Depression Adjective Check Lists, Form E (DACL)

Abstract

The Depression Adjective Check Lists, specifically Form E (DACL), is a widely recognized and efficient self-report instrument developed by Burt Lubin. Its primary function is to provide a rapid, sensitive measure of transient mood state, focusing particularly on the current severity of depressive affect. Operating as an Adjective Checklist, the DACL requires respondents to select adjectives that accurately describe their current feelings. Form E comprises 34 adjectives, yielding a single, reliable score. The DACL is highly valued in clinical and research settings for its brevity, minimizing respondent fatigue, and maximizing efficiency in repeated measurements.

Keywords

DACL, Depression, Affective state, Adjective Checklist, Transient mood, Psychological assessment, Psychometrics, Screening, Affective disorders

Authors

Burt Lubin

Purpose

The fundamental purpose of the DACL is to offer a quick, simple, and reliable means of quantifying momentary or current depressive mood state. This instrument is intentionally distinct from comprehensive clinical inventories that assess stable personality traits or formal diagnostic criteria (such as those found in the DSM). Instead, the DACL is optimized for measuring acute fluctuations in affect over short periods.

This design makes it exceptionally useful in research contexts, particularly for monitoring the immediate effects of therapeutic interventions or tracking daily emotional changes in response to specific stimuli. The instrument’s efficiency, often requiring less than five minutes for administration and scoring, ensures high compliance rates and facilitates frequent retesting, which is crucial for longitudinal studies concerning depression and affective phenomena.

Construct

The DACL measures the psychological construct of depressive affect or mood state. It operationalizes depression not as a clinical syndrome, but as a subjective, temporary emotional experience. This state is characterized by feelings of unhappiness, listlessness, dejection, and hopelessness. The scale utilizes a balanced structure, differentiating between positive adjectives (scored negatively, indicating non-depression) and negative adjectives (scored positively, indicating depression) to capture this affective domain.

The scale is firmly rooted in the psychometric tradition focused on measuring transient emotional states rather than enduring personality dimensions. By aiming to capture the intensity of the respondent’s immediate, subjective experience of feeling “blue” or “downcast,” the DACL serves as a valuable, focused tool for assessing the affective component of various psychological conditions.

Validity

The DACL has consistently demonstrated substantial construct validity across numerous studies since its initial development. Evidence for its efficacy is supported by strong concurrent validity, wherein DACL scores correlate highly with scores from other established measures of depressive symptomatology, including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Depression scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-D).

Furthermore, the DACL exhibits robust discriminant validity, displaying appropriately lower correlations with measures of constructs distinct from depression, such as anxiety or hostility. This finding confirms that the instrument specifically targets the depressive domain. The scale’s sensitivity to change is a key indicator of its predictive validity; scores reliably decrease following successful psychological or pharmacological treatment, confirming its utility in measuring treatment outcomes and monitoring clinical progress.

Reliability

The DACL demonstrates high levels of internal consistency across diverse populations and settings. Studies typically report coefficient alpha values ranging from 0.85 to 0.95 for various forms, including Form E. This high internal consistency indicates that the 34 items within the checklist are highly homogeneous and reliably measure the same underlying construct of depressive affect.

In terms of test-retest reliability, scores show necessary stability over very short intervals (minutes to hours) when the respondent’s mood is expected to remain consistent. Conversely, the scale also exhibits appropriate sensitivity to change when intervening events are designed to alter the mood state, thus confirming the DACL as a consistent and dependable instrument for measuring transient emotional experience.

Factor Analysis

Factor analytic studies conducted on the DACL generally affirm its design philosophy, supporting its use as a measure of a single, dominant factor: general depressive mood. Although minor secondary factors may occasionally emerge, the overwhelming majority of the variance is explained by a unidimensional structure representing the overall depth and intensity of the respondent’s negative affect.

This clarity in the factor structure is consistent with the scale’s objective to provide a global score of depression severity rather than breaking down symptoms into subscales (e.g., cognitive, somatic, or interpersonal symptoms). The resulting unidimensionality contributes significantly to the straightforward and unambiguous interpretation of the DACL score in both research and clinical contexts.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-report psychological assessment of current mood state.

Format: Adjective Checklist consisting of 34 items. Respondents are instructed to check the words that describe their current feelings.

Language Available: Primarily English, with translations available in several other major languages, typically for research purposes.

Population Group: Clinical and Non-clinical populations.

Age Group: Typically utilized with adolescents (aged 16 and older) and adults.

Population Details: Used across a variety of settings, including psychiatric inpatient and outpatient clinics, general medical settings, and academic research environments.

Test Methodology: Simple binary response (check/do not check). Scoring generally involves summing the number of checked depression-related adjectives and subtracting the number of checked non-depression (positive) adjectives, though Form E often employs a simplified summation of keyed items.

Keywords

Lubin, DACL Form E, Affective state, Self-report, Clinical psychology, Rating scale, Mental health, Emotional assessment, Transient affect

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not readily available for B. Lubin.

Affiliation Email addresses: Information is proprietary; typically handled through the publisher (Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. or EDITs).

Correspondence Address: Refer to the publisher: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (PAR) or EDITs (Educational and Industrial Testing Service).

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

The Depression Adjective Check Lists (DACL) is a proprietary instrument. Its use requires purchase and appropriate licensing, generally obtained through the primary publisher, EDITs (Educational and Industrial Testing Service). The initial conceptual framework and foundational research were published in 1965. The standardized manual for the various forms, including Form E, was officially published in 1981.

Information regarding the instrument can be found at the publisher’s site: http://www.edits.net/products/psychological-assessments/st-dacl.html. A reference discussing the use of the DACL in measuring health is available. The original PDF can be downloaded here: www.a4ebm.org/sites/default/files/Measuring%20Health.pdf.

Reference’s

• Lubin‚ B. (1965). Adjective Checklists for Measurement of Depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry‚ 12(1):57-62.

• Lubin‚ B. (1981). Manual for the Depression Adjective Check Lists. Odessa‚ Florida: Psychological Asessment Resources‚ Inc.

• McDowell‚ Ian. (2006). Measuring Health: A Guide to Rating Scales and Questionnaires‚ Third Edition. OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Items of the Depression Adjective Check Lists, Form E (DACL)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Check all the words that describe your feelings:

1. Unhappy

2. Active

3. Blue

4. Downcast

5. Dispirited

6. Composed

7. Distressed

8. Cheerless

9. Lonely

10. Free

11. Lost

12. Broken

13. Good

14. Burdened

15. Forlorn

16. Vigorous

17. Peaceful

18. Well

19. Apathetic

20. Chained

21. Strong

22. Dejected

23. Awful

24. Glum

25. Great

26. Finished

27. Hopeless

28. Lucky

29. Tortured

30. Listless

31. Safe

32. Wilted

33. Criticized

34. Fit