Individual dierences in appraisal of depression Clara Bookless*, John Clayer, Alexander C. McFarlane Department of Psychiatry, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of Adelaide, Woodville 5011, SA, Australia Received 11 May 1998; received in revised form 4 December 1998; accepted 12 January 1999 Abstract This work introduces the Personal Appraisal Inventory (PAI) that was designed to quantify the personal meaning of experiencing a psychiatric disorder. The need to develop this new instrument is discussed and the results of a study with patients diagnosed and receiving treatment for major depression is presented. Speci®cally, factor analysis of the PAI items and the variance in depression scores explained by these factors is outlined. The ®ndings suggest that the PAI provides a signi®cant inroad to identifying coherent patterns of personal meaning. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Personal meaning; Cognitive appraisal; Depression 1. Introduction The personal meaning that people give to their experiences can have a powerful impact on their psychological adjustment to those experiences (Frankl, 1963; Taylor, 1983; Kleinman, 1988; Shepherd, 1990). In that context, an important link may exist between the personal meaning of a psychiatric disorder and the course of that disorder. Focusing in this way upon what the disorder means to a patient may provide clinical insight into individual dierences in recovery. However, the progress of such research has been limited by (a) the lack of instruments to quantify the personal meaning of these experiences (McGorry, 1992; Coyne, & Calarco, 1995) and (b) the lack of a workable de®nition of personal meaning. The present study aimed to address these problems by drawing upon the work of Lazarus (Lazarus, 1966) Personality and Individual Dierences 28 (2000) 7±15 0191-8869/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0191-8869(99)00044-6 www.elsevier.com/locate/paid * Corresponding author. Tel: +61-8-222-6515; fax: +61-8-222-6036.