The Perception of the People in Malaysia on the Relation between Science and Human Problems

Abstract

This paper reports a study on the perception of the respondents toward assumption that science is the prime factor for environmental problem. 644 respondents male and female from all over Malaysia participated in the study. The respondents from the age of 20 to 55, from different ethnic and religion were given booklets of questionnaire, containing statement in the form of Likert style scale, from 1 (strongly disagree), 2 (disagree), 3 (not sure) 4 (agree), 5 strongly agree. The booklets were collected after 30 minutes, and the raw data was analysed using the SPSS to obtain the mean response, the percentages, the difference of mean were tested using the t-test and one-way ANOVA. The responses to the statement “Science will ultimately detrimental to the world” were analysed. The results of the study show that 31.5% of the respondents rejected the statement, 34.9% were undecided and 33.4 % accepted the statement. The study has also shown that the respondents whose background education was in science were more sympathetic to science compared to the respondents whose background educations were non-science. The mean response for the respondents whose academic background was science was 2.9742 and those non-science background was 3.1840, and the difference of mean is significant.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n4s1p374