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Attitudes toward Homosexuality Among West Indian Male and Female College Students a

Marvin Brown & Donald M. Amoroso

a

a

University of Waterloo Published online: 30 Jun 2010.

To cite this article: Marvin Brown & Donald M. Amoroso (1975) Attitudes toward Homosexuality Among West Indian Male and Female College Students, The Journal of Social Psychology, 97:2, 163-168, DOI: 10.1080/00224545.1975.9923335 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00224545.1975.9923335

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The Journal of Social Psychology, 1975, 97, 163-168.

ATTITUDES TOWARD HOMOSEXUALITY AMONG WEST INDIAN MALE AND FEMALE COLLEGE STUDENTS* * University of Waterloo

MARVINBROWN3 AND DONALDM. Downloaded by [Central Michigan University] at 06:51 03 February 2015

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hOROS0

sumy Measures of attitudes toward homosexuality, sexual liberalism-conservatism, and sex guilt, previously given to Canadian and Brazilian samples, were administered to 69 male and 51 female West Indian college students. The West Indian males scored significantly more antihomosexr\al than the Canadians and significantly less so than the Brazilians. In all other respects the pattern of results was very similar in the three countries. Churchill’s hypotheses relating cultural sex-negativism, sex-role stereotyping, and antihomosexual prejudice were again supported. West Indian females scored less antihomosexual and less guilty about sex than the males. In all other respects the male and female results were very similar.

A. INTRODUCTION Churchill (1) has discussed the differences between cultures in attitudes toward various sexual practices and, in particular, homosexuality. Our previous studies (2, 3) have examined attitudes toward homosexuality and their correlates among Canadian and Brazilian male college students. This work was carried out in the context of Churchill’s theory relating cultural sexnegativism, sex-stereotyping, and homoerotophobia. The findings generally supported Churchill’s arguments: In both countries antihomosexual (anti-H) subjects were more disapproving of various sexual practices and reported greater personal sex guilt than did subjects not opposed to homosexuality (pro-H). The anti-H subjects also stereotyped the sexes more and were more

* Received in the Editorial Office, Provincetown, Massachusetts, on December 14, 1974, and given special consideration in accordance with our policy for cross-cultural research. Copyright, 1975, by The Journal Press. 1 We appreciate John Dunbar’s very helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 2 The data were collected and the paper was written while the first author was on leave at The University of British Columbia and the second author was on leave at The University of the West Indies at Trinidad. We thank the heads of the Faculties of Social Science, Engineering, and Agriculture of the University of the West Indies for facilitating the collection of the data. 8 Requests for reprints should be sent to the first author at the address shown at the end of this article. 163

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willing to label a male who exhibited what they regarded as a single feminine characteristic as homosexual than were the pro-H subjects. This was true in both countries. As expected, the Brazilians showed more antihomosexual prejudice and assigned much higher probabilities to a “feminine” male being homosexual than did the Canadians. The present study seeks to extend this investigation to West Indian subjects. It also explores differences between males and females in their attitudes toward homosexuality. B. METHOD 1. Subjects The subjects were 69 males and 51 females enrolled at the University of the West Indies in Trinidad. They were obtained by asking them to participate in a study of attitudes toward sex. All the females and two thirds of the males were in Arts or Science. The other males were in professional programs (Engineering and Agriculture). Comparisons between the males in the professional programs and those in Arts and Science revealed no differences in attitudes toward homosexuality, so the two groups were combined. Four members of each sex returned unusable questionnaires and were discarded. The Canadian and Brazilian samples were those used previously [see Dunbar, Brawn, and Amaroso ( 2 ) and Dunbar, Brown, and Vuorinen ( 3 ) ] .

Procedure The general procedures and the questionnaires used were the same as those used in the Canadian and Brazilian studies. In brief, Likert-type scales were used to measure ( a ) attitudes toward homosexuality (H Scale), ( b ) sexual liberalism-conservatism (L-C Scale), and (c) attitudes toward subjects’ own sexual impulses (Concern-Guilt, C-G Scale). To measure readiness to impute homosexuaIity, subjects were presented with lists of 2 1 personality traits (e.g., sensitive, aggressive), 12 hobbies or interests (e.g., cooking, hunting), and seven professions (e.g., mechanic, nurse). They were asked to indicate for each whether they thought it more appropriate for men or women, or whether it applied equally to both sexes. Finally, for each trait, hobby, and profession designated as feminine, the subjects were asked to indicate the probability that a male exhibiting that characteristic was homosexual. 2.

C. RESULTS Cross-Cultural Comparisons On the H-Scale the West Indian males’ mean score ( M= 48.92, SD = 16.10) fell between those of the Brazilian ( M= 53.14, SD = 12.47, N = 112) and the Canadian ( M = 36.52, SD = 11.85, N = 126) subjects. 1.

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Newman-Keuls tests (8) showed that the West Indian males were significantly more antihomosexual than the Canadians ( p < .01) and significantly less than the Brazilians ( p < .05).The difference between the Canadians and the Brazilians is also significant ( p < .01) . Table 1 gives the intercorrelations between the three attitude scales. The same pattern is shown by the West Indian males, the Brazilians, and the Canadians; none of the differences between samples is statistically significant. In each sample there is a moderate positive correlation between antihomosexual attitudes and sexual conservatism and a relationship of about the same magnitude between conservatism and personal sex guilt. There is a positive but less strong relationship between sex guilt and antihomosexual prejudice. In the Canadian and Brazilian studies, subjects scoring in the upper and lower quartiles of the distribution of H-Scale scores were selected to test hypotheses suggested by Churchill. The smaller size of the West Indian sample required that the extreme thirds of the distribution be used for this purpose. Inspection of the data indicated that the results were very similar whether extreme quartiles or thirds were used. There was a clear tendency for the anti-H males, so defined, to be much more sexually conservative (L-C Scale: M = 62.38, SD = 15.00) and, hence, disapproving of various heterosexual practices, than the pro-H subjects ( M= 41.24, SD = 10.46; t = 5.34, df = 41, p < .001). The anti-H group also reported significantly greater sex guilt (C-G Scale: M = 42.81, SD = 10.14) than the pro-H group ( M = 37.45, SD = 10.34; t = 1.69, df = 41, p < .05, one-tailed). These differences are very similar to those previously found among the Canadian and Brazilians, Table 2 gives the number of personality traits, hobbies, and professions classified as male- or female-appropriate or as irrelevant with respect to sex by both anti- and pro-H subjects. As was the case with both the Canadian and Brazilian groups, the male West Indian anti-H subjects showed a much greater degree of sex-role assignment than did the pro-H subjects. The anti-H group assigned more traits, hobbies, and professions to either males or females and designated many fewer as irrelevant to sex than did the pro-H subjects. Analyses of variance of the number of items designated “irrelevant” showed no significant differences between countries and no country-by-attitude interactions. The probability estimate section of the questionnaire was omitted by a number of subjects, leaving only 9-13 subjects per cell for these data. There were no differences between anti- and pro-H subjects in willingness to label a male exhibiting a single feminine characteristic as homosexual. Thus, the

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TABLE 1 INTERCORRELATIONS BETWEEN ATTITU~ES

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Attitude scale Homosexualitv scale Canada Brazil West Indies-Male West Indies-Female Liberalism-Conservatism scale Canada Brazil West Indies-Male West Indies-Female

L-c

Attitude scales C- G

.39**

.24*

.41**

.17

.58** .61**

.32** .If

.44**

so**

.58**

so**

Note: H = Homosexuality scale ; L-C = Liberalism-Conservatism scale ; and C-G = Concern-Guilt scale.

* p < .05. ** p < .01.

differences previously found among Canadians and Brazilians were not found among the West Indian males.

2. Sex DiBerences The females ( M = 44.85, SD = 11.55) scored lower than the males ( M= 48.92, SD = 16.10; t = 1.45, df = 109, p < .lo) on the H-Scale. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov analysis (6) yhowed that the female distribution of scores was significantly less antihomosexual than the male distribution. The females also scored lower, but not significantly so, on the C-G scale (females: M = 38.37,SD = 9.79;males: M = 40.94,SD = 10.54;t = 1.29,d j = 109, p < .lo).The two groups scored almost exactly the same on the L-C scale (females: A4 = 51.39,SD = 12.94;males: M = 51.53, SD = 15.94;t = .04, ns) Table 1 shows that the intercorrelations between the three scales among the females were very similar to those involving the males; none of the sex differences was statistically significant. Table 2 shows that among females the differences between anti-H and pro-H subjects were very similar to those found among pro- and anti-H males in number of traits, hobbies, and professions checked as male- or female-appropriate. Analyses of variance revealed no significant sex differences nor any sex-by-attitude interactions. Like the males, relatively few females completed the probability estimate part of the questionnaire. There was a tendency for anti-H females to be less willing to label a male exhibiting a single feminine characteristic homosexual than pro-H subjects, but none of the differences was significant.

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MARVIN B R O W N A N D DONALD M. AMOROSO

TABLE 2

SEX-ROLEASSIGNMENTS OF WESTINDIAN SUBJECTS Males Category Masculine Traits

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Hobbies Professions Feminine Traits Hobbies Professions Irrelevant Traits Hobbies Professions

M SD M SD M SD

Females

Anti-H

Pro-H

Anti-H

Pro-H

7.76 2.95 5.81 1.66 3.71

4.64*** 3.22 1.72 2 .82 1.37

6.60 3.33 5.93 1.83 3.33 .98

4.27** 3.81 4.33** 2.77** 2.93

.78

5.00*

** *

.88

M SD M SD M SD

6.76 2.84 3.71 .56 2.29 1.06

4.95* 4.45 3.18* 1.44 1.64** .95

6 .OO 4.36 3.60 .83 2 .M) .93

4.73 3.97 3.13* 1.06 1.07** 1.33

M SD M SD M SD

6.38 5.29 2.48 1.99 1.OO 1.30

10.91** 7.58 3.68* 3.05 2.55*** 2.13

8.13 6.28 2.33 2.44 1.67 1.54

11.67* 6.75 3.m* 3.50 3.00** 1.96

Note: Anti-H = antihomosexual; and pro-H = prohomosexual.

* p < .lo.

** p < .05. *** Difference between anti-H and pro-H is significant at the .01 level by one-tail t test. D. DISCUSSION Churchill’s ( 1 ) theory regarding the relationship between cultural “sexnegativism,” sex-role stereotyping, and antihomosexual attitudes is generally supported in all three countries. Indeed, the pattern of results is very similar in the three countries. The three male samples do, however, differ significantly in antihomosexual attitudes, the scores of the West Indians being less than those of the Brazilian and more than those of the Canadians. Wagley ( 7) argues that norms concerning narrowly defined sex-appropriate behaviors are very salient throughout Latin America. For males, such norms are reflected in strong notions of “machismo” and in antihomosexual prejudice; hence the very extreme antihomosexual attitudes of the Brazilians. The West Indians have a strong Latin American heritage and ought, therefore, to hold attitudes similar to the Brazilians. But there is also a strong North American influence in the West Indies. Gilder ( 5 ) suggests that the view that homosexuality is merely “an alternative form of sexual expression to which all civilized men should be tolerant” (5, p. 2 2 7 ) seems to be gaining currency in North America. Such a view would tend to soften the relatively harder

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Latin American position. The conjunction of these two influences may, then, account for the intermediate position v i s - h i s homosexuality of the West Indian males. Churchill’s concept has more difficulty with the female data of this study. The females are less antihomosexual and also report less sex guilt than the males, but the sexes do not differ in general sexual liberalism as would have been expected if cultural sex negativism were the only factor involved. While a cultural explanation is not fully adequate, neither is a more “psychodynamic” one [see, for example, Anna Freud’s discussion of defense mechanisms ( 4 ) ; also Wolman (9, p. 146)]. Such an explanation would argue that the anxiety associated with unconscious homosexual tendencies would, by virtue of projection, lead to antihomosexuality. But this argument would require larger sex differences than were obtained. Neither our data nor any other that we are familiar with cast any light on this question.

REFERENCES 1. CHURCHILL, W. Homosexual Behavior Among Males. New York: Hawthorn, 1967. 2. DUNBAR, J., BROWN,M., & AMOROSO,D. M. Some correlates of attitudes toward homosexuality. 1. SOC.Psychol., 1973, 89, 271-219.

3. DUNBAR,J., BROWN,M., & VUORINEN, S. Attitudes toward homosexuality among Brazilian and Canadian college students. J. SOC. Psychol., 1973, 90, 173-183. A. The Ego and the Mechanisms of Defense. New York: Internat. Univ. 4. FREUD, Press, 1946 (first published in German, 1936). 5. GILDER,G. F. Sexual Suicide. New York: Quadrangle, 1973. 6. SIEGEL,S. Nonparametric Statistics. New York: McCraw-Hill, 1956. 7. WACLEY,C. The Latin American Tradition. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1968. 8. WINER, B. J. Statistical Principles in Experimental Design (2nd ed.). New York: McCraw-Hill, 1971. 9. WOLMAN,B. B. The Unconscious Mind: The Meaning of Freudian Psychology. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-HalI, 1968.

Department of Psychology University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Canada S7N OW0

Attitudes toward homosexuality among West Indian male and female college students.

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