Questionnaire for Assessing Stable Forms of Self-Focused Attention (SAF) Test

People who want to understand why attention turns toward their inner life, social image, or discomfort around others may find this self-awareness assessment useful. The Questionnaire for Assessing Stable Forms of Self-Focused Attention (SAF) Test offers a structured profile of habitual self-attention rather than a single global label. It can support reflection on patterns that become noticeable in conversations, performance situations, and private thought.

What This Assessment Explores

The profile separates social from private self-attention. This self-focused attention questionnaire reports social fear alongside public and personal self-focused attention. Questions cover being watched, judged, embarrassed, inhibited, or concerned with impressions, alongside awareness of sensations, moods, motives, and future possibilities. The profile includes:

• Public Self-Focused Attention (9-36) measures observable self-attention; higher scores indicate greater concern about others’ opinions and frequent thoughts about how one is perceived. Low 9-18; Moderate 19-27; High 28-36.
• Personal Self-Focused Attention (PSA) (10-40) measures internal thoughts and feelings; higher scores indicate more reflexivity and interest in the inner world. Low 10-19; Moderate 20-30; High 31-40.
• Social Fear (10-40) measures social anxiety and insecurity; higher scores indicate more shyness and discomfort with other people. Low 10-19; Moderate 20-29; High 30-40.

Higher scores therefore indicate more of each named tendency, not one overall level of self-focus.

Methodology and Scientific Basis

Each statement uses a four-point agreement format, from Completely untrue to Completely true. The respondent rates typical reactions, so current mood, recent social experiences, and willingness to describe oneself openly can shape the result. Scoring reports separate scores and assigns each to a displayed result band; the ranges alone do not establish how many points an individual answer contributes.

SAF is the closest named instrument for this structure, while Merz describes a related dispositional self-attention measure. Fenigstein, Scheier, and Buss provide the framework linking public and private self-consciousness with social anxiety. Its outward-facing component is therefore comparable to a public self-consciousness assessment, but this online questionnaire is not a direct adaptation of those publications: the sources support conceptual alignment, not identical wording, validation, or norms.

Interpret the result as a profile of reported tendencies. The online scoring provides displayed bands but no population norms, so its bands are best used for reflection rather than as a clinical decision rule. Responses may vary with current context.