Applying the Twenty Statements Test to Culture and Self-Concept

Abstract

This activity allows students to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the sociological understanding of the self through direct application of a classic sociological instrument. While the Twenty Statements Test instrument (Kuhn and McPartland 1954) is available to instructors online and is often used in introductory and upper-level sociology...

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Details

Subject Area(s):

Social Psychology

Resource Type(s):

Class Activity

Class Level(s):

Any Level

Class Size(s):

Any

Usage Notes

The described activity could be reworked for adoption in a criminological theory or social psychology course to help students organize their understanding and learning of the labeling theory perspective. To aid in this reworking, instructors may wish to "flip" the Twenty Statements Test (TST) instrument and instead instruct students to write "not me"...

Learning Goals and Assessments

Learning Goal(s):

1. Students will develop understanding of self-concept from social psychological perspective.
2. Students will compare self-concepts between generations and between different cultures.

Goal Assessment(s):

1. Students will discuss their own responses and responses of others to a smaller, adapted version of the Twenty Statements Test, identifying similarities between each other’s responses. Understanding is also assessed through a minute paper.
2. Students will code their responses to the adapted version of the Twenty Statements Test (TST) according to Turner’s (1976) institutional and impulsive categories. Students will then discuss in pairs or in small groups their responses.