Introduction
Self consciousness is in essence self-reflection. Some people reflect more on themselves than others, and the popular self-consciousness scale measures this. The revised version used here changed the original one so that the language used is more accessible for a very broad population (rather than just psychology students, who are often recruited for psychological test validation).
The Scheier and Carver (1985) paper illustrates the problems of the original test nicely, and is relevant to all psychology students who want to create their own test!
For example, our initial attempt to use the scale with a group of coro- nary artery bypass patients revealed that most of them had no idea what the word “scrutinize” meant.
p.688
Below are the normative data based on a student sample as reported by Scheier & Carver (1985, table 4, p.697).
| Subscale | possible range | Men (n=230) | Women (n=85) |
|---|---|---|---|
Private self-consciousness |
0-27 |
15.5 |
17.3 |
Public self-consciousness |
0-21 |
13.5 |
14.2 |
Social Anxiety |
0-18 |
8.8 |
8.6 |
| Only the sex difference on the private self-consciousness scale was significantly different. |
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Legal stuff
It seems that the SCS-R can be used for research (it is published in a journal and the test is available via the first author’s webpage, but as always, you need to acknowledge the authors and their research paper when writing about it (Scheier & Carver, 1985).
Technically
This is a simple scale item with some reverse coded items.
The survey code for PsyToolkit
scale: likeme
- {score=3} a lot like me
- {score=2} somewhat like me
- {score=1} a little like me
- {score=0} not like me at all
l: scsr
t: scale likeme
o: buildup
o: random
q: Please be a s honest as you can throughout, and try not to let your responses to one question influence your response to other questions.<br>
There are no right or wrong answers.
- I'm always trying to figure myself out
- I'm concerned about my style of doing things
- It takes me time to get over my shyness in new situations
- I think about myself a lot
- I care a lot about how I present myself to others
- I often daydream about myself
- It's hard for me to work when someone is watching me
- {reverse} I never take a hard look at myself
- I get embarrassed very easily
- I'm self-conscious about the way I look
- {reverse} It's easy for me to talk to strangers
- I generally pay attention to my inner feelings
- I usually worry about making a good impression
- I'm constantly thinking about my reasons for doing things
- I feel nervous when I speak in front of a group
- Before I leave my house, I check how I look
- I sometimes step back (in my mind) in order to examine myself from a distance
- I'm concerned about what other people think of me
- I'm quick to notice changes in my mood
- I'm usually aware of my appearance
- I know the way my mind works when I work through a problem
l: private
t: set
- sum $scsr.1 $scsr.4 $scsr.6 $scsr.8 $scsr.12 $scsr.14 $scsr.17
$scsr.19 $scsr.21
l: public
t: set
- sum $scsr.2 $scsr.5 $scsr.10 $scsr.13 $scsr.16 $scsr.18 $scsr.20
l: anxiety
t: set
- sum $scsr.3 $scsr.7 $scsr.9 $scsr.11 $scsr.15 $scsr.22
l: feedback
t: radio
q: Your self-consciousness scale scores are:
<ul>
<li>Private self-consciousness: {$private}
<li>Public self-consciousness: {$public}
<li>Social anxiety: {$anxiety}
</ul>
- Okay, I get it
References
-
Scheier, M. F. & Carver, C. S. (1985). The self-consciousnes scale - a revised version for use with general populations. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 15, 687-699.
-
Download the the original scale here from Scheier’s webpage.