Measures current, fluctuating state self-esteem — self-evaluations in the moment — across performance, social, and appearance domains. Distinct from trait self-esteem (measured by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale), state self-esteem varies in response to specific situational triggers such as feedback, social comparison, success and failure, and appearance cues. Performance self-esteem captures current feelings of competence and academic or occupational ability. Social self-esteem captures current feelings of social acceptance, liking, and belonging. Appearance self-esteem captures current satisfaction with physical appearance and body image. State self-esteem is a critical outcome and mediator in experimental research — it is sensitive to social comparisons, feedback manipulations, advertising exposure, and retail environment cues, making it widely used in experimental consumer psychology and advertising research.
Likert (1–5, not at all to extremely)
(R) = reverse-scored. Three subscale scores; total state self-esteem = mean of all 20 items. The SSES is particularly sensitive to: social comparison manipulations, feedback about performance, appearance-related advertising, retail environment quality signals, and luxury vs non-luxury product exposure. Widely used as a dependent variable in experimental consumer psychology and body image advertising research. Complement with Rosenberg SES (id:12) for trait self-esteem.
Heatherton, T.F., & Polivy, J. (1991). Development and validation of a scale for measuring state self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(6), 895–910.
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