The Development of the Unconditional Self-Acceptance Scale for Children in Chinese

(USAS-C)

Fung Ching-man

Hong Kong Shue Yan University

CP604: Advanced Skills in Assessment and Evaluation in Counselling Psychology

Instructor: Dr. Muriel Lin

Background

Early empirical studies on Carl Rogers’ theory of personality focused mainly on his

observation of the positive relation between self-acceptance and acceptance of others and this

proposed relationship have garnered empirical support since 1950s (Berger, 1952; Fey, 1954;

Phillips, 1951; Suinn, 1961; Suinn & Hill, 1964; Durm & Glaze, 2001). Other research

related to self-acceptance include its negative association with psychopathology (e.g. Berger,

1955; Zuckerman & Monashkin, 1957; Richter, Richter, Eisemann & Seering, 1995), anxiety

(Ohnmacht & Muro, 1967; Pilsuk, 1963), and its applications in the mental health disciplines

(Baisden, Linstrom & Hector, 1982; Brandel, 1982; Kornblum & Anderson, 1982; Rudnick,

1982). Although research on self-acceptance have been abundant, it seems that each study

had their own interpretation of self-acceptance, and there have not been a single definition of

self-acceptance being accepted by all who use the term (Crowne & Stephens, 1961). Most of

the studies in the 1950s adopted the definition of self-acceptance deriving from the construct

of self-concept; operationally, self-acceptance is reflected by the extent to which the self-

concept is congruent with the individual’s description of his “ideal self.” For example,

Stephenson (1953)’s Q-sort technique, Bills (1958)’s Adjective rating scale, and Brownfain

(1952)’s Self-rating scale were using the measurement of discrepancy between real-self and

ideal-self to determine the level of self-acceptance (Crowne & Stephens, 1961). While these

phenomenological measures of self-acceptance possess face validity, they failed to

demonstrate that their measures are equivalent and interchangeable (Crowne & Stephens,

1961). Therefore, the lack of an operational definition is the problem of the early studies of

self-acceptance (Mearns, 1989; Crowne & Stephens, 1961).

Chamberlain & Haaga (2001) developed a self-rating questionnaire to measure a

person’s unconditional self-acceptance tendency (USAQ). They took on the idea of Ellis

(1962, 1995) that any self-rating process is dysfunctional as there is no objective basis for

determining the worth of a human being; therefore, they consider unconditional self-
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acceptance as the condition where “the individual fully and unconditionally accepts himself

whether or not he behaves intelligently, correctly, or competently and whether or not other

people approve, respect, or love him” (Ellis, 1977, p. 101). Although Ellis and Rogers hold a

different view on how self-acceptance contributes to psychological heath, Ellis’s

conceptualization of unconditional self-acceptance is somewhat similar to Rogers’

unconditional positive regard and unconditional self-worth (Chamberlain and Haaga, 2001;

Flett, Besser, Davis, & Hewitt 2003; Cucu-Ciuhan & Dumitru, 2017). Empirical findings

suggest that unconditional self-acceptance is positively associated with self-esteem and state

mood (Chamberlain and Haaga, 2001), negatively related to anxiety (Chamberlain and

Hagga, 2001; Popov, Biro, & Radanovic, 2015; Popov, Radanovic & Biro, 2016), depression

(Ccuc-Ciuhan & Dumitru, 2017), and perfectionism (Chang, 2006; Dixon, Earl, Lutz-Zois,

Goodnight & Peatee, 2014). In addition, unconditional self-acceptance is supposed to be

negatively related to narcissistic personality because narcissism originates from the tendency

to seek approval or recognition from others to maintain one’s self-worth (Chamberlain and

Hagga, 2001).

Self-acceptance is a distinct concept from self-esteem and narcissistic personality,

both Rogers (1951, 1961) and Ellis (1962, 1977, 1995) consider that conditional self-worth is

related with psychological distress while unconditional self-acceptance is a condition that

facilitates personal adjustment and well-being (Ellis, 1962; Rogers, 1951). Ellis even

suggested that people with extremely high self-esteem are vulnerable because they are

characterized by conditional self-worth and that their self-value is decided upon by their

comparison with others (Chamberlain & Haaga, 2001). As a result, unconditional self-

acceptance seems to be a better intervention target as well as prediction of psychological

health on adolescents and that there is not a Chinese version of the questionnaire for this

specific population. Therefore, the aim of this study is to develop an adolescent version of

the USAQ in Chinese.

Methodology

1.1 Participants and procedures

Participants in this study were N=19 (Male: 5 (26.4%); Female 14 (73.6%). Their

ages ranged from 15-17 years old (mean age = 16). Subjects were recruited in a psychology

class; the aim of the study was explained and consent from each student was obtained at the

beginning of the questionnaire. Questionnaire link was distributed online.

1.2. Measures

Unconditional Self-Acceptance questionnaire for adolescent - Chinese version

(USAQ-C) is developed based on Unconditional Self-Acceptance questionnaire (USAQ;

Chamberlain & Haaga, 2001). The original questionnaire is a 20-item 7-point Likert-scale

with 11 reversed items. The present Chinese version for adolescents has revised the

questionnaire into a 5-point Likert-scale. Participants responded to each item ranging from 1

(Extremely disagree) to 5 (Extremely agree). The internal consistency of the scale was

moderate (Cronbarch alpha = .69 while the original scale was .72).

Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale – Chinese Version (RSE; Rosenberg, 1965) is

administered to measure the participants’ self-esteem. The RSE is a widely used self-report

instrument consisting of 10-item 4-point Likert-scale. It has been translated and validated

into different languages including Chinese (Leung & Wong, 2008). High internal

consistency (Cronbach alpha = .92), 2-week retest reliability, convergent and discriminant

validity are reported in previous study (Robinson & Shaver, 1973).

Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI; Raskin & Hall, 1979). The Chinese children

version of NPI developed by Ang & Raine (2009) was administered to measure the

participant’s narcissistic tendency. The Chinese children version of NPI is a 12-item 5-point

Likert scale. It is a 2-factor structure instrument measuring participants' sense of Superiority

and Exploitativeness. The 12-item scale has an average Cronbach alpha of .85 and adequate

test-retest reliability (Ang & Raine, 2009).

Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979). BAI is widely

used questionnaire to measure an individual’s anxiety level. It is a 21-item 4-point Likert

scale. It possesses high internal consistency, 1 week test-retest reliability, as well as

discriminant and convergent validity (Beck, Epstein et al., 1988).

1.3 Ethical considerations

Participants were given a brief introduction to the study and consent was obtained

from each participant at the beginning of the questionnaire. Respondents participated in the

study voluntarily and they could withdraw anytime. No personal data was collected in this

study.

Results

Descriptive Statistic

Table 1 displays the descriptive statistics, and table 2 shows the inter-corrections of

the respective measures.

Table 1. Demographic Information of the Participants

Measure N Mean SD
Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire for 19 60 7.09
Adolescents (USAQ-C)
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale 19 26.11 4.56
Narcissistic Personality Inventory for Children 19 37.26 9.48
Beck’s Anxiety Inventory 19 37.16 9.74
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Table 2. Inter-corrections of the respective measures

Variable 2 3 4

1. USAQ-C .84* .26 -.41

2. Rosenberg Self-esteem .19 -.54*

3. Narcissistic Personality Inventory for Children -.1

4. Beck’s Anxiety Inventory

**. Correlation is significant at the .0.1 level (2-tailed); *. Collection is significant at 0.05 level (2-tailed).

The present study demonstrated that USAQ-C is significantly correlated to self-

esteem, r (19) =.84, but was found unrelated to narcissistic personality. The present study

also demonstrated a negative correlation between unconditional self-acceptance and anxiety

although the relation was not significant.

Discussion

The present study aims at developing a Chinese version of the USAQ for adolescent.

The result indicates that unconditional self-acceptance is highly correlated to self-esteem in

this population which is consistent with the original finding in Chamberlain and Haaga

(2001). The result suggests that adolescents who score high on both USAQ and the RSE

strongly avoid negative self-rating and the main distinction of the two constructs is that

unconditional self-acceptance keeps self-rating at bay because its philosophical assumption is

that any self-rating is inherently irrational and there is no objective basis for determining

one’s self-worth, while self-esteem values positive self-rating.

Unlike the original study, the present investigation fails to establish a significant link

between unconditional self-acceptance and anxiety and that the relationship between

unconditional self-acceptance and narcissistic personality is also insignificant. This

insignificant result is probably due to the extremely small sample size.

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Unconditional Self-Acceptance Questionnaire for Children Chinese Version (USAQ;

Chamberlain & Haaga, 2001)

1 別人的讚美令我感到自己更有價值。
2 我感到自己是有價值的，縱然我未能成功地達成學業目標。
3 當我受到負面評價，我會視之為改善我行為或表現的機會。
4 我感到有些同學更具價值。
5 犯了大錯可能是失望的，但它不會改變我對自己的看法。
6 有時我發現自己在思考究竟我一個好人還是壞人。
7 要感到自己有價值，我必須感到身邊重要的人愛我。
8 我為自己訂下目標，因為我希望它能使我高興。
9 我想如果我能做好每一件事，我便是一個好人。
10 我的自我價值感很大程度上是取決於我怎樣與其他人比較。
11 我相信我是有價值的，這完全因為我是一個人。
12 當我面對負面反應時，我發現我很難去開放地聽取那人說關於我的事情。
13 我為自己定下目標因為我希望這能証明我的價值。
14 某些方面的不好令我感到自己少了點價值。
15 我認為成功的人便是有價值的人。
16 我認為別人的讚賞能令我知道自己的強項。
17 我認為我是有價值的人，即使別人沒有認同我。
18 我避免用跟他人比較的方式去決定自己是否有價值。
19 當我被批評或遇到挫折時，我感到自己是一個很差勁的人。
20 我認為評價自己是否一個有用的人並不是一個好主意。
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Appendix II

Rosenberg Self-Esteem scale – Chinese Version (RSE; Rosenberg, 1965)

1整體來說，我滿意自己。
2有時我會覺得自己一點好處都沒有。
3 我覺得自己有不少優點。
4 我能夠做到與大部份人的表現一樣好。
5 我認為自己沒有什麼可以值得自豪。
6 有時我十分覺得自己毫無用處。
7 我覺得自己是個有價值的人，最低限度我與其他人一樣的價值。
8 我希望我能夠多一些尊重自己。
9 從各方面看來，我是較傾向覺得自己是一個失敗者。
10 我用正面的態度看自己。
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Appendix III

Narcissistic Personality Inventory for Children – Chinese Version (NPI-C; Ang & Raine,

2009)

1 我經常知道自已在做什麼。
2 我是天生的領導者。
3 我將會成為一個偉大的人。
4 我覺得我是個特別的人。
5 我喜歡看自己的身體。
6 我是一個非凡的人。
7 我發現操縱別人是容易的。
8 如果讓我來統治世界，這個世界將會更好。
9 我很善於讓別人遵從我的方式行事。
10 我能讓任何人相信我想讓他們相信的事。
11 我天生就有一種能影響人們的本事。
12 面對懲罰時，我常有能力辯解而避免受罰。
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Appendix IV

Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979)

1感覺麻木或刺痛
2 感覺炎熱
3 腳不自主的抖動
4 無法放鬆
5 擔心最壞的事情發生
6 頭昏腦脹
7 心跳突然加速
8 情緒不穩定
9 感覺驚嚇
10 感覺緊張
11 感覺難以下嚥
12 手部容易顫抖
13 感覺不安
14 不能自控
15 呼吸困難
16 對死亡有恐懼
17 感覺害怕
18 消化不良
19 暈眩
20 臉頰發紅
21出汗或冒冷汗