Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Semester of Degree Completion

1979

Thesis Director

Ronald T. Wohlstein

Abstract

If blacks are to compete successfully in white academia, they must be able to communicate and interact with white students and professors. Acceptance of middle-class white students with an academic achievement orientation, as friends and equals, should enable or assist blacks in developing positive attitudes toward academic achievement. This in turn should positively affect scholastic performance. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between black attitudes toward social affiliation with whites and successful academic performance on integrated campuses.

This hypothesis was tested by measuring the association between black self-reported grade point averages and their responses to an instrument designed to measure attitudes toward social affiliation with whites. In addition, antecedent and intervening variables were also tested to investigate some of the factors that contribute to and affect black attitudes toward social affiliation with whites and its relationship to black academic achievement. The study was conducted at a moderate-sized midwestern university during the spring of 1978. A total of 103 instruments were completed successfully and used as the data for the study. The results of the analysis of the data demonstrate no support for the hypothesis: there was no relationship between black attitudes toward social affiliation with whites and successful academic achievement at interracial institutions. Reasons for the lack of a relationship and implications for future research were discussed.

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