AbstractsEducation Research & Administration

One of the major problems confronting researchers in the field of race relations is trying to assess levels of prejudice (Aboud, 1988). Currently in the field, there is a lack of quality instrumentation. The persistent problem in the measures is a response pattern bias influenced by social desirability (Edwards, 1957). The purpose of this study was to explore the development of a free association technique (Deese, 1965; Szalay & Deese, 1978) to reduce this effect.The study was conducted in a undergraduate sociology class (n = 209) at a large university. Subjects were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. In condition one, the subjects responded to a free association stimulus task (FAST). The FAST consists of 10 terms in which ethnic and racial diversity may be a factor (e.g., diversity), along with 10 masking words. In condition two, subjects completed a version of the Social Distance Scale (Bogardus, 1925a) and the Modern Racism Scale (McConahay, Hardee, & Batts, 1981). In condition three, the students were given another set of the FAST. The students were to respond as they would imagine a racially prejudiced person would. In condition 4, the students were also given the FAST. However, they were to respond as a racially tolerant person would.The study indicated that the FAST has the potential to discriminate between prejudiced and non-prejudiced people. Although the FAST also suffered from the problem of social desirability, it is suggested that the technique has the potential to reduce this effect. The study concludes with a series of recommendations for future research.