FEMINIST IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT - PSYCHOMETRIC ANALYSES OF 2 FEMINIST IDENTITY SCALES

N. E. Downing and K. L. Roush [(1985) ''From Passive Acceptance to Act ive Commitment: A Model of Feminist Identity Development,'' The Counse ling Psychologist, Vol. 13, pp. 695-709] proposed a five-level develop mental model of feminist identity that charts development from passive acceptance of traditional gender roles toward active commitment to fe minist ideals and an egalitarian society. A. Bargad and J. S. Hyde [(1 991) ''Women's Studies: A Study of Feminist Identity Development in Wo men,'' Psychology of Women Quarterly, Vol. 15, pp. 181-201] and K. M. Rickard [(1989) ''The Relationship of Self-Monitored Dating Behaviors to Level of Feminist Identity on the Feminist Identity Scale, Sex Role s, Vol. 20, pp. 213-226] developed questionnaires to measure the Downi ng and Roush levels. The goal of the present study was to further expl ore the reliability and validity of the two feminist identity developm ent scales. Participants included 198 female students who were taking either a women's studies class or a general psychology class. They wer e administered Rickard's and Bargad and Hyde's scales of feminist iden tity development and a measure of cognitive development both at the be ginning and end of the semester Sixty-six percent of the participants classified themselves as Caucasian, 13% as Asian, 7% as African Americ an 4% as Hispanic, 3% as Indian 5% as Other; and 2% left the item blan k. Within this framework, we demonstrated support for (1) the psychome tric/statistical properties of each scale, including (a) internal cons istency and reliability, (b) component structure, (c) the relationship among the two scales, and (d) discrimination from social desirability ; and (2) construct validity, as determined by (a) distinction between general psychology students who were interested in taking a women's s tudies class in the future and chose who were not, (b) the impact of a women's studies class on feminist identity development, and (c) relat ionship of the scales to a measure of cognitive development.