A Review of Studies of Danger Perception and Prospects of its Study in Clinical Psychology Development

Abstract

The objective of studies of danger perception is to predict the behavior of a person, group, or society in terms of the potential hazard, to identify the main groups of factors that affect the risk assessment and sources of distortion of the evaluation. The review presents the sociological theories of danger, reveals the gender differences in the danger perception, and describes in details the individual factors of danger perception. We discuss the prospects of studying the outside world danger perception in clinical psychology of development. We emphasize that the key period for the development of danger assessment process is adolescence, because this is the age when most significant quantitative and qualitative changes in the cognitive sphere occur: the development of abstract logical thinking, increased interest to the life and death, the appearance of “personal myth”.