Date of Award

Summer 1998

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Psychology

Program/Concentration

Psychology

Committee Director

Robin J. Lewis

Committee Member

Thomas F. Cash

Committee Member

Mark W. Scerbo

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.P65 P743

Abstract

There are many negative effects of obesity in our society. As a result, a new measure of antifat attitudes was developed. This study examined the construct, discriminant, and convergent validity of the Antifat Attitudes Test by relating antifat attitudes to racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Participants included 179 college undergraduate students. Multiple regression analyses revealed significant contributions of sex-role egalitarianism, racism, masculine ideology, body mass, and social desirability in the prediction of antifat attitudes. Several one-way analyses of variance revealed that men expressed stronger antifat attitudes than women and African-Americans were more accepting of fat individuals than were Whites. Additionally, androgynous individuals expressed less negative views of fat persons than their sex-typed counterparts.

The construct, discriminant, and convergent validity of the Antifat Attitudes Test is strengthened and its utility as a valid measure of prejudice against fat individuals is demonstrated. The implications of the findings are discussed, as are the complexities of studying highly sensitive stereotypical and socially undesirable beliefs.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/8nvy-gm08

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