Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire

The Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RSQ; Downey & Feldman, 1996) is an 18-item self-report of rejection sensitivity — the disposition to anxiously expect, readily perceive, and strongly react to rejection. Each item describes a hypothetical situation in which you ask something of an important person (a parent, teacher, friend, or partner); you rate how concerned you'd feel about the response and how you expect the person to react. A one-factor structure fits the scale acceptably (Downey & Feldman, 1996).

Internal consistency has been good — α = .83 in the original work and .81 in a later study (Erozkan, 2009), which also found the scale converges with another rejection-sensitivity measure (r = .64). Higher scores track insecure attachment styles (fearful, dismissive, preoccupied) and, inversely, secure attachment.

Rejection sensitivity as captured here relates modestly to depressed mood (r = .38) and to lower day-to-day clarity of self-concept (r = −.33; Ayduk, Gyurak, & Luerssen, 2009), and it has been linked with borderline-personality features and weaker executive control (Ayduk et al., 2008), while being largely unrelated to age, relationship status, or gender.

“You ask someone in class if you can borrow his/her notes. How concerned or anxious would you be about whether or not the person would want to lend you his/her notes?”

Illustrative only. During administration items are presented one screen-set at a time; response-key direction is never shown to respondents.

Each scenario pairs a rejection-concern rating with an outcome-expectancy rating; the product is averaged across scenarios to yield a rejection-sensitivity score.

Winarick, D.J. (2024) dissertation sample (N = 118). RSQ mean scenario score (concern × [7−expectancy]); range 1–36. Published secondary: Downey, G., & Feldman, S.I. (1996), JPSP 70(6), 1327–1343 (N = 193, SD = 3.97, α ≈ .85).

Downey, G., & Feldman, S.I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6), 1327–1343.

Downey, G., & Feldman, S.I. (1996). Implications of rejection sensitivity for intimate relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6), 1327–1343. Public domain.