I am always seeking books that include a wide range of psychometric instruments that can be used to instruct students regarding concepts such as reliability and validity. In addition, I prefer to use psychometric instruments that appear to have some practical application for our graduates.

THE PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO EMPIRICALLY BASED MEASURES OF DEPRESSION includes a description of the psychometric qualities of 94 scales of depression. These 94 scales fit into one of three categories that include:

Measures of depression, depressive symptomatology, and depressive moods
Measures of depression for special populations
Measures of depression-related constructs

The wide variety of methods for assessing the degree of depression is nothing less than overwhelming. In addressing each instrument, the authors use the following outline:

Original Citation
Purpose
Description
Background
Administration
Scoring
Interpretation
Psychometric Properties (Norms, Reliability, and Validity)
Clinical Utility
Research Applicability
Source
Cost
Alternative Forms

The consistency of this outline is quite helpful in reviewing these instruments when students are first learning about test construction. In addition, the authors have included reprints of 24 instruments meant to measure depression. These reproductions are extremely helpful for students who are first learning about test construction.

In addition to being a wonderful tool to learn the basic of instrument construction, THE PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO EMPIRICALLY BASED MEASURES OF DEPRESSION is an equally beneficial tool for the practitioner and the researcher. In fact, I suspect that the author's primary intended audience is practitioners. Regardless, this is a wonderful volume that will be a great benefit to many.

As a side note, the publisher Kluwer Academic/Plenum has produced a similar book entitled, THE PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE TO EMPIRICALLY BASED MEASURES OF ANXIETY. It too, is an excellent volume.