Scaling Irrational Beliefs in the General Attitude and Belief Scale

Accurate measurement of key constructs is essential to thecontinued development of Rational-Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). The General Attitudeand Belief Scale (GABS), a contemporary inventory of rational and irrational beliefsbased on current REBT theory, is one of the most valid and widely used instrumentsavailable, and recent research has continued to improve its psychometric standing. Inthis study of 544 students, item response theory (IRT) methods were used (a) to identifythe most informative item in each irrational subscale of the GABS, (b) to determine thelevel of irrationality represented by each of those items, and (c) to suggest acondensed form of the GABS for further study with clinical populations. Administeringonly the most psychometrically informative items to clients could result in economies oftime and effort. Further research based on the scaling of items could clarify thespecific patterns of irrational beliefs associated with particular clinicalsyndromes