Mar 22 2009
Beck Anxiety Inventory
It is often tricky to measure an individual’s level of anxiety at any given point in time. Often there are outside factors that become involved. Behaviors that lead us to believe that the person is more or less anxious than they actually are. For this reason, there have been many different types of tests developed to help determine levels of anxiety.
Aaron Beck designed an anxiety scale he named the Beck Anxiety Inventory, along with a matching Beck Depression Inventory designed to measure the relative levels of both emotions.
The Beck Anxiety Inventory designates the difference between anxiety and depression. This particular inventory is a self reporting scale. This means that the patient will relate back their feelings themselves, instead of having a psychologist administer the test. By having the patient answer for themselves, there would be no worries of the outcome being skewed by the psychologist’s own feelings.
This inventory consists of 21 questions and each are answered using a simple scale. Each question is answered by the individual answering “Not at all (0),” “Mildly (1),” “Moderately (2),” or “Severely (3)” according to their feelings of each question based on the past week. These choices make it simple for any patient to answer the questions.
The questions asked by the test consist of symptoms that are correlated with anxiety. These questions include symptoms such as: hot/cold sweats, tension, rapid unexpected heart rate, restlessness, irritability, trouble concentrating and feelings of unease.
The test takes anywhere from 5-10 minutes to complete. It is then scored according to the results scale accompanied with it. The highest rating being 63 if the patient answered “Severely” or 3 to every question and the lowest score being 0 if they answered “Not at all” or 0 to every question.
The scale for results is as follows:
0-7 indicates a nonexistent to minimal level of anxiety.
8-15 shows a mild level of anxiety.
16-25 correlates with moderate anxiety levels.
26-63 indicate severe anxiety sometimes related to anxiety disorders.
Beck’s Anxiety Inventory has been shown to work in many age groups. Elderly patients all the way down to adolescent patients have been able to correctly answer the short test and show accurate results, even though it is designed to be used by individuals ranging in age from 17-80 years. In working with patients who are younger or those that are illiterate, the Beck Anxiety Inventory may be administered in interview format as opposed to a questionnaire.
The assessment is most often used as in indicating levels of anxiety in clinical and research formats. In 1999, it was shown to be the third most used scale in researching the level of anxiety in patients. It has continuing use and prominence in the psychology field as a reliable source of assessment for patients suffering from anxiety.
