Publication Date

1967

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Howard, David (Professor of sociology)||Burchard, Waldo W.

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of Sociology and Anthropology

LCSH

College students--Attitudes; Race discrimination

Abstract

This study is a report on the degree of prejudice toward Negroes and Jews among students in a church related college. Eighteen of the nineteen hypotheses tested attempted to see if there was any significant relationship between parochial education, the amount of parochial education, sex of the subject, or college class standing and the amount of prejudice of the group. The sample for the study was drawn from the student body of a midwestern Lutheran college with an enrollment of 1,400. Two random samples were drawn for use. Seventy names were randomly selected from the freshmen class and sixty from the upperclasses, namely, the sophomore, junior, and senior classes. The final sample, allowing for those questionnaires that could not be used, came to one hundred twenty-two subjects. The instrument used to determine prejudice toward these two minority groups wee made up of two different attitude scales. To test attitudes toward Jews, the fifty-two item anti-Semitism scale developed by Levinson and Sanford was chosen. To test attitudes toward Negroes, the fifteen item scale devised by Murphy and Likert was employed. This instrument wee then given to the subjects to complete in May of 1967. For the purpose of testing whether a significant difference between the mean scores of the various groups did exist, the analysis of variance was used as the statistical test. This test of significance was used because it could test for differences among the means of more then two samples, and this was necessary. In testing the hypotheses, the date shouted that there wee mi significant relationship between parochial education and prejudice. In fact, in carrying the analyses to specifically elementary and secondary levels of education, it was found that neither elementary or secondary parochial education or a combination thereof are significantly related to the degree of prejudice toward either Negroes or Jews. In testing for differences between the sexes, it was found that the females were significantly less prejudiced toward Negroes than were the males. The difference was significant at the .01 level of confidence. No significant difference was found between males and females on the anti-Semitism scale. In testing the hypotheses related to college class standing and prejudice, no relationship was found between this variable and prejudice toward Negroes and Jews. Here, as in all cases previously mentioned, the hypotheses were supported by the data. The final hypothesis stated that a majority of the subjects would be prejudiced on those scale items which were specifically related to religious factors. Of the nine specific items tested, only one supported the hypothesis. This item was concerned with the question of marrying a Jew and was the only item on which a majority of the subjects answered the item in a negative or prejudiced way. This hypothesis, then, was not supported by the data. While no significant differences were found, trends in the data developed showing more prejudice among the subjects with parochial training, and freshmen in college rather than among those with no parochial education and the upperclassmen in college.

Comments

Includes bibliographical references.

Extent

65 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

Download

Share

COinS