Collective Self-Esteem (CSE & CSE-R) Scale

Background & Information

The Collective Self-Esteem Scale and a description of its psychometric properties are found in:

Luhtanen, R., & Crocker, J. (1992). A collective self-esteem scale: Self-evaluation of one's social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 302-318.

For a copy of this article, please e-mail CrockerLabManager@gmail.com.

[BACK TO INDEX]

Scoring Instructions

The four subscales are as follows:

• Items 1, 5, 9 and 13 = Membership self-esteem.
• Items 2, 6, 10 and 14 = Private collective self-esteem.
• Items 3, 7, 11, and 15 = Public collective self-esteem.
• Items 4, 8, 12, and 16 = Importance to Identity. 

First, reverse-score answers to items 2, 4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, and 15, such that (1 = 7), (2 = 6), (3 = 5), (4 = 4), (5 = 3), (6 = 2), (7 = 1).

Then sum the answers to the four items for each respective subscale score, and divide each by 4.

Although it is possible to create an overall or composite score for collective self-esteem, we strongly recommend against doing so, because the subscales measure distinct constructs. For example, Crocker et al. (1994) found that for Black students, the public and private subscales were uncorrelated.  Consequently, averaging across these two subscales could lead to misleading findings.

[BACK TO INDEX]

Download Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSE)

(Right click or control click on link & choose "Save As")

Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSE) - GENERAL Version - Adobe PDF
Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSE) - GENERAL Version - Microsoft Word

Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSE-R) - RACE SPECIFIC Version - Adobe PDF
Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSE-R) - RACE SPECIFIC Version - Microsoft Word

[BACK TO INDEX]