The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Inventory (RSE) is a 10-item scale purporting to measure self-esteem using self-acceptance and self-worth statements. This analysis covers concerns about the degree to which the RSE items represent a particular content universe, the RSE's applicability, factor analytic methods used, and the RSE's reliability and validity. A new Likert scoring method is proposed as an alternative to that used for the original scale (the Guttman scaling method). Besides being difficult to score, criticisms of the Guttman scaling technique exist in the psychometric literature. The newly proposed scoring method, unlike the previously used method, seems to be able to distinguish among several personality and task-specific variables. Both the Guttman scaled RSE and the Likert scaled RSE appear to be unidimensional and seem to have adequate reliability and validity. However, since the response continuum of the original RSE has all the characteristics of the Likert scaling method and the 40-point Likert method has been used in other studies, use of the Likert scoring system is recommended. (TJH)