Development, reliability, and validity of a dissociation scale.
The Journal of nervous and mental disease December 1, 1986 E M Bernstein, F W Putnam
The Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES) is a 28-item self-report questionnaire that measures dissociation—the lack of normal integration of thoughts, feelings, and experiences into consciousness and memory. The scale was developed using clinical data, interviews, and expert consultation, then pilot tested. Subjects mark their responses on 100-mm lines, and the average of all item scores (0 to 100) yields the DES score. Administered to normal adults, college students, and people with alcoholism, agoraphobia, phobic-anxious disorders, PTSD, schizophrenia, or multiple personality disorder, the scale demonstrated good test-retest and split-half reliability, significant item-scale correlations, and evidence of criterion-referenced validity.