../dysfunctional-attitude-score

Dysfunctional Attitude Score

Published: 2026-08-09

Tool Mental Health

35 question checklist from the book Feeling Good. DAS (Dystfunctional Attitude Score) was created by Arlene Weissman and Aaron Beck.

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Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-35)

Instructions: Read each statement carefully and select the option that best describes how you typically think. There are no right or wrong answers. Please answer all 35 items.

-2 = Very Much Agree -1 = Slightly Agree 0 = Neutral +1 = Slightly Disagree +2 = Very Much Disagree

1. Approval

1. Criticism will obviously upset the person who receives the criticism.

2. It is best to give up my own interest in order to please other people.

3. I need other people's approval in order to be happy.

4. If someone important to me expects me to do something, then I really should do it.

5. My value as a person depends greatly on what others think of me.

2. Love

6. I cannot find happiness without being loved by another person.

7. If others dislike you, are are bound to be less happy.

8. If people whom I care about reject me, it means there is something wrong with me.

9. If a person I love does not love me back, it means I am unlovable.

10. Being isolated from others is bound to lead to unhappiness.

3. Achievement

11. If I am to be a worthwhile person, I must be truly outstanding in at least one major respect.

12. I must be useful, productive, creative person or life has no purpose.

13. People who have good ideas are more important those who do not.

14. If I do not do as well as other people, it means I an inferior.

15. If I fail at work, then I am a failure as a person.

4. Perfectionism

16. If you cannot do something well, there is little point in doing it at all.

17. It is shameful for a person to display his weaknesses.

18. A person should try to be the best at everything he/she undertakes.

19. I should be upset if I make a mistake.

20. If I don't set the higest standards for myself, I am likely to end up a second rate person.

5. Entitlement

21. If I strongly believe I deserve something, I have reason to expect I should get it.

22. It is necessary to become frustrated if you find obstacles to getting what you want.

23. If I put other people's needs before my own. they should help me when I need something from them..

24. If I am a good husband (or wife), then my spouse is bound to love me.

25. If I do nice things for someone, I can anticipate that they will respect me and teat we just as well as I treat them.

6. Omnipotence

26. I should assume responsibility for how people feel and behave if they are close to me.

27. If I criticize the way someone does something and they become angry or depressed, this means I have upset them.

28. To be a good, worthwhile, moral person, I must try to help everyone who needs it.

29. If a child is having emotional or behavioral difficults, this shows that the child's parents have failed in some improtant respect.

30. I should be able to please everybody.

7. Autonomy

31. I cannot expect to control how I feel when something bad happens.

32. There is no point in trying to change upsetting emotions because they are a valid and inevitable part of daily living.

33. My moods are primarily created by factors that are largely beyond my control, such as the past, or body chemistry, or hormone cycles, or biorythms or chance or fate.

34. My happiness is largely dependent on what happens to me.

35. People who have the marks of success (good looks, social status, wealth, or fame) are bound to be happier than those who do not.