Relations between the Pleasant Events Schedule, depression, and other aspects of psychopathology.

Studied the relations between the Mood Related subscale of the Pleasant Events Schedule (PES), depression, and other psychopathology. 100 psychiatric inpatients and outpatients (mean age 35.7 yrs) had diagnoses of either major, nonmajor, or no depression. All Ss completed the PES, the Beck Depression Inventory, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and a Dutch personality questionnaire. Results show that the PES correlated negatively with depression as well as with anxiety and (social) neuroticism. Principal components analysis revealed 2 factors, negative and positive affect. The latter was dominated by PES scores. Using factor scores, the 3 diagnostic groups could be meaningfully discriminated. It is concluded that depression may be better described using 2 affect dimensions rather than 1