Diversity Measures: New &
Forgotten
William E. Sedlacek
University of Maryland
wsed@umd.edu
www.williamsedlacek.info
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Audience

Define & understand your audience
Yourself
 Your boss
 White students
 Students of color
 Faculty
 Administrators
 State legislators
 Parents

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Independent Areas
 Information
 Attitudes
 Behavior
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Information

How Many Students Are We Talking
About?
Tracking

It's “Pop Sociology”
A Course on Racism

What's The Difference?
Your Cult is My Religion
4
Attitudes
 How
Do I Feel About This Group?
Situational Attitude Scale
 Is
This the Place?
Perceptual Mapping
 How
Do I Feel About Diversity?
Universal-Diverse Orientation
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Situational Attitude Scale-SAS

How do I feel about this group?

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Develop situations that evoke prejudice
Use bipolar Semantic Differential evaluation terms
Develop at least 2 forms

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1 with key word - 1 without
Administer randomly to group
Compare mean differences across forms
Forms on American Indians, Blacks, women, Jews,
children, gays, age, athletes, Mormons, disabilities,
commuters, Latinos, clients, etc
Alpha reliability .79 -.85
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SAS Situations
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You are boarding a plane for vacation in
Florida, and two young (Arab) men are
boarding immediately behind you.
You meet your new (Black) roommate
You meet your new (blind) lab partner
You hear of someone (athlete) who got a
full scholarship
A (woman) mechanic comes to fix your car
Your daughter introduces her (female) love
interest
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Perceptual Mapping

Is This the Place ?

Make map of indoor or outdoor space

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Have people mark feelings on map

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Can be real or stylized
Good, bad, productive, favorite
Display on overheads or “posies”

Good with nonstatistical visual learners
Test-retest reliability – 90% same areas
 Differences by race & gender

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Perceptual Map-Campus Union
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Universal Diverse Orientation-UDO

How do I Feel About Diversity?
 5 items each scale- total score
 Relativistic Appreciation
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Diversity of Contact
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Knowing different experiences of other people help
me understand my problems better
I attend events where I might get to know people
from different racial backgrounds
Comfort with Differences

I often feel irritated by persons of a different race
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UDO Results
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Alpha reliability .83
Scale intercorrelations .65 -.69
Total Score
 Females higher, Whites lower
 Negative r with dogmatism
 Negative r with homophobia
 Positive r with Autonomy of White Racial ID- Helms
Relativistic Appreciation- females higher, Whites lower
Diversity of Contact- females higher
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Thurstone Equal Appearing Intervals
The Forgotten Method

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Use with behaviors or attitudes
Judges rate many items on how most people
feel or do behavior- not ego involved
Scale items selected on mean & low variability
Thurstone used 11point scale- can use less
Respondents choose items agreed with
Score is mean of items chosen
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Thurstone Scale Attributes
Alternative to Likert (agree-disagree)
 Saves respondent time
 Increased return rate
 Saves money
 Less subject to interpretation
 Best with unidimensional scales
 Item analysis before admin- more ethical

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Campus Police Behaviors Thurstone
Equal Appearing Intervals
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Behavior
Formal reprimand
Difficulty with a racial group
Does not resolve conflicts on site
Advanced police training
Human relations training
Advisor to student group
Advisor to racial/cultural group
Unsolicited letter of praise
mean
1.03
2.05
3.11
4.09
5.20
6.01
7.13
7.87
sd
.11
.21
.30
.32
.86
.77
.41
.15
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References
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Fuertes, J. N., Miville, M. L., Mohr, J. J., Sedlacek, W. E., & Gretchen, D.
(2000). Factor structure and short form of the Miville-Guzman
Universality-Diversity Scale. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling
and Development, 33 (3), 157-169.
Mitchell, A. A., Sergent, M. T., & Sedlacek, W. E. (1997). Mapping the
university learning environment. National Association of Student
Personnel Administrators Journal, 35, 20-28.
Sedlacek, W. E. (1996). An empirical method of determining
nontraditional group status. Measurement and Evaluation in Counseling
and Development, 28, 200-210.
Sedlacek, W. E. (2002). Thurstone equal appearing intervals: The
forgotten method. (Counseling Center Research Report no. 14–02).
College Park: University of Maryland.
Sedlacek, W. E. (2004). A Multicultural Research Program. In F. W. Hale
Jr. (Ed.) What makes racial diversity work in higher education (Pp.256271). Sterling VA :Stylus Publishing.
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References - continued
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Sedlacek, W. E. (2004). Beyond the big test: Noncognitive assessment in
higher education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Sedlacek, W. E. Conducting research that makes a difference. (2007). In
C.C. Lee, & G.R. Walz (Eds.).Counseling for social justice. (Pp. 223237). Alexandria, VA. American Counseling Association.
Sergent, M. T., & Sedlacek, W. E. (1989). Perceptual mapping: A
methodology in the assessment of environmental perceptions. Journal
of College Student Development, 30, 319-322.
Singley, D. B. & Sedlacek, W. E. (in press). Differences in universaldiverse orientation by race and gender. Journal of Counseling &
Development.
Thurstone, L L. & Chave, E. J. (1929) The measurement of attitude.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Thurstone, L. L. (1959). The measurement of values. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press.
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