Self-Consciousness Scale–(SCS-R)

Background:

Private self-consciousness is a tendency to introspect and examine one’s inner self and feelings. Public self-consciousness is an awareness of the self as it is viewed by others. This kind of self-consciousness can result in self-monitoring and social anxiety. Both private and public self-consciousness are viewed as personality traits that are relatively stable over time, but they are not correlated. Just because an individual is high on one dimension doesn’t mean that he or she is high on the other. Self-consciousness can strongly influence behaviour. As well as public and private self-consciousness, the Self-Conciousness Scale (SCS-R) measures social anxiety. This revised scale is applicable to more general populations.

Psychometrics:

The Cronbach’s alpha for private self-consciousness was found to be .75, for public self-consciousness it was .84, and for social anxiety .79. These alphas compared favorably to those of the original scale. The test-retest correlation for the private subscale was .76, for the public subscale .74, and for the social anxiety subscale .77. These suggest that the scale possesses reasonable stability over time.

Author of Tool:

Scheier, M. F., & Carver, C. S.

Key references:

Primary use / Purpose:

A revised measure of public and private self-consciousness

Self-Consciousness Scale–(SCS-R)

Please answer the following questions about yourself by darkening in an appropriate circle on your IBM answer sheet. for each of the statements, indicate how much each statement is like you by using the following scale:

• 3 a lot like me
• 2 somewhat like me
• 1 a little like me
• 0 not like me at all

Please be as honest as you can throughout and try not to let your responses to one question influence your response to other questions. There are no right or wrong answers.

• 1. I’m always trying to figure myself out.
• 2. I’m concerned about my style of doing things.
• 3. It takes me time to get over my shyness in new situations.
• 4. I think about myself a lot.
• 5. I care a lot about how I present myself to others.
• 6. I often daydream about myself.
• 7. It’s hard for me to work when someone is watching me.
• 8. I never take a hard look at myself.
• 9. I get embarrassed very easily.
• 10. I’m self-conscious about the way I look.
• 11. It’s easy for me to talk to strangers.
• 12. I generally pay attention to my inner feelings.
• 13. I usually worry about making a good impression.
• 14. I’m constantly thinking about my reasons for doing things.
• 15. I feel nervous when I speak in front of a group.
• 16. Before I leave my house, I check how I look.
• 17. I sometimes step back (in my mind) in order to examine myself from a distance.
• 18. I’m concerned about what other people think of me.
• 19. I’m quick to notice changes in my mood.
• 20. I’m usually aware of my appearance.
• 21. I know the way my mind works when I work through a problem.
• 22. Large groups make me nervous.

Scoring Procedures:

1. Reverse code items 8 and 11.

2. Computing subscales:

• a. For Private Self-consciousness subscale: Sum 17, 19, and 21. items 1, 4′ 6, 8, 12, 14,
• b. For Public Self-Consciousness subscale: Sum and 20. items 2, 5, 10, 13, 16, 18,
• c. For Social Anxiety subscale: Sum items 3, 7′ 9′ 11, 15, and 22.