A Psychometric Evaluation of the Dutch Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (D-DARS)

Abstract

Abstract Anhedonia is defined as the prolonged inability to experience pleasure from usually pleasurable things. As such, it is on of the key symptoms of major depression. Neurobiological studies assume that processes of wanting, liking and learning play a role in experiencing pleasure and are impaired in people suffering from anhedonia. To assess anhedonia and its processes Rizvi (2015) developed the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale (DARS) which showed promising psychometric results. This study evaluated the translated Dutch DARS in a healthy sample in order to test its psychometric properties. Initial results by means of a Principal Component Analysis (PCA), internal consistency analysis and Mokken-Analysis contradict earlier findings indicating no homogenous main- and sub-scales, low internal consistency, and no monotone homogeneity. We assume that this contradiction might be due to difficulties in translating questionnaires, a false-positive finding by Rizvi (2015) or a false-negative finding in this study mainly due to sampling issues such as a highly homogenous sample and elevated depressive symptoms.