The General Self-Efficacy Scale – Schwarzer (GSES, sometimes seen GSE), designed for ages 12 and up, was created to assess perceived self-efficacy regarding coping and adaptation abilities in both daily activities and isolated stressful events. It has been well known instrument internationally for two decades. The scale is unidimensional.
Authors
Matthias Jerusalem & Ralf Schwarzer, 1992
Reliability and Validity
Cronbach’s alphas ranging from .76 to .90
Obtaining the GSES
The scale is available in 30 languages at http://www.healthpsych.de
FAQ Page located at http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~health/faq_gse.pdf
References
Jerusalem, M., & Schwarzer, R. (1992). Self-efficacy as a resource factor in stress appraisal processes. In R. Schwarzer (Ed.), Self-efficacy: Thought control of action (pp. 195-213). Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Schwarzer, R. (Ed.) (1992). Self-efficacy: Thought control of action. Washington, DC: Hemisphere.
Schwarzer, R., & Jerusalem, M. (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.
Zhang, J. X., & Schwarzer, R. (1995). Measuring optimistic self-beliefs: A Chinese adaptation of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 38 (3), 174-181.
Bäßler, J., & Schwarzer, R. (1996). Evaluación de la autoeficacia: Adaptación española de la escala de autoeficacia general [Measuring generalized self-beliefs: A Spanish adaptation of the General Self-Efficacy scale]. Ansiedad y Estrés, 2 (1), 1-8.
Schwarzer, R., & Fuchs, R. (1996). Self-efficacy and health behaviors. In M. Conner & P. Norman (Eds.), Predicting health behavior: Research and practice with social cognition models. (pp. 163-196) Buckingham, UK: Open University Press.
Schwarzer, R., Jerusalem, M., & Romek, V. (1996). Russian version of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Foreign Psychology (Moscow), 7, 71-77 [in Russian].
Schwarzer, R., Bäßler, J., Kwiatek, P., Schröder, K., & Zhang, J. X. (1997). The assessment of optimistic self-beliefs: Comparison of the German, Spanish, and Chinese versions of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 46 (1), 69-88.
Schwarzer, R., & Born, A. (1997). Optimistic self-beliefs: Assessment of general perceived self-efficacy in thirteen cultures. World Psychology, 3(1-2), 177-190.
Schwarzer, R., Born, A., Iwawaki, S., Lee, Y.-M., Saito, E., & Yue, X. (1997). The assessment of optimistic self-beliefs: Comparison of the Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese and Korean versions of the General Self-Efficacy Scale. Psychologia: An International Journal of Psychology in the Orient, 40 (1), 1-13.
Schwarzer, R., Mueller, J., & Greenglass, E. (1999). Assessment of perceived general self-efficacy on the Internet: Data collection in cyberspace. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 12, 145-161.
Rimm, H., & Jerusalem, M. (1999). Adaptation and validation of an Estonian version of the General Self-Efficacy Scale (ESES). Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 12, 329-345.
Schwarzer, R., & Scholz, U. (2000). Cross-Cultural Assessment of Coping Resources: The General Perceived Self-Efficacy Scale. Paper presented at the First Asian Congress of Health Psychology: Health Psychology and Culture, Tokyo, Japan.
Scholz, U., Gutiérrez-Doña, B., Sud, S., & Schwarzer, R. (2001-submitted). Is perceived self-efficacy a universal construct? Psychometric findings from 25 countries.
