A study of gender difference in student apathy

This study attempted to construct Male Apathy Inventory (MAI), Female Apathy Inventory (MAI), and Obsession Scale (OS), and investigate the relations among apathy, obsession, self-consciousness, and self-image. Forty-seven original items for MAI and FAI, 13 original items for OS, Sugawara's self-consciousness scale (1984) , and Murase and Murase's self-image scale (1966) were administered to 508 university students. Principal component analysis and factor analysis were used to select 24, 32, and 9 items for MAI, FAI, OS, respectively. Students high on OS tended to be higher on private self-consciousness, and male students who were low on both apathy and obsession had the lowest public self-consciousness. Self-images of the students high on apathy tended to be negative. Also, high obsession scores seemed beneficial for the adjustment of female students.