Ethnic Speech and Ethnic Action as Ethnic Behavior I: Construction of the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory (BEBI)

Abstract

In this article we report the construction of a new survey – specifically, the Brunel Ethnic Behavior Inventory (BEBI) – designed to measure ethnic speech and ethnic action as separate, yet related, aspects of individuals’ ethnic behavior. Using Tajfel’s (1981; Tajfel & Turner, 1986) social identity theory as our conceptual frame of reference, we sought an answer to the research question of how many factors actually are measured by the BEBI; and we tested the hypothesis that a two-factor model (i.e., ethnic speech and ethnic action as two correlated factors) would provide significantly better goodness-of-fit to the correlational data than would a one-factor model (i.e., ethnic behavior as one undifferentiated factor). Across one pilot sample (n = 101) and two main samples (n = 120 for Sample 1, n = 148 for Sample 2), we found that, not only did the BEBI measure two factors at most (i.e., ethnic speech and ethnic action); but consistent with our hypothesis, the two-factor model yielded better goodness-of-fit than did the one-factor model. Implications for the conceptualization and measurement of “ways of ethnicity” (Verkuyten, 2005) are discussed.