The effect of a workshop on attitudes of female nursing students toward male homosexuality.

The responses of 64 female nursing students to the Survey of Attitudes Toward Deviance--Homosexuality Scale (May, 1974) indicated that they held more negative attitudes and more stereotyped beliefs regarding male homosexuality than did May's sample of male counselors and psychologists. After a 2-hour workshop, the attitudes of the 37 students in the experimental groups had changed and were similar to those expressed by May's sample. A testing 4 months later indicated that this change remained stable. Some attitudes relating to morality and social distance continued to be somewhat unfavorable. It made no difference in attitude change if the workshop presenters did or did not identify themselves as homosexual. The students with initially more negative attitudes toward homosexuality changed more as a result of the workshop experience than those with more positive attitudes. For both experimental and control subjects, more positive pretest attitudes toward homosexuality were associated with emotional stability, objectivity, good personal relations, restraint, friendliness, an interest in masculine activities, and greater support for equality of the sexes, as well as more liberal attitudes toward sex-appropriate behavior.