Self-esteem Assessment

[Nicol Allphin]

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Many psychological and sociological professionals would argue that the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale is the best tool for measuring self-esteem. You will read more about it later in this article. Still, there are other options, and some are especially useful when working with young children.

Another possibility while working with adult populations is to assess the stability of self-esteem. To do this, you might use the Self-Esteem Stability Scale. You also could use the Instability of Self-Esteem Scale. You will learn more about these in the More Self-Esteem Tests and Assessments section.

The overall point is that self-esteem, self-concept, self-efficacy, and many other self-related constructs are measurable in some form. The bigger question revolves around the validity and reliability of the various instruments. How do we know that they actually measure what the researchers say that they measure?

For example, bakers use specific measuring tools. Some are for liquids, others for solids, and still others for weight. If a baker uses a liquid measuring tool for something that should be weighed, then the end product could change. If the product is bread, it could end up dry and dense. If it is a cookie, it could end up stiff.

If a researcher wants to measure self-esteem in youth, what instrument is the right tool? Should the researcher create something new? If so, what should they consider? Does the structure of questions matter? Validity and reliability are critical in the process.

There are four types of validity: face, content, criterion, and construct. There also are four forms of reliability: interrater, test-retest, equivalent forms, internal consistency. A researcher must consider each of these when either creating an assessment or using an existing one.

It discusses validity, reliability, and fairness in testing in the first section of the text. It has been available in print since 1966.

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Rosenberg et al. (1995) distinguish between global and specific self-esteem. They agree that the interrelated nature of the two is possible. They also argue that treating these constructs as though they are interchangeable devalues them both as separate phenomena.

What is meant by global versus specific self-esteem? As an example, consider attitudes. Everyone has positive, negative, or neutral attitudes toward objects. These attitudes can be toward the entire object (global) or to a small piece of it (specific).

A person can have an attitude toward the self generally and also specifically. You could hold a negative attitude about your aptitude for a specific subject and generally have a positive attitude about your overall intelligence.

Initially, Rosenberg used his scale with adolescents, but now it also is available for use with adults. Today, social psychologists, psychiatrists, medical doctors, therapists, and others use the scale worldwide. You can find it in several languages.

For instance, if a person strongly agreed to question 1 and strongly disagreed to question 3, then it is a safe bet that the person has a healthy self-esteem. Of course, we would not reach this conclusion based on only two responses.

To better understand or interpret scoring, the University of Maryland Department of Sociology recommends reviewing the literature. As previously mentioned, it is vital that a researcher knows for whom the instrument is intended before using it in a study. It also is important to use the tool as-is so that its reliability remains sound.

The world of tests and assessments is abundant with options. Some are suitable for adults, others for children. Many researchers even adapt scales to make them suitable for different cultures. Below are several examples of scales falling into these categories.

Adolescents respond to a 30-item questionnaire using a Likert scale. Averaging the sub-scales yields a general self-esteem score. Unlike the RSES, there is no need to reverse score negatively worded items.

The Lawrence Self-Esteem Questionnaire (LAWSEQ) uses a three-point Likert scale appropriate for use with primary school children. The central construct measured is interpersonal competencies. The original scale, developed in 1981, resulted from work with first-year students in Belfast, Northern Ireland (N=120).

The most recent version, published in 2011, includes 16 items. It is self-scored, and there are no sub-scores. The result is an overall self-esteem score. The LAWSEQ has an alpha of .73. The scale is unidimensional (Rand Corporation, 2018).

Some might argue that a single-item scale cannot offer much, but the authors found compelling evidence for it. Over the course of four studies examining construct validity of RSES and SISE, they found:

Determining the reliability of a single-item scale is not possible. Instead, the authors utilized the Heise procedure to estimate it. This allows researchers to assess reliability based on autocorrelations at three different points in time (Robins et al., 2001).

The Self-Esteem Stability Scale provides insights into fluctuations in levels of self-esteem. It looks at short periods. Altmann and Roth (2018) developed this unidimensional three-item scale to assess stability more directly. It has an alpha of .71.

Chabrol, Rousseau, and Callahan (2006) created the Instability of Self-Esteem Scale to complement the RSES. It is a four-item questionnaire that gauges changes in self-esteem. In their studies, they showed an internal consistency of .89. Test-retest reliability was .89. Concurrent validity was r= .81 (Chabrol et al., 2006).

Many mental health professionals are familiar with the scales mentioned in this article. For the layperson or the newly minted life coach, they might be new. If that describes you, then remember this:

About the author Kori D. Miller, MA, is a habit change aficionado, facilitator, and coach. Kori loves helping others achieve their goals one bite-size step at a time. She completed graduate-level coursework in positive psychology through the University of Missouri-Columbia and is completing a master's program in Educational Psychology with a specialization in neuropsychology. How useful was this article to you? Not useful at all Very useful 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Submit Share this article:

Respected Author,

I am student of Psychology in University of Karachi, Pakistan.

I would like to request for permission to use Rosenberg Self Esteem scale in my research.

Regards,

Nayyar Sultana

I hope this message finds you well. We would like to ask permission in using Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale for our research study. We came across your work and believe your instrument would be a valuable addition to our study. We will properly credit your work in any publications or presentations resulting from our study.

Jan Mariel, Lei Singian, Sophia Hannah, Dennis Roldan, Ej Dela Cruz, Carla Gonzales, Rachele Celis, Alyzandra Mendoza, and Je Ann Dino are grade 12 students from the La Consolacion University Philippines section of HUMSS-5 Group 3. We would like to request permission to use the standard Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale questionnaire in our papers for practical research.

Hello,

I would like to know who can I possibly reach out for asking permission on using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale? It is part of the requirement for our research and I am really having a hard time finding who to contact for the Scale.

A historical assumption in psychology has been that high self-esteem is beneficial and low self-esteem is detrimental (Crocker & Park, 2004). However, a more nuanced view of self-esteem has emerged, suggesting the benefits of high trait self-esteem are restricted to enhanced initiative and happiness (Baumiester, Campbell, Krueger, & Vohs, 2003). Crocker and Park (2004) point out that self-esteem is associated with self-focus interpersonal and achievement goals, and high self-esteem can produce costs in terms of loss of relatedness, increased competitiveness and lower concern for group wellbeing. These researchers argue psychologists should be less concerned in fostering the amount of self-esteem and more concerned with the processes by which individuals pursue it. An alternative to self-esteem, self-compassion, may have many of the benefits of self-esteem without the drawbacks.

Despite higher self-esteem not always being more adaptive, evidence shows that self-esteem is negatively and linearly related to disorders of mood and anxiety (Greenberg et al., 1992; Lightsey et al., 2006; Neustadt et al., 2006; Torrey et al., 2000), so higher self-esteem has been shown to be protective against some mental disorders. Scores above the 90th percentile are indicative of grandiosity.

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We examined stability and level of self-esteem as predictors of excuse making; the extent to which self-ratings of stability are related to a statistical index of self-esteem stability; and the relations between stability and certainty of self-esteem and a variety of other psychological constructs. Regarding excuse making, our findings indicated that for high self-esteem individuals, instability was related to greater excuse making following success, but not following failure. However, for low self-esteem individuals, instability was related to greater excuse making following failure, but not following success. Other findings indicated that self-ratings of stability were only minimally related to a statistical measure of stability based on repeated assessments of self-esteem obtained in naturalistic contexts. Finally, stability of self-esteem was not significantly correlated with certainty of self-esteem. In addition, the pattern of correlations that emerged between certainty and other constructs suggested that uncertainty reflects the phenomenal experience of a tenuous self-view. On the other hand, stability of self-esteem appears to reflect the extent to which one's self-view is malleable, which may not be completely available to conscious awareness. Our discussion focuses on the nature of self-esteem stability and the roles of stability and level of self-esteem in reactions to evaluative events.

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