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Attitudes: II. Social AttitudesErland Nelson aa Department of Educational Psychology , Universityof NebraskaPublished online: 04 Nov 2012.
To cite this article: Erland Nelson (1939) Attitudes: II. Social Attitudes, The Journal ofGeneral Psychology, 21:2, 401-416, DOI: 10.1080/00221309.1939.10544305
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The Journal of .General PJychology, 1939, 21, 401-416.
ATTITUDES: II. SOCIAL ATTITUDES*
Department of Educational PJychology, UniverJity of N ebraJka
ERLAND NELSON
A. ATTITUDES TowARD PERSONAL IDEALS
Here we shall consider attitudes of honesty, attitudes toward ideals of life, ambition, attitudes toward the law, and attitudes toward the value of an education.
Attitudes toward academic honesty were studied by Mathews (97). Honesty on the part of 500 students and 50 faculty members was measured both in examinations and in preparation of assignments. His conclusions indicate that members of the faculty were more honest than students, women more honest than men, upper classmen less honest than lower classmen. More honesty was shown in their attitude toward assignments than toward examinations.
A number of studies based on rather small groups indicate that cheating is widespread. Yepsen (180) found that even in a class of 53 teachers, 33 per cent altered their test papers when allowed to do their own scoring. Will we also find cheating under the honor system? Campbell and Koch (22) found that here too, 34 per cent or more of 220 students had cheated in at least one examination -even under the honor system. These studies reveal what students do by way of overt behavi'or. Would their verbalized opinions agree with their behavior? Out of 14 7 student answers ( 25) to th(! question of the seriousness of cheating in examination, nearly half of the replies tended to justify the practice.
The most dependable data offered are probably those coming from the Syracuse Reaction ( 70) study based on a study of the replies of more than 3,500 university students. This extensive study indicates that a majority of the Syracuse students had accepted help during examinations taken in their university courses and 37 per cent confessed that they had cribbed in more than one examination. Forty-three per cent of the students condoned the practice of cribbing. The most popular reason for condoning cribbing was the
*Received in the Editorial Office on September 8, 1938.
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402 JOUR!\'"AL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
alleged unfairness of the professor and the fact that "there was a great deal at stake." In surveying the attitudes revealed by these studies one cannot help wondering if these attitudes toward academic honesty do not have their roots in the old "dollar value" idea of credits and degrees. "Much was at stake?" The student's own integrity, the building of attitudes of academic honesty, personal growth and development, these real aims of education were not envisioned as being "at stake." Once students became conscious that the real aims of education were at stake as far as they are concerned, student cheating would obviously become silly self-deceit.
Such personal ideals as fair play in athletics, loyalty and reliability were said to have improved during college according to a study of the statements of 674 seniors in a number of colleges ( 4). Over one-fourth of the men, however admitted moral deterioration in such matters as sex, betting, use of liquor, and in other ways. Approximately one-half of both men and women listed liquor as among the most demoralizing influences in school life.
A more promising picture of student attitudes toward ideals is seen in their interest in their own personal development as reported by Bell ( 9). Of the nine desires presented, students ranked bodily health high with artistic and scientific accomplishment relatively low. Of the means by which college helps in personality development, he found that students ranked college courses as of first importance.
Moore (1 02) also reports rather noble attitudes toward personal ambitions based on an extensive study of 3,769 11th and 12th grade students in 32 American cities. Of this group, 66 per cent confessed that they had at some time been earnestly ambitious to help society in combating crime, disease, poverty, or injustice. These ambitions had often been abandoned by the time the student had reached the 12th grade, partly due to the failure to count the cost and to consider the long preparation necessary for effective work in these fields . An attitude toward life may, however, be revealed regardless of whether the particular ambition is realized or not. Only one per cent of the boys desired to accumulate a million or more dolla.rs! It may, of course, be that only one per cent of these boys thought such an achievement within the realm of possibility. Only 44 per cent of the boys said that they would fight for their country regardless of circumstances.
In a study (93) of 3,000 children's attitudes toward the law as
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ERLAND NELSON 403
compared with the attitudes of adults-lawyers, graduate students, and members of a civic club-the attitudes of children were shown to be little different from those of their elders. High school students of the higher intellectual levels tended most to draw away from the attitudes held by adults.
Another report which should be encouraging to those who favor present institutions is that of Dudycha (33) based on 100 college freshmen. These students gave high values to home, marriage, and the church as contrasted with low values to companionate marriage, socialism, equal distribution of wealth.
An indirect indication of attitudes toward personal ideals may be inferred from students' reasons for attending college. In the Syracuse Reaction Study (70), 69.3 per cent of the 3,515 students checked "improvement in culture" as one of the three most important reasons for coming to college. The "market value of the degree'' was checked by only 41.7 per cent of the same number of students.
These results are not radically different from those found by the writer ( 109) in a study of 876 students in 11 Lutheran colleges. In these church institutions, the students ranked the Christian nature of the institution as one of the strongest reasons for attending, with academic standing of the institution as next highest. From a checklist of 32 items, the success of athletic teams was ranked as one of the lowest items given as a reason for selecting a college. This was true regardless of the size or the athletic reputation of the college.
Of the nine studies just reviewed, three indicate widespread cheating among college students and an attitude on the part of these students which condones the practice. General moral deterioration is indicated in one study while the last five indicate idealistic ambitions, noble reasons for attending college, and attitudes toward the law quite as favorable as that of their elders. With these personal ideals in mind, one may turn with special interest to the studies of political attitudes which follow.
B. ATTITUDES TowARD PoLITICAL IssuEs
Those who are concerned about citizenship and civic attitudes will be interested in the following studies dealing with issues on a conservative-radical continuum. We present studies of attitudes toward such issues as prohibition, war, and the relationship between political attitudes and scholarship.
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404 JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
A positive correlation was found between high scholarship and liberal and radical attitudes, according to a study by Moore and Garrison ( 103). This study indicates that North Carolina State College students seem to avoid extremes. On questions of race, sex, family, authority of religion, and political views, their replies werr more conservative and liberal than either radical or reactionary.
A positive correlation between radicalism and scholarship is likewise seen by G. W. Allport ( 3) in a study involving 37 5 undergraduates. Conservatism, low scholarship, and high prejudice were positively correlated. The highest correlation found in this study was a minus .27 between radicalism and prejudice. Allport concludes with the remark that political character of men is bound up with many generic traits in their personalities.
Since the two studies just cited indicate a positive correlation between radical attitudes and scholarship, it would be only logical to assume that radical attitudes are also positively correlated with intelligence. This Vetter ( 166) found to be true. The conservatives and reactionaries in his groups made the poorest showing on the intelligence tests. Students from prosperous families tended to be more conservative and reactionary than others. Other interesting conclusions are presented. Women were found more conservative than men. Children from "only child" families were more radical than the average. Oldest children in a family furnished more liberals and the "youngest" children were found more often among the conservatives. It is hardly surprising that Republican students were found more conservative and reactionary while Democrats, Socialists, and Non-Partisans were more liberal.
A high positive correlation between education and desirable civic attitudes as reflected in the exercise of the suffrage right is indicated in a study ( 34) of five counties in central Pennsylvania. Only 49 per cent of all the registered citizens vote in these counties. Among unskilled laboring classes, only 41 per cent vote compared with 73 per cent of the educated professional classes. Hence education suggests itself as a remedial measure for the improvement of citizenship. The relationship already noted between attitudes and scholarship makes this suggestion seem reasonable.
T. F. Lentz ( 85) reports a measurable difference in attitudes of students attending a small denominational college and students attending a large university. Basing his study on 187 students in large uni-
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ERLAND NELSON 405
vers1t1es and on 392 students in five small denominational colleges, and using his C-R Opinionaire, this author reports a mean score of 105.9 for the denominational college students as against 81.2 for the university students. The higher score represents conservatism.
In a study of 3, 7 58 students at 18 colleges and universities located in the Mid-West, the East, and the South, the writer (108) found a mild conservatism for the group as ·a whole. This mild conservatism, however, is not meaningful without giving due consideration to the significant differences as to sex, class, institutional and geographic factors. In general, upper classmen were more liberal than freshmen, women more conservative than men, the South was the most conservative section, the Mid-West the most liberal. As a group the denominational colleges were more conservative than state universities, but certain denominational institutions were more liberal than any of the large universities. The freshman-senior difference among women was greater than among men, although it was significant for both men and women. The detailed study reveals differences between the various denominational institutions, between state institutions, and the percentages of students at the extreme ends of the conservative-radical continuum.
Hayes ( 60) presents questionnaire data from 8,419 women voters indicating relatively small occupational differences in attitudes toward political issues. Women were found more socialistic and internationalistic than men. In a study of fascist attitudes Stagner (143) reports greatest liberalism among people of small incomes. Remmers and colleagues ( 125) found little occupational difference in attitudes toward such recent economic policies as old-age pension, the 30-hour week, P.W.A. ., and others.
A sex difference in political attitudes as revealed in voters is reported by Eldridge ( 45). In his study of 1,250 Kansas voters in 1925-27 he reports that the attitudes of voters indicate a "low degree" of political intelligence on the whole, but that women rank distinctly higher than men.
Small sex differences on the basis of the Allport-Vernon Scale of Values are reported by Hartman (57). In a study involving 186 men and 207 women he found men showing greater political, theoretical, and economic interests while women showed stronger interests in religious, esthetic, and social values.
We have already referred to the contention of Ross, that con-
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servatism, a desire to continue the established order is logically favored by older people while youth has most to gain from change. Stagner ( 145) reports in a study involving 100 college freshmen that students are more liberal than their parents. Boys show more independence than girls.
The Neumann Test of International Attitudes was used on a student group by Eckert and Mills (42). Their results indicate that religious affiliation and the fact that an older brother or sister had gone to colleg~ were stronger factors tfian instruction in social studies. The internationally minded student is superior in scholastic achievement to that of the more conservative nationally minded student according to this study. This is, of course, quite in accord with all of the studies on liberalism and scholarship reported so far.
Attitudes toward our present form of government were found to be quite favorable in Grades 7 to 12 which were studied by Whittaker (177). Rural children were higher in support of our government than were those of town or city. On the other hand, opposition to capitalism grew progressively from city to town, and town to country. Incidentally, he found little evidence that students become more open-minded from grade to grade in junior and senior high school. Textbooks which present liberal views apparently influenced students in that direction.
The attitudes of teachers, members of a chamber of commerce, and laboring groups toward the late "lamented" N.R .A. issue were studied by Woolston (179) in March, 1935. The intellectuals were shown to be less partisan and also less cooperative than the laboring groups. In this connection we may recall that the N.R.A. was considered by many as labor's greatest political victory m decades.
Attitudes toward prohibition have varied greatly. In a study of 238 students at the University of Chicago, Stouffer ( 148) found men showing "wetter" attitudes than women. Students whose fathers did not vote dry were more antagonistic toward prohibition than those whose fathers had so voted. Students from neighborhoods reputed to be dry exhibited attitudes more favorable to the dry cause than those from wet neighborhoods.
Interesting differences of attitudes on the same issue are shown in the study presented by Smith (139). In a group of 281 college students, the majority favored prohibition, a minority favored modifi-
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ERLAND NELSON 407
cation. Among 178 Y.W.C.A. members, the majority favored prohibition. Of 200 business men the majority favored modification (1932). Since business men are generally voters they evidently acted consistently the following year when they gave their sanction to repeal.
Attitudes toward war have significance for individuals and for society. The studies on attitudes toward war which have been reported show marked unanimity in the slightly pacifistic leanings of college students. Pihlback (116) based his study on the Thurstone-Petersen Scale Toward War which was administered to 341 men and 143 women at the University of Missouri and to 100 men at Franklin and Marshall College. He found marked unanimity at the point of the scale, "mildly opposed to war" regardless of grouping by geographical location, age, income, occupation of parents, political preference, church preference, and even students enrolled for military science.
A slight trend toward pacifism is found in freshmen and seniors in high school and also in college students, in the study by Sowards ( 144). In a study of 1,000 students, Droba ( 35) noted distinct differences in attitudes toward war which were related to church denominations. Protestants giving no denomination were most pacifistic. Lutherans and Catholics were most militaristic. In general, it seems that the more conservative a church, the more militaristic its youth and the more liberal a church the more pacifistic its young members .
. In a study of 1,400 University of Chicago students Droba ( 41) finds no direct relationship between war attitudes of students and education of parents, economic status, or even intelligence. Women were more opposed to war than men. Students of the Socialist party were more antagonistic to war than were either Democrats or Republicans. Whether selection or the effect of courses accounts for the difference in attitudes is not clear, but students of the natural sciences were found more militaristic than those in the social science field. In another report the same author ( 39) indicates that the students opposed to party affiliation were least favorable toward war. Students merely indifferent to political parties were most favorable to war, and the Republican students were next in order.
Rather strong opposition to war is indicated in the attitude study of Smith ( 140). In a test of 48 items concerning war which
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was given to 518 students and 37 faculty members, he found the attitudes of approximately 31 per cent indicating idealistic pacifism, 30 per cent realistic pacifism, 15 per cent moderate militarism, and only 10 per cent extreme militarism.
In a study of ministers' attitude toward war, 80 ministers from four denominations expressed their attitudes on the Droba scale. Stump and Lewis ( 149) report that only five per cent of these 80 ministers were even neutral, the remainder were all pacifistic. An age factor is reported in this study. The correlation between age and pacifism was a minus .337, the older men less extreme pacifists than the young men.
The relation between pacifism and the "class struggle" was the object of an inquiry by Watson (I 72). Judging from the replies to a questionnaire sent to 1,000 members of a Christian pacifist organization, the majority of its members favor non-violence in a class struggle as well as in international wars. This does not mean that the pacifists are entirely content with the social order, but one may assume that they desire non-violent methods of securing the desired justice and equity.
Racial and religious attitudes seem to be. even more deep-seated than political attitudes of the types just mentioned. We have already suggested something of the difficulty involved in changing attitudes toward other races under the division dealing with the teaching of attitudes. We turn to a further consideration of attitudes toward the races.
c. RACIAL ATTITUDES
That racial relations are primarily cultural phenomena rather than biological is the contention of many students of the question. We report from only one such writer, Young (182). This writer maintains that race conflict is more closely correlated with economic competition than it is with blood. Such externals as color, slant of eyes, language handicaps, may serve the man on the street in making his distinctions which he then "miscalls," "racial." As pointed out by the same writer, biology has failed to give us any better basis for discrimination. Now in the light of these considerations, it is interesting to note the studies of racial attitudes among the Comparatively "well-educated" citizens whom we admit to our colleges and universities.
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ERLAND NELSON 409
Upon the basis of the ranking by 248 Stanford University students, Bogardus (16) lists Turks, Negroes, Mulatoes, and Japanese as the races most strongly disliked. He found strong race prejudice in students who were comparatively uninformed concerning their own racial origins.
Somewhat similar results were found by Thurstone ( 155) based , on the responses of 239 University of Chicago students. American whites are ranked first and the Negro lowest with the Turk next to the lowest. The Nordic groups are in the upper half of the scale.
At North Carolina State College, Garrison and Burch (52) found a considerable degree of race prejudice revealed in their study of 163 students at that institution (128). Some decrease of prejudice was apparent as the students advance through college. No significant differences were noted between rural and urban groups. The "North" and the "South" were compared by Reinhardt ( 122) as to their race prejudices. Although the groups are too small for anything more than the most tentative conclusions, they have significance in that they corroborate the findings cited in the studies above. Racial groups were ranked by 28 University of North Dakota students and by 24 students from Morris Harvey College of West Virginia. The rankings of these two groups showed substantial agreement with those of the students of Bogardus at Stanford. Turks and Negroes were again ranked low with the Turk at the lowest position. The Negro fared slightly better in the Southern college than in the North.
The attitudes of grade school children toward the Negro was the object of study by Horowitz ( 64) . On the basis of tests given boys from kindergarten through the 8th grade in various communities, he concludes that Southern groups show no more prejudice against the Negro than do the children of New York City. Nor is personal proximity to the Negro a factor. White boys attending a mixed school seemed to show as much prejudice as did the boys in all-white schools. Communist children showed practically no prejudice against the Negro. Again it would seem that parents and home play a greater part in race prejudice than does education in schools.
Further evidence that racial attitudes are fairly definite during the adolescent age is furnished in the study of 7th and 12th grade school children in five Iowa cities. The author, Minard ( 100),
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reports that attitudes of high school students were far below that of 45 "competent authorities" on whose opinions the norms were based. Boys showed a greater variability than girls. Although intelligence was positively correlated with desirable race attitudes, no significant correlation was found between desirable race attitudes and the socio-economic levels in the communities studied.
Stereotyped terms are freely used in characterizing various nationalities according to a study of college students reported by Katz and Braly ( 72). Fairly high agreement among students seemed to exist regarding the descriptive terms to be applied to other nationalities than their own. In a later study by the same authors ( 71), 10 ethnic groups were ranked by 60 Princeton students on the basis of preference for associations with their members. Private or personal responses as against public expressions were consitent except for the Negro who fared better in the students' private expressions. Another group tested regarding 87 traits also showed high consistency between public and private expressions. From these studies it appears that racial attitudes are cultural, based largely on popular stereotypes which are fairly consistent regardless of the section of the country studied, the age of the group or the educational status.
D. RELIGIOUS ATTITUDES
The "effort of man to deepen his moral and spiritual life by achieving a more harmonious relation with the source of his being," gives rise to attitudes of the strongest type. Josey ( 68) points out that for the strength of this craving "brothers have fought brothers." That changes in attitudes toward religion affect overt behavior is indeed so evident that we need only mention such examples as the vicissitudes of the Hebrew race, the rise of the Orthodox and the Roman churches, the Crusades, the vast national, educational, and general social effects of the Reformation, the continued effects of the attitudes of such leaders as Luther, Wesley, Livingstone, and scores of others. The effect of religious attitudes is most sharply seen on the mission fields. With one set of attitudes, children are sacrificed as a religious rite. Within a surprisingly short time with a new religious attitude, children are baptized and an entirely new set of behavior patterns is in evidence.
Bogardus ( 15) emphasizes the strength of religious attitudes toward an all-seeing God. "Both public opinion and law can be
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ERLAND NELSON 411
evaded, but not a Judge who is all-seeing, all-knowing, and allpowerful." Religion instilled in childhood affects life even before reason develops. This author points to the powerful influences of the deep-seated sentiments and life viewpoints based upon religious attitudes. As expressed by Edwards ( 43), "the religious sect has an enduring cultural value." This author also finds religion influencing racial attitudes and patriotism.
That religious attitudes influence other attitudes is noted in several studies. Zimmerman ( 183) found religion a strong conservative force. Twice as many of the non-religious persons as religious held beliefs that the moral code is too rigid. Prohibition was favored by 29 per cent more of the religious than of the non-religious. · Socialism was approved by twice as many non-religious students as religious, while divorce would be made less obtainable by the religious students.
Further relationships between attitudes are noted in a study in which Thurstone's scales are used. Hilding Carlson (24) based this study on 215 University of Chicago seniors. The criticism may be made that a selective factor may have been active in as much as these scales were distributed to 500 students and were returned by only 215. Attitudes toward prohibition, pacifism, communism, birth control, and attitudes toward God were measured. In general, it may be said that these seniors favored pacifism, birth control, were opposed to prohibition, and slightly above the neutral point in their attitude toward God. Social science students were slightly more favorable to God than physical science students. Jewish students were most liberal on social questions-Catholics least liberal, except for prohibition on which subject Protestants were least liberal. Intelligence was not found to be correlated with prohibition, but positively correlated with communism, birth control, pacifism. and atheism. The inter-correlations also indicate that one who is liberal on one issue is likely also to be liberal on other social questions. The author interprets the evidence as indicating three general factors: (a) An intelligence factor, (b) a general "radical-conservative" factor, and (c) a religious factor.
While a number of writers report a positive correlation between liberalism and intelligence, Symington ( 150) investigated furth~r and found such correlation to be very low for those persons who come from a conservative background, ranging from .13 to .27.
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The correlations between intelligence and liberalism in religion on the part of those coming from a liberal background ranged from .42 to .55. In this outstanding study in the field of religious attitudes, Symington based his data on 612 persons including students at a Southern college, students in a teacher training school in Canada, freshmen at a liberal church college, and a group of mid-western agricultural college students with rural backgrounds. Perhaps the most important contribution of the study is the fact that it partly contradicts the usual interpretation of studies indicating a causal relation between intelligence and liberalism. In interpreting the data secured from the Test of Religious Thinking, a test of religious attitudes, and the Bernreuter Personality Inventory, the author concludes:
We cannot argue that liberals are more mature, independent, socially adju sted, and democratic because they think about religion in a liberal way .... We have not determined whether conservatives are more dependent, stereotyped . . . . "
Liberals do seem to find more things to worry about, according to the tests, fewer things they "consider wrong," and are more advanced at school or college. A correlation between liberal religious thinking and the number of religious courses taken in college was found to be positive and significant, .31, P E 6.2 for the Eastern groups, and .28 P E 4.6 for the West. The conservative-liberal measure indicated no difference between church members and non-members. However, the non-members in liberal communities were more con· servative than non-members in conservative communities. In general, the more conservative persons were regular church-goers.
That college education may have little or even adverse effect on the students' religious attitudes is indicated in an early study by Leuba ( 87). In a study of about 1,000 students in 10 colleges this author found that 82 per cent of the women and only 55 per cent of the men believed in a personal God. At the other end of the scale he found that 32 per cent of the men and 17 per cent of the women believed that the existence or non-existence of God would make no difference in their lives. In a study of attitudes toward immortality, Leuba found in one college that 80 per cent of the freshmen believed in immortality while only 70 per cent of the seniors claimed this belief, leading to the possible conclusion that
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ERLAND NELSON 413
students were inclined to change such attitudes as they progressed through college.
The Syracuse Reaction Study ( 70) likewise indicates a shift between freshmen and seniors in the direction of more liberal religious beliefs on the part of seniors. Twenty-five per cent of freshmen compared with 14.7 per cent of the seniors expressed belief in a personal Creator. These data are based on 1,321 Liberal Arts College students. A more modern view of God as working through natural laws, prayer to whom is effective through changing our "moral attitude toward nature" was acceptable to 42 per cent of the same group. Church attendance once a week and prayer once a day or oftener was indicated by 39 per ceni: of the group.
Edwards and colleagues ( 44) found less than 40 per cent of their group of 600 seniors in 23 colleges expressing a belief in a personal God. Regular church attendance was claimed by 44 per cent of the men and by 55 per cent of the women.
Parents possess stronger attitudes toward religion than do their children in college according to a study by Kirkpatrick ( 7 5) based on a 70-item scale.
On the other hand, Wickey ( 174) presents the point that most college and university students still do declare a church preference when registering. In his study of 1,171 institutions, Wickey found 88.3 per cent of the students expressing a religious preference. Sophomores seemed to be less religious than freshmen on the basis of ratio of church preferences, but a return to religion seemed indicated in the junior and senior years.
Attitudes toward Sunday observance are revealed inferentially in a study by Snedden ( 143) in which he reports that 86 per cent of a group of Harvard summer students opposed changing Saturday and Sunday to the middle of the week, partly because of religious objections and also because of inconvenience in associating with friends.
Simpson (136) reports a study of 148 college students and 345 prisoners in which both groups ranked the Ten Commandments. Students and prisoners showed a correlation of .82 in their rankings. The correlation between two groups of prisoners was .80. The rank order of the students correlated minus .51 with the order given in the King James version of the Bible. One may question whether there is any implication that the commandments as given in the
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Bible are placed in order of importance. If not, the last correlation is obviously without meaning.
Franblau (50) reports a study of Jewish adolescents which indicates that maturity is positively correlated with intelligence but negatively correlated with the holding of religious beliefs.
We have already referred to American studies indicating that girls are more conservative in their religious beliefs than boys. In a study of 1,900 students, ages 12 to 16 in 20 schools in 12 cities in five provinces in China, Chang ( 26) found more girls than boys who considered Christianity to be beneficial to China, corroborating the sex differences found in this country. This is in spite of the fact that it is quite likely that a favorable attitude toward Christianity may be considered the liberal point of view in China.
Attitudes of American university students more favorable to religion than most of those so far reported are indicated in a study by Morse (106). Since this study dates back to 1913, the University of South Carolina has indeed been called the "home" of attitude measurement. Morse and Allen report that approximately onethird of their group of South Carolina students conceived the worship of God as the most important part of religion while approximately two-thirds of the group listed service to others as the chief factor. In very sharp contrast to the findings in the Syracuse study, Morse found two-thirds of his subjects stated that they attended church at least three times a month and engaged in prayer at least once a day.
There is little evidence of loss of respect for the church as students progress through the University of Chicago according to the data reported by Thurstone and Chave ( I60). The 548 freshmen secured a mean score of 4.42 (quite favorable), followed by I 07 juniors with an average of 4.57 while the seniors averaged 4.78 (low scores most favorable}. The sophomores were least favorable, scoring 5.04 or near the neutral point on a 0 to II point scale. Of the groups studied, the I8I members of the Chicago forum were least favorable toward the church, 5.36, while the Divinity students at the University of Chicago were most favorable, mean score, 2.82. Women again were found slightly more favorable to the church than were men. As evidence that the scale indicates attitudes which might be considered reasonable, the authors point to the fact that those who professed regular church attendance were also more favorable toward
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ERLAND NELSON 415
the church than those who did not attend church services. Although the authors present these data merely to illustrate the use of the scale, they use a larger number of subjects and a more refined scale than a number of other studies reported, hence we are inclined to consider these data rather significant.
In a study of the religious attitudes of college and university students the writer ( 110) used a battery of four Thurstone scales, measuring attitudes toward Sunday Observance, Attitudes Toward the Church, toward God as a Reality, and toward God as an lnflu· ence on Conduct. A total of 3,758 students were measured in 18 different institutions including four state universities, six Lutheran colleges, three Friends colleges and institutions from the following denominations: Methodist, Presbyterian, Adventist, United Brethren, and Catholic. The geographic distribution included the Midwest, the East, and the South. The study indicates attitudes strongly favorable toward the church, favorable toward God as a reality, even more favorable toward God as an influence on conduct, and neutral toward Sunday observance. These conclusions based on the mean scores for the entire group of 3,758 students do not reveal the more important fact of very strongly religious groups offsetting definitely atheistic minorities. However, these minorities are relatively small. For example, only 55 students scored in that area of the scale most antagonistic toward the church compared with 3,464 persons scoring in the upper four intervals indicating most favorable attitudes. Similarly, only four per cent of these college and university students scored in areas which could be classed atheistic compared with 84 per cent of the group who indicated a belief in the reality of God. Institutional and geographic differences obtain in each of these religious areas. The relative strength of attitudes as shown by the mean scores for the 18 institutions is in the order of strongest attitudes toward the church, attitudes toward the influence of God on conduct, toward the reality of God, and lowest toward Sunday observance. The dispersion of scores is smallest in the case of attitudes toward the church and greatest in the area of the influence of God on conduct. Women are more religious than men and in each one of these areas (for the group as a whole), freshmen are more religious than seniors. Again, this conclusion which is true for the group as a whole is not true for every institution in every area. In fact, each general conclusion should be interpreted in the light of the differences between institutions, geographic sections, class, sex, and the religious area studied.
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416 JOURNAL OF GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
In summarizing the literature on religious attitudes, we are impressed with the social psychologist's presentation of religious attitudes as a powerful force in society. The studies cited indicate that religious attitudes are closely · related to conservatism. Religious attitudes seem to be negatively correlated with intelligence, although one study yielded evidence that this negative correlation was extremely low in the case of conservative communities. In the earlier studies of the religious attitudes of college students the data indicate that a large part of the student group does not have a belief in a personal God. Most of these studies, however, were based on some modification of the questionnaire method and on comparatively small groups of students. Two rather extensive recent studies of attitudes based on scales of known reliability indicate that the vast majority of college and university students have attitudes definitely favorable toward God and the church. As a whole, upper classmen seem less favorable than freshmen in their attitudes toward religious values.
Newberry College Newberry, South Carolina
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