Date of Award

12-1-2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to investigate to what extent, the “Fighting Sioux” Nickname and Logo affects American Indian and Majority Culture college students emotionally. This study compared American Indian and Majority Culture students’ differences of emotional reactions and distress to twc different slide presentations using images of the “Fighting Sioux” Nickname and Logo found around the campus of the University of North Dakota (UND). The main focus was to examine the possible psychological side effects.

Participants consisted of 36 Majority Culture and 33 American Indian College students in attendance at UND. Each participant filled out an informed consent form, a demographic questionnaire, and a Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist-Revised (MAACL-R) before seeing either the Neutral Images slide presentation or the Controversial Images slide presentation. After viewing the first presentation, the participants filled out another MAACL-R and then viewed the second presentation. Uiey then filled out another MAACL-R and the Nickname and Logo Distress Scale (NLDS). The American Indian participants also filled out the Northern Plains Biculturalism Inventory.

Data analyses included descriptive statistics of demographic variables, Pearson Product Moment correlations to examine the relationships between the demographic variables and the NLDS as well as with the MAACL-R, a repeated measures mixed design to examine the differences between the groups in relation to how their scores changed after viewing each slide show, and finally, a Independent Samples t-Test to see if there was a significant difference on total scores of the NLDS.

Results revealed that American Indian participants had higher levels of negative affect than Majority Culture participants after viewing the Neutral slide show and that their affect reached an even higher state after viewing the Controversial slide show. The Majority Culture participants’ level of affect, on the othei hand, did not significantly change after viewing the Neutral slide show, but did after viewing the Controversial slide show. However, the level of affect of the American Indian participants reached a significantly higher level than that of the Majority Culture participants. The findings can imply that American Indian students at UND may have higher levels of psychological distress on a daily basis simply from seeing even neutral images of the “Fighting Sioux” Nickname and Logo.

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