.
The
Peace Test is a questionnaire, developed in the US,
which tests
people's attitude towards violence, war and the abuse of human rights.
IPPNW
Finland's student chapter has successfully tested 8th graders
throughout
the country and last year's meeting of IFMSA in Budapest saw the
extension
of the test to an international audience. Now, this test gives students
the
chance to test their own feelings towards violence, the acceptance of
war
and the attitude towards conflict management or the abuse of human
rights.
Mass
violence is a major public health problem. Aggressive responses to intergroup and
international conflict are partly determined by the processes of moral
disengagement, in which collective violence is justified by public judgments of
conflicts, choices and enemies. Individual and collective tendencies toward
violence may be related to measurable and modifiable differences in
attitudes supporting moral disengagement. The PEACETEST project has developed
attitudinal survey methods for measuring moral disengagement and communication
techniques for educating young people about how moral disengagement can
be resisted. The data can be collected from medical, university and
secondary school students around the world. Statistical analyses will compare groups
and investigate the psychometric properties of the measurements.
Technical findings can be published in scientific journals. Non-technical
national reports can be widely publicized among medical, university and
secondary students and more general audiences in each country, with educational
outreach and an internet site designed to help young people learn to resist the
processes of moral disengagement.
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