Kuhn 1960self Attitudes

Self-Attitudes by Age, Sex, and Professional Training
Author(s): Manford H. Kuhn

Source: The Sociological Quarterly, Vol. 1, No. 1 (Jan., 1960), pp. 39-56
Published by: Wiley on behalf of the Midwest Sociological Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4105369
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Self-Attitudes by Age,
Sex, and Professional Training
MANFORD
H. KUHN
self-attitudesby the Twenty StatementsTest leadsto the conclusionthatresponsescan

be reducedto five categories:(i) socialgroups
and classifications,
(2) ideologicalbeliefs, (3) inThe
terests,(4) ambitions,(5) self-evaluations.
and
in
these
of
salience
categories
frequency
responses
arefoundto vary accordingto age andsex of respondentsand accordingto their professionalidentiof
EXPLORATION
fication.-EDITOR
MOST
PERSONALITYtests
consist of several subscales which at-
tempt to cover eitherthe range of areasof adjustmentor the

varietiesof mental-emotionaldisturbance.Thus the CaliforniaTest
of Personalityis composedof two major parts-a test of self-adjustmentand one of social adjustment.Each of these is composed
of six subsections,the former subsumingSelf-Reliance,Sense of
PersonalWorth, Senseof PersonalFreedom,Feeling of Belonging,
WithdrawingTendencies,and Nervous Symptoms:the lattersubsuming Social Standards,Social Skills, Anti-Social Tendencies,
Family Relations, School Relations, and Community Relations.
The respondentsimply checks a "yes" or "no" to such questions
(i.e., items,of which there are fifteen for each subsection)as "Do
you usuallydo somethingaboutit if someonestepsin front of you
in line?""Do membersof the oppositesex seem to like you?" "Are
people frequently so unkind or unfair to you that you feel like
crying?""Do you keep from letting people know when they irritate you?"etc.
The MinnesotaMultiphasicPersonalityInventory, to take an-
40
THE
SOCIOLOGICAL
QUARTERLY
other example,consistsof nine clinical scales, a measureof introversion, and four measuresof what is called the "test-takingattitude."The 566 items are in the form of statementsin the firstperson. The subjectis askedto check "true"or "false"in termsof the
application of each item to himself. These characteristicsare
doubtlessfamiliarto everyone. They are mentionedhere in order
to highlightthe contrastingnatureof the Twenty StatementsTest
of Self-Attitudes.
The TST consists of simply asking the respondent to make
twenty differentstatementsin answerto the single question,"Who
am I?" addressedto himself.Whatever statementsthe respondent
makesbecome the items,and whateverscalesare possibleare those
which emerge from a content classificationof these items after
they havebeenmade.
In respondingto this request, respondentstend to give, first,
statementswhich are consensualin nature and which refer to
groups and categories with which they feel identified and by
which they are identified. Thomas McPartlandand I have reported on this characteristicin an earlierarticle.'There we noted
the regularityof this-a regularitythatis such that it formsa Guttman scale. Furthermorewe found that the size of this variable(we
called it "locus") is significantlycorrelatedwith membershipin
differentkinds of religiousgroups.It is one of my purposesin this
paperto reporton the differencesin locus scores by age, sex, and
professionaltraining.
My major purpose,however, is to report on the range of areas
covered by the responsesto this test, and of course to make a report on whatever is presently availableregardingdifferencesin
this range by the three social categoriesmentioned.In order to
provide informationof a systematicand inclusivesort, more than
two hundred student protocols were content-analyzedby the
method of successive combinationinto more general categories
with the following results: five broad categoriesare sufficientto
orderall the responsesmade.
These five categoriesare the following: (i) social groups and
classifications(such as age, sex, educational level, occupation,
maritalstatus, kin relations,socially defined physical characteris1Manford H. Kuhn and Thomas S.
McPartland, "An Empirical Investiga-
tion of Self Attitudes," Amercian Sociological Review, 19:68-76 (1954).
SELF-ATTITUDES
BY AGE,
SEX,
AND
TRAINING
41
tics, race, nationalorigin,religiousmembership,politicalaffiliation,

formal and informalgroup memberships);(2) ideologicalbeliefs
(including statementsof a religious, philosophical,or moral nature); (3) interests (including statementsrelating objects to the
self, with eitherpositiveor negativeaffect); (4) ambitions(and all
anticipatedsuccessthemata); (5) self-evaluations(such as evaluations of mental and physical and other abilities,physiqueand appearance,relatednessto others,aspirations,persistence,industriousness, emotional balance, material resources, past achievements,
EXHIBIT I
(Responses of a University Senior)
I am of the female sex
My age is 20
I am from [city and state]
I have two parents
My home is happy
I am happy
I have been to 4 colleges
I will graduate in [month and year]
I have a brother
I am a [sorority name]
I am in the Waves Officers School

I attend church
I live a normal life
I am interested in sports
I am a [department] major
I am attractive
I have high moral standards
I am an adjusted person
I am of the middle class
EXHIBIT 2
(Responses of a fourth grade girl. Original spelling retained)

I fidde around
I am careless at times
I forget
Sometimes I don't do what mother tells
me to
I tattle on my sisters
Sometimes I am unkind
I boss to much
I get mad a my sisters
I am a show off
I interupt to much
I talk to much
I wast time
Sometimes I am a bad sport
habitsof neatness,orderliness,and the like, and more comprehensive self-typingin clinicalor quasi-clinicalterms.
Many of the protocols contain items covering most of the five
categoriesof responses.A good examplemay be found in Exhibit
i. Otherscontainitems from only one or two categories.Exhibits
2 and 3, for example,seem to specializein self-derogation.Others,
like the respondentwhose protocol appearsas Exhibit4, give evidenceof wishingto "leavethe field" (Lewin).
The effects of marginalityon self-attitudesseem to be plain in
the protocol of a seniorhigh school studentwhich appearsas Exhibit 5. Exhibit 6, on the other hand, appearsto be from a person
42
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
QUARTERLY
EXHIBIT 3
(Responses of a higbh-scboolsenior boy)
I am a human being
I am a person on this earth
I am a nobody to thousands of people
I am very small proportion to the thou-
sands of other people

I am just a small thing on earth
I am a student
I am a boy
EXHIBIT 4
I am a girl
I am [name]
I am an American
I am Caucasoid
I am a student
I am going to graduate
I am going to work
I am getting married
I am under pressure
I am anxious to get away from [state]
I am of average intelligence
I am going to take finals soon

I am disgusted with some people
I am disgusted with [city]
I am disgusted with the University
I am a [department] major
I am aware of subtle pressure about me
I am tired of being tied to mother's
apron strings
I am anxious to get married
I am anxious to move far from here
who is well anchoredsocially. Such status identitiesas Exhibit 6

representsstand in sharpcontrastto the personalitytraitsand interestswhich predominatein the protocol of a male graduatestudent reproducedin Exhibit 7. Concern with personalitytraits is
even more evidentin the protocolof a school teachergiven here in
Exhibit 8. The respondentwhose protocol is given as Exhibit 9
appearsto be trying to definehimselfas he thinksa clinicianwould
definehim.
The researchreportedhere was carriedout on twenty-five ioo
per cent groups containingaltogether I I85 individuals.Table I
EXHIBIT 5
I am a girl and I wish I were a boy

I am of an interracial marriage
I am a senior in high school about to
enter college
I am a member of a very independent
group of brothers and sisters
I am living in a world of wonder and
danger
I am a person trying to find truth
I am a person finding truth
I am a person finding truth not so delightful
I am a person who is selfish
I am a person who wants to "do" instead of "be" in this world
I am a solemn person I've been told
I am a bitterpersonat times
I am someonetrying to find a place in
the world
I am a personfightinguniformityand
dependence
I am an admirerof beautyin all forms
I am not understoodby myself
I ama personwho hatesfundamentalism
I am self-centered-I can tell by reaction to situationsI face
I am trying to understandmyself and
spendtoo much time at it
I am self-conscious,wondering what
you'll makeof my case when you read
this
SELF-ATTITUDES
BY AGE,
SEX,
AND
TRAINING
43
EXHIBIT 6
I am a nursingstudent
I am a [university]student
I am a graduateof [name]high school
DaughterofSisterofValedictorianof my high schoolclass
A seniornursingstudent
A senior nursing student in diploma
plan
U. S. citizen
Memberof PresbyterianChurch
Residentof [county]
Residentof [township]
A farmer'sdaughter
A residentof [dormitory]
Memberof [churchchoir]
Former presidentof [church fellowship]
Formerjudiciarychairmanfor [dormitory]
Memberof [dormitorychorus]
Formermemberof [dormitory]Council]
Memberof [nurses'professionalorganization]
EXHIBIT 7
I am one who does not know if there

is a god
I am one interestedin humanbeings
I am one who is searchingfor values
I am one who is not dominatedby parents
I
I
I
I
I
I
am one who likes human beings

am one who is partially a hedonist
am one who is fairly intelligent
am one who has many friends
am one who is fairly loyal to friends
am one who enjoys "good" literature
EXHIBIT 8
I am a seriousperson
I like to work
I haveingenuity
But lack tenacity
I amloyal to thoseI don'tknow as well

as those I do know
I have overcomeobstacles
I am an independentthinkerbut
Need encouragementfrom some
I am somewhatbound by group opinions
I amnot ableto takecriticism
I am not emotionalystable enough to
get respectof others
I do not approach others with my views

in the right manner
I accept what others do, not because of
who is doing it but because of what
is done
I like being a woman--there are advantages
I am afraid of laziness
Some people don't understand what I
say because I'm too brief--don't explain
I feel capable of doing many things
I do not depend on others for decision
I don't like unfairness
EXHIBIT 9
I am a male
I am an extrovert
I am generally optimistic
Right now when pressed for something
to write I become warm all over and
slightly tense
When I become nervous I break out in
cold sweat
When I have to act quickly in case of

a crisis I seldom tense and think
nothing of it afterwards
As far as sex is concerned I think I am
normal
I do think I day day dream [sic] a
little too much
THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

44
lists the kindsof groupsandthe numbersin each case. No pretense
is madethat the groupsinvolvedcover the range of agesin the life
trajectory, and only a handful of the professionalschools were
covered (and only one practicingprofessionalgroup). The Ioo
TABLE 1. THE GROUPS INCLUDED
IN THIS STUDY
Number
SecondGrade,UniversitySchool
FourthGrade,UniversitySchool
FourthGrade,GrantWoodSchool
SixthGrade,UniversitySchool
SeventhGrade,UniversitySchool
EighthGrade,UniversitySchool
EighthGrade,WilsonJuniorHigh
IowaCity HighSchool
L'AnseMichiganHighSchool
School(boarding
Scattergood
preparatory)
FirstYearLaw(University)
SecondYearLaw
FirstYearSocialWork
SecondYearSocialWork
Men
SampleUndergraduate
Sample Undergraduate Women

Unitarian Ministers
Senior Dentists
Freshman Nurses
Sophomore Nurses
Junior Nurses
Senior Nurses (Degree)
Senior Nurses (Diploma)
28
29
90
27
31
27
102
89
119
32
66
50
13
13
65
65
28
48
69
78
79
17
20
propercent groupswereused,not becausethey mostadequately

videdus with datafor the problemat hand,but becausethey met
(in the phraseof my formercolleague,ProfessorFredWaisanen)
andcaptivity!"
"theusualcriteriaof convenience,
co-operation
Changesin Self-Attitudes'withAge
MCPARTLAND
found, in earlierresearch,2a significant association between age and locus scaletypes for those in a fairly narrow
2Thomas S. McPartland, "The Self
and Social Structure: An Empirical Ap-
proach," Ph.D. Thesis, University of

Iowa Library, 1953. Microfilm. See pp.
96-97.
SELF-ATTITUDES
BY
AGE,
SEX,
AND
45
TRAINING
age range(18-24). The presentresearch,dealingwith a considerably greaterage range,foundthat locus scoressteadilyincrease

fromthoseof seven-year-olds
(the youngestthusfar tested)with
an averagelocusscoreof 5.79throughtwenty-four-year-olds
with
anaveragelocusscoreof I
I.o3.
This association
is whatwe wouldexpectfromthe orientation.
As the averageindividualgrowsfromthe age of sevento thatof
twenty-four,he becomes-orso we wouldsuppose-amemberof
more groups,and his roles are differentiated
on the basisof dias a siga
he
will
internalize
As
vergentcategories.
consequence
nificantpartof hisself-definition
a largervolumeof theseidentifying statuses.There is indicationin recentresearch,not a partof
the presentstudy,that as peopleretiretheirlocusscores-as we
would expect-diminish,and diminishmoremarkedlywhen they
arenot membersof clubsandsimilarorganizations.
The salienceof sex mentionincreaseswith age from the early
gradesthroughhigh school. Countingno mentionas rank number
TABLE 2. AGE REFERENCE BY AGE
Age
9
10
12
13
15-18
19-22
Number
58
60
28
93
179
130
Percentage
WhoMentionAge
27.6
35.0
46.4
74.2
59.2
43.1
Salienceif
Mentioned
4.75
6.75
6.85
4.93
4.62
5.61
21, the meanrankof sex referencewas for the seven-to-ten-yearold group7.66;for the eleven-to-fourteen-year-old
groupit was
for
the
was
it
6.67;
5.11. The
group
fifteen-to-eighteen-year-old
havuniversityundergraduate
samplereferredto sexin statements
ing the meanrankof 6.00,but thisis probablynot so mucha reversalas a reflectionof the differential
selectioninvolvedin a uniof
those
the
versitypopulation
holding attitudestowardsex describedby Kinseyas prevalentin the highereducational
level.
In Table 2 areshown changesin age as an aspectof identitywith

increasingage. Only slightly more than a fourth of the nine-year-
olds identifiedthemselvesby age.This fractionwho did identify
46
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
QUARTERLY
themselvesby age steadilyand rapidlyincreaseduntil nearlythreefourths of the thirteen-year-oldsmentionedage in responseto the

question"Who am I?" Then, reversingdirection,the proportion
rapidly diminisheduntil, in the sampleof universityundergraduates, fewer than half identifiedthemselvesby age. It would seem
that being thirteenis especiallysignificantin our society since one
of our major age-grades-the teen age, with its culturallydiscontinuous role-playing and curiously detached status-begins with
this year of age. To enterthe teen age thereforeis a rite of passage,
andit is significantthat it is so apparentin the responsesto this selfattitudestest.
The mention of age-at any of these ages-appears to be a
fairly significantself-reference.Age is mentionedon the average
somewherebetween the fourth and seventh places in the order of
the twenty statements.
Differences in Self-Attitudes by Sex
Probably the most interesting and at the same time the
mostsignificantfindingof differencein the responsesto the Twenty
StatementsTest by sex is that with respectto the sex referenceitself. In the gradeschool years there is no significantdifferencebetween the sexes either in the proportionmentioning sex among
their self-definitionsnor in the salienceof sex reference.Beginning
with the high school years the proportionof femalesto maleswho
give sex salientlyas one of the twenty statementsin answerto the
"Who am I?" questionincreases.Among respondentsin the Northern Michiganhigh school,sfor example,nearly 78 per cent of the
femalesmention sex first as over againstonly a little over 64 per
cent of the males.
In Table 3, it can be seen that in our undergraduatesample,
femaleswere more likely to mentionit first, or at least in the first
three places.They were also likely to mentionsex more than once,
for in this samplethere were 67 mentionsof sex by 65 females,
while by the same numberof malesthere were only 46 mentions
of sex. The meansalientrankof sex mention (if failureto mention
is treatedas ranknumber21) was 4. I for femalesand 7.9 for males.
3
From data collected by Fred Waisa-
nen in connectionwith his Ph.D. dissertation.
TABLE 3. SELF-ATTITUDESBY SEX

Males
Females
Typesof
Reference
Sexmentionby sex
(Undergraduate)
Sex mentionin first
place
Sex mentionin one of
the first three places
Kin referenceby sex
Racialidentification
by sex
Age referenceby sex
Mention
No
Mention
Mention
No
Mention
57
46
19
31
34
18
47
54
49
11
16
36
30
29
35
6
32
59
33
15
24
50
41
48
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
QUARTERLY
If only thosementioningsex at all are included,then the mean

salientrankfor femalesbecomes1.7 and for males2.5.
Althoughno rigorousway of verifyingthishasyet beendevelthatthosefemalesin thisage
oped,it is at leasta strongimpression
who
do
not
theirself-definitions
sex
as
one
of
(or else
group
give
such
reference
between
somewhere
give
verylate,say,
eighthand
twentiethin rankorder)give otherself-attitudes
which indicate
that they conceivethemselvesas eitherphysicallyunattractive
or
as havingundesirablepersonalitytraits.This hypothesiswould
seemto meritfurtherinvestigation.
It wouldbe usefulin exploring
the relatedbut possiblymoresignificanthypothesisthat the selfdefinitionas sexuallyunattractive
is self-fulfilling
in thatit results
in behaviorbeingorganizedand directedin a sexuallyneutralor
sexuallynegativeway.
Fromthe findingthatsex is a moresalientself-attitudefor femalesone may argueto a numberof otherinterestinghypothesis.
One such hypothesisis that the salienceof definingoneselfas a
womanis relatedto the statusof women as a minoritygroup
(sociologicallyspeaking)in our society.4We had previously
discoveredthatmembersof minoritygroupssuchas Negroesand
Jews are very apt to give such membership
salientlyin theirreto
the
is
Statements
Test.
It
sponses
Twenty
apparent,however,
that this can be only one of the factorsinvolvedin the mention
of sex, for males-as we havenoted-also definethemselvessaliently by sex--onlylessso thando females.Anotherhypothesisis
thatdisproportionately
salientmentionof sexby femalesis greatest
duringthe yearsof datingand courtship,since it is duringthis
periodthatfemalesarestakingtheirlifetimestatuschanceson their
sexualattractiveness.
It wouldfollowfromthishypothesisthatthe
in
role
of
sex
for femaleswould tend to
self-definitions
larger
declinein middleandold age. It is unfortunatethat this research
wasableto coveronlythe yearsof childhoodandyouthandhence
we were not ableto test this hypothesis.
Femalesmuchmorefrequentlythanmalesdefinedthemselves
in
termsof theirkinshipto others.This is evidentin Table 3. We
wouldexpectwomento holdkinmembership
as a moresignificant
SOnwomen as a minoritygroup,see
--inter alia--the familiarAppendix 5,
"A Parallel to the Negro Problem," in

Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma, (New York, 1944), 2:1073-78.
49
feature of their self-attitudesthan do men, both becausewomen
are more restrictedin their conduct by the rules laid down in the
kin and family system and because they are bearers,or at least
prospectivebearers,of childrenand are more largely involved in
theirrearing.Femalesaremore apt to mentionkin more than once,
for the 65 females in our undergraduatesample mentioned kin
relationshipsi i timeswhile the samenumberof malesmentioned
kin only 62 times. Furthermore,femalesmentionedkin more saliently. Countingfailure to mention as rank number 21, the mean
SELF-ATTITUDES
BY AGE,
SEX,
AND
TRAINING
salience of mention5 of kin was 10.4 for females and as 15.7 for
males; including only those who mention kin, the mean salience
was 6.9 for femalesand 9.6 for males.
In Table 3 it is evidentthat malesdefine themselvesin termsof
race more frequently than do females. Males also mention race,
when they do mention it, somewhatmore saliently than do the
females (7-53 for malesas against8.33 for females). It is unfortunate that we do not have dataon the ethnic attitudesof these subjects, for one would certainly hypothesize from the orientation
that those who definethemselvessalientlyin termsof race would
hold the culturally differentiating(and presumablyderogating)
attitudestoward those of other racial groups.
If this hypothesisshould be supportedby empiricaldata from a
representativecross-sectionof the population,then it would follow
that femalesare less inclinedin our society to have race as a social
object. This would mesh with Dollard's hypothesisabout sexual
factorsin the relationsbetween the races,andwith Myrdal'sreport
on the strongestattitudecomponenttoward the Negro on the part
of the white. Unfortunatelymost studiesof ethnic attitudesfail to
report sex differentialsif any. Persistenttrendsin findingsregarding anti-Semitismindicate females less anti-Semiticthan males.
Prothroand Jensenin a study of ethnic attitudesamongLouisiana
college students6found women to have a somewhatmore favorable
attitudetoward the Negro and the Jew than did the men. Lundberg and Dickson,7on the other hand, found that girls in a high5The rank of the first mention was
used if more than one reference to kin
was made by a single respondent.
6
"Group Differences in Ethnic Attitudes of Louisiana College Students,"
Sociology and Social Research, 34:

252-58 (1950).
7 "Selective Association among Ethnic
Groups in a High School Population,"
American
Sociological
Revierw,
17:23-35
(I952).
THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY
50
school populationmade sociometricchoices restrictedmore frequently to their own ethnic groupsthan did boys. In any event the
present finding that in a sample of undergraduatesat the University of Iowa significantlymore men than women definedthemselves by race raisesinterestingquestionsregardingthe relations
between such self-definitionsand interracialattitudes in various
socialsystems.
In the same sampleof universityundergraduates,women more

frequentlythan men mentionedtheir ages, but this differencewas
not at the usually acceptablelevel of confidence (see Table 3). It
wasa differencemostof us mightexpectbetweenthe sexesat this

TABLE 4. PROFESSIONALREFERENCE BY YEAR IN
PROFESSIONALSCHOOL
Group
Percentage
whomention
in first three
Ave. rank
of mention
(if mentioned)
Percentage
whofail
to mention
First-yearlaw students
Second-yearlaw students
53.1
59.2
3.3
2.8
23.4
16.3
First-yearnurses
Second-yearnurses
Third-yearnurses
Fourth-yearnurses
33.3
65.8
71.7
70.6
4.6
3.6
3.4
3.7
18.8
5.3
7.0
0.0
First-yearsocial workers
Second-yearsocial workers
46.2
84.6
4.7
2.5
7.7
15.4
agelevel (18-24). It is probablethattheclicheaboutwomenbeing

unwillingto tell theiragesis one whichappliesonly when age is
unfavorable(i.e., older); from the standpointof our cultural
valuesit is obviousthatthe bestyearsof a woman'slife arethelate
teensandearlytwenties.
Therewas only a slightlygreatertendencyfor malesthanfor
It is surprisfemalesto mentionbeingU. S. citizensor Americans.
made
draft
of
males
of
these
so
few
that
any reference
age
ing
studentsin
Of
those
this
to
role.
eitherin thisor someotherway
schoolswho had alreadyservedin the armyalmost
professional
as veterans.Onemighthypothesizethatthe
all definedthemselves
as
of
anticipation servingin the armedforcesis not as pleasurable
with.
it
the statusof havingalreadygot over
SELF-ATTITUDES
BY AGE,
SEX,
AND
TRAINING
51
A final difference between the sexes having to do with selfattitudesis in respectto locus scores.In the gradesgirlshavehigher
locus scores than boys. The two sexes have mean scale types of
aboutthe sameorderin the high school years.In the undergraduate
years the locus scoresof men arehigherthanthose of women.This
sequentialpatternof differenceparallelsother differencesbetween
the sexes--in physicalsize and growth, in languagefacility, and in
sexual maturation.It would be most logical to relate this locus
difference to language and accompanying social participation,
though in what precise way they are related awaits exploration.
Self-Attitudesby ProfessionalTraining
IF WE MAY regard statements on the Twenty Statements
Test as evidence of interiorizedself-definitions,then one of the

most significantfindingsis that the importanceof the professional
role increasessteadily with each year in professionalschool (see
Table 4). This is true whetherwe measureby presenceor absence
of mentionof it, by the frequencywith which professionis mentioned in the first place, or by the salienceof mention (rank) by
TABLE 5. MEAN LOCUS SCALE TYPE BY YEAR IN
COLLEGE OF NURSING
Year
1
2
3
4
Mean LocusScale Type

9.37
9.08
10.04
11.90
those who mentionit. Note, for example,that while only a third

of those near the end of their freshmanyear of nurse'straining
identify themselvesas nursesin one of the first three statements,
more than seven in ten do so by the end of their junior year.
Whether or not those who define themselvesearly and saliently
in termsof the professionalrole for which they are trainingmakes
a difference in their performance as students is an intriguing
questionwhich awaitsfurtherresearch,but alreadythere are some
-albeit slender-shreds of evidence which seem to indicate that
there is a relationshiphere.
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
52
QUARTERLY
It was possibleto tracechangesin the locus score with increasing

yearsof professionaltrainingin only one of the severalprofessional
school groups studied-that of nursing.The resultsmay be seen
in Table 5, where it is apparentthat locus score increaseswith time
spent in nurse'straining.It is quite possible that the volume of
social anchorage does not increase with years spent in every
professionalschool. Graduate study in general, for example, is
often characterizedby a considerabledegree of rootlessnessand
marginality.The explorationof this problem must await future
research.
The resultsof content analysisof responsesto the TST into the
five inclusivecategoriesmentionedearly in this paperfor students
in four professionalschools and for membersof one adult professionalgroup aregiven in Table 6. Identitiesin termsof memberTABLE 6. INCLUSIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS OF TST PROTOCOLS
FROM RESPONDENTS IN FOUR PROFESSIONAL
SCHOOLSAND ONE PROFESSIONALGROUP
(in percentage of total number of responses by each group)
Themata
Unitarian
Senior
Ministers Dentists
Nursing
Second
Students
Year Law Soc. Wk.
Students Students 2nd Yr. 4th Yr.
1. Social groups
and categories
2. Idealogical
statements
33
35
39
41
66
73
31
12
3. Ambitionsuccess themes
13
10
10
10
1
11
3
10
26
16
10
31
16
5
18
12
6
14
9
5
4. Interests
17
15
16
5. Self-evaluations
favorable
unfavorable
15
8
7
29
19
10
*Less than 1 per cent
ships in social groups and categoriesconstitutedas few as a third

of one group's responses (Unitarian ministers) and as many as
approximatelythree-fourthsof anothergroup's responses(senior
nurses). On the other hand, as we might expect, the Unitarian
ministersmade the most statementsof an ideological nature-
53
having to do with moral,philosophical,and religiousmatters,the
place of man in the universe,etc. Nearly a third of all their selfstatementswere of this variety, while senior nursesmade almost
none. This supportsthe social interactionist'scontentionthat man
is an object to himself-an object whose meaningto himself and
others can only be derived from the system of social objects in
which he is enmeshed.
Senior dental studentsmade the largest number of statements
having to do with ambitionand success, while nursing students
made the fewest, closely followed by Unitarianministers.The
dental student protocols indicatedthey were concerned to make
money in a competitive profession, while the nursing student
protocols gave no evidence of concern with differentialrewards
or with competitionwithin the professiononce trainingwas completed.
Differences among the groups with respect to the volume of
statementsmade referringto interests (activities,hobbies,possessions, etc.) were small,the two groupsmakingthe most being the
ministersand the senior dental students.
Statementsmaking explicit self-evaluationsconstitutedonly 14
per cent of all self-statementsmade by seniornurses,and only 15
per cent of those made by Unitarianministers.At the other extreme they constituted nearly a third of all responsesmade by
studentsin socialwork. Furthermorea considerablylargerfraction
(better than 5 to i) of these self-evaluativestatementsmade by
studentsof social work were favorable.8
SELF-ATTITUDES
BY AGE,
SEX,
AND
TRAINING
Discussion
GEORGE HERBERT MEAD suggested that a person'sbehavioris
of his conception of his identity, and further,that his
function
a
8If this surprisesanyonelet him consider the fact that training in social
work is often focused on the task of
getting the student to know, evaluate
andaccepthimself.This assertionis not
based on impressionalone but on empiricallygathereddata.Secondyear social work studentswere askedto write
a characterizationof the role of the
social worker by answeringthe ques-
tion, "What does a social worker do?"

Evaluating and accepting oneself were
among the major themata of the contents of their replies. On the TST first
year students in social work made a
larger proportion of negative self-evaluative statements but a smaller over-all
volume of self-evaluative statements,
which tends to support the validity of
these statements of difference.
54
THE SOCIOLOGICAL
QUARTERLY
conception of his identity derivesfrom the positionshe occupies

in society. A self-attitudestest, then, must be constructedin such
a manner that it will elicit the person'sown conception of his
identity.
Ralph Linton in his The CulturalBackgroundof Personality
suggestedthat there are five generalkinds of statusesto be found
in every society: age and sex, specialized occupation, family
groups,associationgroups,and prestigerankings.9If we could rely
on the check-list type of attitude-measuringinstrumentfor the
identificationand measurementof self-attitudes,we could check
its logical validity in terms of the relation of the items to social
statusesof the kinds to which Linton pointed.As Newcomb indicates, however, if we present ready-madestatements to a respondentwe can never know whether he would have ever made
such statementsabout himself without such suggestion; it is a
reasonableconjectureon the other handthat if he volunteersstatements about himself "with a minimumof stimulation"-that is,
saliently-then these attitudes may be taken to be significant
ones.x1The TST is so designedto get the respondentto volunteer
statementsabout himself.The resultswhich we have surveyedin
this papersupportthe propositionthat the test is a valid one; that
is, a large fractionof the responsesexpressidentity in termsof the
very categoriesLinton listed-age, sex, occupation,kin membership,and other groupmembership.Furthermorethe responsesvary
in these respectsby groups accordingto the functionalrelevance
of thesestatusesto the dominantroles.
It will be noted that Linton indicatedthat somekind of prestigerankingis pan-human.This is doubtlesstrue. If this is interpreted
strictly in termsof class consciousness,however, our data include
no evidence to supportit, at least in the groupswhich were here
under study. From a total of I 185 individualshaving a potential
total of 227oo responses,only fourteenresponseswere madewhich
were of a class-designating
sort. This evidencecarriesthe argument
made by Neal Gross regardingthe nonsalienceof class attitudes
one step further."
9 See Ralph Linton, The Cultural
Background of Personality, (New York,
1945), pp. 61-62.
10oSee Theodore Newcomb, Social
Psychology, (New York, 1950), p. 151.

11Neal Gross, "Social Class Identification in the Urban Community,"
American Sociological Review, 18:398404 (1953).
SELF-ATTITUDES
BY AGE,
SEX,
AND
TRAINING
55
Cooley, in a well-known passage,defined the self, additionally,

as a kind of self-feeling,indicatingthe ends of a scale of such feelings as may be representedby the words "prideandmortification."
Here againthe responsesto the TST supportthe contention that
it is valid, for from 15 to 30 per cent of the responsesare explicitly
of a self-evaluational
nature.Manyof the otherresponses,explicitly
to
status
have
an implicit self-evaluationaldimension.
referring
We are presently exploringa device whereby the respondentis
broughtto makeexplicitsuch implications.
Conclusion
THE RESEARCH
On which this paper has been based was de-
signed to carry the logical validationof the Twenty Statements

Test of Self-Attitudesfurtherby examiningthe responsesmadeby
membersof twenty-five Ioo-percent-groupsto this test in order
to discoverwhetherthey were logically relatedto the self as designated by the orientationaltheory proposedby Cooley, Dewey,
Meadand othersof the self- and reference-group-theory
approach.
(i) It was found that locus increasedwith age; that within the
age bracket representedby our groups, sex referencesincreased
with age.
(2) It was found that females more frequently and saliently
than malesidentifiedthemselvesby sex and kin and less frequently
by racethandid males.
(3) Occupationalidentity increasedwith years of professional
training, and, within one professional school-nursing-locus
scoresincreasedwith yearsof training.
(4) Finally, an over-all content analysisof responsesfrom students in four professionalschools and from membersof one professionalgroup indicatedmarkeddifferencesin social anchorage,
reference to ideology, identity in terms of intention or ambition,
and the amountandnatureof self-evaluations.
In general the responseswere in the directionexpected if one
argues from the role requirementsto the relevant categorical
identifications.
StateUniversityof Iowa

Kuhn 1960self Attitudes

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Kuhn 1960self Attitudes

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Self-Attitudes by Age, Sex, and Professional Training

Author(s): Manford H. Kuhn

self-attitudesby the Twenty StatementsTest leadsto the conclusionthatresponsescan

consist of several subscales which at-

tempt to cover eitherthe range of areasof adjustmentor the

tion of Self Attitudes," Amercian Sociological Review, 19:68-76 (1954).

tics, race, nationalorigin,religiousmembership,politicalaffiliation,

I am in the Waves Officers School

(Responses of a fourth grade girl. Original spelling retained)

sands of other people

I am going to take finals soon

who is well anchoredsocially. Such status identitiesas Exhibit 6

I am a girl and I wish I were a boy

I am one who does not know if there

am one who likes human beings

I amloyal to thoseI don'tknow as well

I do not approach others with my views

When I have to act quickly in case of

THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

Sample Undergraduate Women

propercent groupswereused,not becausethey mostadequately

proach," Ph.D. Thesis, University of

age range(18-24). The presentresearch,dealingwith a considerably greaterage range,foundthat locus scoressteadilyincrease

In Table 2 areshown changesin age as an aspectof identitywith

olds identifiedthemselvesby age.This fractionwho did identify

themselvesby age steadilyand rapidlyincreaseduntil nearlythreefourths of the thirteen-year-oldsmentionedage in responseto the

From data collected by Fred Waisa-

nen in connectionwith his Ph.D. dissertation.

TABLE 3. SELF-ATTITUDESBY SEX

If only thosementioningsex at all are included,then the mean

"A Parallel to the Negro Problem," in

Sociology and Social Research, 34:

Groups in a High School Population,"

THE SOCIOLOGICAL QUARTERLY

In the same sampleof universityundergraduates,women more

wasa differencemostof us mightexpectbetweenthe sexesat this

agelevel (18-24). It is probablethattheclicheaboutwomenbeing

Test as evidence of interiorizedself-definitions,then one of the

Mean LocusScale Type

those who mentionit. Note, for example,that while only a third

It was possibleto tracechangesin the locus score with increasing

*Less than 1 per cent

ships in social groups and categoriesconstitutedas few as a third

tion, "What does a social worker do?"

conception of his identity derivesfrom the positionshe occupies

Psychology, (New York, 1950), p. 151.

Cooley, in a well-known passage,defined the self, additionally,

signed to carry the logical validationof the Twenty Statements

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