Measure Overview
“The Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (GSES) is a ten-item scale, which has been translated by May Wegner from the original German version by Schwarzer and Jerusalem (in Schwarzer, 1992). It assesses the strength of an individual’s belief in his or her own ability to respond to novel or difficult situations and to deal with any associated obstacles or setbacks.”
Rather than measuring self-efficacy towards a particular situation or set of skills, this scale measures individuals’ self-efficacy generally. In other words, it looks at how much people feel they are able to persist and overcome challenges, similar to the 12-item grit scale also presented in this library.
Measure Information
- Scale
- Target Population
- NIH DPC Hallmark
- Key Citations
- Instructions
- Validity Evidence and Other Information
Prompt: N/A
| Never (1) | Almost Never (2) | Sometimes (3) | Fairly Often (4) | Very Often (5) | |
| I can manage to solve difficult problems if I try hard enough | |||||
| If someone opposes me, I can find the means and ways to get what I want | |||||
| It is easy for me to stick to my aims and accomplish my goals | |||||
| I am confident that I could deal efficiently with unexpected events | |||||
| Thanks to my talents and skills, I know how to handle unexpected situations | |||||
| I can solve most problems if I try hard enough | |||||
| I stay calm when facing difficulties because I can handle them | |||||
| When I have a problem, I can find several ways to solve it | |||||
| If I am in trouble, I can think of a solution | |||||
| I can handle whatever comes my way |
- Undergraduate Student
- Graduate Student
- Postdoc
- Faculty
N/A
Primary Citation: Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem (1995). Generalized Self-Efficacy scale. In J. Weinman, S. Wright, & M. Johnston, Measures in health psychology: A user’s portfolio. Causal and control beliefs (pp. 35-37). Windsor, UK: NFER-NELSON.
Other citations: Jerusalem, M. and Schwarzer, R. (1992). Self-Efficacy: Thought control of action. Washington, DC: Hemisphere
The scale has no reversed scored items. Calculate mean scale score of scale (arithmetic mean) for use in further analyses. Note that the original publication uses a 4-item scale instead of the 5-item scale presented here.
From Schcwarzer, R. & Jerusalem (1995). “All the normative data and psychometric analyses have been conducted with German samples. High internal consistency ratings have been found for each of the five samples studied and the alphas ranged from 0.82 to 0.93. In a sample of 991 migrants from what was then East Germany, the retest reliability was found to be 0.47 for men and 0.63 for women over a two-year period. Concurrent validity has been established on the basis of appropriate correlations with other tests….Predictive validity has also been assessed in a one-year follow-up of East German migrants….The scale has been tested for unidimensionality with factor analyses and a single factor solution has been found, indicating that the GSES is measuring a unitary concept.”