A CLASSROOM-BASED PSYCHOLINGUISTIC STUDY PAGE 46-51

1. Registered with the Registrar of Newspaper, India. R.N. 1190/57 ISSN 0022-3972 Madras Psychology Society Madras Psychology Society was established in 1944. It has members from all over the country, through its main activities are concentrated in Madras. It has fostered various academic activities like local, regional and all India Conferences, exhibitions, seminars and lecture meetings. In addition to these, it has been publishing two research journals. The Society has instituted gold medals, to be awarded to the candidates standing first in M.A. Examination in Psychology and in Applied Psychology and an Annual Endowment Lectureship at the Madras University. Membership of the Society is open to graduates in Psychology and (allied) disciplines. Members are entitled to receive Journal of Psychological Researches, issued twice a year (January and August) or Indian Journal of Applied Psychology issued once a year in April, the society has published many books including psychology for effective living (2nd ed. 2001) Journal of Journal of Psychological Researches Chief Editor : Prof. K.Rangaswami Editor : Prof. S. Karunanidhi Associate Editor : Dr. Panch. Ramalingam Indian Journal of Applied Psychology Chief Editor : Prof. K.Rangaswami Editor : Prof. S. Karunanidhi Associate Editor : Dr. Panch. Ramalingam Subscription Rates* Indian Journal of Applied Psychology Annual Institutional 800 Individual 600 Foreign US$ 40 Journal of Psychological Researches Annual Institutional 1,500 Individual 1,000 Foreign US$ 60 Three years 2,000 1,500 US$100 Three years 4,000 2,500 US$150 Psychological Researches Soft copies of the JPR in the form of CDs are available for sale : 100 An International Journal All payments should be made through bank draft or MO in favour of the Indian School Psychology Association , Payabale at Puducherry. Subscription and Advertisement correspondences related to Journals should be addressed to: The Circulation Manager, JPR/IJAP, # 17,14th Street,Krishna Nagar, Puducherry - 605 008, India. Moblie : +91-9444776733 Volume 60, Number 1 January 2017 THE MADRAS PSYCHOLOGY SOCIETY CHENNAI, INDIA Edited by Prof. K.Rangaswami, Printed and Published on behalf of the Madras Psychology Society, No.84, Main Road,Balaji Nagar, Kolathur, Chennai-600 009.

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3. 1 Journal of Psychological Researches Volume 60, Number 1, January, 2017 ISSN 0022 3972 Journal of Psychological Researches Copyright © 2017 by the Madras Psychology Society, Chennai, India Contents 3 Forensic Psychological Function of Clinical Psychologist In The Field of Mental Health K.Rangaswamy 10 Bulliying Victimization and Mental Health Problems Among High School Students Suresh Sundaram 17 Influence of Demographic and Investor Profile Variables on Attitude Towards Retirement - An Investor Perception Study V. Rajeshkumar and R. Kasilingam 28 Learning and Growth Perspective of The Balanced Scorecard In Commercial Banks In India S Visalakshi and R Kasilingam 38 Impact of Locus of Control and Academic Procrastination on The Academic Achievement Among Postgraduate Students Parmar Jaydipsinh M. and Desai Minakshi D. 44 A Classroom Based Psycholinguistic Study MM Shalabi and AM Sameem 50 Road Rage Across Age Groups Tanya Marchon and Elvira Pereira 54 Impact of Collage Environment on Work Motivation of Teachers Sadique Razaque 59 Forensic Related Issues of Intellectually disabled Individuals K. Rangaswamy 63 Management of Premenstrual Syndrome of College Students Using comprehensive Psychotherapy Prachi Chaturvedi and K. Rangaswamy JPR is abstracted and indexed in NCERT Educational Abstracts, Psychological Abstracts, and other data bases

5. © Journal of Psychological Researches January 2017, Vol.60, No.1, 3 - 9 FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGICAL FUNCTION OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST IN THE FIELD OF MENTAL HEALTH K. RANGASWAMY Institute of Mental Health, Chennai. As we know there are number of branches in the field of clinical psychology. The branch of clinical psychology deals with person’s problems and those with mental health problems of all ages. One of the emergency fields in clinical psychology is forensic clinical psychology. It deals with persons in conflict with law of the land. Clinical psychologists are experts in human behaviour. The branch of forensic clinical psychology specialises in the application of psychological knowledge to those problems related to law that is issues related to civil, criminal or administrative justice for victims as well as violaters. This paper discusses about to various functions of forensic clinical psychologists especially in the mental health area. Clinical psychologists are “experts” in human be- haviour and some of them specialize in the appli- cation of psychological knowledge to the problems that face Judges, Advocates and anyone who face or deal e issues related to civil, criminal or ad- ministrative justice for both victims and violators. The branch of clinical psychology called forensic psychology in the recent underwent a significant growth. It has gained significant subspecially status providing graduate training programs, professional organizations and has an APA division. It is dis- tinctly interdisciplinary and span the fields of both law and psychology (True and Grore 1997). Forensic psychology is defined as dealing “with the interface of psychology and the law and with the application of psychology to legal issues (Cooke, 1984). Variety of clients and settings are included involving, all age groups, institutions, govern- ment agencies, hospitals and clinics as clients of testimony. Thomas Grisso, a well-known forensic psychologist, offered the following definition: A forensic psychologist refers to any psychologist, experimental or clinical, who specializes in pro- ducing or communicating psychological research or assessment information intended for application of legal issues” (Grisso, 1987). Competent forensic psychologists give their opinions on scientifically derived psychological knowledge specialities of forensic psychology are forensic clinical psychol- ogy. Forensic Investigatory Psychology, Police Psychology, Victimology, Correctional Psychology and Forensic Science. Forensic Psychology is the field of applied psy- chology in which expertise on psychological issues relevant to legal matters is used to assist courts. Courts seek mental health professionals for opin- ion in complex legal matters. In the criminal jus- tice system, common questions faced by forensic psychologists are: Defendant’s competence to stand trial and the mental state of the defendant at the time of the crime. Forensic psychologists are also involved in noncriminal legal proceedings such as areas of law enforcement, criminal responsibility crime prevention, crime detection through various techniques such as forensic interview techniques, forensic psychological assessment. Polygraphic examination, Narco Analysis, Hyphosis and sus- pect detection system. They also testify at a hearing about whether an individual should be committed to a mental health centre against his will of the men- tally disturbed individuals. Areas of testimony and expertise of Forensic Psychologist : Some of the forensic psychologists functions are : commitments to mental hospitals, child custody issues and psychological damages suffered as the results of another’s negligence. Other issues in child release from involuntary confinement,

6. 4 Forensic Psychological Function of Clinical Psychologist determination of the need for a guardian due to in- capacity, predicting dangerousness, rights of men- tally disabled person in an institution, competency to stand trial, criminal responsibility (insanity de- fense), determination of disability for social secu- rity claims (The Government benefits), workers compensation claims, conditions affecting accuracy of eyewitness testimony, certification issues of civil and criminal cases etc., judge to decide whether this is true in a particular case. Hence expert witnesses are prevented from providing “opinion” testimony. Testifying in court can be a stressful experience for the expert witness Anxiety may be the common accompaniments as the expert is faced by lawyers on both sides of a case. When psychologists appear in court, they are appearing as expert witness. An expert witness dif- ferentiated from a fact witness. The latter is usually only able to testify to information obtained through direct observation. That is, fact witnesses can tes- tify about what they saw, heard, read, felt and see on. The only types of opinions the fact witness can offer are those based upon their direct perception and mirely clarify their testimony. Expert witnesses are expected to offer opinions to the court based on the evaluation they made. The role of the expert wit- ness is to use specialized knowledge to assist the judge in understanding the evidence presented in the case. Psychologists have been recognised as ca- pable of providing expert testimony in cases involv- ing matters of mental disorders. Hence Forensic Psychologists should be cautious in offering ex- pert opinions. Usually juveniles do not know their rights. The mere presence of mental disorders such as schizophrenia, it does not by itself mean that a defendant’s confession is not admissible. When giv- ing expert opinion in a case in which competence to or fit to stand trail, forensic psychologist might discribe a defendant’s mental state, level of intel- lectual functioning and conditions under defendants lawyer. The judge will consider this evidence in determining whether to allow the prosecution or to use the defendant’s confession. Other competency issue those arise in a criminal case is competence of witnesses to the alleged crime. Competence to tes- tify is most often raised when the witness is a child, is mentally retarted or suffers with a severe mental disorder such as schizophrenia. Professional Issues : Professional matters such as certification for various requirements is also im- portant to the forensic psychologist. The American Board of Forensic Psychology was established to help the public to identify qualified practioners and to promote the discipline as a whole. The devel- opment of the field in India is in infancy, however R.C.I. and M.C.I. oversee and guide professional activities in mental health and disability areas. Major Activities : The recent growth of forensic psychology led the forensic psychologist into many different roles. The general roles are (1) Education : formal training and subsequent learning: (2) rel- evant experience (3) research and publications: (4) knowledge and application of scientific princi- ples: and (5) use of special tests and measurements (Maloney. 1985) Ethics and Standards : All of the ethical prin- ciples and guidelines for psychologist are relevant for this speciality. The ethical code stresses (1) Competences and accuracy in stating professional qualification. (2) Technical and scientific accu- racy and honesty in reports and testimony and (3) Impartially, Division 41 (American Psychology- Law Society) of the APA has developed a Speciality Guidelines for Forensic Psychologists (Committee on Ethical Guidelines for forensic psycholo- gists (1991) that elaborates on the APA’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and the ethical code of conduct of clinical psychologist-India, apply to the practice of forensic psychology. Blau (1984) has proposed several explict guidelines for the expert witness activity of psychologist. They are related to work quality, competence and decorum Criminal Cases : We are concerned about the best way to deal with people who commit criminal acts and mentally disturbed at the time of commit- ting crime wealthy defendants, who escape punish- ment for some heinous crime. The insanity defense used is usually not successful. The estimate is that the insanity defense succeeds about one-fourth of the time (Steadman et al, 1983) The American Law Expert Testimony : An expert could testify in various areas mentioned above. But it is up to the

7. K. Rangaswamy 5 institute (ALI) produced its model Penal Code, which include a standard for a insanity defense. The ALI standard is that if a person is not responsible for criminal conduct at the time of such conduct as a re- sult of mental disease or defect, he lacks reasonable capacity either to cognise the criminality (wrongful- ness) of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law. or expansive in that criminal responsibility can be excused if mental illness causes a diminished capac- ity to understand what one is doing (due to a cogni- tive deficit) or an inability to control one’s behavior (a volitional deficit) (Ogloff, 1991). The insanity defense is the most frequently used in the criminal justice system. Many people believe that the insanity defense is used very commonly, usually by wealthy defendants, who escape pun- ishment from some heinous crime. The insanity de- fense used is usually not successful. the estimate is that the insanity defense succeeds about one-fourth of the time (Steadman, et.al. 1983). The American Law Institute (ALI) produced its model Penal Code, which include a standard for the insanity defense. The ALI standard is that if a person is not respon- sible for criminal conduct at the time of such con- duct, as a result of mental disease or defect, he lacks reasonable capacity either to cognise the criminal- ity (wrongfulness) of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of law. The Insanity Plea : (Insanity is legal term) If the accused is judged to have been normal (sane) at the time of the alleged crime, conviction will not be given. But the individual adjudged as insane, men- tally disturbed at the time of the alleged crime will, be convicted. He may be regarded as not responsi- ble and hence admitted for treatment in the men- tal health centre. However, in some cases, insanity plea is rarely successful (Wrightsman at al. 1994). Incase the defendant is assumed to be responsible, an ‘insanity’ plea needs proof. The defendant must prove ‘insanity’ at the time of the criminal offense. People can make rational choices and if they behave irrationally it can be considered as evidence of in- sanity. But most psychologists would not agree that all normal behavior is rationally chosen. Hence it has to be decided whether the accused was ‘insane’ at a given time. One of three following standards, guides the forensic psychologist to decide insanity / normal- ity. The oldest is the M’Naghten Rule. It states that “successful ‘insanity’ defense must prove that the person committed the unlawful act while ‘labouring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind. As not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing; or, if he did know it, that he did not know he was doing what was wrong” (Brooks 1974). Further the Indian Mental Health Act (1987) guide the mental health experts. The second stan- dard is irresistible impulse. Although the person might have known the moral or legal consequences of the act, it is impossible for the individual to resist the impulse as it was irresistible (Schwitzgebel & Schwitzgebel, 1980). The third standard is that the defendant is not responsible for a criminal act if it was the result of mental disease or de- fect such that substancial capacity to understand the criminality of the act or to conform to the law was lacking. This is the ALI standard of the American Law institute. The ALI standard is the most liberal Psychological Assessment : While conducting evaluation for criminal insanity, the clinical/foren- sic psychologist must assess the following aspects: (1) Is the person mentally disordered? (2) what is the person’s present mental status? and (3) What was the person’s mental status at the time of the alleged crime? In this process the clinical/forensic psychologist has to assess many factors including the defendant’s history, mental and intellectual sta- tus, neuropsychological condition, competency to stand trial, reading skills, personality and measures to fund out faking or malingering (Blau, 1984). The Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity (NGRI) Evaluation : The forensic psychologist is presented with the problem of assessing the state of mind of the accused when the offense occured. Depending upon the case this can be weeks, months or even years prior to the evaluation. Malingering is an important consideration. Having made the insan- ity plea, the defendant may be highly motivated to convince the clinician that he was crazy when the crime was committed. It has been suggested that the mental health evaluation include multi- ple interviews with the defendant; a review of any previous clinical records on the defendant; a review of crime investigation records, including

8. 6 Forensic Psychological Function of Clinical Psychologist witness interviews, confessions; a review of crim- inal history; and interviews with mental health or who have had contact with the defendant (Melton et al., 1997). The Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales (R-CARAS) were developed in an effort to improve the scientific rigor of insan- ity evaluations (Rogers, Solmetsc, & Cavanaugh, 1983). The instruments guide the clinician eval- uations of six “psycho-legal” criteria relevant to the insanity plea; (1) The client’s reliability (i.e., presence of malingering), (2) Evidence of organic brain disturbances, (3) Evidence of Psychiatric dis- orders, (4) Cognitive control (i.e., ability to com- prehend the criminality of his or her behavior), (5) Behavioral control (i.e., the ability to control criminal behavior) and (6) Whether the loss of con- trol was the result of organic or Psychiatric defect. often involves tho police, distraught family mem- bers and angry or confused prospective patients. Civil Commitment Laws : The laws governing civil commitment, require the following criteria: the person is (1) Mentally ill; (2) Either danger- ous to dangerous to others or gravely disabled; (3) Unwilling to consent to voluntary hospitalization. Involuntary hospitalization is often misused power used to maintain control or as a punishment over those who will not conform to certain social or offi- cial dictates. Mental health investigation is carried out to decide whether detention should continue. Commitment to Mental Institutions : It is estimated that about 40% of hospitalizations occur against the will of the individual. Procedures of Voluntary Commitments : If, the individual agrees for admission, he may leave at any time. It requires patients to sign a form that their leaving is “against medical advice.” Some times voluntary admission is not voluntary most often, it is the result of strong pressure from rela- tives, friends, police or court authorities, or mental health personnel. If court commits someone to men- tal health institutions a hearing has to determine whether the person meets the criteria laid out by law and whether treatment would be useful. Usually, these criteria refer to a person who: (1) is danger- ous to self or others; (2) is so disturbed or disabled as to be incapable of making responsible decisions about self-care; or (3) is in need of treatment or care in a hospital, and the person must be determined to be mentally ill. Concerned persons or officials can petition the court for an examination of someone for admission to mental health centers. usually it is family or friend, or police or welfare officials seek for court order for detention in mental health centre. If the court agrees, an order is issued and the person is required to submit to a professional examination, by mental health professionals. This examination is based on personal observation and required exam- inations of the individual by professionals it should not be based or what others have reported. Common areas of assessment are general appearance, clarity of thinking, presence of delusions or hallucination, the person’s use of drugs or alcohol, employment Competency to Stand Trial : The competency to stand trial is the defendant’s state of mind at the time of the trial not at the time the offense was allegedly committed. One could have been insane when the crime was committed but later become competent to stand trial. To assess competency, three basic as- pects commonly faced are (Maloney, 1985): (1) Can the person appreciate the nature of the charges? Can that person report factually on his behavior at the time of the alleged crime? (2) Can the person coop- erate in a reasonable way with counsel? and (3) Can the person appreciate and cooperate in the proceed- ings of the court? In most instances, the evaluations to answer the above questions require detailed psy- chological evaluation. Civil Cases : The areas that are especially im- portant for clinical psychologists involve commit- ment to and release from mental institutions as well as domestic issues such as child custody disputes. Civil commitment refers to the hospitalization of a mentally ill individual when that individual does not consent to voluntary admission. Civil commitment is another example of the state acting upon its pro- tective authority. In this case, the state is acting on behalf of the individual to protect him and also the community. Few professional duties are stressful to psychologists as those involved in involuntarily committing someone to a hospital against his or her will. This process, known as civil commitment,

9. K. Rangaswamy 7 status, intelligence, prior history of mental and crim- inal problems and detailed assessment of the men- tal status in addition to psychological assessments. There are many issues that require intervention by the courts such as child custody, parent’s fitness, visitation rights, child abuse, juvenile misbehavior, adoption and pre or post marriage insanity plea to nullify marriage. official position he was working, certification is also be required for getting tax exemption as to per- son’s child is intellectually for physically impaired. Mental fitness certificate is an important one which has to be correct without mistake. Interview and appropriate psychological assessment to asser- tatin the mental condition. When the psychologists finds that the person concerned is having sound mental condition to take care of himself or danger- ous to others, can be recommended for treatment in the mental health institutions. Psychological Assessment and Certification : Certificates are required in connection with ad- ministration, legal procedures as stated above and for welfare requirements. It is an essential part of clinical/forensic psychologists role: In addition to civil and criminal matters, disability certifi- cation due to mental illness, mental retardation, learning disability and for getting benefits from Government Agencies for various conditions. Certification is an important fucntion of clinical / forensic psychologists working in men- tal health centers. Certification is a formal docu- ment. Generally it is issued attesting a fact such as birth, marriage, mental condition, physical con- dition etc., This certificated provided by clinical psychologists in connection with welfare measures, in relation to legal proceedings and also for pur- poses of administration. In the day to day practice clinical / forensic psychologists are called upon to certify based on facts and clinical judgement about a person with medic - legal problems. In this cor- rection certificate issued has important bearing on the individuals concerned. Certification should be unbiased, objectively based on observation assess- ment with required and suitable psychological tests as it has legal significance. It should be based on proper judgement about the issue and the person concerned. Hence certification should be reliable. While using psychological tests the clinical psy- chologist should select appriate tests and administer properly and interpreted. Appropriate communica- tion of findings are quite essential. As certificates are also issued for administrative purposes such as leave on medical grounds, transfer in view of intellectually impaired child as facilities for education of the child was not available in the peace of work. Invalidation of individuals those be- came seriously mentally disturbed or had undergone brain injury so that he may not function in same Rights of Patients : The rights of hospitalized mental patients have come under increasing judicial scrutiny. Rights and standards involve the physi- cal environment (for example, day time stay facil- ity, lavatories, dining rooms and so on), personal clothing and personal activities (opportunities for physical excercise, regular outdoor opportunities, or social activities). In addition, involuntary labour is prohibited and when labour is undertaken vol- untarily appropriate wages must be paid. A contro- versial and the complex issue is the patient’s right to refuse treatment. Not every involuntarily hos- pitalized patient is mentally incompetent and such individuals have the right to decide their own fate. Detailed guidelines are available in Indian Mental Health Act - 1993. Predicting Dangerousness : Mental Health Professionals have a duty to warn potential victims of the patients’ violent behavior. We have the ob- ligation to protect others from those who are dan- gerous. Psychological evaluation for this purpose may constitute one of the categories of evaluation requested of the clinician by the criminal justice system (Blau. 1984). Wrightsman et.al. (1994) sug- gests that the most accurate predictions of violent behavior are: 1.Predictions for the near, short-term future 2.predictions based on the clinician’s knowledge of the individual’s past history of violent behavior; personality pattern and signs from various psycho- logical tests. But there is a question, how well psychologists can accurately predict dangerous behavior. The re- ality is that to protect those individuals who are dan- gerous is a difficult process. There are many reasons

10. 8 Forensic Psychological Function of Clinical Psychologist why people tend to see dangerousness is difficult to predict. It is sometimes true that all of us have the potential to commit dangerous acts. The ability to accurately predict such behaviour is limited. These evaluations are used for making of decisions rang- ing from holding a prisoner without bail or grant- ing work release status on hospitalizing defendants or invoking special sentencing options for violent offenders. Civil commitment laws require mental health professionals to evaluate dangerousness. Is the per- son likely to behave violently? Does he pose a se- rious threat of harm to self or others? Involuntary admission is not the only situation in which forensic psychologist and other mental health professionals are asked to evaluate dangerousness. The decision to discharge a patient from the hospital involves risk assessment. Clinicians tend to be trained to think in terms of diagnoses, personality factors, cognitive distortions and emotional influences upon behav- ior. Violence, may be more strongly influenced by environmental factors or the interaction between situational variables and personal prediction. The prediction of dangerousness is a difficult task be- cause clinicians can only guess at the situations in which the examiner will find him. However prediction of violence has improved. Klassan and O’Connor (1988) indentified a group of mentally ill persons for whom the base rate of violent behaviour in the community was over 50%. There is evi- dence that a individuals with certain mental health conditions have increased risk for violence. Link, Cullen and Andrews (1993) found that patients who endorsed current psychotic symptomotology based upon a particular measure of psychopathol- ogy (Hare - 1991) had increased risk for violence. Grisso and Applebaum (1992) notethat dichoto- mous predictions (i.e., the person either is or is not dangerous) cannot be defended based upon research findings. If an individual meets diagnostic criteria for a mental disorder and that individuals with that disorder are at increased risk for violent behavior is ethically appropriate (Grisso & Applebaum, 1992). Although we still can’t predict dangerousness as ac- curately as the courts wants, forensic psychologists and other mental health professionals do have valu- able information to share. Eye Witness Testimony : Eye witness can be dramatic and damaging because an eyewitness who identifies the person use to come out with many distortions. Such testimony has been an importance source in the conviction of individuals. The reason is that eye witness testimony is often unreliable and inaccurate. Experiments show that the eyewitness’s memory can easily be distorted by subsequent infor- mation. People often make inference on the basis of their expectations. An eye witness to a crime is al- most always questioned before the trial. Something may easily be said to alter the witness’s recollection. It is the roll of the forensic psychologist to help iden- tify the conditions in a specific case that might pro- duce distortions in giving testimony. Eye witnesses to an event often cannot agree among themselves. They differ description of subjects height, weight, hair color and clothing. Hence caution should be taken for accepting accounts automatically. Legal system can use improvement in its methods for identifying storage, identification procedures and even unconscious integrative processes all need fur- ther study (Horowitz & Willing. 1984). Child Abuse and Neglect : Children are vic- timized often than adults in the society, somewhere between 5 and 25 children out of every 1,000 are the victims of physical abuse. Children are raped, robbed, kidnapped, sold and assaulted at rates two to three times higher than that of the adult popula- tion. Children are sometimes the victims of crimes such as neglect. Child abuse and neglect are difficult to deal with since the perpetrators are often family members. It has been estimated that about half of the incident of sexual abuse are by a neighbours or known persons or relations. Forensic psychologists report physical or sexual abuse of a child, as well as neglect, when they suspect that it has occured or is likely to occur. Ethical Psychotheraphy : Ethical guidelines of clinical psychologist provide a framework for psychother- aphy practice. The psychotherapist should possess required competence, responsibility, maintain con- fidentially and obtain informed consent from the client or parent or guardian. The informed consent Issues in the Practice of

11. K. Rangaswamy 9 should include, nature of psychotheraphy or coun- selling carried out for the client, expectations out of the patient, expectations from the therapist and lim- itations of the therapy and the therapist. In adult use the psychotherapist should enter into a therapeutic contract. Psychotherapist should be aware of the boundaries and boundary issues and should work within limits of the boundaries stated in the ethi- cal code of conduct for the practicing or counsellers psychotherapist. Terminations of psychotherapy and follow up issues are to be discussed periodically and termination of psychotherapy or counselling and the need for follow up as and when required are to be discussed with the client. If needed ter- mination should be a smooth process rather than abrupt one. Documentation of psychotherapy pro- cess is essential for various reasons such as from medical point, in case of change of psychotherapist, emergency conditions etc. Not maintaining record of psychotherapy is unethical. References Eugane Walker (1983) Handbook of Clinical Psychology, Theory, Research and Practice, D & W, Jones - Irwin, USA. Heeker J E & G.L. Thorpe (2005). Introduction to Clinical Psychology. Pearson Education Press, Singapore. Jerrry, E Phaves & Tomoty S, Trull (1997). Clinical Psychology Concepts Methods and Profession. Brooks Cole Publishing Company, PasificGrore, CA, USA. Jeffery. E, Heeker & Geoffery L. Thorpe (2005). Introduction to Clinical Psychology. Pearson Education Press, Singapore. Phares EJ & T.J. Trull (1997). Clinical Psychology. (5th Ed) Brooks/cole Publishers, USA. Prof. K. RANGASWAMI,M.A.,D.M. & S.P., Ph.D., F.I.A.C.P.,Formerly Professor of Clinical Psychology,S.R.I.H. Secunderabad-500 003. Visiting Professor, Institute of Mental Health,Chennai - 600 010.

12. © Journal of Psychological Researches January 2017, Vol.60, No.1, 10 - 16 BULLYING VICTIMIZATION AND MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AMONG HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Suresh Sundaram Annamalai University Bullying among school-age children is a major public health problem around the world. Bullying may include physical injury, social and emotional distress and even death. The victims of bullying are at increased risk for mental health problems such as depression anxiety, headaches, and poor school adjustment. Children who bully others are at increased risk for substance use, academic problems, and violence later in adulthood. Developing a better understanding of bullying victimization and its impact on children’s mental health is much important. Hence, the aim of the present study was to explore relationship between bullying and victimization with the indicators of mental health such as anxiety, depression and loneliness among the high school students. The Advanse sample comprised of 200 stu- dents (106 boys and 94 Girls). The self-report instruments used to collect the data were Illinois Bully Scale, Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale, Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology and Children’s Loneliness Questionnaire. The results revealed that bullying and victimization are positively correlated with anxiety, depression & loneliness. Gender has significantly correlated with bullying, victimization and loneliness. The results were discussed in the light of existing findings and other possible explana- tions of the findings were also presented in the article. Bullying is an issue of public health importance among adolescents worldwide. It is defined as a wide spectrum of aggressive actions toward one or more individuals repeatedly and over time, bul- lying can have several adverse health effects if ig- nored. About 10%–20% of children and adolescents are regularly involved in school bullying as either victims, bullies, or both. Adolescents involved in bullying are at a significant risk of experiencing psychiatric symptoms, alcohol and drug abuse, and suicidal ideation or acts. The consequences of bul- lying may extend well into adulthood. Depression, anxiety and loneliness are the most prevalent mental health problems of adolescence (Asher, et al 1990).Bullied children showsome- whatsevere symptoms of mental health problems than non-bullied. Concerns with bullying relate to the assumption that being bullied could impact various mental health problems. Bullied do adoles- cence manifest signs of psychological distress such as worry, sadness or nightmares. These could be normal and temporary reactions to a stressful event. Therefore, symptoms of distress manifested by vic- tims of bullying some times may not require inter- vention if it is a minor problem. Studies have found that victims of bullying show not only elevated levels of social isolation, depres- sion and anxiety but also, especially girls and bul- ly-victims,show increased self-harm behaviors and suicidal ideations. Suicidal ideations among victims seem to be exacerbated by feelings of rejection at home. Being bullied in childhood predicted suicide attempts up to the age of 25 years among females, over and above early symptoms of conduct prob- lems and depression (Klomek et al; 2007). The impact of being bullied is not only limited to behaviors that are harmful to the self (i.e. internaliz- ing problems) but also extends to behaviors harmful towards others (i.e. externalizing problems). Both victims of bullying and bully-victims show exter- nalizing problems such as violent behaviors and carrying a weapon. Adolescents who are chronic victims of bullying also show increased risks of bullying others (Burk et al; 2011). Adolescence may wrongly attribute negative events to bullying victimization in youths or believe that viefimigration influence a wide range of pro- blam in their lives. Attribution bias, the tendency to explain significant events and their causes in a specific way, might account for psychopathology

13. Suresh Sundaram 11 among bullied children Recognition of cues such as facial expression is an important ability for es- tablishing good and friendly relationships during childhood. However, oversensitivity to social cues can pose a risk for developing psychopathology. Research has shown that physically abused children were better than not abused children at discriminat- ing angry facial expressions (Pepler, et al 2008). It might be that bullied children detect more accu- rately and more rapidly angry facial expressions and this interpretation of facalk cues influences social interactions and their behaviors. Victims of cyber bullying may be at even higher risk for depression. Researchers have discovered a strong link between bullying and depression. The link between bullying and depression can also extend to other problems, like: low self-esteem, anxiety, high rates of school absence and physical illness Cheng-Fang Yen(2010). Experts hesitate to say that bullying is a direct cause of suicide, but it may be a factor in a teen’s depression. Victimization from bullying is likely to represent abuse, conflict and frustration. Particularly during adolescent development, when peer relationships are of utmost importance, traumatic events related to peer relationships, such as being bullied, could cause trauma severe enough to lead to depression. Increased emotional deregulation and lowered self-esteem, following victimization from bullying, may act as mediators between being bullied and psy- chiatric symptoms such as depression.On the other hand, it is also possible that depression results in a distortion of the processing of social information: a depressive adolescent with negative self-perception may expect that others will behave in an ejective or hostile way and perceive this in social interac- tions that are meant by others to be neutral or even positive. It is also possible that the development of social skills and the ability to defend oneself are im- paired among depressed adolescents, The victims of bullying are submissive and show signs of helpless- ness, being less popular among peers, and display- ing lowered self-esteem (Merrell, et al 2008). One potential risk factor for the development of anxiety disorders is the experience of being bullied. Evidence suggests that being bullied is significantly associated with feelings of anxiety (Cohen, 1988). Victims of bullying are more likely to be anxious than students who are not bullied.Students who are bullied and bully others (bully-victims) have been found to have higher levels of anxiety than students otherwise involved in bullying or not involved. Students who reported that they were victims or bully-victims on a frequent basis endorsed signifi- cantly higher levels of anxiety than their peers. Students who were bullied less frequently also re- ported elevated levels of anxiety.Some forms of bullying are more strongly linked to anxiety than other forms. Students who were bullied in multiple forms en- dorsed higher social anxiety levels than those who reported one form of victimization.Students who reported relational victimization endorsed social anxiety levels similar to those endorsed by students who reported relational and overt victimization, which suggests that perhaps relational victimization is more strongly linked to social anxiety (Crick, & Dodge,1996).Boys 14-18 years of age who were bullied by being called “gay” endorsed higher lev- els of anxiety than their peers who were bullied for other reasons. Thus, being called “gay” seemed to be more strongly linked to anxiety than other forms of victimization. Loneliness is a significant prob- lem that can predispose young children to imme- diate and long-term negative consequences. It is becoming increasingly clear that many young chil- dren understand the concept of loneliness and report feeling lonely (Figen et al 2005). Children who feel lonely often experience poor peer relationships and therefore express more loneliness than peers with friends. They often feel excluded a feeling that can be damaging to their self-esteem. In addition, they may experience feelings of sadness, malaise, bore- dom, and alienation. Furthermore, early childhood experiences that contribute to loneliness may pre- dict loneliness during adulthood. Onely children may miss out on many opportu- nities to interact with their peers and to learn im- portant life skills. Given the importance placed on the benefits of peer interactions and friendships to children’s development, this potential lack of in- teraction raises many concerns for teachers who work with young children. Peer relations matter to children, and lonely children place as much impor- tance on them as do other children (Crick, 1995). Several factors contribute to feelings of loneliness

14. 12 Bullying Victimization and Mental Health Problems in young children. Some that occur outside of the school setting are conflict within the home; moving to a new school or neighborhood; losing a friend; losing an object, possession, or pet; experiencing the divorce of parents; or experiencing the death of a pet or significant person. Kindergarten chil- dren who are victimized by peers (e.g., picked on, or physically or verbally attacked or taunted) report higher levels of loneliness, distress, and negative at- titudes toward school than non-victimized children (Kochenderfer& Ladd, 1997). Bullying and victimization are related to several indicators of mental health for all parties involved in bullying, including young people who bully, those who are victimized, or both. As bullying takes on several forms, consequences of bullying can in- volve physical injuries, but can also involve social and emotional injuries that may lead to poorer men- tal health Considering aforesaid effects the present study proposed to explore the relationship between mental health indicatorssuch as anxiety, depression and loneliness with the bullying and victimization of high school students. degree to which they experience each symptom on a 4-point frequency scale. This measure consists of 44 items, of which 38 reflect specific symptoms of anxiety and 6 relate to positive, filler items to reduce negative response bias. Of the 38 anxiety items, 6 reflect separation anxiety, 6 social phobia, 6 obses- sive compulsive problems, 6 panic/3 agoraphobia, 6 generalized anxiety/overanxious symptoms and 5 items concern fears of physical injury. Items are ran- domly allocated within the questionnaire. Students are asked to rate on a 4 point scale involving never (0), sometimes (1), often (2), and always (3), the frequency with which they experience each symp- tom. The internal reliability co-efficient alpha and Guttman split-half reliability coefficient of the tool is 0.93 and 0.92 (Spence 1997). 3, Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology (Self-Report) developed by Rush et al.,(2003).The QIDS is available in clinician (QIDS-C16) and self- rated versions (QIDS-SR16). The QIDS assess all the criterion symptom domains designated by the American Psychiatry Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - 4th edi- tion (DSM-IV) (APA 1994) to diagnose a depres- sive episode. The psychometric properties of QIDS, have been established in various study samples. The QIDS include items that rate the nine item symp- tom domains used to define a major depressive ep- isode (APA 1994) (ICD-10), as well as commonly associated symptoms (e.g. irritability, anxiety), and endogenous symptom features defined by the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) (Spitzer et al. 1978). Internal consistency of the tool is 0.86. Method Sample The sample for the present study constitutes 200 (Boys-106 & Girls 94) high school students. They were drawn through random sampling from the four high schools of Union Territory of Puducherry. Tools 1, Illinois Bully Scale developed byEspelageand Holt(2001). The scale consists of two sections: a bul- lying measure that measures student involvement in bullying (questions 1–9) and a victimization measure that measures the extent to which students have been victimized by bullying (questions 10–16). The scale instructs students to report on what has happened at school within the last 30 days. The Cronbach’s alpha of the scale is 0.88 (Espelage& Holt 2001). 4, Children’s Loneliness Questionnaire devel- oped by Asher and Wheeler (1985).This 24-item measure focuses on children’s feelings of loneli- ness, social inadequacy, and subjective estimations of peer status (16 items) and contains filler items that ask about hobbies and other activities (8 items). Item responses range from 1 (that’s alwaystrue about me) to 5 (that’s not true about me). Scores for the 16 primary items are totaled producing a potential score range of 16-80. Items 6, 9, 12, 14, 17,18, 20, 21, and 24 are reverse scored. Higher scores reflect more loneliness. Internal consistency reliability was established (α=.90) for the 16 primary 2, Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale developed bySpence (1997). The scale was designed rela- tively easy and quick for children to complete in around 10 minutes. Students are asked to rate the

15. Suresh Sundaram 13 items using a sample of third through sixth grade stu- dents. The internal consistency reliability for scores generated on this study sample was α = .90. Past research has shown that involvement in bullying and poor mental healthare related, though in different ways according to the differ- ent groups of students involved(bullies, victims or bully-victims) (Karatzias, Power, & Swanson, 2002; Undheim&Sund,2010). A meta-analysis of studies investigating the relation between victim- ization and psychosocial maladjustment found a stronger association with measures of depression, anxiety and loneliness. In general, victims re- ported elevated levels of psycho-logical distress (Juvonen, Graham, & Schuster, 2003; Reijntjes, et al ,2010; Schneider et al., 2012).One of the most frequently studied indicators of mental Results and Discussion Table-1 shows correlation coefficient between bullying, victimization, anxiety, depression and loneliness. The bullying and victimization is sig- nificantly and positively correlated with anxiety, depression and loneliness. This study confirms and clarifies the link between bullyingwith indicators of mental health. It thus provides considerable sup- port for the general hypothesis linking bullying and mental health relationship. Table 1:Correlation coefficient between study variables Variable 1 2 3 4 5 1,Anxiety 2,Depression - .557** - 3,Bullying .338** .440** - 4,Victimization .345** .442** .475** - 5,Loneliness .393** .509** .351** .456** - **p < 0.01. health, whose results are moreconsistent, refers to depression. In several studies with schoolchildren from 8 to 16 years old, depression is significantly correlated with victimization (Seals & Young, 2003; Baldry, 2004; Klomek et al., 2008; Perren et al.,2010; Schneider et al., 2012). Table-2 shows “t” values of bullying and vic- timization with respect to demographic variables – gender and type of family. Present study captures the gender difference inbullying and victimization i.e. boys inhribited more bullying and victimiza- tion than girls. Results of this research provide support for the proposition that bullying related- behaviours are more likely to happenamongboys. One of the most interesting aspects of the bullying debate relates to gender differences in the rates Table 2:Bullying and victimization of students with reference to their demographic variables. t-value Variables Demographic Variables N Mean SD 106 94 106 94 8.81 3.98 6.06 3.72 5.739 4.245 4.193 2.484 Male 4.816** Bullying Female Male 3.450** Victimization Female

16. 14 Bullying Victimization and Mental Health Problems Nuclear family 88 10.03 5.730 6.299** Bullying Joint family Nuclear family Joint family 112 88 112 3.94 6.50 3.79 3.933 3.840 2.998 3.937** Victimization ** Significant at the level 0.01 of these behaviours. Traditionally, men engage in more bullying behaviours than women (Forero, et al, 1999; Sourander et al 2000; Nansel et al., 2001;Craig et al., 2009; Khezri et al., 2013).Boys were more frequently found to be both victims as well as perpetrators compared to girls (Wolke et al., 2001; Khezri et al., 2013). However studies also showed that girls were bullied more com- pared to boys Craig et al., (2009), regarding the type of family (nuclear and joint) the students of nuclear family exhibited more bullying and vic- timization than the students of joint family. This is supported by the Jamir, et al(2014) who showed . That students from nuclear family underwent higher percentage of bullying. This may be due to theparents of nuclear family may have little time to supervise their children’s mental health and well-being. Some children from these families get too much freedom and consequently indulge moreaggressivebehaviours. Table-3 shows “t” values of anxiety, depression and loneliness with respect to demographic variables – gender and type of family. This study showed that gender significantly related with lonelinessi.e. boys showed more loneliness than girls. Previous studies have been inconsistent regarding gender differences in trait levels of loneliness in adolescence. Some studies found girls to have higher levels of loneli- ness (Vanhalst et al., 2012), whereas others reported higher levels in boys (Hoza, Bukowski, & Beery, Table 3:Anxiety, depression and loneliness of students with reference to their demographic variables. Demographic Vari- ables Variables N Mean SD t-value Male 32.51 15.15 106 Anxiety 0.516 NS Female 31.11 11.86 94 Male 9.45 5.20 106 Depression 0.987 NS Female 8.49 4.47 94 Male 55.17 13.12 106 Loneliness 2.601* Female 49.23 9.62 94 Nuclear family 36.71 13.47 88 Anxiety 2.987* Joint family 28.74 12.61 112 Nuclear family 11.53 4.82 88 Depression 4.594* Joint family 7.35 4.13 112 Nuclear family 55.34 12.34 88 2.263 NS Loneliness Joint family 112 49.98 10.94 * Significant at the level of 0.05(sig.2 tailed) NS- Not significant

17. Suresh Sundaram 15 2000), but most studies found no gender differences in trait levels of loneliness (Bowker& Spencer, 2010; Jobe, Cohen, & Parra, 2011). However, gen- der differences have not been examined in state levels of loneliness. In addition, several studies have shown that boys and girls experience social relations differently. For example, girls in general report receiving more provisions from their friend- ships, such as closeness, affection, nurturance, and acceptance (Jobe-Shields et al., 2011). In addition, girls generally report receiving higher levels of pa- rental support than boys (Bowker& Spencer, 2010). Hence, differences may exist in how boys and girls perceive in their social context.With regard to type of family, the studentshailed from nuclear familyex- hibited more anxiety and depression than students from joint family. In similar lines Akram&Khuwaja (2014) conducted a study on depression among adults. It was observed that the persons living in nuclear family reported higher level of depression than those for joint family.Since, in joint family the relatives might help to alleviate the anxiety and de- pression to feel less tensed and more supportive. longitudinal study would provide better results on long-term consequences on students’ mental health. References Akram, B., &Khuwaja, F. (2014).A study on depression among working and non-working women of Gujrat, Pakistan. European Academic Research, 1(10), 2948-2962. Asher, S. R., & Wheeler, V. A. (1985). Children’s loneliness: A comparison of rejected and neglected peer status. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53 (4), 500-505. Asher, S. R., Parkhurst, J. T., Hymel, S., & Williams, G. A. (1990). Peer rejection and loneliness in childhood. In S. R. Asher and J. D. Coie (Eds.), Peer rejection in childhood (pp. 253-273). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Baldry, Anna C. (2004). The impact of direct and indirect bully- ing on the mental and physical health of Italian youngsters. Aggressive Behavior, 30, 343-355. Bowker, J. C., & Spencer, S. V. (2010). Friendship and ad- justment: A focus on mixed-grade friendships. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 39, 1318-1329. doi:10.1007/ s10964-009-9474-0. Burk, L. R., Armstrong, J. M., Park, J. H., Zahn-Waxler, C., Klein, M. H., & Essex, M. J. (2011).Stability of early iden- tified aggressive victim status in elementary school and as- sociations with later mental health problems and functional impairments.Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 39(2), 225-238. Cheng-Fang Yen (2010). School Bullying and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents, Taiwanese Journal of Psychiatry (Taipei) Vol. 24 No. 1 3-13. Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences.Hillsdale: Lawrence Earlbaum Associates. Craig, Wendy M., Harel-Fisch, Yossi, Fogel-Grinvald, Haya, Dostaler, Suzanne, Hetland, Jorn, Simons-Morton, Bruce Pickett, William (2009). A cross-national profile of bully- ing and victimization among adolescents in 40 countries. International Journal of Public Health, 54(2), 216-224. Crick, N. R., & Dodge, K. A. (1996).Social information process- ing mechanisms in reactive and proactive aggression.Child Development 1996.67, 993-1002. Crick. N. R (1995). Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type. Development and psychopathology, 7, 313-322. Espelage, D. L., & Holt, M. (2001). Bullying and victimization during early adolescence: Peer influences and psychosocial correlates. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 2, 123–142. Figen Gijrsoy & MidriyeYildizBicakci (2000): A Study on The Loneliness Level of Adolescents, Adolescent journal of Psychology. Forero, R., McLellan, L., Rissel, C., & Baum, A. (1999).Bullying behavior and psychosocial health among school students in New South Wales, Australia.British Medical Journal, 319,344-348. Frey, K. S., Hirschstein, M. K., Snell, J. L., Edstrom, L. V. S., MacKenzie, E. P., & Broderick, C. J. (2005). Reducing playground bullying and supporting beliefs: An experimen- Implications and Recommendations The findings indicate a need for school princi- pals, teachers, and school psychologists to be aware of the possible impact that bullying and victimiza- tion on mental health of their students. In addition to classroom and school related activities the school psychologists might also discuss with students and their parents about the emotional impact bullying on their mental health and well-being. Interventions are needed that include and engage students who are bully as well as the victim as these students can play a positive role in enhancing the school environment (Frey et al., 2005;Hawkins,Pepler and Craig, 2001; Vreeman& Carroll, 2007). The elevated mental health risk during school years is caused by a combination of stressors, and this can include bullying at school, and this is proved by present study. However, as this study was conducted among a nonclinical sample of students, Future research might examine those adolescents who do meet clinical classification levels for di- agnoses such as high anxiety, depression and lone- linessthat deteriorate their stable living and also a

18. 16 Bullying Victimization and Mental Health Problems tal trail of the Steps to Respect Program. Developmental Psychology,41, 479–491. Hawkins, D. L., Pepler, D. J., & Craig, W. M. (2001). Naturalistic observations of peer intervention in bullying.Social Development, 10, 512–527. Jamir, T., Devi, N.P., Lenin, R.K., Roshan, L., &Sameeta, N.G. (2014). The relationship between bullying victimization, self-esteem and depression among school going adolescents. International Journal in Management & Social Science 2 (12), 477-489. Jobe-Shields, L., Cohen, R., & Parra, G. R. (2011). Patterns of change in children’s loneliness: Trajectories from third through fifth grades. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 57, 25-47. doi:10.1353/mpq.2011.0003. Karatzias, Athanasios, Power, Kevin G., & Swanson, Vivien (2002). Bullying and victimisation in Scottish secondary schools: Same or separate entities?.Aggressive Behavior, 28(1), 45-61. Khezri H, EbrahimiGhavam H, Mofidi F, Delavar A (2013) Bullying and victimization: prevalence and gender differ- encesin a sample of Iranian middle school students. J Educ Manage Stud 3: 224-229. Klomek, A. B., Marrocco, F., Kleinman, M., Schonfeld, I. S., & Gould, M. S. (2007). Bullying, Depression, and Suicidality in Adolescents.Journal of the American Academy of Child and AdolescentPsychiatry, 46(1), 40-49. Klomek, Anat B., Sourander, Andre, Kumpulainen, Kirsti, Piha, Jorma, Tamminen, Tuula, Moilanen, Irma, … Gould, Madelyn S. (2008). Childhood bullying as a risk for later de- pression and suicidal ideation among Finnish males.Journal of Affective Disorders, 109, 47-55. Kochenderfer B J & Ladd G W (1997).Victimized children’s responses to peer’s aggression: Behaviors associated with reduced versus continued victimization, Development and Psychopathology, 9, 59-73. Merrell, K. W., Gueldner, B. A., Ross, S.W., &Isava, D. M. (2008). How effective are school bullying intervention pro- grams? A meta-analysis of intervention research.School Psychology Quarterly, 23, 26-42. Nansel, T. R., Overpeck, M., Pilla, R. S., Ruan, W. J., Simons- Morton, B., &Scheidt, P. (2001). Bullying behaviors among US youth: Prevalence and association with psychological ad- justment.Journal of the American Medical Association, 285, 2094-2100. Pepler D, Jiang D, Craig, W, & Connolly J. (2008). Developmental trajectories of bullying and associated fac- tors.Child Development, 79, 325-338. Perren, Sonja, Dooley, Julian, Shaw, Thérèse, & Cross, Donna (2010).Bullying in school and cyberspace: Associations with depressive symptoms in Swiss and Australian adolescents. Child and AdolescentPsychiatry and Mental Health, 4(28), 1-10. Reijntjes, Albert, Kamphuis, Jan H., Prinzie, Peter, &Telch, Michael J. (2010). Peer victimization and internalizing prob- lems in children: A meta-analysis of longitudinal studies. Child Abuse & Neglect, 34, 244-252. Rush, A. J., Trivedi, M. H., Ibrahim, H. M., Carmody, T. J., Arnow, B., Klein, D. K., Keller, M. B. (2003). The 16-Item quick inventory of depressive symptomatology (QIDS), clinician rating (QIDS-C), and self-report (QIDS-SR): a psychometric evaluation in patients with chronic major de- pression. Biological Psychiatry, 54, 573-583. Schneider, Shari, O’Donnell, Lydia, Stueve, Ann, & Coulter, Robert (2012).Cyberbullying, school bullying, and psycho- logical distress: A regional census of high school students. American Journal of PublicHealth, 102(1), 171-177. Seals, Dorothy, & Young, Jerry (2003). Bullying and victim- ization: Prevalence and relationship to gender, grade level, ethnicity, self-esteem, and depression. Adolescence, 38(152), 735-747. Sourander, A., Helstela, L., Helenius, H., &Piha, J. (2000). Persistence of bullying from childhood to adolescence: A longitudinal 8-year follow-up study. Child Abuse and Neglect, 24, 873-881. Spence, S. H. (1997). The structure of anxiety symptoms among children: a confirmatory factor analytic study. Journal of Abnormal psychology, 106, 280 297. Spitzer RL, Endicott J, Robins E. (1978). Research diagnos- tic criteria: rationale and reliability. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 35:773–782. Undheim, Anne M., &Sund, Anne M. (2010).Prevalence of bul- lying and aggressive behavior and their relationship to men- tal health problems among 12- to 15-year-old Norwegian adolescents.European Child 19(11), 803-811. Vanhalst, J., Klimstra, T. A., Luyckx, K., Scholte, R. H. J., Engels, R. C. M. E., &Goossens, L. (2012). The interplay of loneliness and depressive symptoms across adolescence: Exploring the role of personality traits. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41, 776-787. doi:10.1007/s10964-011-9726-7. Vreeman, R. C., & Carroll, A. E. (2007).A systematic review of school-based interventions to prevent bullying.Archives of Pediatric and AdolescentMedicine, 161, 78–88. Wolke, D., Woods, S., Stanford, K., & Schulz, H. (2001). Bullying and victimization of primary school children in England and Germany: Prevalence and school factors. British Journal of Psychology, 92, 673–696. &Adolescent Psychiatry, Suresh SundaramAssistant ProfessorDepartment of Psychology Annamalai UniversityEmail: drssu@yahoo.co.in

19. © Journal of Psychological Researches January 2017, Vol.60, No.1, 17 - 27 INFLUENCE OF DEMOGRAPHIC AND INVESTOR PROFILE VARIABLES ON ATTITUDE TOWARDS RETIREMENT- AN INVESTOR PERCEPTION STUDY V.Rajeshkumarand Dr.R.Kasilingam Pondicherry University, Puducherry. In this study, the researchers attempted to study the association of the Demographic and Investor profile variables with the one of the important psychological variable “Attitude towards retirement” using chi square tests. Using the correspondence analysis/crosstabs, researchers attempted to gain more insight in to the association. Finally the extent of influence of the Demographic and investor profile variables on the Attitude towards retirement cluster was studied using the canonical correlation. This research study follows the descriptive research design. The primary data for the study was collected from 470 re- spondents (investors) in the State of Tamilnadu, India by using Multi stage random sampling technique. The results of this study revealed that there exists significant association between all the Demographic and Investor profile variables and Attitude towards retirement. Also the results further revealed that variables such as age, dependents, current grade, monthly income, no.of earning members and invest- ment experience exert significantly strong influence on the attitude towards retirement cluster. Keywords: Attitude, Retirement, Demographics, Investor Retirement is one of the important stages of life where ones involvement in certain social activities gets narrowed down. It is a transitional stage of life, which can be pleasant for some and traumatic for others (Marshall 2004). Without proper planning during the years in service, one has to get employed continuously and the life style will remain same with young age even though the individual attains the retirement age. Lack of proper retirement plan- ning well in advance in the career will lead to big disappointment during retirement. Thus having a proper and well thought, retirement planning is extremely important for everyone. The retirement planning and the retirement in- vestment decisions of the individual investors are influenced by many conventional factors like risk, return, demographic profile etc including the psy- chological and behavioural factors like yet another investment theme or concept. Hence, only by con- sidering the conventional variables one cannot ascertain the decision making process of the individ- ual investor and the psychological and behavioural variables takes the centre stage in today’s scenario. One of the important Psychological variable which may influence the retirement planning and savings decision is the attitude of the investor towards retirement. In this research work, research- ers evinced interest to study the factors influenc- ing the attitude of the investor towards retirement, particularly the demographic and investor profile variables as this aspect was not studied comprehen- sively in the earlier literature and this was evident from the literature review. (Koko, 2002) defined attitude as a predisposition to respond positively or negatively towards things, places, people, events and ideas. (Mutran et al, 1997) reported eight findings out of their study. First, higher an individual’s reported income; the more positive is his or her attitude to- ward retirement. Second, Participants who were mar- ried had a more positive attitude toward retirement than unmarried participants. Third, the participants who expected to receive a pension during their retire- ment had a more positive attitude toward retirement. Fourth, participants who reported reading about re- tirement, attending pre-retirement programs, talking about retirement with others, and constructing con- crete plans for their retirement had a more positive attitude toward retirement. Fifth, anticipating a time of retirement was related to having a positive atti- tude toward retirement. Sixth, self-perceived worker competence had a positive relationship with attitude

20. 18 Influence of Demographic and Investor Profile variables toward retirement. Seventh, participants who had a higher score on the self-esteem also had a more posi- tive attitude toward retirement. Last, depression had a negative relationship with attitude toward retirement. Franca, (2002) found out that positive or negative perception and attitude towards retirement by New Zealanders and Brazilians executives were influenced by their spouses, children, parents and friends. Also she affirms that workers who dedicate time to diver- sified activities have more positive attitude towards retirement. Ukwuayi, (2002) writes that in Nigeria attitudes towards retirement is influenced by factors like age, health, payment of pension/ gratuity, finan- cial stability and post-retirement options. Silver (2008) identified that attitudes towards retirement is affected by major factors such as be- lief about retirement, belief about the work itself, thought about age of the retiree, self-concept and self-esteem. Onyango, Olungah, & Oleche, (2016) in their study explains the participants attitude towards retirement with the statement ”Old age perceived as restricted, boring and bleak and not worth thinkingabout it” Also state that the participants never thinks about future beyond the next few years, let alone their retirement years and how they would fund. W. Foster, (2008) indicated in his thesis work that depression, anxiety, attitude toward retirement, and wellness were all significantly related. Results also indicated that depression was the largest pre- dictor of wellness followed attitude toward retire- ment. Wata, Kamau, & Bett, (2015) in their study found out that Occupation factors, Economic fac- tors, Environmental factors and Social factors af- fected employee’s attitude towards retirement Method The research design adopted for this study is the descriptive research. The equity investors in the State of Tamilnadu, India are the population for this study. A sample of 500 respondents was ran- domly selected using the Multi stage random sam- pling method. In the first stage of sampling, three cities namely Chennai, Coimbatore and Trichy were randomly selected. Further share broking firms in the selected cities were collated and 5 firms oper- ating in all the selected three cities were randomly selected. The data was collected using a structured questionnaire by distributing 500 questionnaires to the randomly selected customers (investors) of the selected broking firms. Out of the 500 question- naires distributed, 482 were received from the re- spondents. Of the 482 questionnaires received, 12 questionnaires were found incomplete. Finally, 470 questionnaires were considered for the analysis. The minimum sample size required for this study is only 430, which was calculated using the below for- mula based on the data collected for the pilot study from the randomly selected 30 respondents. Also reliability and validity of the questionnaire were checked using the pilot study data before proceeding with the main study. For data analysis, statistical tools such as Cluster analysis, Chi Square tests, Correspondence analysis/Crosstabs and Canonical Correlation was used. All the data analy- sis, were performed with the help of IBM SPSS v20 Software. Objective: 1) To identify the homogenous clusters/ groups within the Attitude towards retirement construct. 2) To determine the association of Demographic and investor profile variables with the Attitude towards retirement cluster. Attitude towards retirement Attitude towards retirement is studied with the help of five statements. The perception of investor is collected in the likert’s five point scale. Mean of five statements are presented below.

21. V.Rajeshkumar and Dr.R.Kasilingam 19 Table 1: Perception of Investors on Attitude towards retirement Mean analysis and Rank scores Total no of Response Statements Mean Std. Deviation Rank I look forward to retirement 470 3.42 0.737 V Retirement gives me an opportunity to pursue my hobbies and unfulfilled dreams 470 3.97 0.738 I Retirement gives me ample time for socializing and nurturing relationships 470 3.96 0.748 II Retirement gives me an opportunity to take care of my physical and mental wellbeing 470 3.94 0.762 III In general, I see retirement as an opportunity than a challenge 470 3.82 0.844 IV The Table 1, gives information about the Mean , Standard deviation values and rank scores of the 5 items under the variable Attitude towards retire- ment. The total response obtained for each item is 470. Out of 5 items , “Retirement gives me opportu- nity to pursue my hobbies and unfulfilled dreams” has the highest mean value of 3.97 with Rank 1 and the item, “I look forward to retirement” has the low- est mean value of 3.42 with rank 5. As the mean value of all the items are greater than 3, it implies that all the respondents are positively inclined to- wards each item. In case of standard deviation, the item, “In general, I see retirement as an opportu- nity than a challenge” has the highest value of 0.844 which means there is significant dispersion in the view investor about this statement. The item, “I look forward to retirement” has lowest standard de- viation of 0.737. Table 2: Final Cluster Centers and ANOVA Cluster Statements 1 2 3 F Sig I look forward to retirement 3 3 4 250 0.000 Retirement gives me an opportunity to pursue my hobbies and unfulfilled dreams 4 3 5 578 0.000 Retirement gives me ample time for socializing and nurturing relationships 4 3 5 610 0.000 Retirement gives me an opportunity to take care of my physical and mental wellbeing 4 3 5 538 0.000 In general, I see retirement as an opportunity than a challenge 4 3 5 859 0.000 No. of cases in each cluster 184 144 142

22. 20 Influence of Demographic and Investor Profile variables The Table 2 depicts the grouping of respondents based on their attitude towards retirement in to three distinct groups/cluster using the K-Means clus- ter analysis. The cluster number 1 with 184 cases grouped under it, with most of item have mean values of 4 (measured in five point scale). As the mean value is more than 3, that group is termed as Positive attitude cluster, whereas the cluster no 2 with 144 cases grouped under it, with item values as 3 is termed as Normal attitude cluster because the mean value is around standard normal value and finally the cluster no 3 with 142 cases having item value as 5 is named as High Positive attitude cluster. The number of people distributed is more or less equal. This means that all groups are equally stron- ger groups. The significant value of all the items are 0.000, which indicates that all the items have significantly contributed for grouping the investors in-to three clusters based on their attitude towards retirement. Among the 5 items ,the item “In general, I see retirement as an opportunity than a challenge” has high F statistics value, which indicate that the respective item has contributed more for grouping of respondents in to three clusters. Table 3 : Association between the Demographic & Investor profile variables with the Attitude towards retirement cluster. S. No Demographic /Investment Variables Chi Square value 20.500a 219.296a df 2 8 Sig 0.000 0.000 1 Gender 2 Age 20.339a 6 0.002 3 Qualification 81.351a 2 0.000 4 Marital Status 92.902a 2 0.000 5 Type of Family 194.145a 12 0.000 6 Dependents 20.959a 4 0.000 7 Religion 15.589a 4 0.004 8 Community 45.731a 6 0.000 9 Occupation 126.213a 6 0.000 10 Current Grade 199.541a 8 0.000 11 Experience 218.603a 8 0.000 12 Monthly Income 114.896a 4 0.000 13 Number of Earning members Amount spent every month for Recreation/ Entertainment 51.928a 6 0.000 14 178.813a 8 0.000 15 Investment Experience The Table 3 displays the results of the Chi square test performed to study the association of the Demographic & Investor profile variables with the Attitude towards Retirement cluster. As the significant value (p value) for all the listed variables are < 0.05, it can be concluded that there exists significant association between all the Demographic & Investor profile variables and the Attitude towards Retirement cluster. Also, higher value of the Chi square value for all the variables reiterates the stronger association. To gain further insight, this association is further explored using the cross tabs/ correspondent analysis.

23. V.Rajeshkumar and Dr.R.Kasilingam 21 Table 4: Cross tabulation of Gender, Marital Status, Type of Family, Dependents, Religion & Community with the Attitude towards Retirement cluster Attitude towards Retirement Cluster Positive Normal High Positive Total Gender Male Female Total Marital Status Single Married Total Type of Family Nuclear Joint Total Dependents 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 Total Religion Hindu Christian Islam Total Community OC OBC SC/ST Total 137(74.5%) 47(25.5%) 117(81.2%) 27(18.8%) 133(93.7%) 9(6.3%) 387(82.3%) 83(17.7%) 184 144 142 470 57(31%) 127(69%) 66(45.8%) 78(54.2%) 0 123(26.2%) 347(73.8) 142(100%) 184 144 142 470 160(87%) 24(13%) 184 53(36.8%) 91(63.2%) 144 73(51.4%) 69(48.6%) 142 286(60.9%) 184(39.1%) 470 9(4.9%) 89(48.4%) 59(32.1%) 19(10.3%) 8(4.3%) 0 0 184 33(22.9%) 8(5.6%) 49(34%) 42(29.2%) 12(8.3%) 0 0 144 3(2.1%) 17(12%) 44(31%) 26(18.3%) 42(29.6%) 7(4.9%) 3(2.1%) 142 45(9.6%) 114(24.3%) 152(32.3%) 87(18.5%) 62(13.2%) 7(1.5%) 3(0.6%) 470 129(70.1%) 40(21.7%) 15(8.2%) 184 124(86.1%) 14(9.7%) 6(4.2%) 144 113(79.6%) 12(8.5%) 17(12%) 142 366(77.9%) 66(14%) 38(8.1%) 470 59(32.1%) 100(54.3%) 25(13.6%) 184 60(41.7%) 73(50.7%) 11(7.6%) 144 72(50.7%) 63(44.4%) 7(4.9%) 142 191(40.6%) 236(50.2%) 43(9.1%) 470

24. 22 Influence of Demographic and Investor Profile variables Retirement cluster. Also, higher value of the Chi square value for all the variables reiterates the stronger association. To gain further insight, this as- sociation is further explored using the cross tabs/ correspondent analysis. The Table 4 depicts the cross tabulation(as- sociation) between various categories under the Gender, Marital Status, Type of Family, dependents, Religion & Community with the Attitude towards Retirement cluster. It indicates that the male in- vestors are highly positive towards the retirement when compared to the female investors. Of the total 142 investors having high positive attitude towards retirement, nearly 93.7% of investors are male. In case of marital status, married investors have high positive attitude, whereas single investors have normal attitude towards retirement. With respect to the family setup, investors in nuclear family have positive attitude towards retirement whereas those investors in joint family has normal attitude. This may be due to the fact that those in joint family feel secured and they may not think about their life after retirement. Investors having more financial dependents (viz., 4,5,& 6 dependents) are associated with the high positive attitude towards retirement cluster , whereas investors having nil dependents have normal attitude. In case of investors with 1 or 2 dependents, the attitude is more biased towards the normal attitude category. In case of religion, the Hindus who form the major gamut of the our sam- ple investors (77.9%), are associated more with the normal attitude category than with the high positive and positive category. Christians are associated with positive attitude cluster and the Islamic investors are associated with the high positive cluster In terms of the community, OC category inves- tors have high positive attitude whereas the OBC and SC/Category investors have positive attitude towards the retirement. The Fig:1 illustrates the correspondence analy- sis between the age and the attitude towards retire- ment cluster. From the diagram , it is clearly evident that the investors in the age bracket 36-45, 46-55 & >=56 possess high positive attitude towards retire- ment. However those in the age bracket of 26-35 and in <=25 , have positive and normal attitude to- wards retirement respectively. It can be inferred that the investors attitude towards retirement becomes more positive as they get older. The Fig: 2 illustrates the correspondence analy- sis between the qualification of investors and their attitude towards retirement cluster. From the dia- gram, it can be inferred that the investors with pro- fessional qualification have high positive attitude towards retirement. Fig.1 : Correspondence of Age with Attitude towards Retirement cluster

25. V.Rajeshkumar and Dr.R.Kasilingam 23 Fig 2: Correspondence of Qualification with Attitude towards Retirement cluster Table 5: Cross tabulation of Occupation, Current Grade, Experience & Monthly income with the Attitude towards Retirement cluster Attitude towards Retirement Cluster Positive Normal High Positive Total Occupation 33(17.9%) 14(9.7%) 35(24.6%) 82(17.4%) Employed In Government 108(58.7%) 119(82.6%) 90(63.4%_ 317(67.4%) Employed in Private Organization Professional 12(6.5%) 3(2.1%) 14(9.9%) 29(6.2%) Business 31(16.8%) 8(5.6%) 3(2.1% 42(8.9) Total 184 144 142 470 Current Grade Entry level / Trainee 0 12(8.3%) 0 12(2.6%) Junior Management Level 60(32.6%) 70(48.6%) 0 130(27.7%) Middle Management Level 110(59.8%) 52(36.1%) 129(90.8%) 291(61.9%) Senior Management Level 14(7.6%) 10(6.9%) 13(9.2%) 37(7.9%) Total 184 144 142 470 Experience up to 5 47(25.5%) 70(48.6%) 0 117(24.9%) 06-10 years 76(41.3%) 39(27.1%) 15(10.6%) 130(27.7%) 11-15 years 29(15.8%) 24(16.7%) 34(23.9%) 87(18.5%) 16-20 years 12(6.5%) 11(7.6%) 46(32.4%) 69(14.7%) 21 and above 20(10.9%) 0 47(33.1%) 67(14.3%) Total 184 144 142 470

26. 24 Influence of Demographic and Investor Profile variables Monthly income upto 25,000 12(6.5%) 23(16%) 0 35(7.4%) 25,001-50,000 68(47.2%) 117(24.9%) 49(26.6%) 0 50001-75000 19(13.2%) 83(17.7%) 56(30.4%) 8(5.6%) 75001-100000 10(6.9%) 81(17.2%) 12(6.5%) 59(41.5%) >100000 24(16.7%) 154(32.8%) 55(29.9%) 75(52.8%) Total 184 144 142 470 No.of Earning members 86(46.7%) 12(8.3%) 70(49.3%) 168(35.7%) 1 2 95(51.6%) 85(59%) 63(44.4%) 243(51.7%) 3 3(1.6%) 47(32.6%) 9(6.3%) 59(12.6%) Total 184 144 142 470 Whereas the PG qualified investors have nor- mal attitude towards retirement and the UG or Diploma qualified investors have positive atti- tude towards retirement. The Table 5 illustrates the association between the various categories under the variables viz., Occupation, Current Grade, Experience, Monthly income and No.of Earning members with the Attitude towards Retirement Cluster. With respect to the Occupation, Professionals and those em- ployed in Government exhibit high positive attitude towards retirement. However the investors working with private organisations have normal attitude. Business or Self Employed investors exhibit pos- itive attitude. In case of Current Grade, investors currently in Entry level and Junior Management Grade possess normal attitude, whereas Middle and Senior management grade employed investors exhibit high positive attitude. In case of Job Experience, those who have experience >=11years, exhibit high positive atti- tude towards retirement. However investors hav- ing experience of =<5 years have normal attitude and those who have experience of 6-10 years ex- hibit positive attitude towards retirement. With re- spect to Monthly income , investors who are in the higher income bracket exhibit high positive attitude, whereas those in lower income bracket possess nor- mal attitude towards retirement. However investors earning Rs.50,000-75,000 per month exhibit posi- tive attitude towards retirement. Regarding the number of Earning members in the family, investors in whose family where the no of earning members is one, they exhibit high posi Table 6: Cross tabulation of Amount spent every month for Recreation / Entertainment with the Attitude towards Retirement cluster Attitude towards Retirement Cluster Amount spent every month for Recreation /Entertainment(Rs) Positive Normal High Positive Total 112(60.9%) 74(51.4%) 47(33.1%) 233(49.6%) up to 2000 40(21.7%) 48(33.3%) 56(39.4%) 144(30.6%) 2001-5000 5001-8000 32(17.4%) 14(9.7%) 39(27.5%) 85(18.1%) >11000 0 8(5.6%) 0 8(1.7%) Total 184 144 142 470

27. V.Rajeshkumar and Dr.R.Kasilingam 25 tive attitude towards retirement. However in case of investors, where number of earning members in the family is two or more they exhibit normal atti- tude towards retirement. The Table 6 illustrates the correspondence of the Amount spent every month for Recreation / Entertainment with the Attitude towards Retirement cluster. Those investors who spend every month Rs. 2001-5000 & 5001-8000 for Recreation / Entertainment have high positive attitude towards retirement. However the investors who spend >11000 , have normal attitude towards retirement. It may be in- ferred that the investors who are spending more for recreation want to enjoy the day today life giv- ing less forethought to the future. Table 7: Cross tabulation of Investment Experience with the Attitude towards Retirement cluster Attitude towards Retirement Cluster Positive Normal High Positive Total Investment Experience 110(59.8%) 110(76.4%) 15(10.6%) 235(50%) up to 5 42(22.8%) 12(8.3%) 29(20.4%) 83(17.7%) 06-10 11-15 12(6.5%) 22(15.3%) 48(33.8%) 82(17.4%) 16-20 17(9.2%) 0 33(23.2%) 50(10.6%) >=21 3(1.6%) 0 17(12%) 20(4.3%) Total 184 144 142 470 The Table 7 depicts the association of investment experience with the attitude towards retirement. From the table , it is clearly evident that those in- vestors having more investment experience ( >=11 years) have high positive attitude towards retire- ment whereas the investors with up to 5 years of experience have normal attitude towards retirement. Those investors having 6-10 years of experience, have positive attitude retirement. Thus we can con- clude that more the investment experience, greater positive the attitude towards retirement. The Table 8 reveals the canonical correlation between the demographic/investor profile vari- ables and the Attitude towards retirement cluster. The chi square test and correspondence analysis revealed the prevalence of significant association between the demographic/ investor profile vari- ables and the Attitude towards retirement clus- ter, however the canonical correlation brought to light which of these demographic/investor pro- file variables exert the most significant influence on attitude towards retirement cluster. From the results it can be inferred that canonical correla- tion value (Degree of determination) is 67% and only the variables age, dependents, current grade, monthly income, no.of earning members and in- vestment experience exert significantly influence on the attitude towards retirement cluster as the significant value(p value <0.05). Also the tests of significance, such as Wilks’ Lambda, Pillai’s Lambda are statistically significant indicating that the variables age, dependents, current grade, monthly income, no.of earning members and in- vestment experience are strongly correlated with the attitude towards retirement cluster. This Study revealed that the attitude towards retire- ment construct can be dissociated in to three homoge- neous groups or clusters, which are Positive, Normal and High positive attitude towards retirement. The Chi square results proved that the Demographic /Investor profile variables such as Gender, Age, Qualification, Marital Status, Type of family, Dependents, Religion, Community, Occupation, Current Grade, Experience, Monthly Income, Number of Earning members, Amount spent every month for Recreation/ Entertainment and Investment Experience have sig- nificant association with the attitude towards retire- ment clus ers/groups.

28. 26 Influence of Demographic and Investor Profile variables Linear combinations for canonical correlations Number of obs = 470 Coef. Std. Err. t P>|t| [95% Conf. Interval] u1 gender -.247116 .159581 -1.55 0.122 -.5606984 .0664663 agecatcomp~s .372325 .1681573 2.21 0.027 .04189 .70276 qualificat~n .1026691 .0672004 1.53 0.127 -.029382 .2347202 maritalsta~s .1936636 .186427 1.04 0.299 -.172672 .5599993 typeoffamily .2550716 .1345314 1.90 0.059 -.0092872 .5194305 dependents .5487714 .0677216 8.10 0.000 .415696 .6818468 religion .0966025 .0958946 1.01 0.314 -.0918337 .2850387 community .1351796 .094138 1.44 0.152 -.0498049 .3201641 -1.95 0.052 -.3500483 .0013387 occupation -.1743548 .0894099 -.4911405 .1671513 -2.94 0.003 -.8195986 -.1626824 currentgrade experience~s -.0643435 .1407946 -0.46 0.648 -.3410098 .2123227 monthlyinc~s .2120799 .0856085 2.48 0.014 .0438561 .3803036 numberofea~y .8422756 .1092119 7.71 0.000 .6276704 1.056881 amountspen~i -.2334377 .0856479 -2.73 0.007 -.4017389 -.0651366 investment~s .3830912 .1342926 2.85 0.005 .1192015 .6469809 v1 1.206402 .0613371 19.67 0.000 1.085873 1.326932 Attitute_cat (Standard errors estimated conditionally) Canonical correlations: 0.6727 Tests of significance of all canonical correlations Statistic df1 df2 F Prob>F Wilks' lambda .547467 15 454 25.0182 0.0000 e Pillai's trace .452533 15 454 25.0182 0.0000 e Lawley-Hotelling trace .826593 15 454 25.0182 0.0000 e 25.0182 0.0000 e Roy's largest root .826593 15 454 e = exact, a = approximate, u = upper bound on F . Further the Correspondence analysis / Crosstabs revealed further insight in to the association of Demographic /Investor profile variables with the attitude towards retirement clusters/groups which was stated in detail in the analysis section. Finally the results of the canonical correlation revealed that only the variables age, dependents, current grade, monthly income, no. of earning members, amount spent for recreation/entertainment and investment experience exert significantly strong influence on the attitude towards retirement cluster with degree of determination at 67%. tion with the attitude towards retirement, only 7 out of the 15 variables considered for this study such as age, dependents, current grade, monthly income, number of earning members, amount spent for recreation/ entertainment and investment experience emerged as the major determinant of the variable attitude towards retirement. Also the following categories of investors such as male investor ,married investor, investor in higher age bracket (>35 years),investor leading a nu- clear family, investor with more dependents, investor belonging to OC community and experienced investor exhibiting high positive attitude towards retirement are very interesting and sure kindle the attention of the research community. This study has its own limitation as the study was restricted only to equity investorsbe- longing to the State of Tamilnadu,India. There exists further scope for extending this study to a different Conclusion This Study has brought out some interesting and intriguing outcomes. Though all the Demographic and investor profile variables has significant associa-

29. V.Rajeshkumar and Dr.R.Kasilingam 27 geographical area or to a different population say IT employees , Teaching fraternity, NRI’s etc. Also this study can be further extended to study the influence of attitude towards retirement on the retirement planning and retirement investment choice of the investors. This study will be useful to the companies for offering tailor made retirement solutions to the investors and for the government to float social security schemes for the public. Mutran, E. J., Reitzes, D. C., & Fernandez, M. E. (1997). Factors that influence Attitudes toward retirement. Research on Aging, 19, 251-273. Onyango, C., Olungah, C. O., & Oleche, M. O. (2016).Attitude of Informal Sector Workers towards Saving for Retirement. International Journal of Novel Research in Interdisciplinary Studies, 3(4), 12–19. Silver, M. (2007). Difference in the implications of Retirement on Depressive symptoms by Gender and Occupation Retrieved 11/12/2008, on http/www.appam.org/confer- ence/fall/losangekes2008.sesessions/download/4546.doc. Ukwuayi, A. (2002). Teachers Attitude Towards Retirement. A case Study of Secondary Schools in Obudu Educational zone. Unpublished M.Ed. Thesis Imo State University, Owerri. Wata, L., Kamau, C., & Bett, B. (2015). Determinants of Employees Attitude towards Retirement in the Energy Sector in Kenya; a Case of Kenya Pipeline. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 5(10), 1–6. References Foster, T.(2008). Depression, Anxiety and Attitude toward Retirement as predictors of wellness for workers nearing Retirement. Koko, M.N. (2002). Organizational Behaviour Concept and Dimensions. Choba Port Harcourt: Bengray Publishing Company. V.Rajeshkumar Research Scholar (Full-Time) Department of Management Studies Pondicherry University, Puducherry. Email id: vrkumar78@rediffmail.com Dr.R.Kasilingam Associate Professor Department of Management Studies Pondicherry University, Puducherry Email id: kasimeena@gmail.com

30. © Journal of Psychological Researches January 2017, Vol.60, No.1, 28 - 37 LEARNING AND GROWTH PERSPECTIVE OF THE BALANCED SCORECARD IN COMMERCIAL BANKS IN INDIA S Visalakshi and R Kasilingam Pondicherry University, Puducherry The “Learning and Growth” perspective of the Balance Scorecard focuses on the organisation’s abil- ity to continue to improve and create value for its stakeholders. Employees play a critical role in any organization. Banks are service intensive organisations and the performance and growth of these or- ganisations largely depend on the performance of the employees. It is imperative to have a dynamic and motivated workforce to keep ahead in competition. By equipping the employees with the necessary skills, banks can deliver value to the customers, which will eventually lead to superior organizational performance and enhance stakeholder value of the study method tools used finally results obtained. Keywords: Balanced Scorecard, Learning and Growth perspective, performance measurement Employee development is one of the most important functions in an organization. Employee develop- ment means to develop the abilities of an employee, which contributes to employee growth and leads to overall growth of the organization. Kaplan and Norton Reference introduced the Balanced Scorecard, which was designed as a strategic tool for organizations to achieve their goals and was aimed at measurement and management of their performance. The Balanced Scorecard provides four different perspectives for performance mea- surement of an organization i.e. Customer, Learning and Growth, Internal Process and Financial perspec- tives. Companies are laying a lot of importance on the “Learning and Growth” perspective. Employees are key factors in organizations. The success and growth of an organization depends on the perfor- mance of employees. Growth and Development occurs in an organization when employees receive encouragement and support to develop their inter- personal, emotional and job skills. Employees feel encouraged when their workplace provides them a range of opportunities to build their competencies to not only to help them in their current job posi- tions but also to prepare them for future positions. By getting many opportunities in their organization towards their development, employees feel a greater sense of commitment towards their organizational goals and are encouraged to take up additional re- sponsibilities in their organizations. This paper deals with the employees’ percep- tions towards Learning and Growth environment in banks. Employees of ten different Indian banks – under both the public and the private sector – were interviewed and their perceptions towards this per- spective were obtained from them. Their percep- tions have been analyzed for the Learning aspect and the Growth aspect separately. The factors cho- sen to study the Learning Perspective in the banks are a) Training Needs and b) Organizational sup- port for training. The factors chosen for the Growth Perspective are a) Career Opportunities b) Rewards and Recognition c) Employee Empowerment and d) Vision and Mission alignment. As opined by Blunkett (2001), “In a knowledge driven economy, the continuous updating of skills, attitudes and the development of life-long learnings will make the difference between success and fail- ure and between competitiveness and decline”. Aswathappa, (2000), in his book “Human Resources and Personnel Management comments that “The term ‘training’ indicates the process in- volved in improving the aptitudes, skills and abilities of the employees to perform specific jobs. Training

31. S Visalakshi and R Kasilingam 29 helps in updating old talents and developing new ones. Successful candidates placed on the jobs need training to perform their duties effectively.” Oatey (1970) opines that training improves a person’s skill at a task. Training helps in so- cially, intellectually and mentally developing an employee, which is very essential in facilitating not only the level of productivity but also the develop- ment of personnel in any organization.As suggested by Seyler, et al (1998) “The continuous changing scenario of business world, training is an effective measure used by employers to supplement employ- ees’ knowledge, skills and behavior”. According to the Sinha (2012), development of organizations’ most valuable assets i.e. employees is useful for gaining competitive advantage in the market. These assets are communication, career development and growth, organizational commitment, emotional supervisory support, flexible work arrangements, family response culture, employee motivation, orga- nizational climate, organizational support, job satis- faction, rewards and benefits and compensation. Al-Refaie et al, (2014) in their article on earn- ing and growth perspective opine that learning and growth improves employee’s problem-solving abilityhelps to improve employee’s service quality, Improves employee’s intention to learn effectively and promotes corporate culture. related profile gives information about their job in the bank. The personal profile of the employees includes their personal information like age, gender and their educational qualification. A majority of the employ- ees, almost 61 percent were in the age group of 26- 35 years, while 11.8 percent of the employees were less than 25 years of age; totally about 73%. Male employees constituted 65% of the respondents. The employees were well qualified with 51 percent of them being post-graduates and 43 percent of them having completed their graduation. Employment related profile of the employees indicated that out of the 288 employees surveyed, more than 67% of them were in the officer cadre and a majority of them had put in more than 5 years of service in the banks. Perceptions of employees about training needs Training of the employees is an essential require- ment for proper delivery of banking services. Banks are constantly adopting new technologies, innovat- ing and bringing out new products and services to meet the changing needs of the customers. If the employees are not trained on these products and services, they will fail to deliver value to the cus- tomers. Banks must provide opportunities to the employees for training on new technologies, new products and services to enable the employees to serve the customers efficiently. Table 1 gives details about the mean score of the responses obtained, the standard deviation and the ranking given to the var- ious factors based on the mean. From Table 1, it can be seen that the employees agree that they have ample learning and training op- portunities in the bank. The mean is also relatively high for the factor that the bank updates the employ- ees about the existing and new products. The employ- ees have also concurred that the training they receive is highly relevant to their work because of which they are able to perform better in their jobs. Overall, it can be inferred that the employees are satisfied with the training opportunities provided by the bank and the proficiency with which they are able to deliver their job requirements because of these training inputs. Method The present study is descriptive in nature. The primary data required for the study was collected through a structured questionnaire. Ten banks were chosen for this purpose on a simple random sam- pling basis and included six banks from the public sector and four from the private sector in India. The questionnaire also elicited information on the demo- graphic profile of the respondents. The respondents were first educated about the purpose of the study and assured confidentiality of the data obtained. Profile of the Employees The profile of the employees includes their per- sonal profile and employment related profile. The personal profile deals with the demographic char- acteristics of the employees and the employment

32. 30 Learning and Growth Perspective Table 1: Perceptions of Employees towards Training Needs – Mean analysis Standard Deviation Training Needs Mean Rank I have ample learning/training opportunities in the bank 4.39 0.848 I The training I receive is relevant and applicable to my immediate job 4.08 0.900 III The bank constantly updates my knowledge about existing and new bank products 4.11 0.841 II The bank provides opportunities to develop new job skills 3.83 0.931 V I am satisfied with the training I have received in the bank 3.90 0.897 IV the mean scores of the perceptions of the employees and the rankings based on the mean scores. From Table 2, it can be observed that the mean is highest for the statement “My supervisor helps me to identify my strengths and weakness” which implies that the supervisors are constantly trying to identify areas in which the employees are strong so that they may be utilized effectively and areas of weakness where they may require further training. The employees also agreed that they learn from job rotations and from their peers in the bank. This in- dicates the supportive nature of the employees. The employees are also of the opinion that the bank con- stantly encouraged the staff in the use of IT, which is very much essential. As the banking sector is heavily dependent on technology, the employees of Perceptions of employees about organizational support for training Employees feel encouraged when their supervisors identify their strengths and weaknesses and suggest areas of training and improvement so that the em- ployees can hone their skills. It is not mandatory for employees to learn only through training pro- grammes. Peer learning, on-the-job learning and learning through job rotations are some of the other methods how employees can learn. A forward-look- ing organization must invest substantial time and resources in training and orienting the employees. The organization must also motivate the employees to learn new skills and to equip themselves with the latest developments in technology. Table 2 shows Table 2: Perceptions of employees towards Organizational Support for Training – Mean analysis and rank scores Standard Deviation Organizational Support for training Mean Rank My supervisor helps me to identify my strengths and weaknesses 4.25 0.835 I There are opportunities for me to cross-train and learn from my peers I learn a lot through job rotation 4.05 0.738 III 4.06 0.765 II The organization educates and encourages staff in the use of IT 4.01 0.822 IV My bank motivates me to constantly improve my professional competence 3.98 0.891 V

33. S Visalakshi and R Kasilingam 31 the bank need to be constantly trained in this area and their skills have to be enhanced if the bank has to upgrade to the latest developments in technology. A highly trained work force will help the bank face competition and provide better service to its custom- ers. The other factors for Organizational support are in favour of the bank as the employees concurred that the bank is providing adequate opportunities for upgrading their professional skills and compe- tencies. It can be concluded that the employees are very much satisfied with their banks’ support and encouragement for training and enhancement of skills. to be fair and objective, which instills confidence in the minds of the employees that their good work will be recognized by the organization. If employ- ees are satisfied with the career opportunities in the bank, then there is very less chance that they would be looking for alternate sources of employment and would work with more dedication to the bank. The perceptions of the employees of various banks are elicited with respect to the following factors relat- ing to Career Opportunities and the responses are obtained and displayed in Table 3. Table 3 gives an analysis of all the responses of the employees pertaining to Career Opportunities. The employees are highly satisfied that they have a clear-cut career path available in the bank for their progress. The employees also expressed satisfac- tion about the growth opportunities in the bank. The mean for the other two factors is also fairly high and close to four which indicates that the employees are satisfied with the performance appraisal system and with the career development opportunities that they have received in the bank. Based on the above anal- ysis, it can be concluded that the perceptions of the employees towards career opportunities in the bank is fairly satisfactory. Perceptions Of Employees About Career Opportunities An organization must provide a clear career path to its employees so that they are aware of how they can progress in the organization. A clear growth path and career path provides motivation to the em- ployees. If an organization recognizes and rewards merits, then the employee is motivated to perform well and will hope to rise briskly in the organiza- tion. The performance appraisal system also needs Table 3: Perceptions of employees towards Career Opportunities – Mean analysis and rank scores Standard Deviation 0.777 Career Opportunities variables Mean Rank I have a clear path for career advancement in the bank 4.26 I There are immense growth opportunities available for me 4.08 0.765 II The performance appraisal system is objective and satisfying 3.87 0.856 III I am satisfied with the career development opportunities I have received 3.83 0.855 IV ness to the organization and they visualize the com- pany’s goals as their own. This way the organization can also reduce frequent turnover of the employees, which causes unnecessary strain on the profits of the organization and affects the morale of the em- ployees. An organization must be fair and must have an equitable system of rewards and recognition. The following are the factors considered towards Rewards and Recognition. From Table 4, a fair picture of the employees’ opinions can be obtained about Rewards and Recognition mechanism in the banks. The table Perceptions Of Employees About Rewards And Recognition Rewards and Recognition are important in an or- ganization as they provide ample motivation to the employees urging them to work with dedication and commitment to the bank. Recognition for good work done by the employees helps to increase em- ployee loyalty and enhances their performance. It is a great motivating factor and encourages employees to work harder. When employees are recognized and rewarded, it generates in them a sense of belonging-

34. 32 Learning and Growth Perspective above indicates that the employees are more than satisfied about the various factors contributing to Rewards and Recognition. They are of the opinion that their work is well recognized; there exists an environment of free and fair competition among the employees. The employees are also more than satis- fied about the equitable and fair system of rewards and recognition. The employees are also fairly satis- fied that they did not face any stress in the discharge of their daily duties and that bank took care of their work-life balance. Employees need a conducive and progressive work environment where their work is recognized and they are rewarded. From the above table, it appears that the employees are satisfied with the factors relating to Rewards and Recognition. From Table 4, a fair picture of the employees’ opinions can be obtained about Rewards and Recognition mechanism in the banks. The table above indicates that the employees are more than satisfied about the various factors contributing to Rewards and Recognition. They are of the opinion that their work is well recognized; there exists an environment of free and fair competition among the employees. The employees are also more than satisfied about the equitable and fair system of rewards and recognition. The employees are also fairly satisfied that they did not face any stress in the discharge of their daily duties and that bank took care of their work-life balance. Employees need a conducive and progressive work environ- ment where their work is recognized and they are rewarded. From the above table, it appears that the employees are satisfied with the factors relating to Rewards and Recognition. Table 4: Perception of employees towards Rewards and Recognition – Mean analysis and rank scores Standard Deviation Rewards and Recognition variables Mean Rank I feel that my work is well recognized and well rewarded The bank encourages free and fair competition among employees The bank has an equitable system of reward and recognition I do not face any stress in the discharge of my daily duties The bank takes care of my work-life balance 4.01 0.950 I 3.91 0.876 II 3.81 1.010 III 3.64 0.982 IV 3.63 1.067 V employees deliver better and experience im- proved customer service as the employees take pride in their work. Empowered employees feel challenged and emerge with new ideas and meth- ods to do the same job. Employees have to be trained in the required skills to take up additional responsibility. Table 5 gives information about the Employee Empowerment variables banks. The employees like to take up responsibilities in the bank because they feel encouraged by their superiors and they are satisfied that their sug- gestions are accepted by the banks (mean of 3.84). Overall, it can be inferred that the employees in the bank feel empowered because lot of responsibility and freedom are given to them, which encourage them to take decisions in their work areas boldly. Perceptions Of Employees About Employee Empowerment Employee Empowerment means giving a certain amount of autonomy and decision making to the employees in an organization. This process en- ables decision making at lower levels in the or- ganization where employees are familiar with the work at that level and can identify problems faced at that level. Employees who are given au- tonomy in their work are generally found to be more loyal and committed to the organization. The process generates an environment of trust, which benefits both the organization and the employee in the long run. Organizations, which empower their employees, find that their

35. S Visalakshi and R Kasilingam 33 Table 5: Perception of employees towards Employee Empowerment – Mean analysis and rank scores Standard Deviation Employee Empowerment variables Mean Rank Decentralization of responsibilities is practiced in my organization I like the level of responsibility I am given in my work My suggestions are encouraged by the bank I like to take up new challenges in my job 4.02 0.879 II 3.97 3.84 4.08 0.836 0.863 0.810 III IV I alignment have very satisfactory responses from the employees. They feel that the bank communicates its vision and mission statement very clearly. The employees are also of the opinion that they can en- visage how their individual contribution is leading the success of the organization. Because of these factors, the employees feel extremely motivated to contributed to the growth of their organizations and they are able to relate their own success to the suc- cess of their banks. Perceptions of employees about Vision And Mission Alignment Most organizations have clearly defined Vision and Mission statements. These statements spell out the reasons for the very existence of the organization and help to formulate clear-cut and time defined goals. It is not sufficient if the Vision and Mission statements are defined and circulated among the top management. The organization will be success- ful only if it communicates its Vision and Mission statements to all its employees. The message must percolate down to the grass root levels in the or- ganizations. Being aligned towards the Vision and Mission statements helps the employees to under- stand the impact of their work and orient them- selves to achieve these goals. The alignment of the employees to the Vision and Mission statements of an organization is a key contributor to success of the organization as it develops synergy amongst the employees. Table 6 gives information about the Vision and Mission alignment of the employees in the bank. It can be observed from the above table that all the variables used to define Vision and Mission Relationship between the profiles of employees and their Perceptions about various factors of Learning and Growth Chi-square analysis was used to find the association between the demographic variables i.e. profiles of the employees and the various factors of Learning and Growth. The results are displayed in Table 7 and Table 8. It can be observed from the above tables that the profiles of the employees bear significant associa- tion with several factors of Learning and Growth. The significant associations have been see in the factors of…..?. Table 6: Perception of employees towards Vision and Mission Alignment – Mean analysis and rank scores Standard Deviation 0.797 Vision and Mission alignment variables Mean Rank The bank clearly communicates its goals and strategies I am aware of how my contribution is leading to the organization growth I feel extremely motivated to contribute my best I relate my success to the company’s success 4.21 I 4.05 0.761 II 4.04 4.02 0.828 0.774 III IV

36. 34 Learning and Growth Perspective Table 7: Association between the profiles of employees and their perceptions about factors of the Learning Perspective Training Needs Chi-square Org Support for training Chi-square Demographic factor Sig. value Sig. value Age 4.308 0.635 4.884 0.559 Gender 3.354 0.187 1.651 0.438 Educational Qualification 15.131 0.019* 9.813 0.133 Designation 0.546 0.969 2.220 0.695 Length of service 33.681 0.000* 8.550 0.201 Years since last promotion 5.190 0.268 3.629 0.459 Years in present position 10.785 0.029* 6.112 0.191 Table 8: Association between the profiles of employees and their perceptions about factors of the Growth Perspective Career Opportunities Rewards and Recognition Chi-square Employee Empowerment C h i - square 3.101 0.539 7.449 Vision and Mission C h i - square 3.973 2.537 2.372 Demographic factor Age Gender Educational Qualification Designation Length service Years since last promotion Years p r e s e n t position Chi-square S i g . value 0.194 0.678 0.000* C h i - square 0.148 0.256 0.001* S i g . value 0.796 0.764 0.281 S i g . value 0.680 0.281 0.883 8.649 0.777 24.504 9.491 2.726 23.540 10.078 11.986 0.039* 0.062 10.223 22.340 0.037* 0.001* 6.537 6.643 0.162 0.355 6.005 7.357 0.199 0.289 of 7.873 0.096 5.199 0.267 4.520 0.340 2.723 0.605 in 8.177 0.085 3.720 0.445 5.145 0.273 2.976 0.562 bank’s success. Banking being a service industry employees are key resources in achieving the orga- nizational goals. “Human resources are recognized as the key element in successful business navigation through difficult market conditions, including competition with other banks and nonbanking financial institu- tions” – Kozarevic (2014). The following factors are considered to measure employee satisfaction. The factors are classified under two headings – Learning Perspective and Growth Perspective. Relationship between the different factors leading to employee satisfaction priorities to move the organization forward. It’s no wonder that employee engagement has been as- sociated with higher workforce productivity and customer satisfaction as well as lower absentee- ism and turnover” – An ADP White Paper (2012). Inclusion of employees in decision-making and goal setting creates a sense of belongingness and improves their overall alignment with the strate- gic goals of the bank and their commitment to the

37. S Visalakshi and R Kasilingam 35 The Learning Perspective is captured through two constructs viz. Training Needs and Organizational Support for Training each being measured using various factors. The Growth Perspective is captured through four constructs viz. Career Opportunities, Rewards and Recognition, Employee Empowerment and Vision and Mission Alignment, each of which is measured using various factors. The Career Opportunities variable are taken as a yardstick to relate to an employee’s satisfaction with his job, as the ultimate goal of an employee is to rise to higher positions in the organization. ables Training Needs, Organizational Support for Training, Employee Empowerment, Rewards and Recognition and Career Opportunities. The vari- able Career Opportunities is taken as a measure of employee satisfaction, which is to have a better career path and growth in the organization. In this model, Training Needs and Organizational Support for Training lead to Employee Empowerment, which influences Rewards and Recognition re- sulting in better Career Opportunities for the employee. The results of the model are shown in Figure 1. From Table 9, it can be seen that the Chi-Square value, the normed chi-square is 2.021. The GFI for this model is 0.889, AGFI is 0.853, CFI is 0.948 and RMSEA is 0.060. though the values for GFI and AGFI are below 0.9, they indicate adequate fit. Thus it can be concluded that all these values are within the commonly accepted parameters and hence it can be concluded that the model is fit. Employee satisfaction model Employee satisfaction in an institution like a bank comes from various factors. Providing adequate training opportunities, empowering the employees, recognizing the contribution made by them and re- warding them, all these go a long way in generating employee satisfaction and in employee retention. The most satisfying experience for an employee is the reward and recognition that he receives for his hard work and for this to translate into better career opportunities. Once an employee is in the limelight, he becomes committed to put in his best effort, which will translate into a good growth path for him in the organization. In a service sector like banking, it is very important that the employees are kept happy and motivated to provide good ser- vice to the customers at all times.This model tries to understand the relationship between the vari- Summary of Estimates The summary of estimates is given in Table 10. It can be observed that relationships defined in the above model are all significant except the relationship between Training Needs and Employee Empowerment. It is observed from further analysis that Organisational Support for Training mediates completely between the above mentioned two vari- ables and renders the influence of Training Needs on Employee Empowerment insignificant. Fig. 1: Employee satisfaction model

38. 36 Learning and Growth Perspective Table 9: Employee Satisfaction Model – Model fit summary Chi- square CMIN/DF Model P-Value GFI AGFI CFI RMSEA Study model 420.415 2.021 0.000 0.889 0.853 0.948 0.060 Acceptable fit [1-5] Recommended value Greater than 0.05 Greater than 0.9 Greater than 0.9 Greater than 0.9 Less than 0.08 It can be noticed from the above model that meeting the training needs of an employee and supporting him to acquire new skills enables him to accept higher responsibilities in the or- ganisation. The organisation is encouraged to empower him and give him more responsibil- ity and autonomy in the area of his work. If the employee performs these tasks performed to the satisfaction of the organisation, he can be re- warded for taking up additional job responsibil- ities. Empowering and rewarding the employee motivates him to take up higher job roles and blend himself with the organisational goals. This way more new opportunities are thrown open to the employee to rise up to higher positions in the organisation. Table 10: Employee Satisfaction Model – Summary of estimates Beta Estimate SE CR P value Result OS <--- TN 0.712 0.063 11.259 0.000 Significant EE <--- OS 0.668 0.079 8.495 0.000 Significant EE <--- TN 0.132 0.059 2.244 0.085 Insignificant RR <--- EE 1.176 0.109 10.817 0.000 Significant CO <--- RR 0.727 0.067 10.910 0.000 Significant References Statement on the Work of the National Skills Task Force. Department for Education and Employment. Hamachek, D. E. (1990)Psychology in teaching, learning, and growth. Allyn & Bacon. Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (1996). Strategic learning & the balanced scorecard. Strategy & Leadership, 24(5), 18-24. Kolb, D. A. (2014). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. FT press. Kozarevic, E., Peric, A., &Delic, A. (2014). Job satisfaction of banking sector employees in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Economia. Seria Management, 17(1), 30-49. Oatey, M. (1970). The economics of training with respect to the firm. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 8(1), 1-21. ADP White Paper (2012). “Employee Satisfaction vs. Employee Engagement: Are They the Same Thing?” Al-Refaie, A., Tahat, M. D. A., & Bata, N. (2014).CRM/e-CRM effects on banks performance and customer-bank relation- ship quality. International Journal of Enterprise Information Systems, 10(2), 62-80. Aswathappa, K. (2000). Human resource and Personnel Management, New Delhi: Tata Mcgraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited, p.189) Blunkett, D. (2001). The National Skills Agenda: Opportunity and Skills in the Knowledge-driven Economy: a Final

39. S Visalakshi and R Kasilingam 37 Seyler, D. L., Holton III, E. F., Bates, R. A., Burnett, M. F., & Carvalho, M. A. (1998). Factors affecting motivation to transfer training. International Journal of Training and de- velopment, 2(1), 16-16. Sinha, C. (2012).Factors affecting quality of work life: empiri- cal evidence from Indian organizations. Australian Journal of Business and Management Research, 1(11), 31-40. Stiglitz, J. E., & Greenwald, B. C. (2014). Creating a learn- ing society: A new approach to growth, development, and social progress. Columbia University Press. S Visalakshi Research Scholar, Pondicherry University, PuducherryAsst. Prof, Senior Scale, Manipal Academy of Banking,Manipal University (Bangalore Campus), Chokkanahalli, Bangalore. Dr. R Kasilingam Associate Professor, Department of Management Studies, School of Management, Pondicherry University, Puducherry

40. © Journal of Psychological Researches January 2017, Vol.60, No.1, 38 - 43 IMPACT OF LOCUS OF CONTROL AND ACADEMIC PROCRASTINATION ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS Parmar Jaydipsinh M. and Desai Minakshi D. Saurashtra University, Rajkot The purpose of this study was to find out the impact of locus of control on academic procrastination and academic achievement among postgraduate students. The sample consisted of 180 students from various departments of Saurashtra University, Rajkot. Equal number (90) of boys and girls were se- lected in the sample. Personal data sheet was administeredto the subjects. The research tools used were Academic locus of control scale, Academic procrastination scaleand average of percent obtained in last two examinations. To check the significant differences between groups on academic procrastination and academic achievement t-test was applied. The findings of the study revealed that students within- ternal and external locus of control significantly differed on academic procrastination and academic achievement. Students having external locus of control had scored higher than students withinternal locus of control on academic procrastination.However internals scored higher than externals on aca- demic achievement. The moderated sub-group analysis showsed that locus of control had moderating effect on academic procrastination and academic achievement relationship. Keywords:Locus of Control, Academic Procrastination, Academic Achievement Postgraduate Students The concept of locus of control was developed by Rotter (1954). A person locus is conceptual- ized as either internal (the person believes they can control this life) or external (meaning they believe that their decisions and life are controlled by en- vironmental factors which do not have influence). Rotter’s concept emerged from the extent to which a person perceives uncertainties to affect results. People with a high level of internal locus of control are more likely to have a low perception of such un- certainties. They are the individual who believe that one’s own actions are affected by uncertainty but controlled by external locus of control. On the con- trary, he also suggested that apart from an individu- al’s own actions; outcomes are also greatly affected by chance, fate or luck.Rotter (1966) defined locus of control as a “generalized expectancy of internal versus external control over behavior outcomes”. Anakwe (2003) examined the relationship be- tween locus of control and secondary school stu- dents’ academic performance. The findings showed a significant positive relationship between academic performance and locus of control. Shepherd, Owen, Fitch and Marsall (2006) found that students with higher Grade Point Average group reported higher score in internal locus of control. Nejati, etal (2012) investigated the relationship between locus of con- trol and the academic performance of students by considering the role of life quality and satisfaction with life. The outcome of the study revealed that locus of control significantly correlated with the academic performance of the students. Dinçyürek, Güneyli, and Çaglar (2012) found no significant re- lationship between locus of control and academic Achiavement. Procrastination is a universal problem among university students. Procrastination is known as the- irrational tendency to delay tasks until an individ- ual experiences discomfort (Solomon & Rothblum 1984).Other experts define procrastination as an action in which an individual voluntarily delays an intended course of action despite expecting conse- quences resulting from that delay (Day, Mensink, and O’Sullivan 2000, Steel 2007). According to Klein, procrastination derives from Latin, where pro means “forward, forth, or in favor of,” and crastinus “of tomorrow” (as cited by Steel, 2007). Procrastination is defined as an irrational delay of

41. Parmar Jaydipsinh M. and Desai Minakshi D. 39 behavior, where one delays beginning and/or com- pleting tasks, intentionally postpones things though knowing that nothing good comes from it (Steel, 2007). Solomon and Rothblum (1984) have defined Academic Procrastination as postponing the home- work completion, exams or term paper preparation until deadlines approach. Regarding why students procrastinate, they mentioned that although assess- ment of academic procrastination had quite totally focused on the measurement of study habits, like minutes spent studying and lessons completed in self-paced instruction courses, anecdotal data from procrastinators uncovered many other possible sources such as evaluation anxiety, decision mak- ing difficulty, lack of assertion, rebellion against control, fear of the results of success, and high per- fectionist standards. Beswick, Rothblum and Mann (1988) investigated the correlation between aca- demic achievements and academic procrastination behaviors of psychology students. Results demon- strated a negative correlation between these two variables. Academic procrastination is a special form of procrastination that occurs in the academicsettings. It involves knowing that one needs to carry out an academic task or undertake anacademic activity, such as writing a term paper, studying for examina- tions, finishing a school relatedproject, or undertak- ing the weekly reading assignments, but, for one reason or another,failing to motivate oneself to do so within the expected time frame (Ackerman and Gross, 2005).Academic procrastination has been a prevalent phenomenon on college anduniversity campuses for decades. Ellis and Knaus (1977) es- timated that approximately 95% ofcollege students procrastinate on their academic work. Solomon and Rothblum (1984) reportedthat 46% of the surveyed “nearly always or always procrastinate on writing a term paper”. Gallagher, Golin, and Kelleher (1992) found that 52% of the college students whopartici- pated in their study indicated having a moderate to high need for help regardingprocrastination. More recently, Day, Mensink, and O’Sullivan (2000) noted that nearly 50% ofcollege students procrasti- nate consistently and problematically. Özer, Demir, and Ferrari (2009)reported that 52% of the sur- veyed undergraduates in their study were labeled as procrastinators. Recently, Klassen et al. (2010) found that 57% of one group and 59% of another group ofthe undergraduate participants in their re- search “reported spending three hours or more per day in procrastination”. Muszynski and Akamatsu’s (1991) research on doctoral-levelclinical psychol- ogy students led to the conclusion that cognitive and affective factors related toprocrastination might significantly result in delay or even failure in com- pleting theirdissertations. Most disturbingly, grad- uate students have been found to procrastinate to a greaterextent than do undergraduates, as illustrated by Onwuegbuzie (2004). Academic achievement is defined by Crow and Crow (1969) as the extent to which a learner is prof- iting from instruction in a given area of learning or in other words, achievement is reflected by the extent to which skill and knowledge has been im- parted to him. Many studies have been conducted to determine the factors affecting the academic achievement ofSecondary School Students. Reports have con- firmed that students’ personality characteristics like sociopsychologicalvariables are goodpredictors of academic achievement (Abe, 1995; Umoinyang, 1998; and Odinko, 1999). Objectives: The main objectives of present study were as under: To study the impact of locus of control on ac- ademic procrastination among postgraduate students. To study the impact of locus of control on ac- ademic achievement among postgraduate students. To study the moderating impact of locus of con- trol on the relationship between academic pro- crastination and academicachievement among postgraduate students. Method Sample: The sample of the study comprised of total 180 students studying in various departments of Saurashtra University, Rajkot. Out of these 180

42. 40 Impact of Locus of Control and Academic Procrastination students 90 were boys and 90 were girls. All the subjects were randomly selected keeping in view the control variables of the study. procrastination. Academic procrastination scale de- veloped by Justin Mcclockey (2011) was used in present research. This scale has total 25 sentences. This is five point likert-type scalewith responses completely disagree, disagree, uncertain, agree, completely agree.This scale has positive and nega- tivestatements.This scores in the scale could range from 25 to 125. High score indicates high procras- tination.This scale has satisfactory reliability with alpha coefficient score of 0.94 Mcclockey (2011). This scale has indicated high conversant valid- ity with grade point average (GPA) in significant relatationship. Instruments: For this purpose the following test tools were considered with their reliability, validity and objec- tivity mentioned in their respective manuals. Academic Locus of Control Scale (ALOCS): The ALOC Scale developed by Trice (1985), is a 28-item, true-false scale designed to assess locus of control in an academic context. This scale was de- veloped to tap into beliefs about personal control in academically relevant areas with respect to achieve- ment motivation and academic performance. To enhance the consistency of response format among instruments for the participants, true-false response format was expanded to atwo-point rating format that has no “middle” option. This scale was chosen because it is highly related to students’ aca- demic environment and was validated for the Rajkot population.Here score 1 for true and 0 for false is given. This obtained scale scores range from 0 to 28. The maximum score for each item is 1 point. So the maximum total for this scale is 28 points. Thus arriving at a score expressing the degree of exter- nality, higher scores reflect a higher external locus of control and lower scores reflect a lower internal locus of control. Initial test - retest reliability of the ALOC was 0.92 while internal consistencywas found to be 0.70. Though Ogden and Trice (1986) found lesser psy- chometric values for the scale (0.79 and 0.68 respec- tively), it was used in the present study for its specific focus on academic locus of control. The scores are significantly correlated with grade point average (GPA). Low scores on the scale are associated with higher GPA and high scores are associated with lower GPA. Scores from 0-14 obtained on the scale indicate internal locus of control and scores above this range indicate external locus of control. The scales had high validity and reliability and have been widely used in most of the recent relevant research (e.g.Yuliang, Lavelle, and Andris, 2002; Lease, 2004). Academic measuring academic achievement of the students information about average percentage of last two university examinations were obtained. Achievement Measurement: For Procedure:The testing was done on a group of boys and girls studying in various departments of Saurashtra University, Rajkot. The researcher met head of each department to take permission for data collection from the students and suitable dates were decided accordingly.Selected subjects were admin- istered all the tools at respective department prem- ise. The whole procedure was explained to them clearly. It was also made clear to them that their in- formation would be kept secret. It was checked out that none of the subjects left any question. Obtained data were scored according to guidelines in manuals and statistical analysis was carried out using t-test and Pearson correlation (r) techniques. Results and Discussion The main objective of present study the impact of locus of control and academic procrastination on academic achievement among postgraduate stu- dents. To classify students as internals and externals the median score was considered as the cutoff point and accordingly subjects having score higher than median were labeled as externals and those scoring lower than median score were labeled internals. These two groups of students were then compared on academic achievement. Statistical t-test was car- ried out for analysing the impact oflocus of control on academic procrastination the obtained results are presented in table-1. Academic Procrastination Scale (APS):So many scale were used for measurement of academic

43. Parmar Jaydipsinh M. and Desai Minakshi D. 41 Table 1 Showing the Mean, SD and t-value of academic procrastination among postgraduate students with reference to locus of control Groups N 72 108 Mean 68.63 65.92 SD 7.54 7.45 t Internal Locus of Control External Locus of Control 2.38* * P < 0.05 The result obtained on differences in academic procrastination among postgraduate students with reference to locus of control is found to be signifi- cant. The mean score of students havingexternal lo- cus of control is higher than mean score of students havinginternal locus of control which indicates that the academic procrastination is much higher amon- gexternals as compared to internals. These finding is supported by previous research. Milgram & Tenne (2000) found that people with external locus of control were more likely to pro- crastinate than those with internal locus of control. People with external locus of control tend to believe that their success did not depend on how much ef- fort they put on a assignment. Thus they tend to postpone serious efforts and engagement for later. Hampton (2005) investigated the relationship between locus of control and procrastination. The results indicated a significant correlation between procrastination and locus of control. Participants who had a higher score as a procrastinator, had scores indicating an external locus of control and lower procrastinators showed an internal locus of control. Table 2. Showing the Mean, SD and t-value of academic achievement among postgraduate studentswith reference to locus of control Groups N Mean SD t Internal Locus of Control 72 58.99 12.88 2.08* External Locus of Control 108 62.92 11.92 * P < 0.05 Previous literature regarding locus of control of high and low achievers shows that high achiev- ers have an internal locus of control whereas low achievers have an external locus of control about their academic outcomes. Low achieving students have an external locus of control and they exhibit maladaptive attribution. High achievers attribute success internally and feel pride in their accom- plishments whereas low achievers attribute success externally thereby not experiencing much per- sonal pride. High achievers believe that success is contingent on their own characteristics whereas low achievers believe that success is contingent on external forces like luck, easy task etc., (Arkes & Garske, 1982). The present finding also support result of Shell, Colvin and Bruning (1995) that students with bet- ter grades also score high on the internal locus of control as compared to students with the same level of intelligence who are low on internal locus of control. It also supports Park and Kim (1998) that academically high achieving students are higher on internal locus of control and low on external locus of control. Other research has also shown that having an in- ternal locus of control is related to higher academic achievement (Amadi, 2010), students with internal locus of control earn better grades and work hard- er(Williams,1990) and include spending more time on home work as well as studying longer for test. Hence,

44. 42 Impact of Locus of Control and Academic Procrastination students with an internal locus of control have been found to do better academically (Trylong, 1987). In order to study the moderating impact of lo- cus of control on relationship between academic procrastination and academic achievement among students sub-group analysis using product moment correlation was carried out and the result obtained are presented in table-3. Which indicates that locus of control significantly moderate the relationship between academic procrastination and academic achievement. When the sample was divided into the internal and external group based on median locus of control scores, higher level of significance was found for external locus of control group than the internal locus of control group. In both the groups significant correlations were obtained. Moreover, it was observed that among students with internal locus of control, academic procras- tination and academic achievement are positively correlated where in case of students with external Table 3. Relationship between academic procrastination and academic achievement for r and t-value Groups N r t Internal Locus of Control 90 0.17* 2.60** External Locus of Control 90 -0.22** * P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01 locus of control they are negatively correlated. The obtained‘t’ value for the significance of difference between two coefficients is found to be significant at 0.05 level. Which implies that locus of control moderates the relationship between academic pro- crastination and academic achievement among postgraduate students. In summary, the locus of control appears to rep- resent an important moderator variable in the aca- demic procrastination and academic achievement relationship. The results of subgroup analysis in- dicate the relationship between academic procras- tination and academic achievement is higher for postgraduate students with external locus of con- trol rather than postgraduate students with internal locus of control. The bond of academic procrasti- nation and academic achievement is stronger when locus of control is external than when it is internal. Moreover, the direction of relationship also changes on the locus of control changes. where by students with external locus of control have scored higher than internals on academic pro- crastination but internals have scored higher than external locus of control on academic achievement. The moderated sub-group analysis shows that locus of control has moderating effect on academic pro- crastination and academic achievement relationship. References Abe, C.U. (1995). A causal model of socio-psychological vari- ables as predictors of learning outcomesin social studies. An Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, Institute of Education University of Ibadan. Ackerman, D. S., &Gross, B. L. (2005). My instructor made me do it: Task characteristics of procrastination. Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 27(1), pp. 5-13. Amadi, M. (2010). Affective determinants of English as a second languagesuccess. Unpublished M.Ed. Project, Department of Teacher Education, University of Ibadan. Anakwe, A.I. (2003). The relationship among locus of con- trol, academic performance and school adjustment of senior secondary school students in Plateau state. UnpublishedDissertations. Arkes, H. R., &Garske, J. P. (1982). Psychological theories of motivation.(2nd Ed). California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company. Beck, B. L., Koons, S. R., & Milgrim, D. L. (2000). Correlates and consequences of behavioral procrastination: The ef- fects of academic procrastination, self-consciousness, self- Conclusion Interesting results were obtained in the present research that students with internal and external locus of control significantly differed both on ac- ademic procrastination and academic achievement,

45. Parmar Jaydipsinh M. and Desai Minakshi D. 43 Ogden, E. P., & Trice, A. D. (1986). The predictive validity of the academic locus of control scale for college students. Journals of Social Behaviour and Personality,Vol. 1(4), pp. 649-652. Onwuegbuzie, A. J. (2004). Academic procrastination and statis- tics anxiety. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol. 29(1), pp. 3-18. Özer, B., Demir, A., &Ferrari, J. (2009). Exploring academic procrastination among Turkish students: Possible gender differences in prevalence and reasons. Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 149(2), pp. 241-257. Park, Y. S., & Kim, U. (1998). Locus of control, attribution style and academic achievement: Comparative analysis of Korean- Chinese students. Asian Journal of Social Psychology, Vol. 1(2),pp. 191-208. Rotter, J.B. (1954). Social learning and clinical psychology. NY: Prentice –Hall. Rotter, J.B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. 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The re- lationship between locus of control with the academic per- formance of the M.A. students by considering the role of life quality and satisfaction with life. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Researchin Business, Vol. 4(5), pp. 254-263. Nilson-Whitten, M. K., Morder, B., & Kapakla, G. M. (2007). Relationship between locus of control, optimism and academic performance.Proceedings of the Annual Conferenceof the New Jersey Counseling Association Eatontown, New Jersey. procrastination. Australian Parmar Jaydipsinh M. Research Scholar Department of Psychology, Saurashtra University, Rajkot-360005 Desai Minakshi D. Professor and Head, Department of Psychology, Saurashtra University, Rajkot-360005

46. © Journal of Psychological Researches January 2017, Vol.60, No.1, 44 - 49 A CLASSROOM-BASED PSYCHOLINGUISTIC STUDY Moustafa Mohammad Shalabi Universiti Utara Malaysia Mohamed Aboobucker Mohamed Sameem South Eastern University of Sri Lanka The Stroop effect is the finding that naming the color of the first set of words is easier and quicker than the second Stroop effect. In psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task. We’re wired to match similar colors quicker than anything else and that’s the Stroop Effect in action. The purpose of this study is to examine the conflict or interference situation in which subject must name the color of the ink of color-words when the color and the word are incongru- ous. This is a quantitative study. The data source is postgraduate students in psycholinguistics of class 2015; University Utara Malaysia. To ensure reliability and validity, they were asked one by one to get the inquired information from this test while writing time was taken and observations while performing this test. The results are discussed. Keywords: Age, Gender, Psycholinguistics, Study-college, Student The psychological occurrence we now call, “the Stroop effect” was first described in 1935 by John Ridley Stroop, (Stroop, 1935). Why has the Stroop effect continued to fascinate psychologists? Part of the answer is the Stroop effect appears to tap into essential operations of awareness, thereby of- fering clues to fundamental cognitive processes. In two classic experiments, Stroop first compared reading a list of words printed in black with read- ing the same list of words printed in incongruent colors. Stroop found that there was little differ- ence in reading time for the two lists. Stroop then compared the naming of colors for a list of solid color squares with the naming of colors for a list of words printed in incongruent colors. Subjects aver- aged 74% longer to name ink colors of incongruent words.The results of these two studies led Stroop to assume that since people are more practiced at word reading than naming colors, there is less inter- ference with word reading than with color naming. Most individuals are very skillful at reading writ- ten words they are couldn’t easily. It is true that it takes the notable attentional effort to ignore them. This tendency to read quickly a word which is used in the Stroop Test. The most interesting feature in Stroop test is the conflict or interference situation in which subject must name the color of the ink of color-words when the color and the word are incon- sistent (Jensen & Rohwer, 1966). The Stroop Effect, entitled after John Ridley Stroop, is a show of the response time of the test and is often used to prove the quality of uncon- scious handling as opposed to cognizant graphic control. It was first published in 1935 followed by sequences of experimentations (Stroop, 1935). The result of the tests signaled the majority of individuals had a habit of saying the color of ev- ery word in the beginning with slight difficulty. Regardless of the clear directions, nevertheless, most people had conflict to read each word color. This struggle happens owing to the semantic intru- sion (Jensen & Rohwer, 1966). Looking at test words, processing the color of every word along with the meaning of each word, if both stimuli (color and meaning) are consistently or well-matched, responding correctly happens very fast. This explains the majority of respondents hav- ing the quickest response in both times for words and, colors (Comalli, Wapner, & Werner, 1962). When there is a primary discord between word color and word meaning next to the stimuli are usu- ally incongruent or even conflicting. (MacLeod, 1991). When this happens the majority of us would have to decide and care about one particular stim- ulation versus some other (Stroop, 1935). The ex- perience teaches us to be more interested about the importance of the meaning of the words more than colors, they are written in. the process of reading

47. MM Shalabi and MAM Sameem 45 is unconscious for the majority of persons. Thus, whenever we tend to be taught to do the opposite and pay more focus to the color of the word, in- tervention happens. We need to consciously adapt our responses because this specific new task isn’t recognizable for us to as saying words. This conse- quences in our response times become much slower with column 3 than with the further columns of the test. Most persons are so clever at reading, at seeing whole words, that we don’t notice easily the indi- vidual letters. This clarifies why proofreading is a complex process. This propensity to rapidly recog- nize words have been used in testing for the Stroop effect (Chudler, 2015). The Stroop effect (sometimes called the Stroop test) is a result of our psychological (attentional) energy and suppleness. The effect referred to the capability of most persons to say words more rap- idly and automatically than they can name colors (Kaplan, 1995; Kaplan, 2001). If a word is printed in a color different from the color it actually names; for example, if the word green is written in blue ink then we have a hard time noticing the blue ink. In this example, even when asked to say the color of the ink, we have a habit of reading That is the name of the word represents (Young, 2015).Awh and Jonides, (2001) claimed that the mental device at work in this process is named “directed atten- tion”. This cognitive resource is used to accomplish our feelings by preventing one answer to say or do something else, (Berman, Jonides, & Kaplan, 2008; Desimone & Duncan, 1995; Gazzaley & Nobre, 2012).The capability to guide concentration is an initial mental supply that permits us to willingly ac- complish the attention of our feelings. It is valuable in our effort to persist active, creative, clearheaded and cooperative. We could use it to hinder the power of definite characteristics of the instant physical and social environment, as well as interior interferences, so as to let reflection of less salient but nonethe- less appreciated data ( Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Kaplan & Berman, 2010; Posner & Petersen, 1989). Directed attention allows for a diversity of proso- cial and pro-environmental behaviors. It allows us to study significant aims regardless of stimulating competition in the instant setting, to aid others in spite of our own unmet needs, and to struggle attraction so that we can continue keen to a larger apprehension. To sum up, the aptitude to direct at- tention is an indispensable source for accomplish- ing both civility and environmental stewardship. Aim The objective of this psycholinguistics class ac- tivity which is known as Stroop test to pursue the confusion in the response time of the test and num- ber of errors as dependent variables and gender, age, and ethnicity as independent variables. Method The purpose of this study is to examine the con- flict or interference situation in which subject must name the color of the ink of color-words when the color and the word are incongruous.This is a quan- titative study. The data source is postgraduate stu- dents in psycholinguistics class-2015 of University Utara Malaysia, using Stroop test inside the class asking the respondents to read the colors not the words, recording the estimated time used to finish the task and the number of mistakes done. There Were 10 respondents’ from different ages, nation- alities both males and females. To ensure reliability and validity they will be asked one by one to get the enquired information from this test while writing down the time taken and observations while per- forming this test. Conceptual Framework of the study: In line with the objective of this psycholinguistics class ac- tivity which is known as Stroop test to pursue the interference in the reaction time of a task and num- ber of errors as dependent variables and gender, age, and ethnicity as independent variables. Thus it was conceptualized these variables into a framework that guides the study. procedure This study is a descriptive analysis, carried out correlation analysis among the variables. Therefore, the statistical tool. Thus the current study uses SPSS 20.00 for the data analysis. SPSS is used in this case to decide the descriptive analysis of demographic factors and to find out the relationship between Age,

48. 46 A Classroom-Based Psycholinguistic Study Gender, and Ethnicity. Also, correlation analysis is run to find the association between an independent variable and the dependent variable. information about nationalities, age, gender, and Ethnicity. Table 2 : depicts the time duration of the respon- dents who took part in this test. The table shows that one female respondent time was 60 seconds, two fe- male respondent duration time to this test was 65 seconds. One respondent time duration was 82 sec- onds. Zero female respondent time duration was 88 seconds. Zero female respondent time duration was 97 seconds. Zero female respondent time duration was 114 seconds. One respondent time duration was 145 seconds. Data analysis Table 1: shows the total number of respon- dents took part in this study. I here were 3 Arabs two males and one female respondent, one male Bengali and five female Malaysian respon- dents. This table gives the reader the whole Table 1: Respondents data N. 1 2 3 4 Respondent F.A.L.H. Age 30 Time 2:25:50 Mistakes 10 Observation Notes Reading capacity First time read slowly and with mistakes M.B. A. M. 26 1:28;08 3 Good focus, trying to avoid mistakes, slow a little bit M. A. E. M. 45 1:37:11 1 Avoid making mistakes slow a little bit M. A. J. A. 26 1:05:30 1 Go back to correct his mistakes, very concentrated. 5 6 7 8 9 F. M. A. NF. 23 1:22:30 1 Much good focus Little tension trying not to make mistakes F.M.A.D. 30 1:05:13 0 Little tension trying not to make mistakes, Good focus F.M.A. LY. 24 1:05:02 2 Little tension,trying not to make mistakes, very Good focus F.M.A.SY 23 1.08 1 Little tension ,avoiding mistakes, slow a little bit M.P.A.M 33 1.54 - Little tension,trying avoiding mistakes, slow a little bit Table 2 : Gender time time Total 145 60 65 82 88 97 114 0 1 0 1 1 1 0 4 male female Gender 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 5 Total 1 3 1 1 1 1 1 9 Table 2 : Gender errors errors Total 2 3 10 1 1 2 0 1 0 4 male Gender 1 2 1 0 1 5 female 2 4 1 1 1 9 Total

49. MM Shalabi and MAM Sameem 47 Table 2 : Depicts that according to the number of errors related to gender factor that one male re- spondent made Zero error. Two male respondents made one error. Zero male respondents made two errors. One male respondent made three errors and Zero male respondents made ten errors. one female respondent made Zero error. Two female respondents made one error. One female respon- dent made two errors and one female respondent made ten errors. Table 3 : depicts the time duration of the respon- dents who took part in this test according to the three age groups stated before: Age group one from age 20 to 25 years old. The table shows that one respondent took 60 seconds, one respondent dura- tion time was 65 seconds. One respondent duration time was 82 seconds Zero respondent time duration was 88 seconds. Zero respondent time duration was 97 seconds. Zero respondent time duration was 145 seconds. Table 3 : Age time time 88 Total 145 0 0 60 1 0 65 1 1 82 1 0 97 0 0 114 0 0 20-25 0 1 3 2 age 26-30 >30 0 1 1 3 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 4 9 Total Age group two, from 26 to 30 the table shows that Zero respondent time was 60 seconds, one re- spondent duration time to this test was 65 seconds. Zero respondent time duration was 82 seconds. One respondent time duration was 88 seconds. Zero respondent time duration was 97 seconds. Zero respondent time duration was 114 seconds. Zero re- spondent time duration was 145 seconds. respondent made one error. Zero respondent made two errors. Zero respondent made three errors and one respondent made ten errors. Age group three from 30 and above two respondents made Zero er- ror. Four respondents made one error. One respon- dent made two errors. One respondent made three errors and one respondent made ten errors. Table 5 : depicts the time duration of the respondents who took part in this test according to the Ethnicity which was classified to Arabs and Asians: The table shows that one Asian respondent time was 60 seconds, two Asian re- spondents duration time to this test was 65 seconds. One Asian respondent time duration was 82 seconds. One Asian respondent time duration was 88 seconds. Zero Asian respondent time duration was 97 seconds. One Asian respondent time duration was 114 seconds. Zero respon- dent time duration was 145 seconds. Table 4 : Depicts according to the number of er- rors related to the age groups factor. Age group one from 20 to 25, Zero respondent made Zero error. Two respondents made one error. One respondent made two errors. Zero respondent made three errors and Zero respondent made ten errors. Age group two from 26 to 30 The 3.2 table at the same time depicts that zero respondent made Zero error. One Table 4 : Age errors errors 2 1 0 0 1 Total 10 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 2 2 1 2 1 1 4 3 0 1 0 1 20-25 26-30 >30 3 2 4 9 age Total

50. 48 A Classroom-Based Psycholinguistic Study Table 4 : Age errors errors 2 1 0 0 1 Total 0 0 0 2 2 10 0 0 1 1 1 2 1 1 4 3 0 1 0 1 20-25 26-30 >30 3 2 4 9 age Total Table 5 : Ethnicity time time 88 1 0 1 Total 97 0 1 1 114 1 0 1 145 0 1 1 60 1 0 1 65 2 1 3 82 1 0 1 Asian Arab 6 3 9 Ethnicity Total Table 5 : Ethnicity errors errors Total 0 1 2 3 10 2 2 1 1 0 6 Asian Ethnicity 0 2 0 0 1 3 Arab 2 4 1 1 1 9 Total collection. (Spreen & Strauss, 1998); it really is thought to provide a way of measuring cognitive in- hibition. (Archibald & Kerns, 1999; Boone, Miller, Lesser, Hill, 1990) or the aptitude to prevent an overlearned (i.e., main answer) in favor of an un- common one (Spreen & Strauss, 1998). This study provides us through the read- ing of its findings some of the similarities and differences between the participants who took part in this study according to their gender, age, and ethnicity.it also sheds the light on the age groups performance when taking Stroop test. These find- ings picture some of the cognitive interferences when taking this Stroop test how age, gender eth- nicity affect the performance, time and number of errors. Table 5 : depicts the time duration of the Arab respondents who took part in this test. The table shows that one zero Arab respondent time was 60 seconds, one Arab respondent duration time to this test was 65 seconds. Zero Arab respondent time du- ration was 82 seconds. Zero Arab respondent time duration was 88 seconds. One Arab respondent time duration was 97 seconds. Zero female respondent time duration was 114 seconds. One respondent time duration was 145 seconds. Conclusion Since the purpose is the Stroop Interference Test, is to gauge discerning care and mental flexibility. It’s generally referred to as calibrating the partic- ular individual’s capability to change cognitive