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The Modern Racism Scale (McConahay, 1986) was used to assess the impact of education and personality variables on college students' prejudicial attitudes toward African Americans. Prejudice was lower in students who completed a diversity course specifically addressing race and gender issues and in students who measured high in need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982). A weak correlation between the prejudice scale and a social desirability scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) suggested that students were not grossly under reporting their prejudicial beliefs. Diversity courses in higher education were effective in improving students' intergroup tolerance.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.12.001 Byline: Norman B. Schmidt, Michael Mallott Keywords: Anxiety; Risk factor; Vulnerability; Anxiety disorder Abstract: Fear of arousal symptoms, often referred to as anxiety sensitivity (AS), appears to be associated with risk for anxiety pathology and other Axis I conditions. However, AS is only one of three fundamental components of Reiss' Expectancy Model proposed to account for the development of anxiety problems. Very little research has focused on the other two components of this model (Fear of Negative Evaluation, Illness/Injury Sensitivity) and the specificity of AS, relative to these other two components, has rarely been evaluated. This study evaluated general and unique associations among all three so-called fundamental sensitivities to fearful responding to a biological challenge in a nonclinical sample (N=404). Participants were administered a 20-s inhalation of 20% CO.sub.2/balance O.sub.2. Consistent with hypothesis, only AS uniquely contributed to increased subjective fear responding to the challenge. These findings are consistent with Expectancy Theory in suggesting that the AS component of the model is specific to amplification of fears to arousal cues. Author Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA Article History: Received 13 July 2005; Revised 30 November 2005; Accepted 6 December 2005

The Modern Racism Scale (McConahay, 1986) was used to assess the impact of education and personality variables on college students' prejudicial attitudes toward African Americans. Prejudice was lower in students who completed a diversity course specifically addressing race and gender issues and in students who measured high in need for cognition (Cacioppo & Petty, 1982). A weak correlation between the prejudice scale and a social desirability scale (Crowne & Marlowe, 1960) suggested that students were not grossly underreporting their prejudicial beliefs. Diversity courses in higher education were effective in improving students' intergroup tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]