Self-esteem, or the way an individual feels about himself or herself, impacts individuals personally, professionally, and socially. Several methods have been devised to measure self-esteem, from the informal self-esteem quiz to more professional self-esteem assessments. In general, the latter varieties provide the most effective means of self-esteem assessment due to their scientifically based design. A valid assessment should address several different aspects of self-esteem. In addition, questions and answers should be structured in an easily quantifiable manner.
Individuals with low self-esteem are often their own worst critics, and they frequently believe that others view them in the same harsh and negative manner. If an individual lacks faith in himself or herself, this is one important sign of low self-esteem. High self-esteem, on the other hand, is a general love and positive regard for the self. Several psychologists have regarded self-worth as one of the most important traits of a well-functioning person.
An effective self-esteem assessment will address many issues in its questions. Most valid tests will devote a certain percentage of questions to different categories like self-worth or an individual’s perception of how others see him or her. A longer assessment is more likely to be comprehensive in this regard. The Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale, for example, measures a range of issues like family love and approval and morality. Questions or statements also typically begin with “I” so that the test-taker will feel more personally connected to the answers.
In general, the most enduring test self-esteem assessment types are easily quantifiable, with Likert-style tests being a prime example. This means that questions and answers are structured so that each answer can easily be assigned a score, such as in the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. A typical question, for example, might be written as more of a statement: “I love myself.” Answers would then be arranged on a spectrum, from “Strongly Disagree” to “Strongly Agree.” In these types of statements, each possible answer is assigned a value — usually from one to five — and all of the values are tabulated and averaged to produce an overall score.
Quantifiable tests are more valued by the scientific community because they have been validated by scientific research methods and have been tested on large and diverse groups of people. Therefore, these types of tests typically provide a more accurate and verifiable self-esteem assessment. They also tend to be reliable indicators of behavior, as individuals with low collective scores tend to demonstrate lower self-esteem.