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A multi-layered journey from a simple number to the scientific essence of the SDS, exploring its construction, meaning, validity, and wise application.
Last updated: August 3, 2025
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In contemporary society, mental health is an increasingly prominent focus of public attention. As the pace of life accelerates and social pressures mount, the prevalence of depressive moods, and indeed depressive disorders, is on the rise. Against this backdrop, various mental health self-assessment tools have emerged. Like a thermometer in a home first-aid kit, they provide a preliminary, rapid window into our own emotional state. Among them, the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), developed by William W.K. Zung in 1965, is undoubtedly one of the most historic and widely used.
An online SDS test platform allows a user to answer 20 questions and receive a number—a score. This score, whether it's "58," "75," or "42," seems to neatly label the complex, ineffable inner pain as "mild depression," "severe depression," or "normal." But what does this number truly represent? Where does it come from? How should we view it scientifically and rationally? And to what extent can it reflect our true mental world?
This article will go beyond a simple interpretation of the score, leading you on a progressive, in-depth exploration. We will start with the scale's "skeleton" (structure and scoring), delve into its "flesh and blood" (clinical meaning of the score), analyze its "nervous system" (reliability and validity), inspect its "mental model" (factor structure and symptom dimensions), and finally, critically examine its "boundaries" (limitations and wise application). This is not just an analysis of a psychometric tool, but a journey of reflection on how to quantify subjective feelings and scientifically understand our own emotions.
What is the score on the self-rating depression scale?
