Do You Have A Healthy Self-esteem?

Self-esteem is closely linked to the subjective assessment we make of ourselves. A healthy self-esteem will always generate a positive well-being, while at its lowest levels it can send us into depression. That is why it is so important to take care of it and evaluate it, simply because it is something that fluctuates so much. One of the tools we find in psychology, and which will help us achieve this goal, is Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale.

This scale is short, fast, reliable and highly valid. So much so that it is one of the most widely used tools that psychologists use to assess people’s self-esteem. It is also often used when you want to measure this variable in a research context.

Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale and its implementation

Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale is named after its creator, Morris Rosenberg, a professor and doctor of sociology who devoted several years of his life to the study of self-esteem and self-concept. He presented the first proposal for the scale in his book: Society and the Adolescent’s Self-Image .

Morris Rosenberg’s scale consists of 10 statements about how much or how little the person values himself, and how satisfied he is with himself. The first 5 statements are formulated positively, the remaining 5 in a negative way.

Each of the positive affirmations is scored from 0 (I totally disagree) to 3 (I totally agree). The negative affirmations are scored in reverse, 3 means completely disagree and 0 completely agree.

These are the statements:

1. I feel I am a worthy appreciation, at least as much as others.

2. I feel I have positive qualities.

3. In general, I tend to think I’m a failure.

4. I am able to do things as well as most others can.

5. I feel like I do not have much to be proud of.

6. I adopt a positive attitude towards myself.

7. In general, I feel happy with myself.

8. I would like to have more respect for myself.

9. Sometimes I feel useless.

10. Sometimes I think I’m useless.

The results

The positive statements (1,2,4,6,7) and the negative ones (3,5,8,9,10) are mixed. The result of their score allows us to gain an understanding of the state of the respondent’s self-esteem. A score lower than 15 would indicate a very low self-esteem, which indicates that there is something to work on.

A score of between 15 and 25 points will indicate a healthy self-esteem, and falls within the parameters of what is considered “balanced”. A score of over 25 would show a strong and healthy person. However, such a high score can also indicate problems in how the person sees reality, and could mark people who are too satisfied with themselves. The ideal score will vary between 15 and 25 points.

The most relevant findings in Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale

Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale, although initially intended for teenagers, was later adapted for adults. This allowed them to evaluate the entire population and even different cultures, which gave rise to very interesting findings.

One of these findings showed that people living in individualistic societies, such as the United States, feel very competent but less satisfied with themselves. The same thing does not happen in places like Japan. There you will find a collectivism that makes satisfaction with oneself higher, but a lower sense of competence.

In addition, the scale showed that extroverted and more emotionally stable people enjoy higher self-esteem, while introverted and emotionally unstable people have poor self-esteem.

Woman who has a healthy self-esteem blows blue dust

Despite all these findings, Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale showed that all people, be they men or women, children or adults, tend to evaluate themselves in a positive way. Of course, we have to ask if this is because many people are ashamed to admit their shortcomings – the things that make them feel bad – or because they are unable to recognize them.