The Levels of Self-Criticism Scale: comparative self-criticism and internalized self-criticism

The Levels of Self-Criticism (LOSC) Scale was designed to measure two dysfunctional forms of negative self-evaluation: Comparative Self-Criticism (CSC) and Internalized Self-Criticism (ISC). An initial pool of 34 items was subjected to reliability and item analyses with 282 participants. From these analyses, a final scale of 12 items for CSC and 10 items for ISC was developed. These scales were then validated with 144 participants. As predicted, CSC and ISC were moderately correlated with each other. Each scale was uniquely and predictably related to other measures of personality, attachment, and conflict resolution, and these relationships did not appear to be primarily due to general relationships with Neuroticism. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.