Ethnocentrism is a cognitive bias whereby people and practices of other cultures are viewed and judged according to what is right and wrong in one's own cultural group. Social studies teachers, when teaching about peoples and cultures, implicitly, if not explicitly, try to prevent the development of an ethnocentric attitude in their students. The purpose of this study was to develop a valid and reliable ethnocentrism scale for use by social studies teachers to gain feedback of how a particular unit of study effected their students. The scale can be used as a pre-post test measure before and after a course or unit of study. The known California E-scale, British Ethnocentrism Scale, and Australian Ethnocentrism Scale became the models for the construction of this scale. The developed ethno-centrism scale is a 30 item Likert summated rating scale using six response steps ranging from "agree very much" to "disagree very much". To insure content validity, test items were based on interviews with members of several minority groups in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia to gather information about practices and customs particular to their culture. The whole study was conducted using grade eight and nine students from four junior high schools in one Lower Mainland School District. The pool of test items were administered to approximately 550 subjects to gain data for item and factor analysis. Two ethnocentrism scales were constructed using items with high reliability rankings. The two forms were administered to groups of students to establish whether the forms were statistically parallel. The forms were not statistically parallel. One form using items with high item reliability rankings was constructed. An intervention study was conducted to check for construct validity. Eight social studies classes in one school were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental classes were exposed to a three day lesson on ethnocentrism. The developed scale was used as a posttest measure. A significant difference between the two groups was reported. The experimental group means were significantly lower (p < .05), less ethnocentric, than control group means. Finally, the scale was administered to 215 students to gather data for test-retest reliability. At this stage the students were also administered a dogmatism scale and a self concept scale to check for concurrent and construct validity. Test-retest coefficent was high (p = .83) and the Hoyt reliability coefficent for test consistency was high for all administrations of the form ranging from .87 to .94. Recommendations for use of the developed ethnocentrism scale and areas for future research were based on the findings. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

While the literature on the experiences of women in academe generaly, is growing, the experiences of women student mothers in post-secondary education are rarely explored. Given the increasing number of women students enroling in university and the fact that the student population is aging, there is a greater likelihood of these students being mothers. A study of these women is timely and crucial to understanding their needs and chalenges within the university. The purpose of the research was to examine the experiences of doctoral student mothers living at the intersection of studenthood and motherhood as it was expected that the demands from the family and university would create specific chalenges. The study delineates the women's understanding of and the degree to which they accepted the dominant North American ideology of intensive mothering and the ideology of the good student. Further, the study sought to ascertain whether the student mothers experienced contradiction between the two ideologies similar to that experienced by the women in Hay's (1996) study of employed and stay-at-home mothers. The study utilizes the concept of the public/private dichotomy and the notions of greedy institutions and competing urgencies in its framework. The design consisted of in-depth semi-structured interviews with seventeen mothers at various stages in their doctoral programme. The women range in age from thirty-three to forty-seven and have at least one child, under age of thirteen, living with them full-time. Findings noted that the women were able to articulate the dominant definitions of the good mother and the good student but, for the most part, they rejected them. They preferred to be balanced both as mothers and as students, although almost all of them insisted their children were their first priority. The women experienced a contradiction between the two ideologies and, using the concept of ideological work developed by Berger (1981), their experiences were explored. The women engaged in ideological work to support their alternative definitions of the good mother and the good student. When they were not as able to sustain their ideological work they tended to revert to the dominant definitions. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate

M.A. / This study emerged out of the understanding that xenophobia has become a contentious issue in South Africa. International migrants have increasingly become victims of xenophobia at the hands of South African citizens. It was anchored by a commitment to shed some light on the nature of xenophobia in South Africa by examining the experiences of international students in Johannesburg. There is, indeed, evidence of some tension between a fraction of the South African population and international migrants from other African countries. In examining the experiences of international students and their views about xenophobia, the study concluded that the country’s segregated history was a contributing factor to the negative behaviour of citizens towards non-citizens. Although international students have the potential to strengthen both the development of South African institutions of higher learning and the economy at large, they are, instead sometimes regarded as being here to disrupt the social order. Even though all international students share the same sense of need to meet and get along with others in the new country, African students endure special difficulties. For, whatever unfortunate reasons, some universities seem not to be doing much to enlighten their local students about other African countries, cultures and histories. Students from elsewhere in Africa often find their South African classmates to be rather uninformed when it comes to appreciating their heritage. This lack of knowledge often sets the stage for xenophobic sentiments between the locals, international migrants in general, and international students in particular. / Prof. P. Alexander

Young women today are anticipating involvement in both career and family. The competing demands of family and work often result in work-family conflict. A survey was administered to 124 female college students exploring the importance they place on work and family roles, the expectations they have for combining these roles, and their attitudes toward planning for multiple roles. Identity theory provides a foundation for understanding the choices women make regarding their anticipated participation in work and family roles. The results suggest that although college women are expecting to have demanding careers and involved family lives, they are not planning realistically in order to facilitate the combining of career and family roles with a minimum of conflict.

Research has linked rape victim-blaming attitudes (VBAs) with gender role stereotyping, negative peer attitudes towards women, and acceptance of interpersonal violence. The current study analyzed longitudinal questionnaire data of college men (n=166) from White and Smith's (2001) study of college student victimization. Results indicate that VBAs can be conceptualized as either overt or covert, and that the covert VBA was more strongly correlated with alcohol use, sexualized peer attitudes, traditional gender stereotypes, need for sexual dominance, and perpetration of dating aggression. The covert VBA was also correlated with rape proclivity one year later, and partially mediated relationships between earlier variables and later rape proclivity. Additionally, endorsement of chivalry moderated the relationship between traditional gender stereotypes and the covert VBA, casting new perspective on the role of chivalry. Overall, results demonstrate the importance of targeting subtle expressions of VBAs in educational programs, and the need for longitudinal studies on rape attitude development.

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure high school students’ perceptions of global awareness and attitudes towards global issues. The research questions that guided this study were: (a) Can acceptable validity and reliability estimates be established for an instrument developed to measure high schools students' global awareness? (b) Can acceptable validity and reliability estimates be established for an instrument developed to measure high schools students' attitudes towards global issues? (c) What is the relationship between high school students’ GPA, race/ethnicity, gender, socio-economic status, parents’ education, reading and listening habits, the number of classes taken in the social sciences, whether they speak a second language, and have experienced living in or visiting other countries, and their perception of global awareness and attitudes toward global issues? An ex post facto research design was used and the data were collected using a 4-point Likert-type survey. It was administered in 14 schools in the Miami-Dade County area to 704 students. A factor analysis with an orthogonal varimax rotation was used to identify the underlying constructs that were being measured by the instrument – global education, global citizenship, and global workforce. This was done to estimate construct validity. However, the findings indicated two different factors that included the content of the three constructs but had to be labeled differently. They were: factor 1 – self- perception of global awareness and factor 2 – attitudes towards global social issues. Cronbach’s alpha was used to estimate the reliability of the instrument. These findings helped answer the first two research questions. A hierarchical multiple regression was also used. The findings helped determine the relationship of the two factors to the demographics. The overall model indicated that the demographic variables accounted for significant amounts of variance of each of the factor constructs identified. Among the findings, the independent variables, ethnicity and parents’ education were statistically significant for self-perception of global awareness (factor 1). Gender and SES were statistically significant for attitude toward global social issues (factor 2).

This study assesses practices of college students (N=913) toward alternative medicine, relationships of students' health locus of control with practices of alternative medicine, and relationships of students' attitudes toward alternative medicine and health locus of control. A principal components factor analysis established construct validity of the author-designed Attitude Toward Alternative Medicine Scale, extracting three factors: Holistic Attitude/Control, Safety, and Satisfaction. Holistic Attitude/Control predicted use of alternative medicine (Wald =61.9, p < .01). A principal components factor analysis established construct validity of the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale, extracting three factors: Internal Health Locus of Control, External-Chance, and External-Powerful Others. Internal Health Locus of Control significantly correlated with Holistic Attitude/Control (r = .35, p =.01).

The study assessed the relationship between acceptance of sexual double standard and attitude toward sexual harassment among students (N = 426, 141 males and 285 females). A principal components factor analysis with varimax rotation extracted 4 harassment factors: student blame, professor blame, reactions, and feelings about harassment. Controlling for marital status, age, race, and sexual double standard, one-way ANOVA revealed that gender significantly (p=.0001) affected attitude toward sexual harassment. Males reported less sensitivity toward harassment than females. Multiple regression analyses indicated that as acceptance of sexual double standard increases, sensitivity to sexual harassment decreases (p=.001), controlling for marital status, age, race, and gender. Controlling for marital status, age and race, two-way ANOVA revealed an interaction effect between gender and sexual double standard for student blame (p<.0001) and professor blame (p<.0044), where males reported higher levels of blame for both groups under the low sexual double standard condition.

A review of the literature on homophobia indicates that negative attitudes toward homosexuals and homosexuality have been empirically related to numerous socio-demographic and attitudinal variables. Research to this date has focused on the relationship between individual variables and homophobia rather than examining multiple variables simultaneously. The purpose of the present investigation was to identify the factors which are predictive of homophobia. One hundred and ninety-four female and 115 male participants completed a biographical information questionnaire requesting socio-demographic information, self-proclaimed religiosity, frequency of church attendance, self-proclaimed political orientation, and political party identification. Participants also completed measures of attitudes toward male homosexuality, attitudes toward lesbianism, attitudes toward women, authoritarianism, sex anxiety, sexual attitudes, and socio-economic status. Statistical treatment of the data through principal components analysis indicated that homophobic attitudes are best predicted by a factor identified as "conservatism". Other factors were identified which predicted homophobia to a lesser extent. Male participant gender was determined to predict homophobia toward male homosexuals, but gender was not found to predict homophobic attitudes toward lesbians.

This study examined college undergraduates' intercultural experiences and attitudes at the beginning and the end of a semester-long course on multicultural issues. Participants were 290 undergraduate college students at the University of North Texas , 202 of whom were enrolled in one of the university's core global studies, cross-cultural, or diversity courses for the fall 2001 semester, and 88 of whom were enrolled in courses outside the core. It was hypothesized that the multicultural group's Positive Inventory of the Consequences of Multicultural Experiences scores would increase and Social Dominance Orientation Scale scores would decrease more than they would for the control group. Findings did not support these hypotheses.