A comparative study of northern and southern ethnocentrism as related to the rigidity of personality patterns

The purpose of this investigation was threefold: (1) to determine what relationships exist between the overt expression of ethnocentric feeling and the personality characteristics of tha individual; (1) to compare the attitudes and personality factors of northern and southern groups with regard to ethnocentrism as measured in a controlled situation; (3) to evaluate the validity of the concept that geographical location is an important factor in determining the degree of prejudice inherent in the personality structure of the individual. In order to study the above-mentioned problem, 172 subjects from both a northern and a southern university were used. Eighty-six subjects were enrolled in an elementary psychology course at Michigan State College and eighty-six subjects were taking elementary psychology at the University of Houston. All of the subjects were white and of the Christian religion. The procedure consisted of giving to small groups of subjects a Group Rorschach Test followed by the Levinson Ethnocentrismm Scale, a twenty item scale which evaluates ethnocentric identification. All of the sessions, were supervised by the same individual and the tests were given under standard conditions at both universities. The data were analyzed by the use of 't' scores to note mean differences between cultural groups and the Pearson product-moment correlation to study the relationship, if any, which existed between the expression of ethnocentrism and the diverse variables of the Rorschach. Most of the Rorschach factors were then patterned into a rigidity score which was compared with the manifest expression of prejudice. The results of this study indicated that southern subjects tend to follow the traditional theory of being considerably more overt in their expression of prejudice than are northern subjects. This conclusion was significant at the 1 per cent level confidence. Further, men tend to be more prejudiced than women, and southern women tend to show the highest amount of ethnocentric feeling. There were no significant religious differences found between the Protestant and Catholic groups studied. While individual variables of the Rorschach do not clearly differentiate differences in ethnocentric feeling, the rigidity score of the Rorschach, which is a weighted composite of many components, has a significant relationship to the ethnocentrism rating of the individual. Generally speaking, non-prejudiced subjects were found to have a greater capacity for empathy and more emotional sensitivity than prejudiced subjects.Psychology, Department o