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The Self-Consciousness
Scale
The public
and private self-consciousness scale, developed by Fenigstein, Scheier,
and Buss (1975), is the most widely-used measure of dispositional self-focus.
The scale has three factors: private self-consciousness, public self-consciousness,
and social anxiety.
Since 1975,
the private self-consciousness subscale has received the most attention.
Several reviews have expressed concern about the validity of public self-consciousness,
suggesting that it does not assess self-directed attention (Gibbons, 1990;
Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1987).
Recent years
have seen some debate about the factor structure of the self-consciousness
scale, particularly whether private self-consciousness should be split
into two subfactors (usually called "self-reflection" and "internal
state awareness"). This debate, in my view (Silvia, 1999), is psychometric
rather than theoretical. Several new models of dispositional self-focus
have appeared in response to these concerns (e.g., Rumination
and Reflection; Self-Reflection and Insight).
You can get
a PDF version of the scale here.
Reference
for this scale:
Fenigstein,
A., Scheier, M. F., & Buss, A. H. (1975). Public and private self-consciousness:
Assessment and theory. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology,
43, 522–527.
Reviews of
research that used this scale:
Buss,
A. H. (1980). Self-consciousness and social anxiety. San Francisco:
Freeman.
Fenigstein,
A. (1987). On the nature of public and private self-consciousness. Journal
of Personality, 55, 543–553.
Gibbons,
F. X. (1990). Self-attention and behavior: A review and theoretical
update. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 23, 249–303.
Scheier,
M. F., & Carver, C. S. (1983). Private and public aspects of the
self. In L. Wheeler (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology
(Vol. 2, pp. 189–216). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
Wicklund,
R. A., & Gollwitzer, P. M. (1987). The fallacy of the private–public
self-focus distinction. Journal of Personality, 55, 492–523.
Recent papers
on the factor structure of the self-consciousness scales:
Cramer,
K. M. (2000). Comparing the relative fit of various factor models of
the self-consciousness scale in two independent samples. Journal
of Personality Assessment, 75, 295–307.
Creed,
A. T., & Funder, D. C. (1998). The two faces of private self-consciousness:
Self report, peer-report, and behavioral correlates. European Journal
of Personality, 12, 411–431.
Nystedt,
L., & Ljungberg, A. (2002). Facets of private and public self-consciousness:
Construct and discriminant validity. European Journal of Personality,
16, 143–159.
Silvia,
P. J. (1999). Explaining personality or explaining variance? A comment
on Creed and Funder (1998). European Journal of Personality, 13,
533–538.
P. Silvia,
UNCG
Last Updated: May 22, 2004
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