Valerie WhittleseyIncreasing Student Learning of

Diversity in PsychologySEPA Meeting

March, 2006

Outline

• Reasons for Teaching about Diversity Issues in Psychology

• Attitudes and Experiences of Psychology Faculty in Teaching about Diversity & Recommendations

• Reviewing Diversity Research in Teaching of Psychology & Recommendations

• Conclusion

Importance of Teaching about Diversity

• Allows students to be fair and equitable in their interactions with other people

• Helps prepare students for employment in an increasingly pluralistic society after college

• Makes psychology more relevant for all students

Importance of Teaching about Diversity

• May encourage students from all backgrounds to enter the psychology profession

• Will increase students’ knowledge of psychology

• Will enrich students’ emotional and personal development

Teaching Diversity: Experiences and Recommendations of APA

Division Two MembersJane Simoni, Kathy Sexton-Radek,

Karen Yescavage, Harriette Richard, Alene Lundquist

Diversity Survey- Purpose

• Descriptive data on respondents, their institutions, and students

• Respondents’ attitudes toward teaching diversity issues

• Respondents’ recommendations for diversity resources

Teaching Diversity Survey

• Survey distributed to Division 2 members in 1995

• Survey sent to 2,108 members

• 703 members responded

• Return rate- 33%

Diversity Survey- Demographics

• 14% Asst. Professor• 23% Assoc. Professor• 37% Full Professor• 5% Emeritus

• 8% Teachers• 6% Adjunct

Instructors• 1% Visiting Professors• 6% Other Positions

Diversity Survey- Demographics

• 33% Liberal arts college

• 20% Community college

• 11% Technical institution

• 11% Research university

• 19% Comprehensive university

• 6% high school

Diversity Survey- Demographics

• 40%- Less than 3,000 students

• 19%- 3,000- 4,999 students

• 12%- 5,000- 6,999 students

• 11%- 7,000- 9,999 students

• 18%- Greater than 10,000 students

Diversity Survey- Demographics

• 37% Suburban institution

• 32% Urban institution

• 29% Rural institution

Diversity Survey- Demographics

• 27% Midwest

• 21% Mid-Atlantic

• 21% South

• 9% West

• 7% New England

Diversity Survey- Demographics

• 80% White students

• 10% African American students

• 6% Hispanic students

• 3% Asian American students

• 1% Native American students

Diversity Studies- Demographics

• 62% Women

• 38% Men

Diversity Study- Multicultural Courses Taught

• 12% Psychology of Gender

• 2% Psychology of Minority Groups

• 2% Racism and Sexism in America

• 3% Women and Society

• 15% taught one of four multicultural courses

Diversity Survey- Importance of Diversity Education in Courses

• 1 (not important)

• 5 (of major importance)

• Mean- 3.94

• SD- .86

• Between 3 (somewhat important) to 4 (important)

Diversity Survey- Time Allotted to Discussion of Diversity

• 14%- One class period

• 40%- A couple of classes

• 20%- A couple of weeks

• 13%- Most of course

Diversity Survey- Issues of Diversity

• 89% Ethnicity and social class

• 77% Ageism• 73% Appreciation of

diversity

• 71% All sexual orientations

• 40% Cultural isms• 12% Gender

perspectives

Diversity Survey- Goals in Teaching Diversity Issues

• 85% Heighten sensitivity and awareness

• 77% Broaden understanding of human condition

• 72% Tolerance

• 44% Enhance psychological mindedness

• 32% Expose personal perspectives

• 13% Political action• 8% Other

Diversity Survey- Pedagogical Methods to Attain Goals

• 69% Lectures & discussions

• 57% Textbook readings

• 49% Field trips and discussions

• 39% Other

• 38% Guest speakers• 37% Selected readings• 35% Student

Presentations• 28% Videotape and

discussions• 25% Research papers

Diversity Survey-Barriers, Aids, and Successful Strategies

• Three open-ended items about barriers, facilitating factors, and successful strategies

• Two raters & content analysis of respones

• Interrater reliability (.90 to .94)

Diversity Survey- Barriers

• 27% Incorporating diversity issues into courses was not relevant

• 23% Time constraints

Diversity Survey- Barriers (con’t)

• 25%- No barriers• Most barriers listed by

less than 10% of respondents

• Student apprehension• Lack of adequate

resources• College univ.

curriculum

• Professor inadequacy• Low department

support• Campus climate• Heightened tension• Community climate

Diversity Survey- Facilitating Factors

• 30% Resource rooms & books

• 17% Workshops• Less than 10%• College curriculum• Videotapes• Campus climate

• Community perception

• Student attitudes• Parental attitudes

Diversity Survey- Successful Strategies

• 18% Discussion• 14% Experiential

activities• 11% Cross-

disciplinary approaches

• Less than 10%• Student presentations• Campus-wide

activities• Media presentations• Community activities• Papers• Journal articles

Teaching Diversity: Experiences and Recommendations of APA Division Two

MembersFollow-Up Study

Loreto Prieto, Val Whittlesey, Diane Herbert, Carlota Ocampo, Allison

Schomburg, and Dominicus So

Diversity Survey- Follow-Up Study

• Survey distributed to Division 2 members in 2000

• Survey sent to approximately 3,000 members

• 648 members responded

• Return rate- 22%

Diversity Study-Follow-Up Study

• Although the return rate was lower than original study, the demographic institutional, campus, and course based characteristics of the 2000 sample match known population parameters of 2002 STP membership survey.

• Also, descriptive data on respondents, their institutions, and students similar to 1995 study.

• Results similar to 1995 study; respondents’ attitudes toward teaching diversity issues and recommendations for diversity resources.

Diversity Survey- Follow-Up Issues of Diversity

• 94% Race/ethnicity• 94% Sexual

orientation• 91% Sex/gender• 86% Ageism• 82% Social class

• 78% Physical disabilities

• 78% Religion• 73% International• 70% Mental/learning

disabilities• 66% Language

differences

Diversity Survey-Follow-UpBarriers

• 57% Time constraints• 36% Lack of

perceived training/resources

• 21% Diversity issues are not relevant to course content

• 18% Student apprehension about dealing with diversity issues

Diversity Survey- Follow-Up Study

• For the follow-up study, faculty respondents were additionally asked four questions:

- their own personal level of acceptance toward diverse persons

(broadly defined)

- the level of importance they attached to incorporating diversity issues

into their courses

- their estimation of the level of importance their students attached to

having diversity issues incorporated into courses

- the level of acceptance they have felt from their students when

diversity issues have been incorporated into courses

Diversity Survey-Follow-Up Study

• Each item was constructed on a 5-point Likert scale with Not accepting/not important and Very accepting/very important as polar anchors.

Diversity Survey- Follow-Up Study

• Faculty acceptance of diverse persons (mean = 4.7; sd = .53).

• Faculty perceptions of the importance of incorporating diversity issues into their coursework (mean = 4.2; sd = .94).

• Faculty perceptions of the importance their students attach to having diversity issues incorporated into their courses (mean = 3.4; sd = .99).

• Faculty perceptions of the acceptance of students to incorporation of diversity issues into course work when instructors included it (mean = 3.9; sd = .82).

Diversity Survey-Recommendations of Both Studies

• Ensuring that more psychology faculty see the relevance of diversity issues in the psychology curriculum.

• Overcoming time constraints and lack of training and knowledge of diversity that faculty feel.

• Need to focus on all facets of diversity.

• Examining directly student attitudes of the importance they attach to incorporation of diversity into course work and their acceptance of this incorporation.

Review of Diversity Research in Teaching of Psychology:

Summary & AgendaCarlota Ocampo, Jane O’Connor,

Loreto Prieto, Val Whittlesey

Diversity Review

• David Johnson’s database obtained from the webpage of the Office for Teaching Resources in Psychology

• www.lemoyne.edu/OTRP/index.html• Used to identify TOP works published from

1974 to 1999• Authors manually consulted TOP 2000

issues

Diversity Review- Diversity Categories

• Aging• Disability• Gender• International• Nontraditional

students

• Race/ethnic• Several diversity

categories• Sexual orientation• Social class• Religion

Diversity Review- Taxonomy of Methodologies

• Activities• Articles• Bibliographies• Comments• Course descriptions• Demonstrations

• Empiricals• Equipment• Reviews• Software• Surveys• Symposias• Interviews

Diversity Review- Raters

• .91 Interrater agreement coefficient in determining which articles were diversity related

• .97 Interrrater agreement coefficient in determining the diversity category that the articles fit into

• .90 Interrater agreement coefficient in determining the methodology for the diversity studies

Diversity Review- # and % of TOP Diversity Studies

Total Studies Published 1974-2000

N = 1,860

Total # of Studies Published 1974-1987

N = 994

Total # of Studies Published 1988-2000

N = 866

Diversity Studies 1974-2000

N = 136

7.31%

Diversity Studies 1974-1987

N = 46

4.63%

Diversity Studies 1988-2000

N = 90

10.39%

Diversity Review- Diversity Categories of Studies

• 35% Gender• 17% International• 13% Aging• 12% Several

categories• 10% Race/ethnicity

• 10% Sexual orientation

• 3% Nontraditional students

• 0% Social class• 0% Disability• 0% Religion

Diversity Review- Methodologies of Diversity

Studies• 30% Articles• 25% Courses• 19% Activities• 10% Empiricals• 5% Comments• 4% Surveys

• 3% Demos• 2% Interviews• 1% Software• 0% Bibliographies• 0% Equipment• 0% Reviews• 0% Symposias

Diversity Review- Frequent Diversity Methodologies

• International articles- N = 12

• Gender courses- N = 11

• Gender empirical studies- N = 10

• Gender classroom activities- N = 9

• Gender articles- N = 8• Several diversity

category articles- N = 7

• Aging classroom activities- N = 7

• Racial/ethnic courses- N = 6

Diversity Review-

• The 70 works in the previous slide represent 50% of all diversity studies published in TOP between 1974 to 2000

• Publications concerning gender issues constitute 38 or 28% of total diversity works

Diversity Review

• 28 diversity empirical works represented 1.5% of all published works in TOP and 21% of diversity studies published in TOP from 1974-2000

• Eight (28.5%) of empirical diversity articles during the earlier period

• 20 (71.4%) of empirical diversity articles during the latter period

Diversity Review- Empirical Diversity Studies

• Gender (17; 61%)• Sexual orientation

(4;14%)• Aging (3;11%)

• General diversity (3;11%)

• International (1;3.5%)

Diversity Review- Empirical Diversity Studies

• One-third of studies exploratory in nature

• Gender based issues offered more information regarding previous findings or theory related to study in question

Diversity Review- Recommendations

• Increase amount and programmatic focus of diversity research

• Increase theory driven empirical research using experimental design

• Continued attention to differential impact of teaching curriculum, materials, and methods on diversity

Diversity Review- Recommendations (con’t)

• Increased use on development of instruments to measure diversity teaching goals

• Increased examination of underexamined groups• Increased knowledge about psychology and its

ability to address diversity issues• Increased understanding of and support of diverse

psychology professoriate