Research Question
Are people that attend college more likely to have liberal views on the LGBT community?
Conceptual and Operational Definitions
There are two variables in the research question. The first, the independent variable, is whether the individual has gone to college or not. College in this case refers to any post-secondary education at a college or university. The operational definition for this research is whether they have completed a two- or four-year college degree. This is a nominal (binary) variable with two answers: yes or no. The dependent variable is the views on the LGBT community. This is defined as being accepting of the community and their rights in society, and can include having positive feelings towards gay marriage, gay adoption, and the ability for transgender individuals to transition. This is an ordinal variable – ordinal variables can be measured on a scale that is relative to itself (Lune et al., 2010). In this research, the operational definition will be based on responses to five key issues in the LGBT community, scored out of five for a potential total of 25 points.
Hypothesis
The hypothesis is that attending college will positively correlate to higher acceptance of the LGBT community.
Questionnaire Construction
Age:
Race/Ethnicity:
Gender:
Sexual Orientation:
Have you completed a 2- or 4-year college degree?:
Please indicate how much you agree with the following five statements:
I feel that the LGBT community should have the same marriage rights as straight people1 strongly disagree 2 disagree 3 neutral 4 agree 4 strongly agree
I feel that the LGBT community should have the same adoption rights as straight people1 strongly disagree 2 disagree 3 neutral 4 agree 4 strongly agree
I feel that transgender people should be able to medically transition if they want1 strongly disagree 2 disagree 3 neutral 4 agree 4 strongly agree
I feel that the LGBT community should be able to talk about their experiences in public1 strongly disagree 2 disagree 3 neutral 4 agree 4 strongly agree
I feel that LGBT individuals deserve representation in the media1 strongly disagree 2 disagree 3 neutral 4 agree 4 strongly agree
Please answer the following questions in your own words.
How do you feel about the LGBT community in general? ______________________________
Do you feel that going to college has changed or affected your views of the LGBT community? _________________
Sampling Design
My sampling design is convenience sampling. Convenience sampling may lead to bias in some cases, but it is useful when time and resources are limited (Gordon, 2015). This has been chosen so that I have respondents that have been to college and those who have not, as well as making it easier to find people willing to answer the survey. My sample is 50% male and 50% female. 50% of the respondents completed 4-year college degrees, 0% 2-year college degrees, and 50% have not completed a degree.
Questionnaire Results
Analysis
The mean age of the sample is 23. 50% of the sample were Caucasian, 25% African-American, and 25% Hispanic. 50% were female and 50% were male. 50% had attended college, and 50% had not. 75% of the sample identified as heterosexual, whilst 25% identified as homosexual. The average score on the Likert scale questions was 20, with the average of those with the college degree 23.5 and those without 16.5.
The overall trend was that participants that had completed college had a higher score on the Likert questions that were designed to measure openness towards the LGBT community compared to those who had not completed college. This, combined with the qualitative answers given, highlights that college might have a positive correlation with views towards the LGBT community.
Peer-Reviewed Article
Lambert et al. (2007) conducted a similar study investigating the effects of college education on attitudes towards the LGBT community. This study surveyed 364 students at a Midwestern university. The hypothesis was that upperclassmen would have more positive views about gay and lesbian people than lowerclassmen. Similar to the current study, the participants were asked to give demographic information and then filled in 19 questions on a five-point Likert scale. The findings supported the hypothesis that upperclassmen were more likely to have positive attitudes towards gay and lesbian people. This is similar to the findings from the current smaller study, as it shows that college has an effect on the development of these viewpoints.
Discussion
The purpose of this research was to investigate whether completing college had a positive effect on attitudes towards the LGBT community. The methodology was a survey designed to investigate this potential correlation. The key findings were that those who had finished college had higher levels of acceptance towards the LGBT community. The strengths of this study included using a Likert scale to measure this, which reduces the bias associated with asking only one question – it gives an average. The weakness is the small sample size and the lack of variety in the sample. Future research should focus on getting more responses and investigating whether there are other variables that affect views.
Reflection
I learnt a lot about research methods from this assignment. I learnt that it is difficult to get all of the information needed to understand something from a short survey, but that qualitative questions can help to give more information.
Works Cited
Gordon, L. (2015). Real Research: Research Methods Sociology Students Can Use. SAGE Publications.
Lambert, E. G., Ventura, L. A., Hall, D. E., & Cluse-Tolar, T. (2006). College students’ views on gay and lesbian issues: Does education make a difference? Journal of Homosexuality, 50(4), 1–30.
Lune, H., Pumar, E. S., & Koppel, R. (2010). Perspectives in Social Research Methods and Analysis: A Reader for Sociology. SAGE.
