Introductory psychology is the gateway course for further study in psychology for minority as well as majority group members. We examined text and photographs in 28 introductory textbooks published between 1990 and 1992 for coverage of diversity issues (e.g., minority group members and lesbian and gay lifestyles). Although women are not a minority in the population, we also included an analysis of gender issues. Results indicated that diversity-related content in 1990s textbooks is limited, although more extensive than in older textbooks. Analysts of content as a function of gender of author(s) revealed that female authors covered some diversity issues to a significantly greater extent than male authors or mixed-gender coauthors. Regarding photographs, Latinos/Latinas and women were significantly underrepresented. Implications of these findings for college students, instructors, authors, and publishers are discussed.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AllisonK. W.CrawfordI.EchemendiaR.RobinsonL.KneppD. (1994). Human diversity and professional competence: Training in clinical and counseling psychology revisited. American Psychologist, 49, 792–796.
2.
American Psychological Association, Task Force on Issues of Sexual Bias in Graduate Education. (1975). Guidelines for nonsexist use of language. American Psychologist, 30, 632–684.
3.
AschS. E. (1946). Forming impressions of personality. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 41, 1230–1240.
4.
Association of American Publishers. (1994). Survey of American college and university professors. New York: Author.
5.
BertilsonH. S.SpringerD. K.FierkeK. M. (1982). Under-representation of female referents as pronouns, examples, and pictures in introductory college textbooks. Psychological Reports, 51, 923–931.
6.
BrownA.GoodwinB. J.HallB. A.Jackson-LowmanH. (1985), A review of psychology of women textbooks: Focus on the Afro-American woman. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 9, 29–38.
7.
BurkeR. R. (1988). Subject emphasis in textbook photographs and Journal reports in educational psychology. Teaching of Psychology, 15, 164–165.
8.
D'AugelliA. R. (1992). Lesbian and gay male undergraduates' experiences of harassment and fear on campus. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 7, 383–395.
9.
DunnJ. R. (1988). The shortage of Black male students in the college classroom; Consequences and causes. Western Journal of Black Studies, 12, 73–76.
10.
FiskeS. T.TaylorS. E. (1991). Social cognition (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
11.
GayJ. (1988). The incidence of photographs of racial minority group members in introductory psychology textbooks. Journal of Black Psychology, 15, 77–79.
12.
HerekG. M. (1993). Sexual orientation and military service: A social science perspective. American Psychologist, 48, 538–549.
13.
HighsmithM. C. (1988). Degrees conferred by Connecticut colleges and universities. Hartford: Connecticut State Board of Higher Education.
14.
JensenA. R. (1973). Educability and group differences. New York: Harper & Row.
15.
KelleyH. H. (1950). The warm-cold variable in first impressions of persons. Journal of Personality, 18, 431–439.
16.
LeathermanJ. (1994, October 12). Number of Blacks earning PhD rose 15% in one year.Chronicle of Higher Education, pp. A16–A17.
17.
PetersonS. B.KronerT. (1992). Gender biases in textbooks for introductory psychology and human development. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16, 17–36.
18.
PowellR. R.GarciaJ. (1985). The portrayal of minority group members and women in selected elementary science series. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 22, 519–533.
19.
RossL.GreeneD.HouseP. (1977). The false consensus effect: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279–301.
20.
RumelhartD. E. (1975). Notes on a schema for stories. In BrobowD. G.CollinsA. (Eds.), Representation and understanding (pp. 211–236). New York: Academic.
21.
SandlerB. R. (1986). The chilly climate revisited: Chilly for women faculty, administrators and graduate students. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges, Project on the Status and Education of Women.
22.
StevensJ. (1992). Applied multivariate statistics for the social sciences. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
23.
U.S. Bureau of the Census. (1992). Statistical abstract of the United States (107th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
24.
WhitboumeS. K.HulickaI. M. (1990). Ageism in undergraduate psychology texts. American Psychologist, 45, 1127–1136.
25.
WycheK. F.GravesS. B. (1992). Minority women in academia: Access and barriers to professional participation. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 16, 429–437.
26.
ZuckermanM. (1990). Some dubious premises in research and theory on racial differences. American Psychologist, 45, 1297–1303.
