Researchers have assumed that self-esteem operate only in a conscious mode. In the last years, researchers showed that self-esteem is determined by both explicit and implicit process and new instruments, like Implicit Association Test (IAT), has been designed to measure implicit self-esteem. IAT measures the relative strength of association between pairs of concepts. This study investigated the correlations between implicit and explicit measures of self-esteem. We also investigate which type of the implicit instrument is preferable for an application to patients with a diagnosis of Social Phobia.

A traditional IAT (IAT-A) and a single-category IAT (SC-A) measuring implicit self-esteem were structured. IAT instruments and a traditional self-reports that assessed self-esteem were administered to 25 healthy subjects. BIDR, a self-report that assess the socially desirable responding bias, was also administered.

No correlation between IAT-A and SC-A was found. IAT-A and SC-A did not show correlations with explicit self-esteem measures. Moreover, IAT-A showed a significant correlation with BIDR. At last, a significant correlations between explicit self-esteem measures was found.

Results suggested a distinction between implicit and explicit self-esteem construct. This distinction has important clinical implication. Because off IAT-A is more complex and needs more cognitive resources it could be suppose that this test leaves space to deliberative processes, so automaticity in responding could be reduced. In conclusion, above the theoretical basis of the original model, SC-A results preferable to apply in a clinical sample, for its simplicity and its low correlation with the BIDR.