The aim of this study is to examine the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural group counselling on anger and aggression among male prisoners in Malaysian prisons. A total of 40 male prisoners were involved in this study. Subjects were assigned into treatment group (N=20) and control group (N=20) through purposive sampling method. Subjects were then divided into small groups (two treatment groups) and (two control groups) which each group consisting of 10 prisoners. The treatment groups attended eight sessions of group counselling process. State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 (STAXI-2) and Aggression Questionnaire (AQ) were used as questionnaires to measure anger emotion and aggression behaviour. Data were analysed by using the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) at 0.05 significant level. The results showed significant differences in the mean of pre-test and post-test on STAXI-2 scales such as state anger, trait anger and anger expression-out between the experimental group and control group. However, the results showed no significant differences for the scales of anger expression-in, anger control-out, and anger control-in between the groups. The results also showed significant differences in the mean of pre-test and post-test on aggression between the experimental group and control group. The implications of the findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.
MeSH terms: Aggression; Anger; Cognition; Counseling; Male; Prisoners; Prisons; Surveys and Questionnaires; Control Groups
Disaster is that which stimulates a pronounced effect on the one who experiences it. Not only does it result in a physical effect but also a significant psychological repercussion on the victim. The bulk of disaster management researches give too great an emphasis on the physical outlook such as property and health, relative to the psychological aftermath and its management aspect. This research has taken the qualitative approach through an extensive interview with five victims of the flash flood catastrophe in Kelantan to identify the sustained psychological effect as well as how the management of psychological support aspect can be of assistance for the victims. The acquisition of the research findings encompassed several themes namely sustained emotion theme, sustained psychological issue theme along with management of psychological victim aspect. The outcome of the resulting theme corroborated with the disaster management model via three stages namely, induction, identification and assessment, and finally, development and preservation.
MeSH terms: Central Nervous System Agents; Disasters; Emotions; Physical Examination; Research; Floods
This research examined how managers in universities incorporate non-financial measures in their Learning Management Systems decision-making processes and particularly focused on the importance of the Human Capital perspective in LMS decision making processes. A mixed-methods approach to data collection was used involving both interviews and questionnaires. The qualitative data from the interviews were coded and analysed. A descriptive coding method using thematic analysis was used for the data coding. The qualitative data were analysed using an inductive approach where the categories of criteria and indicators were not determined before the interview. The participants in this research were five members of LMS decision-making teams at two different universities in Australia and 24 participants from different universities in Malaysia who were involved in LMS decision- making processes at their universities. The results of this research indicated that there was substantial support for using a multi-dimensional decision making model among IT decision makers at universities, particularly the Human Capital perspective and they believed that Human Capital measures are important and should be considered in a LMS decision making process.The research has both implications for theory and for practitioners where it contributes to the knowledge on LMS decision making in universities and IT decision making in general, and also in improving actual decision making practices.
MeSH terms: Data Accuracy; Australia; Decision Making; Humans; Malaysia; Surveys and Questionnaires; Universities; Knowledge
The importance of education has long been identified as one of the main components in an effort to empower an individual or a community thus bringing them out of poverty. Therefore, motivation and encouragement in education is important in helping indigenous communities to empower their lives. This study aimed to explore the form of motivation in education towards empowering the Orang Sungai community in Paitan, Sabah. Respondents consisted of 38 heads of households. The study was conducted using a mixed method approach where a survey using the asset mapping form is combined with interviews to obtain detailed and accurate answers. The findings were analyzed by thematic analysis found the emergence of two main themes, namely intrinsic motivation (self attendance record, no money wager and children’s attendance record) and extrinsic (bag and stationery, experience learning from a teacher, foods and beverages, friends and siblings as well as experiences of mingling with outsiders). Overall the advocacy literacy programme has succeeded in raising awareness about the importance of education among adult learners. This awareness needs to be nurtured and given the attention so that the learning process can be continued to a higher level in the future.
HIV /AIDS is a global epidemic problem that is faced by many countries. There is a drastic increase of infection cases in children, youths, adults and elderly. Among students, there is a low level of knowledge that affects the comprehension elasticity based on the educational level which contributes to the increasing stigma among students. The focus of this study is to examine the differences of HIV/AIDS knowledge levels and students' stigma according to their levels of education. This study used HIV Knowledge Questionnaires (HIV-K-Q) version of 45 items and The Berger HIV Stigma Scale version of 40 items. 130 students from UKM and GMI participated in the study. Results showed that there were significant differences in the knowledge levels and stigma of HIV/AIDS between students' educational levels (Diploma level, Bachelor and Masters). The findings can assist educational institutions to develop the awareness of HIV/AIDS knowledge by targeting all levels of students' education. The implementation of various campaigns, talks, and interventions of reducing the stigma should be refined and planned as an annual program.
MeSH terms: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Child; Elasticity; Humans; Surveys and Questionnaires; Schools; Students; Comprehension; Social Stigma
The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between self-esteem and life satisfaction among adolescents. This study also would like to determine whether self-esteem factors namely friends, school and family are the main predictors of adolescents’ life satisfaction. This research involved 316 of Form Two students from several secondary school. The data were collected using questionnaires. The research instruments used in this study is Self-Esteem Questionnaires (SEQ) and Multidimensional Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS). This research shows that there is a moderate positive relationship between self-esteem and life satisfaction among adolescents (r = .505). Regression analysis showed that the self-esteem factors namely friends, school and family are significant predictors of life satisfaction among adolescents. The self-esteem factor which is friends has been identified as the strongest predictor (β = .192) of adolescents’ life satisfaction compared to school and family.
Student engagement has been known to be positively associated with academic performance, but there is no published valid measure for use among Malaysian undergraduates. This study seeks to examine the factor structure of the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) in a Malaysian sample. The scale was administered to 290 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences as well as the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of the International Islamic University of Malaysia. Principal axis factor with Promax rotation was used in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and revealed a sixfactor solution that was consistent with the factor structure found in the original study. A new factor labelled belongingness which was not discussed in previous studies was also discovered, which is worth exploring.
This research paper aimed to provide an awareness study about teacher’s knowledge of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and their perception of interest and perceived efficacy in working with ASD children in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. In addition, the purpose of this study also to examine the relationship between teacher’s knowledge of ASD and their perception. Methodology of this research is based on a survey of 240 questionnaires, which is given to each teacher from 6 selected primary schools in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. The data collected were then analyzed by using the SPSS (Version 23), using Pearson’s correlation test to study the hypotheses that had been developed. The results showed a significant positive correlation between teachers’ knowledge of ASD and their perception of interest and perceived efficacy in working with ASD children. Thus, findings of this study concluded that there is still lack of awareness regarding of ASD in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Therefore, researcher suggested that it is important in the future for every school to implement a basic courses, proper training, workshops or related seminars for their teachers, as based from the present study showed that teachers have a quite high perception of interest and perceived efficacy in working together with ASD children.
Previous researchers have shown that parents of children with physical disabilities have a higher risk of mental health problems that may be caused by significant challenges in raising children with disabilities. This challenge is compounded by the difficulty of living in rural areas. This study aimed to identify whether parents of children with physical disabilities experience Mixed Anxiety and Depression (MAD) and build a deep understanding of "why" parents experienced MAD. Material for this case study was obtained using the Kessler psychological stress scale (K-10) and in-depth interviews. Six parents who have MAD has been interviewed. Inductive content analysis with the help of computer program ATLAS.ti 7 has produced six symptoms of MAD among parents (sleep disturbance, irritable, anxious, easy crying, expecting something worse will happen, hopeless about the future) and five sources of MAD (lack of support, acceptance problems, lack of information and experience, the rural factor, child health problem). It can be concluded, this finding relates to the challenges faced by parents in raising children with physical disabilities in rural Sabah.
The current study utilized a cross-sectional method among 153 employees in various marketing departments in Malaysia to investigate the influence of personality factors (i.e. extraversion and agreeableness) on person-job fit (P-J fit) and organizational commitment. It is hypothesized that organizational commitment mediates the relationship between P-J fit and intention to stay, and personality factors interact with P-J fit on organization commitment. Results showed that there were significant relationships between P-J fit, organizational commitment, and intention to stay. Both personality factors showed differences in one’s organizational commitment and intention to stay. The study highlighted the importance of fit and personality of an individual in a marketing department. Personality test is suggested to continue to be used as one of the assessment tools during hiring process for marketing department as it helps to select candidates whose personality is suitable for the job.
Many students in Malaysia are affected by procrastination. This study examines the relationship between academic procrastination and the motivational aspects of self-regulation. A sample, consisting of 310 undergraduates from two Universities in Perak, Malaysia, was recruited to complete a modified version of the Procrastination Assessment Scale for Students (PASS) and the Academic Motivation Scale – College (AMS-C 28). Interviews and focus groups were conducted to obtain details of social environments that contributed to students’ procrastination in the engagement of academic activities. Results indicated that there was a significant negative correlation between academic procrastination and the intrinsic motivation. A significant positive correlation was found between academic procrastination and extrinsic motivation. The identified motivation style under the extrinsic categories was found to be most frequently used. The findings from qualitative data analysis gave explanations for the quantitative findings. Implication were discussed in the context of Malaysia where students always internalised parents’ and society’s expectations in their academic careers.
The present study examines bullying in primary school children aged 7 to 12 years old who are estate settlers. BBQ Olweus Questionnaire was administered with a reliability Cronbach alpha of 0.899 towards n=110 primary school children. The study gives an indication of existing bullying behaviour of 37.3% from n-110 sample respondents with verbal bullying being the most prevalent (¯x=0.9873); relational bullying (¯x=0.8065) and physical bullying (¯x=4591). Consequently, the finding of this study pointed out recess was the peak time of bullying behaviour to occur (89% lining up; 80% lining up and taking up food, 69% in toilet and 46.4% journey to and from classes). Subsequently, this study shows strong relationships between bullying locations and type of bullying with relational (r=0.833,>0.05), verbal (r=0.704,>0.05) and physical (r=0.619,>0.05). Finally, there were strong relationships between the type of bully and type of bullying behaviours with verbal (r=0.692, p>0.05), relational (r=0.614, p>0.05) and physical (r=0.468, p>0.05).
The study investigated the behaviours of critical thinking skills among UKM students. This study involved 200 UKM students as research participants. Respondents were from Bachelor students (Year 1 to Year 4), and Master students. The location of this study is in Bangi Campus, UKM that includes seven faculties. Those are Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Islamic Study, Faculty of Management and Economics, Faculty of Science and Technology, Faculty of Science and Information Technology and Faculty of Engineering. The students’ age range is between 19 to 46 years old. The instrument used to measure the attitude of critical thinking skills is California Critical Thinking Skills Test (CCTST), that was translated by the researcher into Malay language. In addition, this research also employed descriptive and inference statistics analyses in the form of mean score, standard deviation, percentage, frequency, Pearson Correlation, non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis and T-Test. The result showed that the behaviour of critical thinking skills was not related significantly with UKM students’ academic performances. Cognitive maturity behaviour influenced their academic levels from low and moderate to high performance. Finally, male and female students also differ in their open-mindedness, objectivity, readiness to face challenges and desire to seek the truth.
Schutte et al. (1998) developed a 33-item emotional intelligence scale which they claimed to be unidimensional. Petrides and Furnham (2006) conducted factor analysis on the same scale and found 4 factors underlying the scale. Studies on emotional intelligence had been conducted in Malaysia with scales that were adopted, adapted, and developed. The dimensionality of the scales needed to be clearly demonstrated to better put the findings within the local context. This study examined the factor structure of the bilingual version of the scale (Malay translation by Abd Hamid and Kimin, 2004) using principal axis factoring with a varimax orthogonal rotation, in a Malaysian sample. The scale was administered to 187 Malaysian employees in a government agency and a college community. The analysis revealed four factors underlying the scale that matched Petrides and Furnham’s findings. Reliability was found to be good for three factors and unacceptable for one. The issues in the factor structure were discussed.
Safety culture has been shown to be related to patient outcomes and Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) is one of the measures of safety culture that has good psychometric properties. The present study attempts to adapt the short version of the Generic SAQ for use in Malaysian healthcare setting. The process of adaptation included forward translation and backward translation method, followed by content validity analysis by seven subject matter experts. All 36 items of the SAQ was retained for the field test. The Malaysian SAQ (MSAQ) was distributed to 400 healthcare workers in a hospital in Kuala Lumpur. There were 126 returned and usable questionnaires (31.5% return rate). The internal consistency indices of the MSAQ is acceptable but two items were revised due to low corrected itemtotal correlation. The revised MSAQ and the Barriers to Medication Administration Error Reporting scale was administered to nurses (n=175, with 76.1% response rate) of two public hospitals in East Peninsula of Malaysia. Internal consistency of the dimensions improved to .71 to .91. Dimensions of MSAQ correlated negatively with the barriers to error reporting, providing evidence of convergent validity. Thus, the revised MSAQ is suggested to be used for research and interventions in Malaysian healthcare organizations.
MeSH terms: Health Personnel; Hospitals, Public; Humans; Malaysia; Psychometrics; Surveys and Questionnaires; Translations; Safety Management
This study aims to examine the interrelationship of self-determination, the big five, achievement motivation and academic achievement among students. This questionnaire survey study involving 150 students from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The National University of Malaysia. The data obtained in this study were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Instrument that has been used was Learning Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ-L), Big Five Inventory (BFI), and achievement motivation scale (CLAMS). The results showed that the autonomous regulation (r =.40) and controlled regulation (r =.43) were significantly related to achievement motivation. Results also showed that the autonomous regulation (r =.45) and controlled regulation (r =.29) were significantly related to academic achievement. Correlation results also show that the big five personalities, that openness (r =.62), conscientiousness (r =.56), extraversion (r =.61), agreeableness (r =.43) and neuroticism (r =1.58) were significantly related to achievement motivation. The results showed openness (r =.31), conscientiousness (r =.44), extraversion (r =.30), agreeableness (r =.22) and neuroticism (r = -.23) were significantly related to academic achievement. In general, this study explains that self-determination and big five personalities can be used to predict the relationship with achievement motivation and academic achievement.
MeSH terms: Animals; Extraversion (Psychology); Faculty; Learning; Motivation; Personality; Surveys and Questionnaires; Students; Personal Autonomy; Bivalvia
Is dishonesty affected by one’s creativity and environment? Recent studies have documented the effects of creativity and environment on dishonesty respectively. However, little attention has been given to the interaction effect of creativity and environment. Based on past findings, we hypothesized that creative people, compared to their non-creative counterparts, may tell more lies in an enriched (vs. scarce) environment. An experiment was conducted on a sample of 97 undergraduate students to examine the moderation effect of environment on the linkage of creativity and cheating. Participants completed a creativity task and a questionnaire on general knowledge about Malaysia. Two-way ANOVA analysis showed that creative participants, as well as those in the enriched environment, were more likely to tell lies than their counterparts. More importantly, the interaction effect of creativity and environment was statistically significant. Specifically, the creative people were more likely to cheat in the enriched environment than in the scarce environment. The results not only shed light on the link between creativity and dishonesty but also suggest a new direction for minimizing dishonesty behaviours.
It is very consistent in the sense that social competence was predictive of youth employability. Unlike many previous surveys, the present study utilized multiple measures and provided a more comprehensive picture of social young adults’ perception of social competence in the domains of social (communicative competence and assertiveness), cognition (critical thinking and future orientation), and emotion (identity formation and prosocial tendency). Six measures of social competence were completed by 1134 university students in six randomly selected universities. Analyses revealed most young adults were situationally non-assertive and scored lower communicative competence. Moreover, they were more frequently concerned about family-related, financial-related, and educational-related aspects, but less involved in civic engagement. Of significance, critical thinking or problem-solving skills among young adults should be of concern. The identity formation also poor manifested due to extending exploration of the self and undecided manner in young adulthood. Interestingly, emotional benefits have been directed students to become involved in more prosocial behavior. The findings may be useful for social efforts to promote social competence in early adulthood and for their later working life
The objective of this study is to identify whether emotional intelligence among employees between grades N17 to N27 substantially affects their work motivation in the organisation of Mardi. This study used the instruments of Emotional Competence Inventory (ECI) and Employee Performance Measure. Data were collected by using questionnaires that were distributed to 50 staffs in Human Resources Management Division, Headquarters of MARDI, Serdang, Selangor. The results of correlation analysis showed that the relationship between emotional intelligence and motivation among employees in Grade 17 to 27 that are working in MARDI is not significant. In addition, the different levels of emotional intelligence according to their positions were not significant, however, for different levels of self-motivation by grade showed a significant and positive relationship. The research findings can give a good benefit to MARDI Division Human Resources Management in the effort of improving the quality of work and services among support staffs.
The aim of this study is to compare depression in terms of treatment between psychotherapy and medical approach or to combine these approaches among cancer patients in Malaysia with respect to the cancer categories. It also studies the major prevalence of depressive disorder in the group together with the specialized clinical connection to the health outcomes. The annual incidence of cancer cases in Malaysia is 30,000 at late stage of the disease. We found 17 eligible researches out of 142 articles which most were under designed of cross-sectional or prospective study, and contained 2,523 cancer patients. This study was conducted on systematic electronic review using the databases such as PubMed, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Google Scholar, Wiley Online Library were carried out from the period of time between 2006 and 2015. For data collection purposes, the study goes through the Malaysian articles in English language, in which some of the considered factors were general management principles, cancer level among the depressed patients, the selection of the psychological therapies and the use of antidepressant medication. However, the evidences are still not enough to present an effective diagnostic method for the depressive disorders in cancer patients, and to find a successful antidepressant drug and/or an appropriate psychotherapy in this group of patients. Hence, many different approaches could be presented for psychotherapy. In conclusion, we found increased hazard rates for the cancer death among psychiatric patients compared to the control group without a registered mental illness.