Internalized Shame Scale

Abstract

The purpose of the Internalized Shame Scale (ISS) is to provide an assessment of an adolescent or adult respondent's intense, self-directed, negative affect. Specifically, the ISS measures the extent to which the "negative affect" of shame becomes magnified and internalized into one's sense of self. In a clinical situation, the ISS can aid in labeling feelings that are a result of inwardly-directed negative emotions, helping to focus the appropriate clinical attention. to the role that shame may play in the patient's difficulties. The ISS can be distinguished from other self-esteem and self-concept instruments on two levels. Firstly, it consistently places an emphasis on both negative feelings and cognitive states. Secondly, it utilizes high-intensity wording to describe the negative feeling state associated with internalized shame. The items in the ISS are all derived from the phenomenology of the feelings and emotions that are widely accepted in current shame literature. Description of the ISS The ISS is a 30-item self-report scale composed of24 items that measure shame and six items that measure self-esteem. The self-esteem items were inspired by the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) that has been widely used in research for many years. The Rosenberg scale is a 10-item scale from which four positively worded items supplement the items on the ISS. In addition, two negatively worded Rosenberg scale items were reworded in a positive direction. The response scale is a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from Oto 4. The anchors are designed to capture frequency of occurrence and include "Never," "Seldom," "Sometimes," "Often," and "Almost Always." The ISS shame score is derived from the 24 negatively worded items. The six positively worded self-esteem items are not used to arrive at the total shame score. Instead, these six items may be scored separately and used as an indication of positive self-esteem. The main purpose of these six items is to lessen the tendency for a response set to develop when all items are worded in the same direction.