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Re-Visiting the Contact Hypothesis: College Students' Attitudes and Patterns of Interaction
| Title: | Re-Visiting the Contact Hypothesis: College Students' Attitudes and Patterns of Interaction |
| Author: | Northcutt, Miriam J. |
| Description: | Alfred DeMaris, Advisor Universities invest a considerable amount of time and money in diversity education because they believe that contact with diversity will directly translate into more positive attitudes toward diverse racial and ethnic groups within society. However, this assumption, that contact will directly influence attitudes and dispel stereotypes, has not found consistent support in research studies. The purpose of this thesis project was to gain a greater understanding of the potential effect interracial contact occurring in one’s college years has on one’s attitudes toward other racial groups, specifically, one’s support for affirmative action policies. This topic was approached from a social psychological perspective. It was the interaction between an individual and his or her environment that was of particular interest. The data for this investigation were analyzed using a variety of statistical modeling strategies: two regressions using lagged endogenous variables as covariates; one regression using the change-score method; one regression using the cross-sectional data only; and a fixed-effects model using the first-differencing approach. The potential for bias due to sample-selection effects was also examined. The analytic sample comes from the Michigan Student Study. This is a four-year longitudinal study that follows the University of Michigan undergraduate class of 1994 from the time students enter the university until their fourth year. According to the University of Michigan researchers, the major emphasis of this data collection effort is on racial and ethnic diversity including students’ reactions to academic and social experiences. The results of these regressions, taken together, did not provide much support for the claim that increased interracial contact leads to more positive racial attitudes. However, the first- differencing approach, the technique perhaps best suited to the research question, did find some weak support for a relationship between interracial contact and support for affirmative action. In particular, this technique showed that open-mindedness and interracial contact were both significantly, and positively, correlated with support for affirmative action. In other words, individuals with higher levels of interracial contact, and those with higher levels of open-mindedness were also expected to show more support for affirmative action, on average. |
| Permanent Link: |
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1131651056
http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/15433 |
| Date: | 2006 |
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