Self-esteem and self-evaluation refer to how individuals evaluate themselves, their qualities, and their perceived worth. This domain includes global self-esteem, state self-esteem, domain-specific self-evaluations, conditional self-worth, social and collective self-esteem, and implicit forms of self-evaluation.
A key distinction is between self-concept and self-esteem. Self-concept refers to what people believe about themselves, including traits, roles, abilities, and characteristics. Self-esteem reflects the evaluative component of this system: the extent to which people view themselves as worthy, competent, acceptable, or inadequate.
These measures assess broad self-esteem, general self-worth, and overall positive or negative evaluation of oneself. Some instruments focus on relatively stable global self-esteem, while others capture temporary changes in self-evaluation or broad feelings of inadequacy and self-confidence.
The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) is the most widely used measure of global self-esteem, assessing overall positive or negative attitudes toward the self.
The Robson Self-Concept Questionnaire (RSCQ) assesses overall self-esteem and self-concept, reflecting how positively or negatively a person evaluates themselves.
The Single-Item Self-Esteem Scale (SISE) provides an ultra-brief measure of global self-esteem, often used when assessment time is limited.
The State Self-Esteem Scale (SSES) captures momentary fluctuations in self-evaluation across performance, social, and appearance-related domains.
The Janis-Field Feelings of Inadequacy Scale assesses overall self-esteem through feelings of inadequacy, insecurity, and self-doubt.
Some measures focus on specific components of self-evaluation rather than on global self-esteem. They may assess self-liking, perceived competence, feelings of inadequacy, social confidence, or broader core self-evaluations that combine several beliefs about personal effectiveness and worth.
The Self-Liking / Self-Competence Scale (SLCS-R) distinguishes between affective evaluation of the self and perceived competence, reflecting two partially independent components of self-esteem.
The Core Self-Evaluation Scale (CSES) captures a higher-order construct that includes self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, and emotional stability.
The Texas Social Behavior Inventory (TSBI) assesses social self-confidence and behavioral expressions of self-esteem in social situations.
These instruments assess how people describe and evaluate themselves across different domains, such as academic ability, social competence, appearance, behavior, emotional functioning, or family relationships. They show that self-evaluation may be uneven: a person can feel confident in one area and inadequate in another.
The Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ III) is a comprehensive multidimensional measure of self-concept developed by Herbert Marsh, assessing domain-specific self-perceptions across academic, social, physical, and emotional areas.
The Self-Perception Profile for Adults assesses perceived competence and self-worth in adulthood across domains such as work, social relationships, physical appearance, morality, close relationships, and global self-worth.
The Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS:2) is a multidimensional measure of self-concept, assessing self-perception across personal, social, family, moral, and physical domains. © proprietary
These measures assess self-esteem and self-evaluation in children and adolescents.
The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI), developed for children, provides a broader assessment of self-esteem across life domains, including social, school, and family contexts.
The Self-Perception Profile for Children and Adolescents assesses perceived competence and self-worth in young people across age-relevant domains, including school, social acceptance, physical appearance, behavioral conduct, and global self-worth.
The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale assesses self-concept in children and adolescents across domains such as behavior, intellectual status, physical appearance, anxiety, popularity, and happiness.
These instruments assess the extent to which self-worth depends on meeting standards, succeeding in valued domains, receiving approval, or avoiding failure. They also capture the stability of self-esteem over time and its vulnerability to criticism, rejection, achievement, or social comparison.
The Contingent Self-Esteem Scale (CSE) assesses the degree to which self-worth depends on external validation, achievement, or internal standards.
The Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale (CSWS) assesses specific domains on which self-esteem may depend, such as approval from others, appearance, competition, academic competence, family support, virtue, and God's love.
The Self-Esteem Stability Scale (SESS) assesses the extent to which self-esteem fluctuates over time, capturing instability as a distinct aspect of self-evaluation.
These measures assess self-esteem derived from group membership, social identity, and perceived value of one's social groups.
The Collective Self-Esteem Scale assesses self-evaluation based on belonging to social groups, including private regard, public regard, membership esteem, and identity importance.
Implicit self-evaluation refers to automatic or less consciously controlled associations with the self. These measures are used to examine self-evaluative processes that may differ from explicit self-report and may be relevant to defensiveness, self-protection, or emotional vulnerability.
The Self-Esteem Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures implicit associations between the self and positive or negative attributes, providing an indirect index of self-esteem that may not be captured by explicit self-reports.
Self-esteem and self-concept are central components of the broader self-system, but they describe different aspects of self-experience. Self-concept refers to the content of self-knowledge, while self-esteem refers to the value attached to that self-knowledge.
Global self-esteem provides a general index of self-worth, but it does not capture the whole picture. Domain-specific self-concept measures show how people evaluate themselves across particular areas of life, while measures of contingency and stability show whether self-worth is secure or vulnerable to success, failure, criticism, approval, or comparison.
Implicit and explicit self-esteem should also be distinguished. Self-report instruments assess conscious self-evaluation, whereas implicit measures attempt to capture automatic associations with the self. Discrepancies between these levels may be relevant to defensiveness, self-protection, and emotional vulnerability.
Together, these instruments help describe how people evaluate themselves, how stable or conditional their self-worth is, and how self-evaluation varies across personal, social, and implicit levels.