious mood with high discriminant validity by using adjectives, adjectival verbs, and adjectival phrases which state depressive, anxious, and positive moods. After the selection of items which state these moods and factor analysis of these items, scale development resulted in a 9-item Depression and Anxiety Mood Scale (DAMS) . Psychometric evaluation by the parallel test method and the test-retest method suggested that the DAMS has high convergent and discriminant validity and reliability. The comparison of scores of scales at normal periods with those at a stressful period (before testing) revealed that the DAMS is highly sensitive to mood changes. These results indicate that the DAMS is very adequate for studying a cognitive-behavioral model which includes both depression and anxiety.
