John E. Williams

The definition of sex stereotypes via the adjective check list

The Adjective Check List (ACL) was employed in the empirical definition of male and female stereotypes by 50 male and 50 female college student subjects. Judgments by male and female subjects correlated highly. There were 33 male adjectives and 30 female adjectives on which at least 75% of both sexes agreed. With a 60% agreement criterion, there were 98 male and 83 female adjectives. Both male and female stereotypes were treated as hypothetical persons and were shown to be highly deviant on standard ACL norms, with the male stereotype being more deviant and perhaps more “disturbed” than the female stereotype. It was concluded that the ACL is a promising method for the definition and study of sex stereotypes.

Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II

The earlier version of the Preschool Racial Attitude Measure (PRAM I) has been found to be a useful measure in attitude development and modification studies of young children. This paper describes the lengthened and otherwise revised version of this procedure—PRAM II. Standardization data are reported for 252 Caucasian and 140 Negro children, ranging in age from 37 to 85 months (mean = 64 months), who were tested by Caucasian and Negro examiners. Analyses of the racial attitude scores revealed that the measure had good internal consistency (r = .80), and satisfactory test-retest reliability (r = .55, over a one-year interval). It was demonstrated that the test may be divided into two equivalent short-forms, for test-retest purposes. Other findings were that the racial attitude scores were found to vary systematically with race of subject, but not with sex of subject, IQ, or age. Evidence regarding race of examiner effects was inconclusive. It was concluded that PRAM II provides a reliable index of racial attitudes, and that the same rationale could be employed in the assessment of other attitudes at the preschool level. Theories of racial attitude development are discussed.

A Method for Assessing Racial Attitudes in Preschool Children

THE concept of racial attitude is closely identified with certain traditional measurement procedures; namely, questionnaire scales of the Thurstone, Likert, and Guttman varieties. Research with such scales has led to most of the existing knowledge concerning racial attitudes among older children and adults. Unfortunately, questionnaire scales are not appropriate to the test-taking capabilities of young children and, thus, are not applicable to the study of the development of racial attitudes in the preschool years. This limitation has led to the evolution of special research procedures for the assessment of racial attitudes and concepts among preschool children, and many imaginative approaches have been made (for example: Ammons (1950) doll-play technique; Morland’s (1962) picture-interview procedures; Stevenson and Stewarts’ (1958) figure discrimination, doll assembly, and incomplete stories; Goodman’s (1964) puzzle-interview, pictures and clay interview, etc.). While the use of such procedures has led to many interesting findings, it has been difficult to assess the degree to which these procedures tap the same psychological processes which are assessed among older persons by the traditional attitude scales. In other words, a need has existed for a procedure appropriate to the skills of the preschool child which would yield a measure of attitude which could be coordinated with the traditional concept of racial attitude.

Development of Sex-Trait Stereotypes Among Young Children in the United States, England, and Ireland.

The Sex Stereotype Measure II (SSM II), a 32-item revision of the Williams, Bennett, and Best Sex Stereotype Measure, was developed to assess childrens knowledge of conventional, sex-trait stereotypes defined by American university students. The procedure employed brief stories and human figure silhouettes which were individually administered to 5- and 8-year-old children in the United States, England, and Ireland and group administered to 11-year-olds in the United States. In the United States, knowledge of sex-trait stereotypes was found to develop in a linear fashion between the ages of 5 and 11, with more male traits than female traits being known at each age level. Cross-nationally, there was a high degree of similarity in the nature of the sex stereotypes being learned by the children in the 3 countries, although the rate of learning appeared slower among the Irish children. In all countries there was a clear progression in sex-stereotype learning from age 5 to age 8. English boys had greater knowledge of stereotypes than English girls, but this was not true in Ireland and the United States. Generally, knowledge of male stereotype traits appeared to develop earlier while knowledge of the female traits increased more rapidly between ages 5 and 8. The similarity in sex-stereotype learning in the 3 countries is discussed, and studies in progress in other countries of greater cultural diversity are noted.

Pancultural Gender Stereotypes Revisited: The Five Factor Model

Williams and Bests (1982, 1990a) cross-culturalgender stereotype data from 25 countries, previouslyanalyzed in terms of affective meanings, ego states, andpsychological needs, were re-analyzed in terms of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality.In each country, participants were approximately 100university students, equally divided by gender. Withresults averaged across all countries, it was found that the pancultural male stereotype was higherthan the pancultural female stereotype on Extraversion,Conscientiousness, Emotional Stability, and Openness toExperience while the pancultural female stereotype was higher on Agreeableness. Re-analysis of thestereotype data from Japan and Pakistan, which had beenfound relatively atypical in previous analyses, revealedFFM profiles generally similar to the pancultural profiles. The evaluative nature of each factoris discussed and related to the stereotypes associalization models.

Connotations of Color Names among Negroes and Caucasians

The study demonstrated highly significant differences in the connotative meanings of five “race-related” and five control color names. For all colors, semantic differential scores (Evaluation, Activity, Potency) were found to be virtually identical for Caucasian students in the South and Midwest. Responses of the pooled Caucasian group and a Southern Negro group were shown to be generally similar with many small but significant differences. In both groups, the color names white and black were shown to differ markedly in evaluative meaning with the former being rated quite “good,” and the latter somewhat “bad.” This was related to the custom of designating Negroes as “black persons” and Caucasians as “white persons.” The possible implication of this factor in racial prejudice was discussed.

Sex stereotypes in the united states revisited: 1972–1988

This was a 1988 replication of a sex stereotype study conducted in 1972. The new subjects were 100 university students who individually responded to each of the 300 items of the Adjective Check List by indicating whether it was more frequently associated with men or with women or was not differentially associated. For each item, an index score (0 to 100) was computed with high scores indicating association with males, low scores indicating association with females and scores in the mid-range indicating that the items were not sex stereotyped. The correlation between the 1972 and 1988 arrays of index scores across all 300 items was .90. No changes were found across the sixteen years in the affective meaning (Favorability, Strength and Activity) associated with the male and female stereotypes. In contrast, an analysis of the stereotypes in terms of Transactional Analysis ego states indicated that, across the time interval, the male stereotype decreased in Adult and Nurturing Parent and increased in Free Child, while the female stereotype decreased in Free Child and showed a trend toward an increase in Adult. It was concluded that while there had been some minor qualitative changes, there was no evidence that the two stereotypes had become less differentiated across the sixteen year period.

Black-White Color Connotations and Racial Awareness in Preschool Children:

Racial groups are often designated by color names, with Negroes called “black” and Caucasians “white.” Previous research with adults had shown that the color name black has a negative (“bad”) evaluative connotation and white a positive (“good”) connotation. The present study, designed to measure the degree of awareness of black-white evaluative connotation in Caucasian children, demonstrated that the black-white color-meaning concept is developing during the preschool years—the period during which racial awareness was also shown to be developing. Possible origins of the black-white evaluative concept in young children were discussed, as was the possible role of the concept in the formation of racial attitudes of Caucasian children toward Negroes.

A further analysis of the affective meanings associated with male and female sex-trait stereotypes

This study was concerned with the qualitative differences in the male and female sex-trait stereotypes. Previous research employing the item pool of the Adjective Check List (ACL) had indicated no relationship between the stereotype loading of the adjectives and their “favorability” ratings. In the present study, university students rated the ACL items for “strength” and “activity,” and these ratings were used to demonstrate that the male stereotype was appreciably stronger and more active than the female stereotype. It was found that the strength ratings were highly correlated with both activity and favorability ratings which were, themselves, unrelated. It was concluded that the principal qualitative difference between the stereotypes lay in the connotations of activity and passivity associated, respectively, with the male and female stereotype traits, and that any assertion of greater “social desirability” for the male stereotype was based on its greater “activity” and not, as is often supposed, on its greater “favorability.”

Preparation of graduate students as classroom teachers and supervisors in applied and research settings.

This article reports a survey of 447 graduate psychology programs in the United States and Canada concerning preparation of graduate students for classroom teaching and supervising the work of others in applied and research settings. Attitudes toward the appropriateness of preparation in each of these three areas of teaching is reported, as well as what is being done in regard to each. Data are grouped by level of degree program in which such training is provided (i.e., doctoral, masters within masters/ doctoral, or masters-only programs). Exemplars are provided as useful models for programs wishing to develop a more systematic approach to preparing their students for classroom teaching. Also, references are cited for guiding the development of training for teaching in the classroom and supervision in applied settings.