What is the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale?
Self-esteem is the overall value or love you give to yourself. How much you value yourself,
how much importance you give to your feelings in tough situations determine the level of self-esteem you have.
Self-esteem plays a significant role in the personal and professional success of an individual.
Self-esteem is all about how you accept yourself, including your looks, attitude, and capability .
Each human being is unique and different; the respect you give to your own uniqueness is self-esteem.
High self-esteem in a person has certain pros, and it helps in many ways. In contrast, a person with low
self-esteem suffers a lot, like making decisions for themselves, handling their day-to-day activities, expressing
their feelings in a relationship. How do you decide on your self-esteem level and improve your self-esteem if you
deal with a low score on it? A psychometric scale, like the Rosenberg Self-esteem, Scale comes into the rescue. The
Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale is a 10 item questionnaire that helps you assess the
level of self-esteem and let you know whether you need professional help to handle your self-esteem related issues
to improve the overall quality of life.
How self-esteem affects confidence?
Self-esteem vs. Self-confidence , though both look the same, they are not the same. Let us take
an example, there is a sportsman, say a cricketer, he performs really well in his game, and he is sure of knocking a
century in every form of his play; the trust he has in his abilities is self-confidence. The confidence he has in
his sport is expressed as self-confidence. But he often wants to improve his sporting abilities to shine in his game
and make his self-confidence work every time in every game.
But self-esteem is a different sc; for, if the same player being the best in his field was not happy from
inside, he wants to improve something to feel the hidden happiness in him, then he is with low
self-esteem. If this thirst for happiness prolongs in him, he starts losing concentration in his game at one point
in time, affecting his confidence in his abilities. Low self-esteem affects people negatively; they suffer
from a lack of motivation and moody sometimes. So keeping a check on your self-esteem helps maintain
the balance in major life activities.
The theory behind Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale
Developed in the mid-1960s by Morris Rosenberg , the scale assesses global self-esteem.
Rosenberg and his fellow researchers (1995) define global self-esteem as “the individual’s positive and
negative attitude toward the self as a totality” . Rosenberg and colleagues (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.
Global self-esteem is a general attitude towards something, and specific is
about a particular object or person. The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale has been approved as the best available
instrument to assess self-esteem levels by researchers worldwide. The 2 main component that has been analyzed in the
instrument is self-confidence and self-deprecation , both help to maintain the balance of one’s
inner self.
How to measure the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale?
The Rosenberg Self-esteem scale is a 10 item questionnaire. The questions' core concept is
framed around the difficulties faced by an individual due to self-esteem related issues. It mainly includes the
symptoms of low self-esteem individuals’ attitude and the problems it creates.
The 10 questions are measured against 4 standard responses like “Strongly agree”, “agree”, “disagree”,
“strongly disagree”. The responses are scored using a Likert scale of 4. This Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale
test is the easiest one to undertake. You can do it by yourself or with the help of primary health care
professional.
Scoring and Interpretation of the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale’s results
The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale scoring is straightforward to do. Out of 10 questions, 5 questions are
scored straight like, “Strongly Agree”- 4 and “Strongly disagree”- 1. For another set of 5 questions, it is
scored reversely. Since the Rosenberg scale consists of both positive and negative patterned questions, the scoring
differs accordingly. After noting down the scores for each question, they are summed up to get the total
score.
The score ranges from 10-40 ; the higher the scores, the higher their self-esteem. If you are
analyzed with low self-esteem, you should definitely take some behavioral changes, therapy if needed, and seek
professional help.
Conclusion
We all feel nervous and doubtful to do things sometimes, but people with high self-esteem do not let these
feelings stop them from trying new things and take up the new challenges life throwing them. So don’t allow your low
self-esteem to curtain your path to success and happiness; take up a Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale test, and determine
your level of self-esteem, be aware of your inner harmony.
