Student attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual issues: analysis of self-talk categories

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the utility of using the thought-listing technique to examine participants' attitudes toward lesbian, gay, and bisexual issues and (b) determine the effectiveness of two new training interventions (rational and experiential) that were designed using cognitive-experiential self-theory (Epstein, 1994). Fifty participants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions (rational training, experiential training, control group). Participants completed a thought-listing technique before and after receiving one of the theoretically based training interventions. Three judges free sorted the 2,481 collected thoughts and identified and defined 25 thought categories. Three trained judges then placed 2,426 (98%) of the thoughts into these categories. Results indicated that different categories of responses (cognitive, affective, behavioral) emerged among the individuals which provided four distinct profiles of how people thought about the topic of homosexuality. Furthermore, chi-square analyses revealed that the experiential group had changes in their thoughts after receiving the workshop. Findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.