Nancy Price

Date of Award

2001

Degree Name

Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Elizabeth Kelley Boyles

Second Advisor

Fred Jay Krieg

Third Advisor

Beverly Farrow

Fourth Advisor

Stephen L. O’Keefe

Abstract

This study examined the perceptions of 659 students in the 6th, 9th, and 12th grades in three West Virginia counties. The students were given a survey that consisted of eleven scenarios. Each scenario suggested a potentially violent situation. The student participating in the survey was asked to rate each scenario on a 5-point Likert scale. Within the four versions of the survey, gender was alternated so that a different ratio of fear responses could be determined in relation to gender. The results of the responses of the actual male and female subjects in each scenario were examined. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used. Chronbach’s alpha showed an alpha level of .8224. Results showed that male and female subjects perceived the male student to be more aggressive than the female student in ten out of the eleven scenarios. Out of the 22 possible scenarios (11 scenarios with female students and 11 scenarios with male students), the results of this study identified three statistically significant scenarios.

Subject(s)

School violence – Research.

Danger perception – Testing.

Danger perception – Gender.

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