Issues of validity and reliability in the use of real–ideal discrepancy scores to measure self-regard.

Abstract

The validity and reliability of real-ideal discrepancy scores as measures of selfregard are investigated using a large sample of adolescent subjects. Real selfratings are found to be superior to real-ideal discrepancy ratings in predicting several measures of global self-esteem and in predicting several measures of teachers' evaluations of the self-attitudes of the subjects. Further, similar-sized discrepancies do not translate into similar levels of self-regard at different points on scales of real self-evaluation, and the more dependent the discrepancy score is made on the real self-score relative to the ideal self-score, the more effective a predictor it is of global self-esteem. Finally, it is shown that the test-retest correlations are quite low for a real-ideal discrepancy scale. Researchers are cautioned against the use of such measures.

The Effects of Escape from Self and Interpersonal Relationship on the Pathological Use of Internet Games

“…The respondent was asked to rate both for the present state of self and the idealistic state of self. Hoge and McCarthy (1983) demonstrated its high reliability and validity when used with a large sample of adolescent subjects. The high reliability of the present sample was demonstrated by the high Cronbach's alphas for the real self-rating (.84) and ideal self-rating (.93) scores.…”

“…In the present study, discrepancy scores between real-self ratings and ideal-self ratings were obtained using the method developed by Hoge and McCarthy (1983). Their questionnaire included eight statements of self-rating on specific dimensions with six response categories, scored from 6 to 1 (6: very true; 1: not true at all).…”

Relationship of STD-Related Shame and Stigma to Female Adolescents’ Condom-Protected Intercourse

“…Scores range from 10 -40, with higher scores indicating higher levels of self-esteem. This scale has been widely used with diverse samples including adolescent African American females [14], and has demonstrated satisfactory validity and reliability [15]. Cronbach alpha for the scale was .86.…”

Anxiety levels in adolescents who stutter

“…Convergent validity of the scale has been demonstrated as the scale correlates significantly with other measures of self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1979). Researchers have demonstrated significant positive relationships between self-esteem and other measures of self-concept and self-regard for school-aged children and adolescents (Hagborg, 1996;Hoge & McCarthy, 1983;Lorr & Wunderlich, 1986). …”