Perception of risk situations and its relation to normative beliefs in females and males

The presented paper is devoted to the study of some dimensions of perceptio n of risk situations and also to the study of relations between situation p erception and normative beliefs. The emphasis was placed on the differences determined by gender. Normative beliefs were determined by a three-level m odel of norms (IDP-model with injunctive, descriptive and personal level) i n five risk situations (Nostra-R Questionnaire). Perception of situations w as studied on the base of 7-point bipolar adjective scales. Subjects were 1 66 undergraduates (82 males, 84 females). Mean age was 20.8 years. The resu lts revealed that females compared to males, characterize the risk behavior as more inappropriate. Furthermore, it was found, that in males there is a relatively strong connection between perception and normative beliefs. In contrast, this relation is essentially weaker in females.