Attitudes toward the Negro Scales

Name: Attitudes toward the Negro Scales
Rating: 5 (77 reviews)
Author: Mohammed looti

Mohammed looti

Attitudes toward the Negro Scales

Table of Contents

The Attitudes toward the Negro Scales (Kahn, 1951) were developed to assess White people’s attitudes towards African Americans in the 1950s. They were created for a study examining the relationship between formal education and these attitudes.

The item selection process involved identifying six main areas of focus: personality, education, employment, civil rights, social relations, and housing. Statements were constructed or borrowed from existing literature and then edited to create a list of 140 items.

The Thurstone-Chave technique was used to select 83 items, which were then classified into the six areas. The Likert technique was applied to these items, and they were administered to a sample of advanced college students. A final item analysis resulted in three scales of 12 items each, covering all six areas.

The scales demonstrated high reliability, despite their relatively short length of 12 items each. This suggests that the Attitudes toward the Negro Scales are a reliable and valid instrument for measuring White people’s attitudes towards African Americans in the 1950s.

Test Format:

Items on the Attitudes toward the Negro Scales are rated on a 5-point Likert-type scale with answer categories ranging in every instance from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree,” and intermediate categories of “Agree,” “Undecided,” and “Disagree.”.

Source:

Kahn, Lessing A. (1951). The organization of attitudes toward the Negro as a function of education. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, Vol 65(13), i-39. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0093637

Attitudes toward the Negro Scales

Items

The following pages contain a number of statements about which there is no general agreement. People diﬀer in the way they feel about these statements, and there are no right or wrong answers. You can help us by answering each item of this quesbonnaire honestly and thoughcully.

Before going on to answer the quesbonnaire, you will ﬁnd a list of quesbons about yourself on the next page which we would like you to answer. It is necessary that you ﬁll in this part since it will give us many important facts. Also, it is very important that you do not skip any quesbons since that means we cannot use your quesbonnaire. SINCE YOUR NAME AND ADDRESS IS NOT ASKED FOR, BE AS STRAIGHTFORWARD AND AS HONEST ABOUT YOUR ANSWERS AS YOU CAN.

We also want to assure you that your answers will be kept strictly conﬁdenbal. Anything that you state here will in no way be used by either your employer or any other organizabon of which you are a member. To insure this, we have provided this folder with a glued ﬂap which we want you to use to seal the quesbonnaire ajer you have ﬁlled it out. MOREOVER, WE DO NOT WANT YOU TO SIGN YOUR NAME TO ANY PART OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE.

PERSONAL INFORMATION

In what country were you born? □ United States; □ Other (where)
What sex are you? □ Male; □Female
To what race do you belong? □ White; □ Negro; □ Other (what)
What religion do you consider yourself? □ Protestant; □ Roman Catholic; □ Jewish; □ None; □

Other (what)

How old are you now?
Are you married? □ Yes; □ No
Are you going to school now? □ Yes; □ No
Are you working now? □ Yes; □ No
What kind of work do you usually do? (State the kind of job or occupabon, for example, physician, teacher, owner of a grocery store, store salesman, stenographer, bookkeeper, clerk, plumber, riveter, helper, etc.)

About how much money would you say you are now making each month? $
(a) Please draw a circle around the highest grade you completed in school:

Grammar School: None 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 High School: 1 2 3 4

College: 1 2 3 4

Items

If, in addibon, you have gone to any other school, check the appropriate kind of school and indicate the number of years you went.
- Business College
- Trade School
- Professional (e.g., Medical, Law, Graduate, )
- Teachers College
- Nurses Training

In what ward of the city or part of the Philadelphia area do you live? (If you do not know your ward, state the secbon of the city.)

People diﬀer in the degree to which they have lived with, worked with, played with, or in general, have had contact with the members of diﬀerent groups of people. How much experience would you say you have had with the following groups?

	None	Very Liqle	Average	Much
Jews	□	□	□	□
Roman Catholics	□	□	□	□
Negroes	□	□	□	□
Italians	□	□	□	□
Japanese	□	□	□	□
Atheists	□	□	□	□

DIRECTIONS

READ EACH STATEMENT AND AFTER CAREFUL THOUGHT MARK THE ONE ANSWER WHICH BEST EXPRESSES

YOUR FEELING ABOUT THE STATEMENT. Whenever possible, let your own personal experience determine your answer. You may spend as much bme as you want to answer the statements. If you are in doubt about any of the statements, choose the one answer which seems to most nearly express your present feeling about the statement. MAKE SURE THAT YOU HAVE ANSWERED ALL THE STATEMENTS FOR IT IS IMPORTANT TO THE SUCCESS OF THIS STUDY THAT THE QUESTIONNAIRE BE COMPLETE.*

AGAIN, WE ASK FOR YOUR HONEST COOPERATION. PLEASE BE FRANK ABOUT YOUR ANSWERS.

THERE WILL ALWAYS BE WAR; IT’S PART OF HUMAN