To measure the Apathy domain, four scales were created: Anxiety, Guilt, Intentionality, and Care. These scales were based on the concepts of Rollo May’s Theory of Personality. According to May (1967) as cited in (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, 2013) Apathy is what people become when they isolate themselves. It is the indifference they feel when they lack concern towards the world, others, and especially towards themselves.
Scale 1: Anxiety
Description: the uneasiness feeling and worry about an uncertain outcome. Experiencing anxiety is a universal phenomenon and is called as the normal anxiety in which people react proportionately to the threat and it can be faced constructively. Whereas Neurotic anxiety happens when people react disproportionately to the threat being confronted resulting from a dogmatic or strong level of belief.
Conceptual: the researchers hypothesize that the higher the score on the anxiety scale, the more apathetic a person has become. The lack of concern for others may be due to their unshakeable beliefs that whatever decisions they make are right and just. They may not consider other people, the world, or themselves when choosing the appropriate judgment.
Scale 2: Guilt
Description: refraining to satisfy one’s potentialities (Feist, Feist, & Roberts, 2013) it is the failure to accurately perceive the needs of our nature, others, and the potentialities of oneself. As the society becomes advanced, people become oblivious to the needs of our nature. Guilt is the feeling we experience when we are aware of the gap between potentiality and actuality. Guilt is also experienced with other people because people fall short in anticipating the needs of others, making people feel inadequate in their social relations with them. In addition, guilt also happens when people deny their own potentialities or their failure to fulfill them.
Conceptual: Since the domain being measure is apathy which is the feeling indifference towards anything. The researchers hypothesize that the lower the feelings of guilt, makes the person more apathetic. To be able to feel guilty means to be able to care for something which is the total opposite of becoming apathy.
Scale 3: Intentionality
Description: The structure that gives meaning and reason to experiences. It makes people choose and live by the consequences of those choices. This scale measures the person’s level of desire to do something, to know if they give intentions on the things they are doing or the things they are about to do.
Conceptual: The test developers hypothesize that low levels of Intentionality leads to more apathy. The lack of desirability to give meaning to experiences shows lack of interest and concern to things being done.
Scale 4: Care
Description: Care is the exact opposite of apathy. In care, the person feels genuine concern and has interest about the world, others, and themselves. Caring for someone or something is a condition in which something does matter.
Conceptual: Since care is the contrary of apathy, it is a given that care and apathy will be indirectly proportional. That is, the low levels of care means the person is more apathetic. The person lacks the ability to consider others’ and even their own well being, value, and importance.
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