Issue 3 Vol. 39 1997

Evaluative aspects of social identity in women and men: presentation of a German scale of collective self-esteem concerning gender

BOHNER, G., STURM, S.

A person's gender forms a basic social category and thus a central source of social identity. To assess the evaluative aspects of one's social identity as a woman or a man, the authors formulated a gender-related German version (KSW-G) of the "Collective Self-Esteem scale” by Luhtanen and Crocker, and administered this scale to a sample of 124 female and 103 male students. Results concerning factor structure, internal consistency, sex differences, and the correlation of the KSW-G subscales with individual self-esteem are reported. A central finding was that women gave higher ratings concerning the importance of membership in their gender group and judged their group more positive than men did for their gender group. Conversely, women rated the public evaluation of their group more negative than men did for their group. Overall, the KSW-G presents itself as a useful instrument for assessing evaluative aspects of social identity in the context of intergroup research.

Keywords: gender, self-esteem, scale, social identity

Short Title: Bohner, G. (1997) PsyBeit 3:322

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