The Response Styles Questionnaire (RSQ) is a 71-item self-report rating scale for assessing response styles associated with sadness and depression. RSQ has four subscales: ruminative responses, distracting responses, problem-solving, and dangerous activities. A revised version of the RSQ has 48 items and consists of three subscales: rumination, pleasant distraction and problem-solving, and risk-taking. Extensive research with the RSQ has established that only the ruminative responses subscale provides a valid and reliable measure of response styles for depression. This 22-item subscale, known as the Ruminative Response Styles (RSS) scale, has proven to be psychometrically robust and is the preferred instrument for research on response styles for depression in meditation and mindfulness research.