Masthead Logo Smith ScholarWorks Psychology: Faculty Publications Psychology 2017 Assessing Politicized Sexual Orientation Identity: Validating the Queer Consciousness Scale Lauren E. Duncan Smith College,
[email protected] Elizabeth Mincer Sarah R. Dunn Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs Part of the Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Duncan, Lauren E.; Mincer, Elizabeth; and Dunn, Sarah R., "Assessing Politicized Sexual Orientation Identity: Validating the Queer Consciousness Scale" (2017). Psychology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA. https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs/7 This Article has been accepted for inclusion in Psychology: Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of Smith ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact
[email protected] 1 RUNNING HEAD: Queer Consciousness Scale Assessing Politicized Sexual Orientation Identity: Validating the Queer Consciousness Scale Lauren E. Duncan, Elizabeth Mincer, and Sarah R. Dunn Smith College In press, Journal of Homosexuality Lauren E. Duncan, Ph.D., Smith College, Department of Psychology, Northampton, MA 01063,
[email protected]. Elizabeth Mincer, B.A., Smith College, Department of Psychology, Northampton, MA 01063,
[email protected]; Sarah R. Dunn, B.A., Smith College, Department of Psychology, Northampton, MA 01063,
[email protected]. Queer Consciousness Scale 2 Abstract Building on psychological theories of motivation for collective action, we introduce a new individual difference measure of queer consciousness, defined as a politicized collective identity around sexual orientation. The Queer Consciousness Scale (QCS) consists of twelve items measuring five aspects of a politicized queer identity: sense of common fate, power discontent, system blame, collective orientation, and cognitive centrality. In four samples of adult women and men of varied sexual orientations, the QCS showed good test-retest and Cronbach’s reliability and excellent known-groups and predictive validity.