Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

6-1982

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major Professor

Siegfried C. Dietz

Committee Members

Charles Thompson, Malcolm McInnis, Howard Aldmon, Luther Kindall

Abstract

The problem of this study was directed toward investigating: a) the degree by which Black-Africans and Black-Americans accept one another, b) the degree of positive and negative perceptions and stereotypes that Black-Africans hold toward Black-Americans and vice versa, c) the level by which both groups feel acceptable to one another, and d) the determination of variables affecting their social relationships.

Subjects were 35 Black-Africans (25 males and 10 females), and 35 Black-American students (25 males and 10 females) randomly selected from a list of 236 graduate students who were enrolled at U.T. during the academic year 1981/82.

Fey's acceptance of others (AO) scale and his Feelings of Acceptability to Others (FAO) were utilized to test the relationship between how Black-Africans and Black-Americans accept others, and feel acceptable to others generally and how they accept, and feel acceptable to one another specifically. Osgood's Semantic Differential (SD) Scale was used to measure the attitude and perceptions that Black-Africans held toward Black-Americans and vice versa. A Demographic and Open-ended Questionnaire was then used to determine the main factors affecting the social relationships and attitudes of Black-African and Black-Americans toward one another.

The prediction that the degree that they accept one another would be positively correlated with the degree that they accept others was not significantly confirmed. But on their feelings of acceptability to others, the score by Black-Americans had a low negative relationship (r = .39).

A t-test was then employed in the study to determine whether the mean scores of Black-Africans on the Acceptance of Black-Americans scale, (ABAM) and Feelings of Acceptability to Black-Americans, (FABAF) scale were significantly different from the mean scores of Black-Americans on the Acceptance of Black-Africans (ABAF) and their Feelings of Acceptability to Black-Africans (FABAF). The result of the analysis showed that Black-Africans students scores on ABAM was significantly higher at .001 level than Black-American Students' scores on ABAF indicating that they accepted Black-Americans more than they are accepted by Black-Americans. On FABAM and FABAF the t-test was also significant at .007 in favor of Black-Americans signifying that they felt acceptable to Black-Africans more than Black-Africans felt acceptable to them.

A t-test was also used to compare their mean scores on Osgood's SD scale. The scores by Black-Africans were higher than the scores of Black-American students signifying a more favorable attitude toward Black-Americans.

Variables that were revealed by the demographic and open-ended questionnaire showed that the level of inter-personal relationship between the two groups was very low confirming previous literature. Eighty percent of Black-Africans had no Black-American friends, and 71% Black-American had no Black-African friends. While both groups found things they liked and disliked about the other as revealed in the open-ended questionnaire, the greatest likes for Black-American as expressed by Black-Africans concerned their love of arts, music and athletics. Their greatest dislike for Black-Americans involved their shallow mindedness about Africa. Black-American students' greatest frequency of likes for Black-Africans was related to Black-Africans', friendliness and willingness to help whenever one is in need. The greatest frequency of dislike for Black-Africans was connected with Black-Africans socialization practices with Black-American women. This was interpreted to contribute to the social difficulties as experienced by both groups.

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