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Abstract
Three studies were undertaken to develop andvalidate a shortened measure of irrational thinkingbased on Bernard's version of the General Attitude andBelief Scale (GABS). In experiment 1 the responses of 356 participants were analyzed to derive 26items from the 55 items of the GABS to form theshortened General Attitude and Belief Scale (SGABS).Experiment 2 established that correlations between the subscales of the GABS and the SGABS (completed3 days apart by 90 participants) ranged from .60 to .77.In experiment 3, moderately significant test-retestcorrelations (.65 to .87) were found between subscale scores obtained from the SGABS, administered 3days apartto 36 participants. Although a moderate butsignificant correlation (r = .41) was found between theSGABS and the Beck Depression Inventory, a significantly higher correlation (r = .77) was found betweenthe SGABS and the Irrational Belief Scale. It wasconcluded that the SGABS provided a brief method ofassessing multidimensional aspects of irrationalthinking with substantial test-retest reliability andconstruct validity.