The Omnipotence of Voices II: the Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire (BAVQ)

BACKGROUND: We describe the development and psychometric investigation of the Beliefs About Voices Questionnaire (BAVQ), a self-report measure of how people understand and respond to their voices. The measure is unique in being driven by and gathering data essential to a cognitive formulation of voices. METHOD: Sixty subjects with chronic hallucinatory voices took part. RESULTS: Psychometric properties of the scales were established, including test-retest reliability (mean = 0.89), internal reliability (mean Cronbach's alpha = 0.85), and construct validity using factor analysis and the criterion group method. CONCLUSIONS: The BAVQ was found to be easy to complete and the scale may aid clinical assessment of voices, not least because of the possible value of cognitive therapy as a treatment approach.