General psychopathology and screening instruments assess broad patterns of psychological distress, symptom burden, and maladaptive personality functioning without focusing on a single diagnosis. They are useful at intake, in routine outcome monitoring, and in settings where the goal is to obtain an initial overview of clinical severity and likely areas of concern.
Unlike domain-specific measures for depression, OCD, trauma, or ADHD, broadband instruments capture multiple symptom clusters at once. Some emphasize current distress and symptom severity, others assess functioning and treatment outcomes, and others focus on maladaptive personality traits or level of personality dysfunction.
These measures provide broad screening of psychological symptoms across multiple domains. They are used to estimate overall distress, mental health status, and possible areas requiring more specific clinical assessment.
The Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90, SCL-90-R) is a classic multidimensional symptom checklist used to assess a wide range of psychological complaints rather than one specific disorder.
The Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) is a shorter derivative of the SCL-90, assessing psychological symptom patterns across multiple domains.
The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) is best understood as a family of brief screening tools covering several clinical domains, including depression, anxiety, somatic symptoms, and brief general distress combinations.
The DSM-5-TR Level 1 Cross-Cutting Symptom Measure assesses symptoms across broad domains such as depression, anger, mania, anxiety, somatic symptoms, suicidal ideation, psychosis, sleep, memory, repetitive thoughts and behaviors, dissociation, personality functioning, and substance use.
The Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire (PDSQ) is a broad self-report screening measure developed to identify multiple common psychiatric disorders in outpatient and general psychiatric settings.
The General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) assesses non-specific psychological distress and general mental health status, particularly in community, medical, and screening contexts.
The Self-Reporting Questionnaire (SRQ-20), developed by the World Health Organization, screens for common mental disorder symptoms, especially in primary care and community settings.
These measures assess broad emotional distress, especially anxiety, depression, stress, and related internalizing problems. They describe severity and symptom profile rather than a single diagnostic category.
The Kessler Psychological Distress Scales (K10 & K6) provide brief indicators of non-specific emotional distress.
The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21, DASS-42, DASS-Y) assess depression, anxiety, and stress as related but distinct negative emotional states.
The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) provides separate anxiety and depression subscales and is widely used in medical and general populations.
The Patient Health Questionnaire PHQ-4 combines brief screening for anxiety and depression.
The Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire (4DSQ) assesses common psychological symptoms in primary care, including distress, depression, anxiety, and somatization.
The Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms (IDAS-II) assesses a broad range of internalizing symptoms, including depression, anxiety, panic, social anxiety, insomnia, suicidality, and bipolar-related features.
The Brief Emotional Distress Scale for Youth (BEDSY) assesses emotional distress in children and adolescents, including symptoms of anxiety, depression, irritability, and general emotional difficulties.
These instruments provide broad clinical assessment of symptoms, personality patterns, psychopathology, and response validity. Many of them are proprietary and are typically used only in professional assessment contexts.
The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is one of the most established systems for broad clinical personality and psychopathology assessment. ©
The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-IV) assesses personality pathology and clinical syndromes within a professional interpretive framework. ©
The Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) assesses clinical syndromes, treatment-related variables, and interpersonal style. ©
The Basic Personality Inventory (BPI) measures a wide range of psychological symptoms, personality characteristics, and indicators of emotional and behavioral dysfunction. ©
The Holden Psychological Screening Inventory (HPSI) is a brief screening measure designed to identify emotional distress, psychiatric symptoms, and psychological adjustment problems. ©
These measures assess broad dimensions of psychopathology that cut across traditional diagnostic categories. They describe higher-order patterns of symptoms and vulnerability across multiple areas of mental health.
The Hierarchical Taxonomy of Psychopathology (B-HiTOP) reflects the same shift toward HiTOP-informed dimensional assessment, emphasizing broad spectra of dysfunction rather than isolated diagnoses.
The Externalizing Spectrum Inventory (ESI-BF) assesses a broad spectrum of externalizing psychopathology, including disinhibition, impulsive behavior, substance-related problems, and callous-aggressive tendencies. It is best understood as a dimensional broadband measure linking impulsivity, aggression, antisocial behavior, and addiction-related risk.
The SPECTRA: Indices of Psychopathology is a broadband inventory aligned with hierarchical-dimensional models of psychopathology. It assesses narrower symptom scales, higher-order spectra, and a general psychopathology index. ©
These measures assess the overall severity of personality dysfunction, including impairments in identity, self-direction, empathy, and interpersonal functioning. They focus on the level of personality functioning rather than on specific disorder categories or maladaptive trait profiles.
The Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS-SR, LPFS-BF) provides an alternative self-report assessment of personality functioning aligned with Criterion A of the DSM-5 AMPD.
The Personality Disorder Severity ICD-11 (PDS-ICD-11) indexes overall severity of personality disorder functioning within the ICD-11 framework.
The Measure of Disordered Personality Functioning (MDPF) assesses maladaptive personality functioning, including disturbances in self-experience, interpersonal functioning, affect regulation, and behavioral control.
The Self and Interpersonal Functioning Scale (SIFS) assesses identity, self-direction, empathy, and intimacy, aligning with the DSM-5 AMPD. n/a
These measures assess features of personality disorders and belief patterns associated with specific personality-disorder presentations. They are used to describe clinically relevant personality patterns rather than broad normal-range personality traits.
The Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire (PDQ-4) is a screening instrument for personality disorder features based on DSM-IV categories.
The Personality Belief Questionnaire (PBQ) assesses dysfunctional beliefs associated with different personality disorder patterns.
The IPDE Screening Questionnaire (IPDE-SQ ICD-10) screens for personality disorder features corresponding to ICD-10 personality disorder categories.
These measures assess maladaptive personality traits that contribute to personality pathology and psychological dysfunction. They describe personality problems dimensionally, as trait patterns that vary in severity across individuals.
The Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5, SF, BF, BF+M) assesses maladaptive trait domains and facets within the DSM-5 AMPD.
The Personality Inventory for ICD-11 (PiCD) assesses ICD-11 maladaptive personality trait domains, including negative affectivity, detachment, dissociality, disinhibition, and anankastia.
The Personality Assessment Questionnaire for ICD-11 (PAQ-11R) assesses the five ICD-11 maladaptive personality trait domains – negative affectivity, detachment, dissociality, disinhibition, and anankastia.
The Five-Factor Personality Inventory for ICD-11 (FFiCD) assesses maladaptive trait domains aligned with ICD-11 personality disorder models.
The Comprehensive Assessment of Traits Relevant to Personality Disorder (CAT-PD) assesses maladaptive personality traits relevant to personality pathology across multiple domains.
The Dimensional Assessment of Personality Pathology (DAPP-SF) designed to assess maladaptive personality traits dimensionally. It includes 18 trait scales and provides a broad profile of personality pathology. n/a
The 5-Dimensional Personality Test (5DPT) assesses five personality dimensions originally developed to capture vulnerability factors associated with psychopathology: Neuroticism, Extraversion, Insensitivity, Absorption, and Orderliness. n/a
These measures assess narrower personality-disorder presentations that are not covered in separate dedicated domains. This section may include instruments focused on specific syndromes, traits, or clinical patterns such as histrionic, dependent, avoidant, or other personality-disorder features.
The Brief Histrionic Personality Scale (BHPS) is a brief measure of histrionic personality traits, including attention seeking, seductiveness, emotional expressiveness, and dramatic interpersonal behavior.
The Online Histrionic Personality Scale (OHPS) assesses histrionic self-presentation in online environments, including attention seeking, dramatic expression, approval seeking, and exaggerated online interpersonal behavior.
The Identity Crisis and Histrionic Personality Disorder Scale assesses identity crisis and histrionic personality disorder features in young adult girls.
The Avoidant Personality Disorder Impairment Scale (AvPD-IS) assesses functional impairment associated with avoidant personality disorder features, especially social inhibition, avoidance, and fear of negative evaluation.
The Five-Factor Avoidant Assessment (FFAvA) assesses avoidant personality features through a Five-Factor Model framework, focusing on maladaptive traits related to social inhibition, anxiety, and withdrawal.
The Five-Factor Schizoid Inventory (FFZI) is a measure of schizoid personality disorder traits developed within the Five-Factor Model framework, conceptualizing schizoid traits partly as maladaptive extensions of introversion. n/a
The Five-Factor Dependency Inventory (FFDI) assesses dependent personality features through a Five-Factor Model framework, focusing on maladaptive traits related to submissiveness, insecurity, need for reassurance, and difficulty acting independently. n/a
The Dependent Personality Questionnaire (DPQ) assesses dependent personality disorder features, especially interpersonal dependence, reassurance seeking, submissiveness, and fear of abandonment.
The Dependent Personality Inventory (DPI) assesses dependent personality features, including excessive reliance on others, fear of separation, submissiveness, and difficulty making independent decisions.
The Paranoid Personality Disorder Features Questionnaire (PPDFQ) assesses paranoid personality features, including mistrust, suspiciousness, interpersonal guardedness, and expectations of harm from others. n/a
The Antisocial Personality Questionnaire (APQ) assesses antisocial personality features, including rule-breaking, impulsivity, aggression, callousness, and disregard for others. n/a
⇒ Borderline-specific and OCD-specific measures are placed separately.
Outcome-monitoring instruments track symptom severity, functioning, and improvement over time. They are used to evaluate clinical change rather than to define a specific diagnosis.
The Outcome Questionnaire (OQ-45) assesses symptom distress, interpersonal relations, and social role functioning, making it useful for psychotherapy outcome monitoring.
The Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-OM) assesses psychological distress, risk, functioning, and well-being, and is especially oriented toward routine clinical monitoring and psychotherapy outcome assessment.
The Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-24) assesses symptoms and functioning across broad behavioral health domains and is used to monitor clinical status and treatment outcomes.
⇒ Depression. General distress measures overlap with depression through low mood, anhedonia, fatigue, hopelessness, and reduced functioning.
⇒ Anxiety. Broad screeners overlap with anxiety through worry, fear, physiological arousal, avoidance, and tension.
⇒ Stress. General psychopathology measures often capture stress through overload, irritability, somatic tension, sleep disturbance, and difficulty adapting.