Is there one best measure for assessing depressive cognitions?

This is not a simple question to answer. To figure out if there is a "best" measure of depressive cognitions we'd need to agree on a "gold standard" for measuring depression then we'd need to examine the validity, reliability, etc. of each of the measures of depressive cognitions so that we can compare them. We'd need to use clinical samples and we'd need to have large enough samples so that we could detect differences between measures with similar validity coefficients. Unfortunately, most of this research hasn't been done.

In theory, there are several different categories of cognitions that should be strongly related to depression. Beck would say that negative automatic thoughts, dysfunctional beliefs, cognitive distortions, etc. should correlate with depression. Other theorists would nominate other categories of cognitions such as irrational beliefs, attributional styles, Early Maladaptive Schemas, etc. I'm not sure there is any reason to expect to find one measure of depressive cognitions that is the most valid. There could easily be a number of valid questionnaires which assess different aspects of depressive cognition.

Personally, I'm not convinced that self-report questionnaires are the most promising way to assess cognitions which are relevant to depression. Many of the simple self-report questionnaires which are in use presume that individuals are able to sit dowm and accurately report on their cognitions. However, my clients frequently demonstrate that humans often are not very good at accurately observing their own cognitions and/or behavior.

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