Term of Award
Spring 1978
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Document Type and Release Option
Thesis (restricted to Georgia Southern)
Department
Department of Psychology
Committee Chair
Georgelle Thomas
Committee Member 1
Shirley W. Osgood
Committee Member 2
Richard L. Rogers
Abstract
Fifteen females matched the sound pressure of a monaurally presented 3000 Hz tone and numbers to the offensiveness of a series of slang words obtained from a list used by Baudhuin (1973). The geometric means of the sound pressure levels were plotted against the geometric means of numbers on semi-log coordinates. Results indicated that a power function relationship exists between sound pressure and numbers matched to the offensiveness of these words; thus, the offensiveness of slang words can be measured by direct scaling techniques. A significant positive correlation (rrho(10)=.976, p<.005) between the levels of the two continua (numbers and sound pressure level) matched to the offensiveness of slang words indicates the high degree of agreement between these matches. The sound pressure levels obtained in the present study were found to be correlated (rrho(10)=.564, p<.05) with the semantic differential evaluations Baudhuin (1973) obtained.
Copyright
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Recommended Citation
Daniels, Jane, "Psychophysical Scaling of the Offensiveness of Slang Words" (1978). Legacy ETDs. 592.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/etd_legacy/592