This study was conducted to determine the influence of age and culture on the fear of snakes. Five age groups, consisting of 20 White and 20 Xhosa subjects each, were tested. In addition to a behavioural and a GSR measure of fear, questionnaires were applied to determine the extent of the subjects' personal and vicarious aversive experiences of snakes and attitudes towards snakes. The behavioural measure showed a significant decrease in the fear of snakes between the 9 - 11 year and the 14 - 16 year White groups, while, for the Xhosa subjects, the fear of snakes increased significantly between the age groups 14 - 16 years and 18 - 20 years. The GSR measure showed a consistent level in the fear of snakes for White subjects. For the Xhosa subjects the mean GSR score for the 18 - 20 year .group was considerably higher than the means for the other age groups. The intensity of the fear of snakes for White and Xhosa subjects of the same age was remarkably similar. Xhosa subjects had significantly more negative attitudes towards snakes than white subjects. This finding was explained in terms of Whites having had greater opportunities to obtain factual information about snakes. No significant relationships were found between (a) the measures of the extent of the subjects' aversive experiences of snakes; (b) the degree of negative attitudes towards snakes; and the measures of the fear of snakes. On the basis of these measures, the etiology of the fear of snakes cannot be explained in terms of aversive experiences with snakes per se. The striking similarity of responses to a live snake by subjects from two widely different cultures suggests caution in an over-hasty dismissal of the theory of an innate fear of snakes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:3198 |
| Date | January 1972 |
| Creators | Bartel, P R |
| Publisher | Rhodes University, Faculty of Humanities, Psychology |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MA |
| Format | 242 pages, pdf |
| Rights | Bartel, P R |
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