Maria Kovacs is an American psychologist and academic. She is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine is a medical school of the University of Pittsburgh, located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The School of Medicine, also known as Pitt Med, is consistently ranked as a "Top Medical School" by '' ...

. She is the developer of the

Children's Depression Inventory The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI and CDI2) is a psychological assessment that rates the severity of symptoms related to depression or dysthymic disorder in children and adolescents.Kovacs, M. (1992). Children's Depression Inventory. N ...

Biography

Kovacs earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from

Queens College, City University of New York Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body ...

, a master's degree from

Teachers College, Columbia University Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), is the graduate school of education, health, and psychology of Columbia University, a private research university in New York City. Founded in 1887, it has served as one of the official faculties and ...

, and a Ph.D. from the

University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine The Perelman School of Medicine, commonly known as Penn Med, is the medical school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1765, the Perelman School of Medicine is the oldest medi ...

. In 1976, with

Aaron T. Beck Aaron Temkin Beck (July 18, 1921 – November 1, 2021) was an American psychiatrist who was a professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania.

and Arlene Weissman, Kovacs co-authored a study establishing a correlation between suicide and hopelessness. The next year, she published the

, which was largely based on the

Beck Depression Inventory The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI, BDI-1A, BDI-II), created by Aaron T. Beck, is a 21-question multiple-choice self-report inventory, one of the most widely used psychometric tests for measuring the severity of depression. Its development mark ...

that had already been used for adults. In 1979, Beck, Kovacs and Weissman published the Scale for Suicide Ideation (SSI), which measures the frequency and severity of suicidal thoughts. Kovacs is a Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at the

. She is a fellow of the

Association for Psychological Science The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...

. She received the 2013 Paul Hoch Award from the

American Psychopathological Association The American Psychopathological Association (APPA) is an organization "devoted to the scientific investigation of disordered human behavior, and its biological and psychosocial substrates." The association’s primary purpose is running an annual ...

in recognition of her research into psychopathology. In 2003, Kovacs was included in the ISI Highly Cited database.

References

External links

* 21st-century American psychologists American women psychologists 21st-century American women scientists 21st-century American scientists University of Pittsburgh faculty Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni Teachers College, Columbia University alumni Queens College, City University of New York alumni Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics {{US-psychologist-stub