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Cognitive Distortions Scale

The Cognitive Distortion Scale (CDS), developed by Briere in 2000, consists of 40 items across five subscales: self-criticism, self-blame, helplessness, hopelessness, and preoccupation with danger, each rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The CDS has demonstrated high reliability and validity, with coefficients ranging from .89 to .97, and is effective in assessing cognitive distortions in various populations, including veterans with PTSD. The total score ranges from 40 to 200, with higher scores indicating greater cognitive distortion.

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Abhinav Dhanda
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1K views5 pages

Cognitive Distortions Scale

The Cognitive Distortion Scale (CDS), developed by Briere in 2000, consists of 40 items across five subscales: self-criticism, self-blame, helplessness, hopelessness, and preoccupation with danger, each rated on a 5-point Likert scale. The CDS has demonstrated high reliability and validity, with coefficients ranging from .89 to .97, and is effective in assessing cognitive distortions in various populations, including veterans with PTSD. The total score ranges from 40 to 200, with higher scores indicating greater cognitive distortion.

Uploaded by

Abhinav Dhanda
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Cognitive distortion scale (CDS), developed by Briere (2000), consists of 40 items divided into 5

subscales: self-criticism, self-blame, helplessness, hopelessness and preoccupation with


danger with 8 items.

The CDS scales reflect five types of cognitive distortion:


Self-Criticism (SC) -Low self-esteem and self-devaluation as expressed in the tendency to
criticise or devalue oneself.
Self-Blame (SB) -Extent to which the respondent blames himself or herself for negative,
unwanted events in his or her life, including events outside the respondent's control.
Helplessness (HLP) -Perception of being unable to control important aspects of one's life.
Hopelessness (HOP) -Extent to which the respondent believes that the future is bleak and that
he or she is destined to fail
Preoccupation With Danger (PWD) -Tendency to view the world, especially the interpersonal
domain, as a dangerous place.
​
Each item is rating at 5 point Likert scale (Never, once or twice, sometimes, often, and very
often) and is scored as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 respectively. Higher scores on this scale indicate greater
degrees of symptomatology. Reliability coefficient for the CDS scales ranged from .89 (for
preoccupation with danger) to .97 (for hopelessness). The reliability coefficient for the other
subscales were .93 for self-criticism, .92 for self-blame and .94 for helplessness.​
​
The domain-wise items are:-
* Self-criticism (SC) : 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31, 36
* Self-blame (SB) : 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37
* Helplessness (HLP) : 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28, 33, 38
* Hopelessness (HOP) : 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29, 34, 39
* Preoccupation with Danger (POD) : 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40

Cognitive Distortions Scale. The Cognitive Distortions Scale (CDS) is the most recently
developed measure of cognitive distortion, besides the Inventory of Cognitive Distortion (ICD)
(Briere, 2000). The instrument was developed because the author felt that previous measures of
negative ideations were limited by a number of factors such as age range restrictions, limited
number of items, poorly defined constructs, and questionable accuracy in distinguishingbetween
cognitive distortions and mood states (Briere, 2000). The CDS, which is a 40- item,
self-assessment of cognitive distortion for adults, comprises items in the form of short phrases,
each representing a dysfunctional thought or feeling. The individual is asked to rate how often
he or she has had these different thoughts and feelings in the last month; the measure uses a
5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 = “never” to 5 = “very often”. The instrument is said to
measure five scales, each considered to be a cognitive distortion; these include self-criticism,
self-blame, helplessness, hopelessness, and preoccupation with danger (Briere, 2000). Each
factor consists of eight items; the raw scores are converted into T-scores, and if T is equal to or
greater than 70, that particular distortion would be considered clinically significant. The measure
is brief and simple to score, taking only 10 to 15 minutes to administer and approximately five
minutes to score. The CDS was evaluated using a normative sample of 611 individuals from the
general population. Internal consistency reliability for the fives scales was high and ranged from
.89 to .97 and an overall mean alpha of .93. Construct validity was examined by comparing the
CDS scale scores with three measures of depression, the Multiscore Depression Inventory
(MDI), the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI), and the Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI).
All tests yielded relatively high correlations, supporting the validity of the CDS (Briere, 2000).
Owens, Chard, & Cox (2008) used the CDS to evaluate cognitive distortions in returning
Veterans suffering from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The CDS was administered to a
sample of 99 veterans and the results suggested high internal consistency reliability for each
subscale, with reliability coefficients ranging from .81 to .94. The CDS was able to track changes
in cognitive distortion and depression across pre- and post-treatment evaluations (Owens,
Chard, & Cox, 2008). The CDS has also been found to distinguish between female patients with
dual diagnoses of PTSD and substance abuse disorder; these individuals have more cognitive
distortions than female patients with a single diagnosis (Najavits, Gotthardt, Weiss, & Epstein’s,
2004). Although studies have found the CDS to be reliable in assessing cognitive distortions in
PTSD patients, there remains a dearth of literature about utilizing the CDS in clinical practice.

The CDS covered five dimensions of cognitive distortion: selfcriticism, self-blame, helplessness,
hopelessness and preoccupation with danger. Each item was rated on a five-point Likert scale,
with higher scores indicating greater cognitive distortion. Each dimension contains eight items.
The total score for the CDS is between 40 and 200, and for each dimension, the total score is
between 8 and 40.

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