Self-Blame Test: Are You Too Hard on Yourself?

This test looks at excessive self-blame: the tendency to hold yourself responsible in a harsh or disproportionate way, especially for things you couldn’t fully control or for mistakes that don’t define you as a person.

Psychologists have distinguished between two types of self-blame. Behavioral self-blame focuses on something you did: “I should have handled that differently.” Characterological self-blame focuses on who you are: “This happened because there’s something wrong with me.” Research on these two types of self-blame has found characterological self-blame to be particularly associated with depression and negative feelings about oneself.

Behavioral self-blame can sometimes be an attempt to regain a sense of control after something goes wrong. However, repeatedly blaming yourself for events you couldn’t reasonably prevent can also become distressing.

The quiz below is not a diagnostic test. It is simply designed to help you notice how often you fall into self-blaming patterns.

Check all that apply.

When something goes wrong, my first thought is often that it was my fault.

I blame myself for things that were partly or completely outside my control.

I tend to see my mistakes as evidence that something is wrong with me.

I often replay past situations and think I should have acted differently.

I am much harsher with myself than I would be with someone else who made the same mistake.

I tend to focus on what I did wrong, even when many things contributed to the outcome.

When someone is upset or disappointed, I tend to assume I did something wrong.

I sometimes blame myself even when I know I had very little control over what happened.

When things go well, I tend to credit circumstances or luck, but when things go badly, I blame myself.

A lot of my thoughts revolve around things I think I did wrong.

Your result will be displayed below.

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Self-Blame Test Results

This is an informal self-assessment and not a diagnostic test.