This section is organized by the name of the scales.
The Acceptance and Action Questionnaire measures psychological inflexibilty or experiential avoidance.
- 7-item, self-report, 7 point Likert-type scale (1 = never true, 7 = always true)
- Cronbach’s alpha: .88, Test-retest 3- and -12-mo is .81 and .79, respectively
- Bond, F. W., Hayes, S. C., Baer, R. A., Carpenter, K. M., Guenole, N., Orcutt, H. K., Waltz, T., & Zettle, R. D. (2011). Preliminary psychometric properties of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire – II: A revised measure of psychological flexibility and experiential avoidance. Behavior Therapy, 42, 676-688.
‘Attitudes Towards Mental Health Problems’ Self Rating scale is a self-report scale designed for this study to measure: external shame (beliefs that others will look down on self if one has mental health problems); internal shame (related to negative self-evaluations); and reflected shame (believing that one can bring shame to family/community).
- Gilbert, P., Bhundia, R., Mitra, R., McEwan, K., Irons, C., & Sanghera, J. (2007). Cultural differences in shame-focused attitudes towards mental health problems in Asian and non-Asian student women. Mental Health, Religion & Culture, 10(2), 127-141.
The Shame Experience Scale measures experiences of shame in childhood and adolescence.
- 15-item, self-report, 5 point Likert-type scale (1 = never true, 5 = always true)
- Cronbach’s Alpha: 0.95
- Dinis, A., Matos, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Magalhaes, C. (in preparation). Shame Experiences Scale.
The Centrality of Event Scale measures how central an event is to a person’s identity and life story
- 20-item or shortened 7-item , self-report, 5 point Likert-type scale (1 = totally disagree, 5 = totally agree)
- Cronbach’s alpha: .94 (shortened is .88)
- Berntsen, D., & Rubin, D. C. (2006). The centrality of event scale: A measures of integrating a trauma into one’s identity and its relation to post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 219-231. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2005.01.009
The Experience of Shame Scale measures proneness to shame and whether scale can predict depression. It is based on a previous interview measure, and an established shame scale (TOSCA), and they both are considered in their relation to depressive symptoms assessed at two time points 11 weeks apart.
- 25-item, self-report, 4 point Likert-type scale (1 = not at all, 2 = a little, 3 = moderately, 4 = very much), range of 25-100
- Cronbach’s alpha: .92, test-retest is .83 at 11 weeks
- Andrews, B., Qian, M., & Valentine, J. D. (2002). Predicting depressive symptoms with a new measure of shame: The Experience of Shame Scale. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 41(1), 29-42.
4 areas of characterological shame (alpha = .90; test-retest = .78)
- personal habits (3 items)
- manner with others (3)
- sort of person you are (3)
- personal ability (3)
3 areas of behavioral shame (alpha = .87; test-retest = .74)
- doing something wrong (3)
- saying something stupid (3)
- failure in competitive situations (3)
- feeling ashamed of your body or any part of it
1 area of bodily shame (3) (alpha = .86; test-retest = .82)
- feeling ashameed of your body or any part of it
3 components per area:
- experiential–direct question about the shame
- cognitive–question about concern over others’ opinions
- behavioral–question about concealment or avoidance
Guilt and Shame Proness (GASP) scale measures individual differences in the propensity to experience guilt and shame across a range of personal transgressions.
- 16-item, self-report, 4-item per 4 subscale, 7 point Likert-type scale (1 = very unlikely, 2 = unlikely, 3 = slightly unlikely, 4 = about 50% unlikely, 5 = slightly likely, 6 = likely, 7 very likely)
- Cronbach’s alpha: .60-.80
- Cohen, T. R., Wolf, S. T., Panter, A. T., & Insko, C. A. (2011). Introducing the GASP scale: A new measure of guilt and shame proneness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 947-966. doi:10.1037/a0022641
Early Life Experiences Scale (ELES) measures recall of perceived threat (6 items) and subordination (9 items) in childhood.
- 15-item, self-report, 3 subscales (threat, submission, unvalued), 5 point Likert-type scale (1 = completely false, 5 = very true)
- Cronbach’s alpha: 0.92
- Gilbert, P., Cheung, M.S.P., Grandfield, T., Campey, F., & Irons, C. (2003). Recall of threat and submissiveness in childhood: Development of a new scale and its relationship with depression, social comparison and shame. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, 10, 108-115.
Forms of Self-criticizing/attacking and Self-reassuring Scale measures the way people self-criticize/attack and self-soothe ‘when things go wrong’.
- 22-item, 3 factors (inadequate self, hated self, and reassured self), self-report, 5 point Likert-type scale (1 = not at all like me, 5 = extremely like me)
- Cronbach’s alpha: .90 (inadequate), .86 for both hated and reassured self subscales
- Gilbert, P., Clark, M., Hempel, S., Miles, J.N.V., & Irons, C. (2004). Criticising and reassuring oneself: An exploration of forms, styles and reasons in female students. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 43, 31-50.
Shame Experiences Interview (SEI) measures shame experiences from childhood and adolescence. It measures emotional, cognitive, behavioural, motivational and contextual components of shame and its autobiographical/traumatic memory characteristics.
- Matos, M., & Pinto-Gouveia, J. (2006). The shame experiences interview. Unpublished manuscript.
Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R) measures shame experiences from childhood and adolescence.
- 22 items, self-report, 3 factors (avoidance, intrusion, hyperarousal), 5 point likert scale (0-4)
- Cronbach’s alpha: .87-.92 (intrusion), .84-.86 (avoidance), .79-.90 (hyperarousal)
- Weiss, D. S., & Marmar, C. R. (1997). The impact of event scale—Revised. In J. P. Wilson & T. M. Keane (Eds.). Assessing Psychological Trauma and PTSD, 399-411. NY: The Guilford Press.
Other as Shamer Scale (OAS) measures external shame (i.e., global judgements of how people think others view them).
- 18 item, self-report, 5 point likert scale (0 = never, 1 = seldom, 2 = sometime, 3 = frequently, 4 = almost always)
- Cronbach’s alpha: 0.92
- Goss, K., Gilbert, P., & Allan, S. (1994). An exploration of shame measures I. The “other as shamer scale”. Personality and Individual Differences, 17, 713-717.
Internalized Shame Scale (ISS) measures intense affect and self-cognitions involving internalized shame & self-esteem (not to be used independently)
- 24 negatively worded items, self-report, 5 point Likert scale (never to almost always)
- Cook, D.R. (1993). The internalized shame scale manual. Channel Press: Menomonie, WI.
The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ) measures 3 depressive personality styles: dependency, self-criticism, & efficacy (goal-oriented strivings).
- 66-item, negative & positively worded items, 7 point scale from 1 = strongly disagree to 7 = strongly agree
- Blatt, S.J., D’Afflitti, J.P., Quinlan, D.M. (1976). Experiences of depression in normal young adults. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 85, 383-389.
The Caring Shame and Guilt Scale contains 12 items exploring feelings of shame and guilt in relation to caring, and was adapted from another study exploring carer guilt (Martin, Gilbert, McEwan, & Irons, 2006). Answers are rated on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (“not at all like me”) to 4 (“extremely like me”).
- The authors found face validity and internal consistency.
- Martin, Y., Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., & Irons, C. (2006). The relation of entrapment, shame and guilt to depression, in carers of people with dementia. Aging and Mental Health, 10, 101-106.
The Fear of Happiness Scale is a 9-item scale that explores people’s perceptions and anxieties around feeling happy and having positive feelings in general (e.g., “I feel I don’t deserve to be happy”). Items concern the extent to which each statement is true to the participants and are rated on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (not at all like me) to 4 (extremely like me).
- Cronbach’s alpha = .90
- Gilbert, P., McEwan, K., Gibbons, L., Chotai, S., Duarte, J., & Matos, M. (2012) Fears of compassion and happiness in relation to alexithymia, mindfulness and self-criticism. Psychology and Psychotherapy, 84, 239-255. DOI:10.1348/147608310X526511.