The Positive Automatic Thought Questionnaire and the Automatic Thought Questionnaire Revised: An examination of reliability and validity

We examined two recently developed measures of positive automatic thought, the Positive Automatic Thought Questionnaire (ATQ-P) and the Automatic Thought Questionnaire-Revised (ATQ-RP). Questions of reliability and validity were addressed. Two hundred and one undergraduates completed self-report measures of positive automatic thought, depressive and anxiety symptoms, negative automatic thought, self-esteem, and positive trait affect. The ATQ-P and ATQ-RP both showed: (1) adequate internal consistency, (2) negative associations with depressive symptoms, (3) specificity to depressive symptoms rather than anxiety symptoms, (4) an average States-of-Mind (SOM) ratio in the positive dialogue range (.56-.68), (5) a linear relationship between the SOM ratio and self-esteem, and (6) a stronger relationship with each other than with positive trait affect. Two differences that emerged were that the ATQ-RP had a stronger association with trait positive affect, and a significantly lower mean score than the ATQ-P. The two measures appear to be comparable measures of positive automatic thought.