Measuring National Identity

Abstract

This paper is on the development of a theoretically based national identity measure. Two empirical studies with 200 participants were carried out to show that the more generally conceptualised Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES) by Luhtanen & Crocker (1992) provides indeed a proper base to aim at a more specific measure of national identity. However, in order to really include all those crucial aspects which, according to Social Identity Theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1986), seem necessary in defining a collective identity like the national one, the scale was completed by the aspect of comparison-torelevant-outgroups. In fact, this completion led to a substantial increase in variance explained by the new scale compared to the CSES. 6 tables and 1 picture give detailed information about respective data patterns.