Abstract

The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between individual factors (gender, language background (LB), nationality, English language proficiency (ELP), diverse group work experience (DGWE)) and cognitive processes (bias, stereotyping, anxiety & apprehension) and investigate the nature of any emerging differences, using the sample of 837 undergraduate students. Owing to the irregular distributions of the criterion variables we combined the sensitivity and versatility of parametric tests (t-tests, ANOVA) with the robustness of the equivalent non-parametric tests (Kruskall Wallis, Mann-Whitney). Strong conclusions were drawn where both groups of tests proved significant at the .01 level. The results revealed LB, nationality, ELP, and DGWE have a statistically significant impact on bias. LB, nationality, ELP and DGWE also appear to have an impact on stereotyping while anxiety & apprehension appear to be influenced by gender, LB, nationality, ELP and DGWE. The precise differences and implications for academics and researchers are discussed.

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