Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI)

The Beck Anxiety Inventory was developed by Dr. Aaron T. Beck and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania. Beck, a pioneer of cognitive therapy, designed the BAI to address the need for an anxiety measure that would discriminate between anxiety and depression — a limitation of earlier instruments. The items were selected from three earlier anxiety scales (the Anxiety Checklist, the Physician's Desk Reference Checklist, and the Situational Anxiety Checklist) and refined through factor analysis. The BAI is one of the most widely used anxiety instruments in both clinical practice and research.