Updated: 20 October 2009
PHaS home page OPP questionnaire OPP item key OPP bibliography
The Opinions about Psychological Problems (OPP) is a self-report questionnaire which measures how people view the causes of and treatments for psychological problems. It is divided into two separate halves, focusing on Etiology and Treatment: each half has seven subscales, assessing Psychodynamic, Humanistic/Interpersonal, Behavioural, Cognitive, Organic, Social/Economic and Naive orientations.
The OPP questionnaire, item key, and bibliography are all downloadable from this site. We are happy for any of this material to be duplicated and used for any non-commercial purposes, providing that you acknowledge our original authorship.
The citation for the questionnaire itself is:
Barker, C., Pistrang, N., & Shapiro, D.A. (1983). Opinions about Psychological Problems. Unpublished instrument. Retrieved from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/clinical-psychology/Research-Groups/phas/OPPhome.htm
Its first published description was in the following article:
Pistrang, N., & Barker, C. (1992). Clients’ beliefs about psychological problems. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 5, 325-336.
There is an annotated bibliography of published studies using the OPP. Please let us know of any potential additions (reprints or pdfs much appreciated).
You are welcome to email Dr Chris Barker if you have any thoughts, queries or problems concerning the OPP.