Attitude Change among Health Educators Studying Abroad

Abstract

This study examined change in attitudes about international health efforts among health educators who participated in graduate study-abroad programs in Japan and Jamaica. No statistically significant changes were found in levels of hostility toward other nations or attitude toward international health cooperation. However, correlations found between individual attitude change and measures of dogmatism and tolerance for ambiguity suggest that participants may vary in their receptiveness to the messages of such programs, and that openness of participant's belief systems may have some role in the success of such programs. The nature of this role is unclear since more dogmatic participants in the Japan group reported greater attitude change than their more open minded peers. This result was opposite to that expected and was not found for the Jamaica group.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Hamburg

M. V.

, An International Health Curriculum: Individual and Institutional Considerations, Journal of the American College Health Association, 26, pp. 95–97, 1977.

Weinstein

Barthalow

, and Hamburg

M. V.

, The Effects of Study Abroad on Health Educators Attitudes toward International Health Efforts, Journal of School Health, 46, pp. 599–601, 1976.

Harding

, Prejudice and Ethnic Relations, in The Handbook of Social Psychology, Lindsey

(ed.), Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts, vol. 2, 1964.

Information and Education Division of the United States War Department , Opinions about Negro Infantry Platoons in White Companies of Seven Divisions, in Readings in Social Psychology, Newcomb

and Hartley

(eds.), Holt Publishing Company, New York, New York, 1947.

Brophy

, The Luxury of Anti-Negro Prejudice, Public Opinion Quarterly, 9, pp. 456–466, 1946.

Deutsch

and Collins

, Interracial Housing: A Psychological Evaluation of a Social Experiment, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1951.

Irish

, Reactions of Caucasian Residents to Japanese-American Neighbors, Journal of Social Issues, 8, pp. 10–17, 1952.

Katz

, The Functional Approach to the Study of Attitudes, Public Opinion Quarterly, 24, pp. 163–204, 1960.

Rokeach

, The Open and Closed Mind, Basic Books, New York, New York, 1960.

10.

Budner

, Intolerance of Ambiguity as a Personality Variable, Journal of Personality, 30, pp. 29–50, 1962.

11.

Dye

, The Local-Cosmopolitan Dimension and the Study of Urban Politics, Social Forces, 41, pp. 239–246, 1966.

12.

Gazda

, Group Psychotherapy and Group Counseling: Definitions and Heritage, in Basic Approaches to Group Psychotherapy and Group Counseling, Gazda

(ed.), Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1968.

13.

Helfant

, Parents Attitudes vs. Adolescent Sociopolitical Attitudes, Psychological Monographs, 66, pp. 1–23, 1952.

14.

Troldahl

and Powell

, Shortform Dogmatism Scale, Social Forces, 44, pp. 211–214, 1965.