Another methodological issue that was problematic in this study, that is apparent in many studies which utilize rating scales, was that the respondents never varied much from the middle of the scale. This showed that they did not rate the person as strongly one way or another for any one scale. For example, on a scale of 1 to 7 (1 = Active and 7 = Passive) a respondent for any given scenario usually rated the target as a 4. Although there was often enough variation to suggest statistical difference between ratings, the average rating of 4 is right in the middle of the scale and this response is ambiguous. Perhaps the respondent didn?t think the target was either, or perhaps he didn?t have any feeling about this evaluation, so he chose neither, or perhaps he did not feel like answering the questionnaire, so he only marks 4?s. Any of these explanations may be correct, all with the same outcome. There is not much variation from the middle for any of the scales, which indicates that may be the scales need to be altered in order for more respondents to practice more variation among their assessments. If they varied their scoring more, the differences among the various scales would be larger and we could tell more clearly where their perceptions lay. One possible alteration to the scale might be to use more scales, without such dichotomous word choices, that were more specific to the situation. For example, the Active/Passive scale might be broken into two scales, one which measures Very Actively Involved to Actively Involved and then another scale which rated Somewhat Actively Involved to Passive About Issues. In this way the experimenter might be able to more accurately gather the respondent?s true impressions of the target in a sexual situation.
Another problem that could be addressed in future studies is that the current study was aimed at evaluating people?s perceptions of sexual situation involving the use of condoms, and yet there was no mention of the reason why condoms as opposed to other methods of contraception was given. Since condoms are an important part of sexual disease prevention this aspect of their use should have been one of the manipulations used. Perhaps another factor could behave been added to the context sentence, about the target?s concern about AIDS or another sexually transmitted disease. A future study that questioned participant?s impressions of women who mentioned each type of sexually transmitted disease that college age students are exposed to, might help in the development of intervention strategies for combating the spread of these diseases.
How This Study?s Findings Relate to AIDS Intervention Programs
Although this study did not specifically mention AIDS in it?s manipulations, the results of participant?s perceptions toward a target who introduced a condom is relevant to AIDS intervention programs. As it has been emphasized, any sexually active person is capable of carrying the disease – - indicating that a vast majority of the population is at risk (Surgeon General). Because of the prevalence of people at risk and (as the current study has found) the prevalence of different impressions about women who express concern or propose a condom in a sexual situation, prevention models must be created to effectively confront the disease. Personal perceptions of other?s decisions are relevant to every facet of the AIDS intervention process. AIDS must be addressed on the individual, familial, local organizational, and communal levels to be effective (Flora & Thoresen, 1989), and all of these levels involve personal perceptions of the issue. Not only do person?s perception affect people on an individual level, people?s perceptions of others vary in response to the type of groups others are affiliated with as well. Intervention programs must be sensitive to the multitude of influences which affect people?s decisions in order to be effective. As Flora & Thoresen have pointed out racial, ethnic, socio-economic and gender status each contribute to the individual differences that must be part of the intervention process (1989). Much more research is needed to find out the exact ways that people perceive others who use condoms in order to better target attitudes of the people involved in intervention programs, so that their attitudes towards safer sex will be healthy ones.
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