What’s Coopersmith’s Self-Esteem Inventory?

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The Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI) is a tool to measure self-esteem, often used in individual and classroom assessments. It was first conceptualized by Stanley Coopersmith in 1967 and later adapted for adults. Self-esteem is an important component of good mental health and stability, and the CSEI is widely accepted in professional psychology. The test asks 50 questions about the tester’s personality, and criticisms include the self-report approach being amenable to socially desirable responses.

Self-esteem, as defined by the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (CSEI), is a personal assessment of one’s self-worth often manifested in personal attitudes and expressions about oneself. Used as a self-esteem measurement tool, the CSEI typically includes questions that force the tester to choose the best among several answers that describe themselves. Applications of the inventory include individual assessments, classroom assessments, and both before and after assessments to measure changes in self-esteem. As a prominent researcher of self-esteem and its impacts on children, the inventory was first conceptualized by Stanley Coopersmith in 1967. Specifically designed to measure self-esteem in children aged 15 to 15, the inventory was later adapted to adult populations and has also been found to measure other important characteristics besides self-esteem, especially in adults.

In the field of psychology, self-esteem is considered an important component of good mental health and stability. Related to a wide range of psychological research domains, such exploration of self-esteem is usually examined from two different perspectives: self-construction and self-protection. Many of the domains covered include personality, cognitive functioning, anxiety, depression, and behavioral characteristics. Naturally, from such an emphasis on self-esteem as it relates to many areas of psychology research, the need to measure it accurately has led to the design of many tools to do so. Widely accepted and trusted in professional psychology, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory is used quite often for such purposes.

Using the scale first established by Carl Rodgers, the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory was designed to assess one’s general attitude towards oneself. Specific contexts are the basis for understanding tester attitudes, which can include peers, interests, school, and parents. Generally, most forms of the test will have 50 questions, asking whether a statement is similar or dissimilar to the tester’s personality. In its original form, two forms of the test are often used: the school form for children aged 15 to 16 and the adult form for those aged 15 and over.

Stanley Coopersmith used the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory as an aid in his research on self-esteem, his research being the primary reason for developing assessment. Subsequently, other researchers conclude that self-esteem is only one measure of evaluation, thus making it complex in nature. These additional areas include lie detection, anxiety indicators, advocacy, and social ineptitude, to name a few. Criticisms of the assessment, however, point out that the test uses a self-report approach and therefore is amenable to socially desirable responses, rather than accurate responses that reflect perceptions of self.




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