What Are Fear Appeals?

• In Event: Fear Appeals: What Are They and What Happens When Educators Use Them?

Abstract

Objectives or purposes: The symposium will start with an overview of Fear Appeals explaining the history of how they have been used in the health literature and how they came to be studied in education. In this opening talk, we will learn about the development of the key instrument used in the field to assess Fear Appeals and we will learn about the different type of Fear Appeals and the conditions under which they most likely to be prevalent.
Perspectives or Theoretical Framework: The reason why Fear Appeals affect students (both positively and negatively) can be informed using self-worth protection theory (Covington, 1992), expectancy-value theory (Eccles, 2005, 2007) and control-value theory (Pekrun, Frenzel, Goetz & Perry, 2007). Also, as Fear Appeals are potentially controlling statements, then it seems appropriate to also talk about self-determination theory as this theory has a strong focus on how perceptions of autonomy can influence motivated behavior (Deci & Ryan, 1985; Ryan & Deci, 2000, 2002).
Methods: In this paper, we will learn about a key instrument in the field, namely, the Teachers Use of Fear Appeals Questionnaire (TUFAQ) developed by Putwain & Roberts (2009) using standard techniques to validate a new instrument. The methods involve focus groups with students to develop items, and then exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to fully validate the questionnaire.
Data Sources: 15-16 year old students studying for their General Certificate of Education (GCSE) Exam in Math in UK. Students must typically achieve a grade C or above, (especially in Math and English,) to access further educational pathways or enter employment.
Results and substantiated conclusions: The TUFAQ has been shown to be a valid and reliable instrument and has been used in a variety of subsequent studies, some of which will be described in papers two and three.
Scientific of scholarly significance of the work: The TUFAQ represents the key instrument used in the study of Fear Appeals in classroom contexts.

Authors

• Dave Putwain, Edge Hill University

• Richard Remedios, Northcentral University