A computer program designed to teach nonsexist language is described. The interactive program teaches students to recognize the various forms of sexist language described in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, 1983) and to correct sexist language without mixing singular and plural pronouns. Student performance records are saved to a disk file for later review by the instructor. In a preliminary study with general psychology students, the software was as effective in teaching nonsexist language as was a didactic presentation on the topic and was more effective than no presentation.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
American Psychological Association. (1983). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
2.
BenoitS. S.ShellW. (1985). Can sex-biased communication affect business students' career decisions?Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, 28, 123–129.
3.
BriereJ.LanktreeC. (1983). Sex-role related effects of sex bias in language. Sex Roles, 9, 625–632.
4.
DayhoffS. A. (1983). Sexist language and person perception: Evaluation of candidates from newspaper articles. Sex Roles, 9, 527–539.
5.
DenmarkF.RussoN. F.FriezeI. H.SechzerJ. A. (1988). Guidelines for avoiding sexism in psychological research. American Psychologist, 43, 582–585.
6.
EtaughC.SpandikowD. B. (1981). Changing attitudes toward women: A longitudinal study of college students. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 5, 591–594.
7.
McMinnM. R. (1988). Ethics case-study simulation: A generic tool for psychology teachers. Teaching of Psychology, 15, 100–101.
8.
McMinnM. R.LindsayS.HannumL. E.TroyerP. K. (in press). Does sexist language reflect personal characteristics? Sex Roles.
9.
PearsonJ. C. (1985). Gender and communication. Dubuque, IA: Brown.
10.
StrattonM. R. (1987, July/August). Weeding out bias. Currents, pp. 47–51.
