Nurses Meeting Different Cultural Backgrounds Half Way Research Paper

Implicit Association Test for Nurses

I selected the European-American/African-American IAT. I chose it because it seemed like a controversial one. I think I associated this test with controversy largely due to the history of race relations within the United States. Additionally, I was curious to see how this computer program would be able to determine whether someone had a preference for European-Americans or African-Americans.

I was not surprised by the results of the test. The results of the test stated that I have a preference for European-American people. I disagree with the results of the test -- I certainly do not have a preference for European-Americans. In fact, I do not have a blanket preference for one or the other of these groups. Life is full of different situations, some of which are antipodes of one another and which provide great variation. There are some situations which I have encountered in which I have a preference for European-Americans, and some in which I have a preference for African-Americans. I do not simply intrinsically favor one group over the other. At the same time, however, I am not surprised that the results claim I favor European-Americans. I would have been surprised had the results stated anything else, in fact. Since this study was related to Harvard, I certainly expected it to try some cheesy tricks such as polarizing people according to race, and innately stating that people just love European-Americans -- when they do not. However, I certainly disagree with the results. There are probably more situations in which I prefer African-Americans that European-Americans. However, the point is that a preference (when there even is one, because in many situations there is no preference) is largely contingent upon a specific situation which has a host of mitigating factors, and cannot be determined by polarization or the speed at which an individual clicks a button.

3. I do not plan to change or alter my thinking due to the results of this particular test. Like I mentioned before, I do not believe that I generally or generically have a preference for European-Americans any more than I do for African-Americans. In all actuality, taking this test provided the first time for me even to ear of the term European-American. However, I do not believe that this notion of preference even applies. There are too many different situations in which one might have a…