This study focused on the worldminded attitudes of
Japanese college students in Japan and in the United States.
The effects of studying abroad and the change in attitudes
between Japanese college male students and female students
were examined in terms of worldmindedness, which is defined
as a frame of reference, or value orientation, favoring a
worldview of the problems of humanity, with mankind rather
than nationals of a particular country as the primary reference
group. In this study worldminded attitudes are defined
as attitudes about religion, immigration, government, economics,
patriotism, race, education and war.
This study tested the hypotheses that worldmindedness
scores would increase as a result of the study program in
the United States, and that Japanese women would score
higher worldmindedness scores than would Japanese men.
The data were collected from Japanese students who
studied at Oregon State University for five months, and
those who had not studied abroad before. The results
revealed that woridmindedness scores increased as a result
of the study in the United States, supporting the first
hypothesis. While female students began their foreign study
significantly more worldminded than their male counterparts,
only the males changed significantly. Paradoxically, the
females who did not study abroad scored more worilmindedness
than the females who did. However, the sample size for
females was very small (N=18).
Generalizations drawn from the experimental group data
are limited by the low completion rate: the data were collected
during the last two weeks of a five-month period at
Oregon State University, and only 40 percent of the questionnaire
were completed. Therefore, those who had adopted
more worldminded position might have been over represented.
A replication of the study could insure against partial
data. Also, it would be important to know if Japanese
students revert back to their less worldminded views after
returning to Japan. Longitudinal studies could resolve this
issue. / Graduation date: 1991
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/37930 |
| Date | 31 May 1990 |
| Creators | Ishida, Etsuko |
| Contributors | Crisp, Lloyd E. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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