AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP OF WORLDVIEW
WITH BEHAVIOURAL AND EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS AMONG ADOLESCENTS
Research
Proposal
Submitted to
: Dr .................
Submitted by : Zareen Shahid
University
2012-2014
INTRODUCTION
Worldview refers how people perceive, think, feel, and
experience the world. It is a philosophy of life that helps us understand a
person’s experience, culture, and interaction within the environment (Ibraham,
1985). The term "worldview" has been used in various contexts since
1790. For instance, Naugle (2002) defined worldview as: “the perception of
the world, a particular philosophy of individual life, and the concept held by
an individual or a group on the world”.
Having good worldview can help individuals and communities in
right direction. Understanding of worldview make can bring clarity to
one’s; not only to what ones believe, but how ones believe what ones believe.
If one lacks understanding of their own worldview and/or is not aware of the
diversity of worldviews within the culture, one is often mystified by the
beliefs of others. This can lead to demonization of others; it can also lead to
people having difficulty in converting others to their point of view. Young
people with an improper worldview, are more likely to be angry and resentful
about life, lack purpose in life, to lie, to cheat, to physically hurt someone,
to use drugs, and to commit suicide, etc. (Heylighen, 2000).
According to a research, people with negative worldviews are more
emotional comparatively with people having good worldviews. These people
usually suffer from headaches, stomach-aches or sickness. These people are
mostly unhappy, down hearted, nervous, easily scared, often lose temper,
restless distracted, dependent etc. (LeBaron, 2003).
Aaron Beck, one of the founding fathers of cognitive behavioural
therapy, said "emotion follows perception" meaning that the way we
feel about a situation is a result of the way we perceive it
(Moss,2000).Biological theories revolve around the idea that individuals are
predisposed to commit crime. Cesare Lomboroso is considered to have contributed
the major theory called positivism(Champion,2004) Psychological factors concerned in juvenile delinquency
are grouped under two main heads --- intellectual and emotional. Behavioural
theory was studied by J. Watson, I. Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. According to this
theory different behavioural and emotional problems are based on conditioning.
According to the Behavioural Theory, Juvenile delinquency preventive programs
should be positive and negative reinforcement. Some of the examples of
preventing programs with use of negative reinforcements are confinement, boot
camps and waiver.
Worldview is an important topic of
psychology and it is discussed in almost all important books of psychology and
many researches have been conducted on worldview regarding different concepts
and about behaviour and emotional problems of adolescents.
This study is very significant in the sense that it provides
clear cut indications that adolescents emotional and behavioural problems
emerged because of their distorted worldviews (The overall
perspective from which one sees and interprets the world).This study will be
beneficial to understand the importance of worldview : that it can change the
quality of one’s life.
Hypothesis
Worldview is negatively
correlated with emotional and conduct problems, with hyperactivity and peer
problems but positively correlated with prosocial behaviour.
METHOD
Objective of the study
Historically, emotional and behavioural studies
have focused on later adolescents, the time when emotional and behavioural
symptoms usually on peaks. The major objective of the present investigation is
to examine the effect of worldview on the adolescent’s emotional and
behavioural problems. The significance of this study is that it provides better
understanding about whether negative worldview lead the adolescents to emotional
and behavioural problems.
Operational
Definition of the Study variables:
Operational Definitions of the Study variables
are as follows:
Worldview
Worldview is the philosophical assumptions which
determine the way in which people perceive, think, feel, and experience the
world
According to Jenkins (2006), The term worldview is used to refer to the common concept of
reality shared by a particular group of people, usually referred to as a
culture, or an ethnic group. Worldview is an individual as well as a group
phenomenon.
Emotional and behavioural problem:
According to Strengths and difficulties
questionnaires (SDQ, Goodman, 1997),
emotional and behavioural problems include emotional symptoms (lot of
headaches, worry, unhappiness, nervous, fears), conduct problems
(aggressiveness, cheating, lose temper), hyperactivity (restless, distracted,
squirming).
Sample:
300 adolescents (students)
50%
boys and50% girls.
Adolescents age range from 18 to 19.
Procedure
For testing the hypothesis, World view analysis scale (WAS, Obasi,
2004), Strengths and
Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman, 1997), and the demographical information Performa will
be administered on the participants. Students will approach individually or in
groups. The whole data will be collected from Rawalpindi and Islamabad, cities
of Pakistan.
Instruments
Three instruments
will be used for this study
World
view analysis scale (WAS)
The World
view analysis scale (WAS, Obasi, 2004) a 45-item questionnaire that
assess seven conceptual dimensions of worldview.
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)
The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ, Goodman, 1997), is a
brief behavioural screening questionnaire about adolescents
Demographical
information Performa:
Demographical information Performa was used to gain information from
participants about their age, gender and education.
RESULTS
The expected results of this study
is that worldview is negatively correlated with emotional and conduct problems,
with hyperactivity and peer problems but positively correlated with prosocial
behaviour. Correlation between worldview and behavioral and emotional problems
will generate the result of this study
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Adolescence is a phase in the life span
characterized by transitions across numerous developmental domains, including
challenges in biological (e.g., puberty), cognitive (e.g., issues of personal
identity), and social (e.g., shift toward peers) spheres. This study will focus
on effects of worldview, that adolescents emotional and behavioural problems
are the cause of negative worldview. According to hypothesis worldview is negatively correlated with emotional and
conduct problems, with hyperactivity and peer problems but positively
correlated with prosocial behaviour
Findings regarding effect of worldview on
emotions and behaviours among adolescents
may be used to understand the etiology, or causes, of these emotional
problems, as well as to facilitate the design of interventions .
References:
Chown P, Kang M, Sanci L, Newnham V and Bennett D (2008). Adolescent Health: GP
Resource
Kit. Enhancing the skills of General Practitioners in caring for young people
from culturally diverse backgrounds, 2nd edition, NSW Centre for
the Advancement of Adolescent Health and Transcultural Mental Health Centre. [http://www.caah.chw.edu.au/resources/#03
retrieved on 2012
Obasi.E.M& Flores,
J.M. (2001). Construction and
Initial Validation of the Worldview Analysis
Scale
(WAS).Journal of black studies.
Retrieved from http://jbs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/short/0021934707305411v1
Jenkis,O.B.(2004).What is
worldview.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:tGG2HHnhCiMJ:strategyleader.org/powerpoint/what_is_worldview.pps+what+is+worldview&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=pk&client=firefox-a
retrieved on 2012.
Eisenberg, N. (2005). Age
changes in prosocial responding and moral reasoning in adolescence
and early adulthood. Journal of Research on
Adolescence, 15, 235-260.
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