On the measurement of implicative dilemmas

The Implicative Dilemma (ID) is a type of cognitive conflict that is gradually receiving attention of clinical psychologists and researchers, principally those in the field of Personal Construct Psychology (PCP). Although research on its clinical relevance is promising, there are still some issues regarding its measurement that need further consideration. In this article we try to cover some the most pertinent questions regarding the measurement of IDs, including the adequacy of the different arbitrary thresholds used to determine construct association, the efficacy of the different indices commonly used to measure IDs and a verification of the ID not being a mere sub-product of the self-ideal distance. In addition, we introduce and test a new index that was designed to improve the predictive ability of the ID, based on previous measures. We also provide guidelines for practitioners on how to interpret the indices’ numerical results in relation to major depression.