Abstract
We examined two recently developed measures of positive automatic thought, the Positive Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ-P) and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire—Revised (ATQ-RP). Internal consistency, concurrent validity, and convergent and discriminant validity were addressed. Two hundred one undergraduates completed self-report measures of positive automatic thoughts, negative automatic thoughts, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and positive affectivity. The ATQ-P and ATQ-RP both showed high internal consistency, strong negative associations with depressive symptoms, specificity to depressive symptoms rather than anxiety symptoms, an average state-of-mind (SOM) ratio in the positive dialogue range, and a stronger relation with each other than with a measure of positive affectivity. The only notable difference between the measures was a significantly lower mean score (correcting for number of items) on the ATQ-RP.
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This paper is based on a thesis completed by the first author, under the supervision of the second author, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Arts degree at American University. We are grateful to thesis committee members Lorah Dorn and Jim Gray for feedback on this material.
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Burgess, E., Haaga, D.A.F. The positive automatic thoughts questionnaire (ATQ-P) and the automatic thoughts questionnaire—Revised (ATQ-RP): Equivalent measures of positive thinking?. Cogn Ther Res 18, 15–23 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02359392
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02359392