Whether 5th grade students will develop a more positive attitude toward social studies as the result of being introduced to a new social studies program, "Man: A Course of Study (MACOS)" is the question investigated in this study. Objectives of the study are to obtain information relative to the following: 1) will the introduction of MACOS make more positive the "perceptual set" of students toward the social studies? 2) will their choice of descriptors used for the social studies become more positive after the course? 3) are there sex differences in these matters? Methods relative to the introduction of MACOS included administering a pre-test and a post-test requiring students to rank their five major subjects in order of personal preference and in order of personal difficulty, and to circle descriptors which best reflected how they felt about social studies. Findings indicate that the students had a more positive "perceptual set" toward social studies and also increased their selection of positive terms toward social studies after having taken MACOS. Social studies courses markedly increased in popularity and declined as a subject of difficulty among both boys and girls, the magnitude of change being greater for boys than for girls. (SJM)