Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Depression, Anxiety and stress among Pregnant Women


Depression, Anxiety and stress among Pregnant Women Chandrakant Jamadar Asst.Professor P.G.Studies in Psychology Maharani Arts & Commerce College J.L.B.Road,MYSORE,KARNATAKA-570005 INDIA E-mail ID-mscbrain@gmail.com ABSTRCT The present study is aimed to study the depression, anxiety and stress among pregnant women. and to compare the depression, Anxiety and Stress during 1st trimester and 2nd trimester. Sample of the study consisted 30 pregnant women from the villages coming under Bageshpur Primary Health Center area of Arsikere taluk Hassan district. Their age ranged between 20 to 30 years. Respondents were belonging to low& middle socio-economic status. The personal data sheet prepared by the investigator and DASS scale by Lovibond (1995) were used. Descriptive statistical analysis has been carried out in the present study. Results on continuous measurements are presented on Mean  SD (Min-Max) and results on categorical measurements are presented in Number (%). Significance is assessed at 5 % level of significance. Student t test (two tailed, dependent) has been used to find the significance of study parameters on continuous scale within each group. Effect size has been computed and Pearson correlation between variables is performed. The result indicates that correlation coefficient was strongly significant at 0.001 level between depression & anxiety, depression & stress, anxiety& stress during both the trimesters. There is significant decrease in depression during 2nd trimester compared to 1st trimester, where as highly significant decrease in anxiety & stress during 2nd trimester compared to 1st trimester. Key words: Pregnant women, Trimester, Depression, Anxiety & Stress Depression, Anxiety and stress among Pregnant Women Introduction Pregnancy is the carrying of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, inside the womb of a female. Human pregnancy is the most studied of all mammalian pregnancies. Childbirth usually occurs about 38 weeks after conception; in women who have a menstrual cycle length of four weeks, this is approximately 40 weeks from the last normal menstrual period (LNMP). The World Health Organization defines normal term for delivery as between 37 weeks and 42 weeks. Although pregnancy begins with implantation, the process leading to pregnancy occurs earlier as the result of the female gamete, or oocyte, merging with the male gamete, spermatozoon. In medicine this process is referred to as fertilization, in lay terms, it is more commonly known as "conception". After the point of fertilization, the fused product of the female and male gamete is referred to as a zygote or fertilized egg. The fusion of male and female gametes usually occurs following the act of sexual intercourse resulting in spontaneous pregnancy. The expected date of delivery (EDD) is 40 weeks counting from the first day of the last menstrual period (LMP), and birth usually occurs between 37 and 42 weeks. There is a standard deviation of 8-9 days surrounding due dates calculated with even the most accurate methods. This means that fewer than 5% of births occur at exactly 40 weeks; 50% of births are within a week of this duration, and about 80% are within 2 weeks Pregnancy is typically broken into three periods, or trimesters, each of about three months. While there are no hard and fast rules, but these distinctions are useful in describing the changes that take place over time. The first 12 weeks of pregnancy are considered to make up the first trimester. It is also called as embryonic stage. In medicine, pregnancy is often defined as beginning when the developing embryo becomes implanted into the endometrial lining of a woman's uterus. In some cases where complications may have arisen, the fertilized egg might implant itself in the fallopian tubes, the cervix, the ovary or in the abdomen, causing an ectopic pregnancy. In the case of an ectopic pregnancy, there is no way for the pregnancy to progress normally. If left untreated, it can cause harm and possibly death for the mother when a rupture occurs. Sometimes it will go away on its own, but otherwise a surgical procedure or medicine is given to remove the tubal pregnancy, since there is no way of the pregnancy being able to continue safely. Most pregnant women do not have any specific signs or symptoms of implantation, although it is not uncommon to experience minimal bleeding at implantation. Some women will also experience cramping during their first trimester. Many physiological changes in herself & her sociological status like sudden stop of menstrual periods especially in unplanned pregnancy, feeling of morning sickness ,fear about miscarriage ,varied reactions of family members & many more make oneself to feel anxious. Weeks13 to 28 of the pregnancy are called the second trimester. At this point, the fetal stage begins. At the beginning of the fetal stage, the risk of miscarriage decreases sharply, all major structures including the head, brain, hands, feet, and other organs are present, and they continue to grow and develop. Most women feel more energized in this period, and begin to put on weight as the symptoms of morning sickness subside and eventually fade away. In the 20th week, the uterus, the muscular organ that holds the developing fetus, can expand up to 20 times its normal size during pregnancy. Although the fetus begins to move and takes a recognizable human shape during the first trimester, it is not until the second trimester that movement of the fetus, often referred to as “quickening” can be felt. This typically happens in the fourth month, more specifically in the 20th to 21st week, or by the 19th week if the woman has been pregnant before. The placenta fully functions at this time and the fetus makes insulin and urinates. The reproductive organs distinguish the fetus as male or female. The heart can be seen beating via sonograph; the fetus bends the head, and also makes general movements and startles that involve the whole body. Some fingerprint formation occurs from the beginning of the fetal stage. As risk of miscarriage decreases & morning sickness problem subsides and more than that now woman can feel her baby, its movements this, compared to the 1st trimester make woman feel somewhat relaxed & happy. Rest of the weeks make third trimester -Final weight gain takes place, which is the most weight gain throughout the pregnancy. Although pregnancy is often portrayed as a time of great joy, that's not the reality for all women. At least one in ten pregnant women suffers from bouts of depression. For years, experts mistakenly believed that pregnancy hormones protected against depression, leaving women more vulnerable to the illness only after the baby was born and their hormone levels plunged. They now believe that the rapid increase in hormone levels at the start of pregnancy can disrupt brain chemistry and lead to depression. Hormonal changes can also make you feel more anxious than usual. Anxiety is another condition that can and should be treated during pregnancy. Depression and anxiety may go undiagnosed because women often dismiss their feelings, chalking them up to the temporary moodiness that often accompanies pregnancy. So one should not be shy about letting their doctor or midwife know if they feel low. Pregnant woman emotional health is every bit as important as her physical health. And in fact, it can affect her physical health. Van den Bergh BR, Mulder EJ, Mennes M, Glover V,(2005),(1) in Antenatal maternal anxiety and stress and the neurobehavioural development of the fetus and child: links and possible mechanisms. A review, identified a direct link between antenatal maternal mood and fetal behaviour, as observed by ultrasound from 27 to 28 weeks of gestation onwards, is well established. Moreover, 14 independent prospective studies have shown a link between antenatal maternal anxiety/stress and cognitive, behavioral, and emotional problems in the child. This link generally persisted after controlling for post-natal maternal mood and other relevant confounders in the pre- and post-natal periods. Although some inconsistencies remain, the results in general support a fetal programming hypothesis. Several gestational ages have been reported to be vulnerable to the long-term effects of antenatal anxiety/stress and different mechanisms are likely to operate at different stages. Possible underlying mechanisms are just starting to be explored. Cortisol appears to cross the placenta and thus may affect the fetus and disturb ongoing developmental processes. The development of the HPA-axis, limbic system, and the prefrontal cortex are likely to be affected by antenatal maternal stress and anxiety. The magnitude of the long-term effects of antenatal maternal anxiety/stress on the child is substantial. Programs to reduce maternal stress in pregnancy are therefore warranted. O'Brien L, Schachtschneider AM, Koren G, Walker JH, Einarson A.( 2007),(2) With the objectives: To determine the effectiveness of maintaining antidepressants during pregnancy, as measured by changes in symptoms of depression, anxiety, irritability, and stress following reassuring evidence-based counseling carried out a Longitudinal study of depression, anxiety, irritability, and stress in pregnancy following evidence-based counseling on the use of antidepressants. Depressed women who were pregnant and taking antidepressants, and who called the Motherisk program for advice, participated in a study that involved reassuring evidence-based counseling on the risk of antidepressants in pregnancy, followed by four telephone interviews: one in each trimester and one in the postpartum period. Depression, anxiety, irritability, and stress scales were completed at each call .Of the 58 women who enrolled in the study, 38 completed 75% of the follow-ups. Eight women (14%) discontinued their medication during the study. Depression scores were highest at enrollment in the first trimester and decreased as pregnancy progressed. When data from all women, regardless of dose adjustments, were analyzed, no statistically significant differences were seen between depression scores at any time point; mean depression scores were below the cut off for depression throughout the study period. Irritability, anxiety, and stress scores were not found to be statistically different at any time point during the study. Evidence-based reassurance and continuous antidepressant pharmacotherapy during gestation can provide pregnant women with effective symptom control for their depression. Women should consult their healthcare provider to ensure that they are being treated effectively; a risk/benefit assessment should be conducted on a case-by-case basis. Rozina Karmaliani, Nargis Asad , Carla M. Bann , Nancy Moss , Elizabeth M. Mcclure, Omrana Pasha , Linda L. Wright, Robert L. Goldenberg ,(2009)(3)in a study of Prevalence of Anxiety, Depression and Associated Factors Among Pregnant Women of Hyderabad, Pakistan, aimed to determine the prevalence of anxiety and depression and evaluate associated factors, including domestic violence, among pregnant women in an urban community in Pakistan. All pregnant women living in identified areas of Hyderabad, Pakistan were screened by government health workers for an observational study on maternal characteristics and pregnancy outcomes. Of these, 1,368 (76%) of eligible women were administered the validated Aga Khan University Anxiety Depression Scale at 20—26 weeks of gestation. Results showed that Eighteen per cent of the women were anxious and/or depressed. Psychological distress was associated with husband unemployment (p = 0.032), lower household wealth (p = 0.027), having 10 or more years of formal education ( p = 0.002), a first (p = 0.002) and an unwanted pregnancy ( p < 0.001). The strongest factors associated with depression/anxiety were physical/sexual and verbal abuse; 42% of women who were physically and/or sexually abused and 23% of those with verbal abuse had depression/anxiety compared to 8% of those who were not abused. They came to a conclusion that Anxiety and depression commonly occur during pregnancy in Pakistani women; rates are highest in women experiencing sexual/physical as well as verbal abuse, but they are also increased among women with unemployed spouses and those with lower household wealth. These results suggest that developing a screening and treatment programme for domestic violence and depression/anxiety during pregnancy may improve the mental health status of pregnant Pakistani women. Parcells,D.A.(2010),(4)in a study Women's mental health nursing: depression, anxiety and stress during pregnancy. assessed maternal depression, anxiety and stress of 59 pregnant women (average age = 22 years) at 26–28 and 32–34 weeks of pregnancy. Measures included clinical interviews, maternal self-report and an estimate of the stress hormone cortisol from maternal saliva samples.The results indicated high incidences of prenatal depression, anxiety and stress across the third trimester. Therefore, the diagnosis of psychosocial conditions in women of childbearing age requires continued application of a caring nursing framework and open communication between patients, families and caregivers. Self-report measures may suffice in reaching a probable diagnosis, yet additional information may be extracted using a structured clinical interview for formal diagnosis. Karmaliani R, Bann CM, Pirani F, Akhtar S, Bender RH, Goldenberg RL, Moss N.(2007)(5) while studying Diagnostic validity of two instruments for assessing anxiety and depression among pregnant women in Hyderabad, Pakistan, found out , 71 (36%) of the women were diagnosed with depression or anxiety or both. The objective of the study was to compare the diagnostic validity of two measures, the Aga Khan University Anxiety and Depression Scale (AKUADS) and the How I Feel scale, for assessing anxiety and depression among pregnant women in Pakistan. The sample included 200 pregnant women in Hyderabad, Pakistan. Using psychiatrist-administered Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-fourth edition (DSM-IV) criteria. Kaniz Gausia, Colleen Fisher, Mohammed Ali and Jacques Oosthuizen (2009),(6) Antenatal depression and suicidal ideation among rural Bangladeshi women: a community-based study, Aim of the study was to estimate the prevalence of depression during pregnancy and to identify potential contributory factors among rural Bangladeshi women, a community-based study was conducted during 2005 in Matlab sub-district, a rural area of eastern Bangladesh. Three hundred and sixty-one pregnant women were identified through an existing health and demographic surveillance system covering a population of 110,000 people. The women were interviewed at home at 34–35 weeks of pregnancy. Information on risk factors was collected through structured questionnaires, with the Bangla version of the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS-B) used to measure their psychological status. Both univariate analysis and multivariate logistic regression were applied using the SPSS 15.0 statistical software. The prevalence of depression at 34–35 weeks pregnancy was 33% (95% CI, 27.6–37.5). After adjustment in a multivariate logistic regression model, a history of being beaten by her husband either during or before the current pregnancy had the highest association with depression followed by having an unhelpful or unsupportive mother-in-law or husband, and family preference for a male child. Of the antenatally depressed women, 17 (14%) admitted to thoughts of self-harm during the pregnancy. This paper further explores the reasons why women have considered some form of self-harm during pregnancy. Depression during pregnancy is common among Bangladeshi women, with about a third being affected. The study highlights the need to allocate resources and develop strategies to address depression in pregnancy. Problem: “The Effect Time (trimester) in depression, Anxiety and stress among Pregnant Women”. Objectives: 1. To study the depression, anxiety and stress among pregnant women. 2. To compare the depression, Anxiety and Stress during 1st trimester and 2nd trimester. Materials and methods: Sample of the study consisted 30 pregnant women from the villages coming under Bageshpur Primary Health Center area of Arsikere taluk Hassan district. The random method was employed in the selection of the sample. The respondents were given assurance of confidentiality. Tools: Following tools were employed in the present study 1. Personal data sheet 2. DASS scale by Lovibond (1995) was used to measure Depression, Anxiety &Stress. Personal data sheet: The socio demographic data for the present research was elicited using this personal data sheet. The researcher prepared this schedule himself. This is detailed schedule, which consists of provision to collect data on age, sex, income etc. Depression Anxiety stress scale by Lovibond (DASS) (1995) Internal consistency reliability coefficients for DASS-42 items, depression, anxiety stress subscales and full scale were found to be high with cronbach’s alphas of .89, .85, .81 and .95 respectively. For DASS-21, these values were .79,.71, .76 and .89. Statistical Methods: Descriptive statistical analysis has been carried out in the present study. Results on continuous measurements are presented on Mean  SD (Min-Max) and results on categorical measurements are presented in Number (%). Significance is assessed at 5 % level of significance. Student t test (two tailed, dependent) has been used to find the significance of study parameters on continuous scale within each group. Effect size has been computed and Pearson correlation between variables is performed. Student t test (two tailed, dependent) has been used to find the significance of study parameters on continuous scale with in each group. Effect size has been computed and Pearson correlation between variables is performed 1. Student t-test for paired comparisons Definition: Used to compare means on the same or related subject over time or in differing circumstances. Assumptions: The observed data are from the same subject or from a matched subject and are drawn from a population with a normal distribution. Characteristics: Subjects are often tested in a before-after situation (across time, with some intervention occurring such as a diet), or subjects are paired such as with twins, or with subject as alike as possible. Test: The paired t-test is actually a test that the differences between the two observations is 0. So, if D represents the difference between observations, the hypotheses are: Ho: D = 0 (the difference between the two observations is 0) Ha: D 0 (the difference is not 0) The test statistic is t with n-1 degrees of freedom. If the p-value associated with t is low (< 0.05), there is evidence to reject the null hypothesis. Thus, you would have evidence that there is a difference in means across the paired observations. , where , and di is the difference formed for each pair of observations 2.Effect Size = No effect (N) d<0.20 Small effect (S) 0.20 1.20 3. t-test of a correlation coefficient Objective: To investigate whether the difference between the sample correlation co-efficient and zero is statistically significant. Limitations: It is assumed that the x & y values originates from a bivariate normal distribution and that relationship is linear. To test an assumed value of population co-efficient other than zero, refer to the Z-test for a correlation co-efficient. is calculated and follows student t distribution with n-2 degrees of freedom. 4. Classification of Correlation Co-efficient (r) Up to 0.1 Trivial Correlation 0.1-0.3 Small Correlation 0.3-0.5 Moderate Correlation 0.5-0.7 Large Correlation 0.7-0.9 V.Large Correlation 0.9- 1.0 Nearly Perfect correlation 1 Perfect correlation 5. Significant figures + Suggestive significance (P value: 0.05

Mindfulness


Introduction Mindfulness has gained considerable attention in health related literature over the last two decades with the influx and increasing acceptance of Eastern practices. Mindfulness has become popular, but, why is this so? Lewis (2006) captured the promise mindfulness holds for counseling professions, “For decades,we have been interested in discovering the common curative ingredients uniting the various forms of psychotherapy. Mindfulness appears to be one of those factors, much like the therapeutic alliance or mentallization (p. 83). What is mindfulness? The first broad use of the term mindfulness originates from the English language and relates to having implicit awareness of context and informational content (Langer, 1989), such that a counselor might be mindful of culture, client developmental needs or standards of practice. Mindfulness by this definition means to take heed of or to take care (Dryden & Still, 2006). This is not the type of mindfulness addressed within this article. Mindfulness will refer to our second usage which is an English transliteration of the Pali word Sati (Germer, Siegel, & Fulton, 2005). Mindfulness can be simply described as purposely placing one’s attention in the present in a non-judgmental way while limiting evaluative thought processes. This second usage of the word mindfulness is contingent upon the regulation of attention (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). According to Brown and Ryan (2003), attention and awareness are basic components of consciousness that have distinctive functions. There is awareness which registers stimuli by “searching the inner and outer environment” like radar would register flying objects in a certain field of airspace, and attention, the capacity to narrow the focus to specific stimuli within 14 awareness, much like a spotlight can pick out an object in space (Brown & Ryan, p. 243). For example, a counselor may sit in session and have a floating awareness of the many of internal and external stimuli such as the content of conversation, internal emotions, nonverbal communication, sound of the heater, or sun coming in through the window. From the field of awareness, the counselor’s attention might focus primarily on stimuli most important to counseling: a client non-verbal reaction, the counselors own internal response, the memory of what was just said, and the client’s facial expressions. In an interview with Sykes Wylie and Simon (2004), Jon Kabat-Zinn commented, “Mindfulness is really about bringing attention to virtually any situation or any circumstance or any mental state. It’s not about staying in any one particular state” (p. 64). It allows for a state of mind that is alert, relaxed, and “aware of our thoughts without identifying with them or allowing them to take over” (Ladner, 2005, p. 19). Germer et al. (2005) suggested, “Mindfulness is simply about being aware of where your mind is fromone moment to the next, with gentle acceptance” (p. xiii). The practice is usually as simple as resting attention on the immediate task at hand-i.e., smelling coffee, listening to the sound of a passing car, feeling wool or a pine cone, noticing the bodily sensation of gravity while swaying, or perhaps, observing the sensationsofbreathing during consecutive exhalations. The important aspect of mindfulness practice is to “remember to reorient” and to gently do so whenever elaborative patterns of thinking arise have clouded direct experience (Germer, 2005, p. 6). The professional literature has also examined mindlessness which points to what mindfulness is not. In the literature, mindlessness is defined as focused attention on a subset of contextual cues that “trigger various scripts, labels and expectations, which in 15 turn focus attention on certain information while diverting attention away from other information” (Nass & Moon, 2000, p. 83). Hayes and Shenk (2004) noted that verbal events are important and essential to psychological flexibility and creativity, however sometimes the functions of language dominate one’s sense of reality thus creating inflexibility. As an example, a counselor ruminates on a therapeutic rupture with a client and is thereby unavailable to the client in the present moment. Mindlessness may also be acting automatically or rushing around with a scattered mind. One might say mindfulness techniques help a person be more open to the many facets of experience because they are not caught up in mindlessness (Kabat-Zinn, 2005; Langer, 1992). In contrast to mindlessness, mindfulness is resting attention with an attitudinal disposition of non-striving, non-judgment, acceptance and non-conceptual curiosity. Mindfulness is not a trance, hypnotic state or dissociation. So it is neither a method to escape or avoid life, nor is it thought blocking, or even, surprisingly, a solution to the fact of decay, disease and death. It is a technique used to live in the present moment as fully as possible despite aspects of pain or pleasure. “Mindfulness is a deceptively simple concept that is difficult to characterize accurately” (Brown & Ryan, 2003, p. 242). In the literature, mindfulness has been referred to in several ways: as a psychological process, as a method or practice, and also as a skill that can be developed (Germer, 2005; Hayes & Wilson, 2003; Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Multiple meanings attributed to the word mindfulness have led to some confusion and difficulty when defining this construct (Hayes & Shenk, 2004). Bishop and colleagues (2004) formed a professional panel on mindfulness to propose by consensus an operational definition of mindfulness for empirical research. They proposed a two 16 component model of mindfulness that emphasized the cognitive processes of mindfulness practice. The first component of this model involves the “self-regulation of attention” so that it is centered on immediate experience of internal and external stimuli and involves metacognition, or in other words “the recognition of mental events occurring in the moment. The second component involves adopting a particular orientation toward one’s experiences in the present moment, an orientation that is characterized by curiosity, openness and acceptance” (p. 232). Hayes and Shenk noted that this is a good start in advancing the definition of mindfulness for research, but “seems to give less emphasis to a nonevaluative perspective, to context, to observing and describing, or to a basic perspective on language and cognition” (p. 253). Shapiro, Carlson, Astin, and Freedman (2006) also noted that Bishop’s definition overlooks the importance of intention to mindfulness practice. Mindfulness has been referred to as a technique or method. For example, practicing mindfulness is often taught as a structured step-by-step process which involves: (a) resting attention on current experience with an accepting and open attitude, (b) catching/noticingwhen attention is narrowed to consuming thoughts (e.g., noticing rumination about personal financial problems), (c) remembering to reorient, (d) reorienting or “switching” attention to current experience without judgment of the previous distraction( Bishop et al., 2004, p. 231), and then, (e) when the practice period is over, cease to practice. Sometimes another step is added, which is labeling, noting or naming the mental state (e.g., fantasy) prior to reorienting the mind. Mindfulness is also associated with the practices that were traditionally taught in Buddhism. Some of the more central practices are body scanning, mindfulness of 17 breathing, walking meditation and sitting meditation (Gunaratana, 2002; Kabat-Zinn, 2005). Body scanning is taught as a formal practice or technique where it is important to maintain “awareness in every moment, a detached witnessing of your breath and your body, region by region, as you scan from your feet to the top of your head” (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, p. 89). During the practice of body scanning one systematically observes the body, one area after another, primarily recognizing any and all sensations (painful, pleasant or neutral), and secondarily external events, emotions, and cognitions that may arise while observing the body (Hamilton, Kitzman, & Guyotte, 2006). When attention is consumed by mindlessness (e.g., excessive worry about the body), the practitioner notices this mental activity (possibly labeling it “worry”), and then gently reorients attention back to the body and breath. As another example of a traditional mindfulness exercise, walking meditation is taught as a technique in various forms (e.g., fast or slow, unstructured or deliberate path of movement), but essentially in walking meditation one observes the present-moment experience of walking (Kabat-Zinn, 1990). Mindfulness is also referred to as a skill (Germer, 2005), because mindfulness methods and their related qualities of mind and body can be developed with practice. For example, Valentine and Sweet (1999) found that as the practice of mindfulness and meditation increases so too does the ability to sustain attention. Brown and Ryan (2003) commented that although attention and awareness are basic and natural capacities of most people, they observed, “(a) that individuals differ in their capacity and willingness to be aware and to sustain attention to what is occurring in the present and (b) that this mindfulness capacity varies within persons because it can be sharpened or dulled by a variety of factors” (p. 822). Bishop and colleagues (2004) made the observation that 18 mindfulness requires ability, the ability to switch back or return one’s attention to a given stimuli. However, Hayes and Shenk (2004) added that many other methods for sustaining attention may exist without the ability or skill of switching one’s attention. In theory, mindfulness is also a skill that may transfer across learning and behavioral domains, such that those who learn to focus on the present experience of breathing are better able to transfer the ability to be present for other experiences such as eating, communicating, observing difficult emotions or pain, and riding a bike. Finally, to the degree that one automatically engages in mindfulness, mindfulness can be defined as a habit. Ideally, mindfulness is a habituated way of being, a way of being flexible and open. The philosophy informing mindfulness training places emphases on the actual practice ratherthan on goal attainment. Many western therapies and mindfulness meditation ease suffering; however, in its traditional sense, mindfulness is not practiced to get rid of disease and disorder. Furthermore, the theoretical underpinnings do not assume pathology (Hamilton et al., 2006). For example, at first glance, mindfulness practice appears to be a relaxation technique. However, unlike relaxation techniques which are expressly used to reduce undesirable conditions of body and mind, mindfulness methods create conditions for acceptance and put the practitioner in touch with the multiple experiences and layers of self. Efforts to make progress are not central while engaging in mindfulness practice, though paradoxically, clients and even the helper must have a reason for practicing mindfulness methods in the first place. Mindfulness also entails an orientation toward certain attitudes. Kabat-Zinn (1990) suggested that a non-judging stance, patience, adopting a beginner’s mind, trusting yourself and experience, non-striving, acceptance, and an ability to let go or 19 release attachment to conditions. It is not that one maintains all of these attitudes while practicing, but that the overall practice is marked by these attitudes. Furthermore, these listed attitudes simply point at the felt experience, orientation or space that is occupied when practicing mindfulness. Gunaratana (2002) provided a series of rules or slogans to remember about the right attitudinal orientation: “don’t strain,” “don’t rush,” “don’t expect anything,” “don’t cling to anything or reject anything,” “let go,” “accept everything that arises,” “be gentle with yourself,” “investigate yourself,” “view all problems as challenges,” “don’t ponder,” and “don’t dwell upon contrasts” (pp. 39-42). Mindfulness and meditation The terms mindfulness, meditation and mindfulness meditation are often used interchangeably. As noted above, discussing mindfulness may be confusing because different “psychological processes and methods are described with the same term” (Hayes & Wilson, 2003, p. 166). Conversely problematic, multiple terms refer to the same mindfulness practice adding to confusion. So for example, placing attention on the experience of walking might be referred to as mindful walking, walking meditation, or kinhin. After all, mindfulness is a pre-scientific activity and concept that has not yet fully matured in a coherent manner conducive to scientific research (Hayes & Wilson). For this reason, mindfulness meditation often refers to the traditional exercises of Buddhism. In English, the term meditation describes many different activities (e.g., guided meditation, contemplative meditation, mindfulness meditation, devotional meditation) and seems to have been the best word to capture the essence of the practices that had come from the East. Regardless of whether the term mindfulness or meditation is applied, mindfulness methods have various attentional foci, but essentially they support non-20 evaluative observation (Hamilton et al., 2006). So for the current research, meditation refers to those types of meditation that do not intentionally focus on cognitive content or contextual factors (e.g., devotion or contemplation). The exception to this is that at times one might label or name the mental content before returning focus in mindfulness meditation. A distinction can also be made between mindfulness meditation and other types of meditation based on the rigor of attention regulation. One way to conceptualize the difference is by viewing meditation as either concentrative or receptive in how attention is regulated (Valentine & Sweet, 1999). In concentrative meditation (e.g., Transcendental Meditation), a specific focus is vigorously maintained, or even manipulated, to the exclusion of all other stimuli (Brown, 1977; Takahashi et al., 2005). In this style, one returns to the narrow focus of concentrative attention. In receptive meditation (e.g., mindfulness) one has a ‘wide-angle lens’ approach and broadly orients to a range of stimuli (Shapiro, 1982). Mindfulness meditation requires self-regulation of attention and monitoring of mental activity but has a quality of pure observation of phenomena. Research comparing these two types of meditation has demonstrated differences in how each type cultivates attention (Valentine & Sweet) and effects psychophysiology (Takahashi et al.). History of Mindfulness So is mindfulness a fad or here to stay? Mindfulness has been practiced in the East for at least 2,500 years. It is part of the repertoire of Eastern physical, mental and spiritual health. In the West, long standing meditation traditions emphasized devotion and contemplation making the introduction of mindfulness with its present moment 21 orientation a new addition. Mindfulness emerged out of the tradition of Buddhism. It’s in its early stages of Western clinical use and empirical study. Buddhism’ historical founder, Gautama Buddha(Siddharth), taught techniques such as meditation and mindfulness as part of a spiritual path that addresses Dukkha, a complex term often described as suffering, but includes a more basic human sense of unsatisfactoriness that arises in response to unavoidable painful and pleasurable life circumstances (Carlson, 1989; Schumacker & Woener, 1994; Styrk, 1968). Though mindfulness has its origins in Buddhism, it is a basic technique that has widespread cross-cultural applications. This undoubtedly is due to its emphasis on experiential reality rather than on particular cultural constructs or informational content. Baer (2003) remarked that mindfulness techniques can be taught in the context of western mental health without reliance on Buddhist spiritual teachings. The field has taken steps in order to separate the religious context from the clinical training of clients (Dimidjian & Linehan, 2003). Seemingly, this has not been a difficult process. Mindfulness use was popularized in health settings by the work of Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Massachusetts’ Medical School and by the publication of his highly useful and practical book on mindfulness, Full Catastrophe Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face, Stress, Pain and Illness, now in its 15th anniversary revised edition (Kabat-Zinn, 1990, 2005). This book introduced the American lay person to mindfulness, but also to a novel wellness idea that is latent in the method: mindfulness is not primarily an allopathic or naturopathic cure, but a way to face and embrace symptoms, illness, ourselves and life. One can face and embrace difficulty with attention and acceptance, and the subsequent result is reduced symptoms, better health and improved quality of life. Kabat-Zinn’s introduction of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), a 22 mindfulness-based treatment program, gained wide acceptance and continues to receive support from emerging research. As its popularity grew as a practical tool, researchers began to make efforts to define mindfulness and to understand its effects on physical and mental health (Bishop et al., 2004,Shapiro et al., 2006). Research into mindfulness has examined benefits that apply to both the counselor and client when they practice mindfulness (Christopher, Christopher, Dunnagan, & Schure, 2006; Newsome, Christopher, Dahlen, & Christopher, 2006). Furthermore, research has investigated the effects of mindfulness use in clinical settings noted by the following categories: (1) the effects of mindfulness training on clients or the training of clients to use mindfulness methods on their own, (2) the effects of counselor mindfulness as a result of personally practicing mindfulness outside of counseling sessions, and (3) the effects of counselor in-session mindfulness. The majority of research in health related fields has examined clinical outcomes when clients are trained to use mindfulness practices. Mindfulness training is in the process of being adopted into healthcare systems (Bonadonna, 2003; Shigaki, Glass, & Schopp, 2006). Within healthcare, mindfulnessbased techniques havebeen integrated as an adjunct to conventional treatment modalities. Research has suggested that mindfulness-based interventions are effective for treatment of physical symptoms. It has been applied as a primary, secondary and tertiary intervention strategy (Bonadonna) for clinical work with disease, disorders and symptoms that range from the acute (e.g., headaches) to the chronic (e.g., HIV, cancer). Mindfulness has been applied to a number of physical health problems such as high blood pressure and cholesterol levels (Ryback, 2006), cancer (Ott, 2006), Psoriasis (Kabat-23 Zinn, 2003, Kabat-Zinn et al., 1998), traumatic brain injury (Bẻdard et al., 2003; McMillan, Robertson, Brock, & Chorlton, 2002), insomnia (Lundh, 2005; Thomas, Inka, Burkhard, Matthias, & Johannes, 2006). Mindfulness methods have been used in symptom management, but also with assisting client acceptance of health concerns, resulting in decreased levels of perceived pain (Dahl & Lundgren, 2006; Plews-Ogan, Owens, Goodman, Wolfe, & Schorling, 2005). It has been used successfully in palliative care as well (Bruce & Davies, 2005; Plews-Ogan et al.). In western mental health, mindfulness has been “adopted as an approach to increasing awareness and responding skillfully to mental processes that contribute to emotional distress and maladaptive behavior” (Bishop et al., 2004). Research has shown mindfulness to be effective in the treatment of anxiety disorders (Semple, Reid, & Miller, 2005), depression (Rokke & Robinson, 2006; Telner, 2005), borderline personality disorder (Lynch, Chapman, Rosenthal, Kuo, & Linehan, 2006; Shaw Welch, Rizvi, & Dimidjian, 2006), addiction (Bowen et al., 2006), and eating disorders (Baer, Fischer, & Huss, 2005; Kristeller, Baer, & Quillian-Wolever, 2006). Thus far, research has been positive, however, research on mindfulness has been mostly done without control groups and has drawn results from research on treatment packages, such as MBSR, making it tough to note the variables related solely to mindfulness (Allen et al., 2006, Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Wallach, 2004; Hamilton et al., 2006; Shigaki et al., 2006). The desire to explore effects of mindfulness-based methods appears to be increasing. Another important step has been the advent of mindfulness-based treatment programs and therapies, also referred to as treatment packages. Mindfulness-based treatment packages bundle together a set of different mindfulness exercises to be learned 24 or applied over several sessions. They may entail traditional mindfulness exercises or methods that encourage mindfulness (Hayes & Shenk, 2004). For example, Kabat-Zinn’s (2003, 2005) Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program teaches clients how to use and integrate traditional mindfulness skills such as bodyscanning, mindfulness of breath, walking meditation, and eating mindfully. Other treatment programs combine or integrate mindfulness methods with other treatment modalities and interventions. For example, Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) uses mindfulness methods in conjunction with Cognitive Therapy (CT) (Segal, Teasdale, Williams, & Gemar, 2002; Teasdale & Williams, 2000). Treatment packages have allowed for a more standardized and even manualized approach to imparting these methods and carrying out research. The most commonly used packages outside of MBSR and MBCT are Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy .

OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND WORK MOTIVATION AMONG TELECOM EMPLOYEES


OCCUPATIONAL STRESS AND WORK MOTIVATION AMONG TELECOM EMPLOYEES ChandraKant Jamadar Assistant Professor, Maharani Arts and Commerce College, Mysore Abstract Aim: The present research was planned with the primary objective to asses the relationship between Work Motivation and Occupational Stress among two different telecom employees. The secondary aim was to find out the significant differences among these groups on given dimensions. Method: For this purpose 96 telecom employees from Mysore city were selected, using randomization technique, as respondents. The sample comprised of 48 Airtel employees and 48 BSNL employees with mean age of 25.41 and 25.68 respectively. The SD was 4.91 for Airtel employees and 4.85 for BSNL employees. Results: Results revealed that Dependent (F1) was positively related to Organizational Orientation (F2). Material Incentives (F5) was positively related to Dependent (F1), Organizational Orientation (F2) and was negatively related to Work Group Relations (F3). Job Situation (F6) was positively related to Organizational Orientation (F2) and Material Incentives (F5). Occupational Stress was positively related to Dependent (F1) (r=0.236) and negatively related to Work Group Relations (F5). There were significant mean differences among these groups on work motivation and occupational stress. Conclusion: Finally, On the basis of the results obtained and studies done in the past it could be said that Work Motivation has a significant relationship with Occupational Stress. As job stress produces negative effects for both the employee and the organization, it is critical that occupational stress not be considered a private matter for the employee to deal with alone and in isolation. These results go a long way in suggesting the impact of work motivation and occupational stress for efficacy of work. Key-words: Occupational Stress, Work Motivation, Telecom employees. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Introduction: Compared to other fields of scientific enquiry the study of occupational stress is relatively new. Infact the earliest work related to stress can be traced back to the pioneering work of the ‘Walter cannon’ in the early part of the last century, but actual scientific investigation of stress goes back only fifty five years to the work of ‘Hans selye’(1956) who is generally recognized as the ‘father of stress’. Occupational stress has unique set terms that are used to define important variables and concepts. The word stress is derived from the Latin word ‘strictus’ which means ‘to tighten’. The word stress can be understood as a stimulus definition implies that stress refer to those stimuli in the environment that may require some adoptive response on the part of an employee. In the other hand stress refers to the feelings that one experiences when the demands of the job exceed one’s ability to cope. Stress is a mind-body arousal that can, on the other fatigue body systems to the point of malfunction and disease. Stress is both physical response that protects us and a natural defense mechanism that has allowed our species to survive. This process depicted in below figure. Strains 1.psychological 2.physical 3.Behavioral Stressors Other responses 1.Psychological 2. physical 3. Behavioral The term stressor is used to indicate job or organizational conditions that may require adoptive response from employees, and strain is used to refer to a multitude of negative ways employees may respond when faced with stressors. If an employee’s response to a stressor were either neutral or even positive (Payne, Jabri, & Pearson, 1988), such a response would not be considered a strain. Strains generally classified as psychological, physical, or behavioral examples of commonly studied psychological strains include such things as job dissatisfaction, anxiety, and depressed mood. Physical strain covers a broad spectrum ranging from minor somatic complaints (e.g., headaches, upset stomach) to more serious conditions such as coronary heart disease. Finally, behavioral strains include such things as absenteeism, poor performance, and turnover. That means stress can be motivating, energizing, and exciting us to greater endeavor. At the same time stress arousal is thought to be in some way responsible for most illness that plagues modern society. A review of hundreds of studies over the last three decades has shown that stress arousal is implicated in 70 to 80 percent of all the visits to physicians and at least 50 percent of all illness in general. Work is about search for daily meaning as well as a daily bread, for recognition, as well as cash for astonishment rather than torpor. Work has a qualitative as well as quantitative aspect, and both can produce stress. It will come as no surprise that work and the relationships among co-workers, superiors and subordinates are always listed as height on the scale of stressors in just about every survey. People differ not only in their ability to do but also in their will to do, finally wee ca call it motivation. The motivation of the people depends on the strength of their motives, sometimes it defined as needs, wants, derives or impulses with in the individuals. Literature Review Several studies have tried to determine the link between stress and job satisfaction. Job stress has been measured by conflict at work, workload and physical environment. Stress is found to be negatively related to employee’s job satisfaction Caplan (1991) and Keller (1975). Studies reinforce the importance of employee job satisfaction which is essential for successful firm in current era (Mansoor et al., 2011). Role conflict is important job stressor that is faced due to the multiple roles (Butler & Constantine, 2005). Role conflict may start when two or more concurrent and unsuited expectations exist in such a way that in agreement with a given role compromises fulfilling other roles (Drury, 1984; Thompson & Powers, 1983). Role conflict decreases job satisfaction among both men and women (Coverman 1989). Work role conflict has a greater impact on job satisfaction in those workers who have a high centrality of the family role (Carlson and Kacmar, 2000). Role conflict involves contradiction in expectations of an employee sales position. This may occur when a sales person is given a variety of contrary orders or is given a range of responsibilities that cannot be completed all together (Brashear et al., 2003). Occupational stress, in particular, is the inability to cope with the pressures in a job, (Rees, 1997) because of a poor fit between someone’s abilities and his/her work requirements and conditions. (Rytkonen & Strandvik, 2005) It is a mental and physical condition which affects an individual’s productivity, effectiveness, personal health and quality of work (Comish & Swindle, 1994). Moreover a study on physical education teachers in Greece explored inverse relationship between role conflicts on the one hand, and job satisfaction on the other (Koustelios et al., 2005). A study of professional accountants revealed that role conflict was associated with low job satisfaction and high propensity to leave (Lui et al., 2010). Job Satisfaction and job stress are the two hot focuses in human resource management researches. The stress itself will be affected by number of stressors. Amongst some important factors causing stress one is role conflict. It has a significant negative impact on job satisfaction (Fie et al., 2009). Occupational stress has been associated with burnout, which is considered a product of long term exposure to stress (Burke & Greenglass, 1994; Mearns & Cain, 2003). It has also been strongly associated with temporary and chronic illnesses, such as headache, hypertension, reduced immune response, stomach complaints, depression and stroke (Ashcraft, 1992; Burke & Greenglass, 1994; Guthrie, 2006; Kahn & Byosiere, 1992; Kyriacou, 2001; Kyriacou & Sutcliffe, 1977). A study of managers of Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong showed that the physical work environment is one of the important determinants of job satisfaction in that industry (Lam et al. 2001). A study of 360 technical supervisors showed that the employees who perceive their physical work environment adequate are more satisfied with their jobs (Srivastava, 2008). Job stress is due to organizational aspects, long work hours, lack of organizational support and organizational change (Davey, et al., 2001), lack of support from supervisors and colleagues, and conflict with demands and pressures (Leka, et al.,2004). A study of naval personnel of Malaysia examined the relationship between stress and job satisfaction. Results revealed that occupational stress was negatively associated with eight job satisfaction (Bokti & Talib, 2009). As stress affects the performance of the people working in any type of organization, same is the case with air force military pilots. According to a study of air force pilots of Iran job stress reduces job satisfaction (Ahmadi & Alireza, 2007). Occupational stress has a direct negative effect on job satisfaction (Yahaya et al., 2008). The primary aim of the present investigation was planned to assess the relationship of work motivation and occupational stress among telecom employees and the secondary aim was to find out the group differences. HYPOTHESES: After reviewing the concerned literature the following hypotheses was formulated:- (Ha) This is expected that there will be a significant relationship between different dimensions of work motivation and occupational stress of telecom employees. (Ha) This is expected that there will be a significant difference on work motivation among different telecom employees. (Ha) This is expected that there will be a significant difference on occupational stress among different telecom employees. MATERIAL AND METHOD Sample: The sample comprised of total ninety six (N=96) telecom employees from different telecom companies at Mysore, out of which forty eight (n=48) from AIRTEL and forty eight (n=48) from BSNL, with mean age of 25.41 and 25.68 respectively. The SD was 4.91 for Airtel employees and 4.85 for BSNL employees. Measures: The following standardized tools were administered: 1. Work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ) developed by Dr. K. G. Agrawal (1998), & 2. Occupational Stress Index (OSI) by Dr. A. K. Srivastava & Dr A. P. Singh. (1989).The scoring was done according to the respective manuals. Statistical Analysis: Pearson’s correlation method was applied to assess the relationship and independent t test was also applied to compare the mean scores and to find out the significant difference. RESULTS Table: 1 Pearson’s Correlation Sr. No. Variables F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 Occupational Stress 1. Dependent (F1) 1 0.321** -0.119 -0.034 0.351** 0.113 0.236* 2. Organizational Orientation (F2) 1 0.165 -0.035 0.332** 0.347** 0.132 3. Work Group Relations (F3) 1 -0.061 -0.326** 0.072 -0.257* 4. Psychological Work Incentives (F4) 1 0.089 -0.032 0.122 5. Material Incentives (F5) 1 0.288** 0.133 6. Job Situation (F6) 1 0.049 7. Occupational Stress 1 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). It has been observed from the table-1 that Dependent (F1) was positively related to Organizational Orientation (F2) (r=0.321). Material Incentives (F5) was positively related to Dependent (F1) (r=0.351), Organizational Orientation (F2) (r=0.332) and it was negatively related to Work Group Relations (F3) (r=-0.326). Job Situation (F6) was positively related to Organizational Orientation (F2) (r=0.347) and Material Incentives (F5) (r=0.288). Finally, Occupational Stress was positively related to Dependent (F1) (r=0.236) and negatively related to Work Group Relations (F5) (r=-0.257).   TABLE: 2 INDEPENDENT T-TEST FOR DIFFERENT GROUPS (N=96) Sr. No. Variable AIRTEL (n=48) BSNL (n=48) ‘t’ ratio Mean SD SEM Mean SD SEM 1. Dependent (F1) 26.31 4.90 0.70 24.79 4.74 0.68 1.54 2. Organizational Orientation (F2) 17.40 4.85 0.70 17.48 6.04 0.87 -0.07 3. Work Group Relations (F3) 13.21 3.26 0.47 13.19 3.52 0.50 0.03 4. Psychological Work Incentives (F4) 15.35 3.84 0.55 14.58 2.83 0.40 1.11 5. Material Incentives (F5) 20.04 2.74 0.39 19.31 3.85 0.55 1.06 6. Job Situation (F6) 12.08 2.10 0.30 13.88 3.00 0.43 -3.38 7. Occupational Stress 103.65 8.68 1.25 104.77 6.49 0.93 -0.71 **Significant at 0.01, df =94 It has been observed from the table-2 that, mean scores of Dependent (F1) among Airtel and BSNL employees were 26.31 and 24.79 respectively. The standard deviation was 4.90 for Airtel employees and for BSNL employees it was 4.74. The standard error of mean for Airtel employees came out to be 0.70 and for BSNL employees it came out to be 0.68. The ‘t’ ratio of Dependent (F1) 1.54 was found to be not statistically significant. This shows that there was no significant difference among telecom employees. The mean scores of Organizational Orientation (F2) among Airtel and BSNL employees were 17.40 and 17.48 respectively. The standard deviation came out to be 4.85 for Airtel employees and for BSNL employees it was 6.04. The standard error of mean for Airtel employees came out to be 0.70 and for BSNL employees it came out to be 0.87. The ‘t’ ratio of Organizational Orientation (F2) -0.07 was found to be not statistically significant. This shows that there was no significant difference among telecom employees on this dimension. Further, the mean scores of Work Group Relations (F3); Psychological Work Incentives (F4); and Material Incentives (F5) among Airtel and BSNL employees were 13.21, 13.19; 15.35, 14.58; 20.04, 19.31 respectively. The standard deviations were 3.26, 3.84 and 2.74 for Airtel employees and for BSNL employees were 3.52, 2.83 and 3.85. The standard error of mean for Airtel employees came out to be 0.47, 0.55 and 0.39, and for BSNL employees it came out to be 0.50, 0.40 and 0.55. The ‘t’ ratios of Work Group Relations (F3) 0.03; Psychological Work Incentives (F4)= 1.11; and Material Incentives (F5) 1.06 were found to be not statistically significant. This shows that there was no significant difference among telecom employees. For the final Work Motivation Variable, Job Situation (F6), mean scores were 12.08 for Airtel employees and 13.88 for BSNL employees. The standard deviation was 2.10 for Airtel employees and for BSNL employees it was 3.00. The standard error of mean for Airtel employees came out to be 0.30 and for BSNL employees it came out to be 0.43. The ‘t’ ratio of Job Situation (F6) -3.38 was found to be statistically significant. This shows that BSNL employees were higher on this dimension as compared to their counterparts. Finally, mean scores of Occupational Stress for Airtel and BSNL employees were 103.65 and 104.77 respectively. The standard deviation was 8.68 for Airtel employees and for BSNL employees it was 6.49. The ‘t’ ratio of Occupational Stress -0.71 was found to be not statistically significant. Fig: 1 Comparison of mean scores for Employees of Different Telecom Companies with regard to Work Motivation   Fig: 2 Comparison of mean scores for Employees of Different Telecom Companies with regard to Occupational Stress DISCUSSION The primary aim of the investigation was to study the relationship of Work Motivation and Occupational Stress. Secondary aim was to study the differences between different Telecom Companies employees on these dimensions. For this purpose the participants in this investigation were total ninety six (N=96) telecom employees from two different telecom companies, i.e. Airtel and BSNL, from Mysore City, out of which forty six (n=46) from Airtel and forty six from BSNL (n=46) with mean age of 25.41 and 25.68 respectively. The SD was 5.61.for males and 31.32 for females. The SD was 4.91 for Airtel employees and 4.85 for BSNL employees. In the beginning of the investigation it was hypothesized that there will be significant relationship between different dimensions of Work Motivation and Occupational Stress. This was also hypothesized there will be a significant difference between different these employees. The participants were tested for Work Motivation and Occupational Stress with the help of Work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ) developed by Dr. K. G. Agrawal (1998), & Occupational Stress Index (OSI) by Dr. A. K. Srivastava & Dr A. P. Singh (1989) respectively. The scoring was done for both the scales after the administration of the same. The scales were scored according to the response options chosen by the participants and grand totals on each were obtained. The scores were further statistically analyzed and Pearson’s correlation and t-ratios were calculated. Pearson correlation was calculated for different dimensions of Work Motivation and Occupational Stress for studying the relationship. Result revealed that Dependent (F1) was positively related to Organizational Orientation (F2). Material Incentives (F5) was positively related to Dependent (F1), Organizational Orientation (F2), and it was negatively related to Work Group Relations (F3). Job Situation (F6) was positively related to Organizational Orientation (F2) and Material Incentives (F5). It was also found that Occupational Stress was positively related to Dependent (F1) and negatively related to Work Group Relations (F5). Sagie,(2002) & Udogo,(2008),admitted that communication, problem solving, decision making, learning and motivation all can be affected by the organizational climate, which in turn might have impact on the effectiveness and productivity of the organization as well as the work environment and employee well being in the workplace (Adenike, 2011). Sun & Chiou (2011) explored the determinants of work performance. For this purpose the target population was aviation ground crews working in Taoyuan International Airport, Taiwan. The result exhibited that occupational stress had a negative impact on work performance, and the coping strategies were the mediator survivals between occupational stress and work performance Further, t-ratios were also calculated to find out the group difference for Work Motivation and Occupational Stress. t-ratio revealed that only on Job Situation (F6) level the two groups differ. t-ratio for Job Situation (F5) came out to be -3.38. This was significant on 0.01 level. BSNL employees were higher on this dimension of Work Motivation as compared to Airtel employees. Thus, two out of three hypotheses were accepted. Negeliskii & Lautert (2011) evaluated the relationship between occupational stress and the work capacity index of 368 nurses (82.1% of the population) of a Hospital Group. Results revealed that Occupational stress was present in 23.6% of the nurses, of these 15.2% presented High Strain work and 8.4% Passive Work. Social Support exercised a significant positive influence on all groups - exposed or not to occupational stress. Marzuki & Ishak (2011) concluded in their research that occupational stress at work and individual health and well-being appear to be closely intertwined. Whereas an acceptable work stress can bring good things to an organization, it also hurts health and well-being especially when it lingers on, when passivity and withdrawal dominate the way people cope with stress, and when socio-emotional and relationship issues are at stake causing depleting individual and organizational performance. Further, the results implied that the Occupational Stress tend to have positive relationship with dependency of an employee. Results also revealed that Occupational Stress also tend to have negative relationship with work group relations of the organization. Group differences revealed that BSNL employees were more satisfied in terms of job situation as compared to their counterparts. CONCLUSION On the basis of the results obtained and studies done in the past it could be said that Work Motivation has a significant relationship with Occupational Stress. As job stress produces negative effects for both the employee and the organization, it is critical that occupational stress not be considered a private matter for the employee to deal with alone and in isolation. Results of the study will hopefully aid employees and their management to become more sensitive and aware of the increased risks and difficulties for the overall psychological health. These results go a long way in suggesting the impact of work motivation and occupational stress for efficacy of work. REFERENCES Adenike, A. (2011). Organizational climate as a predictor of employee job satisfaction: evidence from Covenant University. Business Intelligence Journal, 4(1), 151- 165 Agrawal, K.G. (1988). Manual for Work Motivation Questionnaire (WMQ). Agra: National Psychological Corporation. Ahmad, A., & Omar, Z. (2010). Perceived workplace culture as an antecedent of job stress: The mediating role of work-family conflict. Journal of Social Science, 6, 369-375. DOI: 10.3844/jssp.2010.369.375 Ashcraft, D.M. (1992). Health in the Workplace. In Kelley, K. (Ed.), Issues, Theory, and Research in Industrial / Organizational Psychology (pp. 259-283). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publications B.V. Bokti, N. L. M., & Talib, M. A. (2009). A Preliminary Study on Occupational Stress and Job Satisfaction among Male Navy Personnel. The Journal of International Social Research, 2(9), 299-307. Brashear, T.G., White, E. L., & Chelariu, C. (2003). An Empirical Test of Antecedents and Consequences of Salesperson Job Satisfaction among Polish Retail Salespeople. Journal of Business Research, 56, 971-978. Burke, R.J., & Greenglass, E. (1994). A Longitudinal Study of Psychological Burnout in Teachers. Human Relations, 47 (3), 1-15. Butler, S. K., & Constantine, M. G. (2005). Collective self-esteem and burnout in professional school counselors. Professional School Counseling, 9, 55–62. Carlson, D. S., & Kacmar, K. M. (2000). Work-family conflict in the organization: Do life role values make a difference? Journal of Management, 26(5), 1031-1054. Comish, R., & Swindle, B. (1994), Managing stress in the workplace. National Public Accountant, 39(9), 24-28. Coverman, S. (1989). Role overload, role conflict, and stress: addressing consequences of multiple role demands. Social Forces, 67, 965-982. Davey, J., Obst, P., & Sheehan, M. (2001). Demographic and workplace characteristics which add to the prediction of stress and job satisfaction within the police workplace. Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 16(1), 29-39. De Nobile, J. J., & McCormick, J. (2007). Occupational Stress of Catholic Primary School Staff: Investigating Biographical Differences. A paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Fremantle. Drury, S. S. (1984). Counselor survival in the 1980’s. The School Counselor, 31, 234–240. Fie, D. Y. G., Alam, S. S., Abdullah, Z., & Ahsan, N. (2009). A Study of Job Stress on Job Satisfaction among University Staff in Malaysia: Empirical Study. European Journal of Social Sciences, 8(1). Guthrie, R. (2006). Teachers and Stress. Australia & New Zealand Journal of Law & Education, 11 (1), 5-18. Kahn, R.L., & Byosiere, (1992). Stress in Organizations. In M.D. Dunnette, & L.M. Hough, (Eds.), Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Vol.3), (pp. 571-650). Palo Alto: Consulting Psychologists Press. Keller, R. T. (1975). Role conflict and ambiguity: Correlates with job satisfaction and values. Personnel Psychology, 1, 57-64. Koustelios, A., & Tsigilis, N. (2005). Relationship between burnout and job satisfaction among physical education teachers: A multivariate approach. European Physical Education Review, 11, 189-203. Kyriacou, C. (2001). Teacher Stress: Directions for Future Research. Educational Review, 53(1), 27-35. Kyriacou, C., & Suttcliffe, J. (1977). Teacher Stress: A Review. Educational Review, 24 (4), 299-306. Leka, S., Griffiths, A., & Cox, T (2004). Work Organization & Stress, Systematic Problem Approaches for Employers, Managers and Trade Union Representatives. Retrieved on 12 Dec 2011 from http://www.who.int/occupational_health/publications/pwh3rev.pdf. Lui, S. S., Ngo, H-Y., & Tsang, A. W-N. (2010). Interrole conflict as a predictor of job satisfaction and propensity to leave. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 16 (6), 469-484. Mansoor, M., Fida, S., Nasir, S., & Ahmad, Z. (2011). The Impact of Job Stress on Employee Job Satisfaction A Study on Telecommunication Sector of Pakistan. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 2(3), 50-56. Marzuki, N. A., & Ishak, A. K. (2011). Towards healthy organization in correctional setting: Correctional Officers’ Wellness, Occupational Stress and Personality. International Journal of Social Sciences and Humanity Studies, 3(2), 355-366. (Online) Mearns, J., & Cain, J. E. (2003). Relationships between teachers’ occupational stress and their burnout and distress: Roles of coping and negative mood regulation expectancies. Anxiety, Stress, and Coping, 16, 71-82. Negeliskii, C., & Lautert, L. (2011). Occupational Stress and Work Capacity of Nurses of a Hospital Group. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 19(3), 606-613. Payne, R. L., Jabri, M. M., & Pearson, A.W. (1988). On the importance of knowing the affective meaning of job demands, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 9, 149 – 158. Rees, W. D. (1997). Managerial stress – dealing with the causes, not the symptoms, Industrial and Commercial Training, 29(2), 35-40. Rytkonen, M. H., & Strandvik, T. (2005). Stress in business relationship. The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 20(1), 12-22. Sagie,A. (2002). Employee Absenteeism, Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction: Another Look. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 52(2), 156-171. Selye, H. (1956). The stress of life. NewYork:McGraw-Hill. Srivastava A.K., & Singh, A.P. (1989). Manual of Occupational Stress Index (OSI). Varanasi: Manovaigyanik Parikchhan Sansthan. Srivastava, A.K. (2008). Effect of Perceived Work Environment on Employees’ Job Behavior and Organizational Effectiveness. Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology, 34(1), 47-55. Sun, K-S., & Chiou, H. (2011). 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SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE


Scientific Research: Characteristics, Types and Methods SCIENCE AND COMMON SENSE Many a time we make certain statements which we have not to prove chat they are true. They are based either on common sense or on prac¬tical observations and experiences on social life, though sometimes they may be based on wisdom too. However, often they are based on igno¬rance, prejudices and mistaken interpretation. Common sense know¬ledge, based on the accumulated experiences, prejudices and beliefs of the people, is often contradictory and inconsistent. On the other hand, scientific observations arc based on verifiable evidence or systematic body of proof that can be cited. For example,, some common sense statmenets may be quoted here: man is more intelligent than women married people; remain more happy than single people; high-caste peo¬ple arc more talented than low-caste people; the rural people are more hardworking than the urban people; urban people are more Congress-oriented than BJP-onented; and die like. Contrary to this, the scientific research or scientific inquiry finds that woman is as intelli¬gent as man; there is no association between happiness and remaining married or unmarried by a person; caste does not determine individual's efficiency; hard work Is not related to environment alone; and urban people arc not necessarily Congress-oriented. Thus, a statement made way of saying something, generally based on ignorance, bias, prejudice or mistaken interpretation, though occasionally it may be wise, true, and a useful bit of knowledge. At one time, common sense statements might have preserved folk wisdom but today, scientific method has become a common way of seeking truths about our social world. Conant ("Science and Common Sense", 1951, quoted by Fred. N. Kerlinger in Foundations of Behavioural Research, 1964:4) has differen¬tiated science and common sense in the following five ways: (i) Use of conceptual schemes Though conceptual schemes are used in both science and common sense but in common sense, the man in the street uses them in a loose fashion while the scientist systematically builds his conceptual and theoretical structures and tests them for consistency. For example, on a common sense basis, a person's birth in a Dalit caste is described as a result of his past karmas, the death of a corrupt person's son is thought to be a punishment for his sinfulness, lack of rains is due to displeasing Indra—the rain-god—and so forth. The scientist describes such con¬ceptual ideas and feelings as having no relation to reality. (ii) Empirical tests The scientist tests his hypotheses and theories through a systematic empirical testing but the man in the street tests his so-called hypothe¬ses and theories in a selective way. He often 'selects' evidence simply because it suits his hypotheses. For example, in the past, a common man's belief in India was that all untouchables are dirty, lethargic and superstitious. He 'verified' his belief by noting that all untouchables are so and described those who were not so as 'exceptions'. The so¬phisticated social scientist rejects such 'selective tendency'. Instead of giving an armchair explanation of a relationship, he believes in 'test-ing' the relationship in the field/laboratory. (Hi) Notion of control In scientific research, 'control' means focusing on those variables that are hypothesised to be the 'causes and ruling out those that are 'possi¬ble causes' of the effects on the phenomenon under study. The layman seldom bothers to control any variables or extraneous sources of influ¬ence. He accepts all those factors which are in accord with his preconceptions. For example, if a layman assumes that Inter-commu¬nity riots are initiated by anti-social elements, he will talk only of this factor and never bother of other factors like the role of religious fanat¬ics, politicians with vested interests, support of 'foreign' elements through cash and weapons, role of 'interested' businessmen, and the like. The scientist, on the other hand, will not discard the role of all these factors but would rather 'control' the study of communal riots in terms of different variables. (iv) Relations among phenomena The difference between science and common sense in terms of rela¬tions among phenomena is perhaps not so sharp because both talk of relations. However, while the scientist consciously and systematically pursues relations, the layman does not do this. His concern with rela¬tions is loose, unsystematic and uncontrolled. He often seizes on the fortuitous occurrence of two phenomena and immediately links them as cause and effect. Take, for example, the relation between crime and punishment. A layman says that punishment controls crime while a scientist says that punishment can make a criminal a more confirmed enemy of society and that rewards also can control crime. Thus, while a scientist would 'test' both relations, a layman would ignore 'reward' factor. (v) Explanation of observed phenomena One main difference between common sense and scientific explana¬tion of observed phenomena is that the scientist carefully rules out philosophical and metaphysical explanations in explaining relations among the observed phenomena because these cannot be tested. For example, saying that the poverty of a person is because God wishes it so is talking metaphysically, since this proposition cannot be tested. All these differences between science and common sense indicate -that a scientist gives statements and propositions which can be empiri¬cally verified but a layman does not believe in testing and validity. In short, the method of science is different from the methods of intuition (accepted by the A priorist because it is agreeable to reason if not with experience) or tenacity (fact is true because it is known to be true and the repetition enhances its validity). EMPIRICISM (POSITIVISM) v/s PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACH The study of society and social phenomena till the middle of the nine- teenth century was made mostly on the basis of speculation, logic, theological thinking and rational analysis. August Comte, a French philosopher, described these methods inadequate and insufficient in the study of social life. In 1848, he proposed positive method in the field of social research. He maintained that social phenomena should be studied not through logics or theological principles or metaphysical theories but rather in society itself and in the structure of social rela¬tions. For example, he explained poverty in terms of the social forces that dominate society. He described this method of study as scientific. Comte considered scientific method, called positivism, as the most ap¬propriate tool of social research. This new methodology rejected speculation and philosophical approach and focused on gathering of empirical data and becamepositi-vistic methodology, using similar meth¬ods as employed by natural sciences. By the 1930s, positivism came to flourish in the USA and gradually other countries also followed the trend. Comte's positivism (that knowledge can be derived only from sensory experience) was criticised both from within and outside the positivist domain. Within positivism, a branch called lay ad positivism was developed in early twentieth century which claimed that science is both logical and also based on observable facts and that the truth of any statement lies in its verification through sensory experience. Out¬side positivism developed schools of thought like symbolic interactionism, phenomenology and ethno methodology, tic. These schools questioned the positivist methodology and its perception of social reality. Frankfurt and Marxist schools also sharply criticised positivism. But empiricism came to be accepted more in the 1950s and 1960s on¬wards by the academics. Today some writers refer to ihe emergence of a new stage of research, ike.post-empiricist research marked by the no¬tion that the scientific method is not the only source of knowledge, truth and validity (Sarantakos, Social Research, 1998:5). Thus, today, sociological methodology is no longer based on positivist methodol¬ogy as In the past but it has become a body of diverse methods and techniques, all of which are perceived as valid and legitimate in social research. We have thus today two approaches to social science research: the scientific empirical method and the naturalistic phenomenological method (Robert B. Burns, Introduction to Research, 4th ed., 2000:3). In the former, quantitative research methods are employed in an attempt to establish general laws or principles. This approach, also termed as nomotbetic, -assumes that social reality is objective and external to the individual. The latter approach to research emphasises the importance of the subjective experience of individuals, with a focus on qualitative analysis. It regards social reality as a creation of individual conscious- ness, with evaluation of events seen as a personal and subjective con¬struction. This approach {with focus on individual case rather than general law-making) is termed as ideographic approach. SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH OR SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN CONDUCTING RESEARCH The first question is» what is research? Research is a careful and ex-haustive investigation of a phenomenon with an objective of advancing knowledge. 'According to Theodorson and Theodorson (1969:347), "it is a systematic and objective attempt to study a prob¬lem for the purpose of deriving general principles". Robert Burns (2000:3) describes it as a systematic investigation to find solutions to a problem. The investigation is guided by previously collected informa-don. Man's knowledge grows by studying what is already known and revising past knowledge in the light of new findings. Activity under¬taken for the purpose of personal learning or enlightenment or any causal investigation is not research. While talking of research, sometimes we talk of empirical (scien¬tific) research and sometimes of library research, historical research, social research, and so on. Empirical research involves observation of facts or interaction with people. Library research is done in library situation. Historical research is the study of history (e.g., functioning of caste system in different periods of history) or biographical research (e.g., research into the life and times of Mahatma Gandhi). Social re¬search is a research that focuses on the study of human groups or the processes of social interaction. Scientific research is building of knowl-edge through collection of empirically verifiable facts. The term 'verifiable' here means "which can be checked by others for accu¬racy". KerHnger (op.cit., 1964:13) has def in ed~ scientific research as "a systematic, controlled, empirical and- critical investigation of hypo¬etical propositions about the presumed relations among phenomena". Three points that have been emphasised here are: (i) it is systematic and controlled, i.e., the investigation is so ordered that inves-tigators can have confidence in research outcomes. In other words, the research situation Js tightly disciplined; (ii) investigation is empirical, i.e., subjective belief is checked against objective reality; and (iii) it is critical, i.e., the researcher is critical not only of the results of his own inquiry but of the research results of others too. Though it is easy to err, to exaggerate, to over- generalise when writing up one's own work, it is not easy to escape the feeling of scientific eyes of others. Royce A. Singleton and Bruce C. Straits (Approaches to Social Re¬search, 1999:1) have said that "scientific social research consists of the process of formulating and seeking answers to questions about the so¬cial world". For example, why do husbands batter their wives? Why do people take drugs? What are the consequences of population explo¬sion? and so on. Similarly, the issues of inquiry may be of rural poverty, urban slums, youth crime, political corruption, exploitation / of the weak, environmental pollution, and the like. To answer these / questions, social scientists have devised basic guidelines, principles and techniques. Scientific social research thus investigates any curiosity about social phenomena, utilising scientific method. Scientific socio¬logical research, broadly speaking, is concerned with discovering, organising and developing systematic reliable knowledge about soci-1ety or social life, social action, social behaviour, social relations, social Groups (like families, castes, tribes, communities, etc.), social organisa¬tions (like social, religious, political, business, etc.), and social systems and social structures. Theodorson and Theodorson (1969:370) have maintained that sci¬entific method is "building of a body of scientific knowledge through observation, experimentation, generalisation and verification". Their contention is that scientific inquiry develops knowledge experienced through the senses, i.e., which is based on empirical evidence. Accord-,ing to Manheim (1994:77), scientific research involves a method / characterised by objectivity, accuracy and systematisation. Objectivity eliminates biases in fact-collect ion and .interpretation: Accuracy makes sure that things are exactly as described. Systematisation aims at con¬sistency and comprehension. The assumption is that any statement pertaining to any social phe¬nomenon made on the basis of scientific inquiry can be accepted as true and meaningful, if it is empirically verifiable. Thus, individual's idiosyncratic observations not shared by all scientists are not regarded as "scientific facts'. For example, a statement that "skilled workers arc more indisciplined than non-skilled workers" lacks empirical validity; / hence no one will accept it as a 'scientific fact'. But, { a statement is / given that "the important cause of child's delmquen behaviour is a disorganised family", it will be taken as scientific, onsidering it a proposition which has been found valid in a number of studies. "About whom" the facts will be collected in a scient fie inquiry will depend upon the 'focus of the discipline' to which the researcher be¬longs. If the researcher is a sociologist, he will collect facts about social phenomena or social world. But if he is a student of business admini¬stration (MBA), he will collect facts pertaining to "different aspects of business like finance, marketing, personnel, and the process that facili¬tates the managerial decision-making and problem-solving". In sociology, social inquiry will help the researcher and the people to un¬derstand the social phenomenon (say, a social problem like / exploitation of the weak? poverty, political corruption, etc., or the structure of political parties, or the functioning of political elite, or so¬cial institutions in a village community, and so on), or to understand why the behaviour of an individual in a group (crowd) is different from the one when he is in isolation (crowd behaviour) or how the be-haviour patterns of a number of persons change when they respond to a common stimulus (collective behaviour), or why and how ihe pat¬terns of interaction within a small group or of interrelationships of sion processes (group dynamics). In business administration, according to Zikmund (1984:56-57), the scientific inquiry will help managers to clarify their objectives and decisions. For example, a manager of an organisation wants to find out why has the morale of the subordinates decided? Is it because the overtime has been totally stopped or the employees for higher posts are directly recruited and the serving employees have no opportunities for seeking higher posts, or the employer has developed the tendency of appointing persons on contract basis, or the credit facility provided earlier by the organisation has been stopped, or the profits are not be¬ing shared by the employer with the employees, or the employer has refused to provide housing facilities even to senior employees, and so forth. Thus, while the major areas of inquiry/research for a sociolo- mg, personnel, sales and marketing (advertising, buyer's behaviour), responsibility (legal, constraints) and general business (i.e., location, trend, import and export, etc). Although scientific research method depends on the collection of empirical facts, yet facts alone do not constitute a science. For mean¬ingful understanding facts must be ordered in some fashion, analysed, generalised, and related to other facts. Thus, theory construction is a vital part of the scientific inquiry. Since facts collected and findings evolved through the scientific method are interrelated with the previous findings of other scholars or earlier theories, scientific knowledge is a cumulative process. The scientific method could either be an inductive method or the deductive method. Inductive method involves establishing gencralisa-tio'ns, i.e., building generalisations inferred from specific facis, or drawing particular principles from general instances, while deductive method involves testing generalisations, i.e., it is the process of reason-. ing from general principles to particular instances. Research and theory are not opposed to each other. Research leads to theory and theory to research. In fact, descriptive research leads to explanatory research which leads to theoretical research. According to Singleton and Straits (op. cit.: 5-9), there are four re¬search strategies for understanding the social world: {1} experiments (2) surveys, (3} field research, and (4) use of available data. Experimen¬tal research offers the best approach for investigating the causes of phenomena. In the experiment, the researcher systematically manipu¬lates some feature of the environment and then observes whether a systematic change follows in the behaviour under study. Survey re¬search involves the administration of questionnaires or interviewing relatively large groups of people. Field research is engaging oneself in naturally occurring set of events in order to gain firsthand knowledge of the situation. The available data are the data that have been gener¬ated for purposes other than those for which the researcher is using them, e.g., written records, newspapers, government documents, books, diaries, etc. CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH Horton and Hunt have given following nine characteristics (1984:4-7) of scientific method: • Verifiable evidence, i.e., factual observations which other ob¬servers can see and check. • Accuracy, i.e., describing what really exists. It means truth or cor¬rectness of a statement or describing things exactly as they are and avoiding jumping to unwarranted conclusions either by exaggera¬tion or fantasising. • Precision, i.e., making it as exact as necessary, or giving exact num¬ber or measurement, Instead of saying, "I interviewed a large number of people", one says, "I interviewed 493 persons". Instead of saying, "most of the people were against family planning", one -says, "seventy two per cent people were against family planning". Instead of saying, "every moment one is born; every moment dies a man", one says, "thirty persons are born in one minute in In-dia". Thus, in scientific precision, one avoids colourful literature and vngue meanings. How much precision is needed in social sci¬ence will depend upon what the situation requires. • Systematisation, i.e.,1 attempting to find all the relevant data, or collecting data in a systematic and organised way so that the con¬clusions drawn are reliable. Data based on casual recollections are generally incomplete and give unreliable judgements and conclu¬sions. • Objectivity, i.e., being free from all biases and vested interests. It means, observation is unaffected by ihe observer's values, beliefs and preferences to the extent possible and he is able to see and ac¬cept facts as they are, not as he might wish them to be. The researcher remains detached from his emotions, prejudices and needs, and guards his biases. A bias is an unconscious tendency to see facts in a certain way because of one's wishes, interests and val¬ues. For example, the protest demonstration of students in a university may be perceived by some as a logical effort for the welfare of the students while others may see it as a misguided method of getting the grievances mitigated. The researcher who wants to see it objectively will present all facts and views of stu¬dents, teachers, administrators, etc. He will neither attempt to overlook some facts deliberately nor emphasise some other facts, as he himself will not be emotionally involved in the situation. He will make conscious effort to be accurate in information he col¬lects or what he hears and sees. As an objective researcher, he will have no vested interest in reporting and analysing facts. The re¬searcher is also conscious of the fact that others with a different point of view can check and criticise his analysis. Being afraid of shoddy exposure of his research, he will not permit his biases to affect his results and conclusions. • Recording, i.e., jotting down complete details as quickly as possi¬ble. Since human memory is fallible, all data collected are recorded. Researcher wil] not depend on the recalled facts but will analyse the problem on the basis of the recorded data. Conclu¬sions based on recalled unrecorded data are not trustworthy. • Controlling conditions, i.e., controlling all variables except one and then attempting to examine what happens when that variable is varied. This is the basic technique in all scientific experimenta¬tion allowing one variable to vary while holding all other variables constant. Unless all variables except one have been con¬trolled, we cannot be sure which variable has produced the results. Though a physical scientist is able to control as many vari¬ables as he wishes in an experiment he conducts in the laboratory (say, heat, light, air pressure, time interval, etc.) but a social scien¬tist cannot control all variables as he wishes. He functions under many constraints. For instance, a researcher wants to study the behaviour of students in a classroom. Now, students' behaviour in a classroom depends upon several factors, like efficiency of the teacher of communicating his views, subject which is being taught, availability of black-board, fan, etc., in the room, quiet¬ness in the verandah outside the classroom, and so forth. A researcher may be able to control some of these variables but not all. Varying conditions will be responsible for varying behaviour of the students. It is, however, possible for a researcher in social science to work with two or more variables at a time. It is called multivariate analysis. Since the social scientist is not always able to control all the variables he wants, his conclusions do not permit him to predict. • Training investigators, i.e., imparting necessary knowledge to in-vestigators to make them understand what to look for, how to interpret it and avoid inaccurate data collection. When some re¬markable observations are reported, the scientist first tries to know what is the observer's level of education, training and so¬phistication? Does he really understand facts he reports? The scientists are always impressed by authenticated reports. All above characteristics of scientific method point out that any generalisation based on this type of investigation is true. A systemati¬cally collected body of scientific evidence is rarely challenged. No wonder, Zikmund has also said that the data collected haphazardly can not be described as scientific inquiry. Henry Johnson has stated following four characteristics of scien¬tific research (see, Black and Champion, 1960: 5-6): 1. It is empirical, i.e., it is based on observation and reasoning and not on speculation. 2. It is theoretical, i.e.^it summarises data precisely giving logical rela¬tionship between propositions which explain causal relationship. 3. It is cumulative, i.e., generalisations/theories are corrected, re¬jected and newly developed theories are built upon one another. 4. It is non-ethical, i.e., scientists do not say whether particular things /events/phenomeifc/instituiions/systems/structures are good or bad. They only explain them. Robert B. Burns (2000:5-7) has discussed four characteristics of sci¬entific approach: control, operational definition, replication and hypothesis testing. Control is necessary to eliminate the simultaneous influence of many variables to isolate the cause of an effect. Control provides un¬ambiguous answers to why something happens, what causes some event or under what conditions an event does occur. Operational definition means that the terms must be defined in terms of steps to measure them; e.g., economic class may be defined by family income, and social class by father's occupation or both parents' educational level. Replication means that for repeated study, the data obtained must be reliable. If observations are not repeatable, our descriptions and ex¬planations are unreliable and useless. Hypothesis testing means that the researcher 'systematically creates a hypothesis and subjects it to empirical test. AIMS OF SOCIAL RESEARCH The alms of social research coincide with the type of research, i.e., whether it is exploratory research or explanatory research or descrip¬tive research. In other words, it depends upon the general goals (understanding for its own sake), the academic goals, the theoretical goals and the pragmatic goals of research. Broadly speaking, the im¬portant aims of social research are: • To understand the functioning of society. • To study individual behaviour and social action. • To evaluate social problems, their effects on society, and to find out possible solutions. • To explore social reality and explain social life. • To develop theories. Becker (1989) and Sarantakos (1998:16) have referred to the fol¬lowing goals of social research: • General goals: Understanding for its own sake. • Theoretical goals: Verification, falsification, modification or dis¬covery of a theory. • Pragmatic goals: Solution of social problems. • Political goals: Development of social policy, evaluation of pro- liberation. Sometimes the aims of social research coincide with the motives of social research but not always. The motives can be intrinsic (i.e., re¬lated to personal interests of the researcher) or extrinsic (i.e., related to the interests of those contracting the research). Mahr (1995:84) has outlined the following motives of social research: • Educational: to educate and inform the public. - • Personal: to promote the academic status of the researcher. • Institutional: to enhance the research quantum of the institutions for which the Researcher works. • Political: to provide support to political plans and programmes. • Tactical: to delay decision or action for as long as the investigation is under Way. STEPS IN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH According to Theodorson and Theodorson (1969:370-371), scientific method involves the following steps: First, the problem is defined. Sec¬ond, the problem is stated in terms of a particular theoretical framework and related to relevant findings of previous research. Third, a hypothesis (or hypotheses) relating to the problem is devised, utilising previously accepted theoretical principles. Fourth, the proce¬dure to be used in gathering data to test the hypothesis is determined. Fifth, the data are gathered. Sixth, the data are analysed to determine if the hypothesis is verified or rejected. Finally, the conclusions of the study are related to the original body of theory, which is modified in accordance with the new findings. Kenneth D. Bailey (Methods of Social Research, 2nd ed., 1982:9) has delineated five stages of social research: (l) choosing the research prob¬lem and stating the hypotheses; (2) formulating the research design; (3) gathering the data; (4) analysing the data; and (5) interpreting the re¬sults so as to test the hypotheses. We concede Bailey's view that each research problem has a goal but is it necessary that the goal be stated in terms of hypotheses? Many researches have no hypotheses to test but the findings provide knowledge to the researchers to throw some hypotheses to be tested and generalised, or to revise the hypotheses propounded on the basis of some i. arlier work done by some other re¬searcher. A problem cannot be formulated in a vacuum. It is either based upon past research or on relationship observed/conceived between and polarisation of two religious communities or sects (see, V.V. Singh, Communal Riots, 1992). The researcher has only to measure two variables of (a) polarisation of comrmmities, and (b) hatred as a negative social effect of polarisation. The researcher has, of course, to focus upon the nature of polarisation, causes of polarisation, conflicts ^ arisen because of mutual hatred on different occasions, the precipitat¬ing factor in the riot, role of leader in instigation/suppression of hostile feelings, and so on. Of course, the researcher has to control the extraneous factors that might interfere with the finding, e.g., conflict which cannot be attributed to religious hatred, etc. The hypothesis that "hatred caused by religious polarisation causes aggression" will be supported if people show or do not show dislike for strangers from different religions. The tool for collecting data would depend upon the nature of relationship to be examined between two variables and the type of people involved in the study. Data analysis may sometimes be complicated because more variables may be involved and many confounding factors might affect the relationship between the two given variables, which may not have been properly controlled. Inter¬preting the results many a time requires replicating the study either with a new sample or a larger sample to make sure that the finding was not a fluke. Henry Manheim (1980:80) has suggested nine steps in scientific re¬search which may be shown diagrammatically in the following way: Casual observation of event/phenomenon wonder/curiosity about how, why, what, etc. Hypotheses (about relationship between two variables) Preparing design of research Data collection, processing analysis and interpretation determining whether Hypothesis is true Hypothesis is false description/ inference prediction (using inductive process) Practical application Thus, this is a never-ending aspect of science, with the process constantly being repeated with increasing refinement. Earl Babbie (The Practice of Social Research, 8th ed., 1998:112) has proposed the following six elements of a research proposal: • Problem or objective, i.e., stating what is to be studied, its worth and practical significance, and its contribution to the construction of social theories. • Literature review, i.e., what1 others have said about this topic, what theories have been addressed to it and what are the flaws in the ex¬isting research that can be remedied. • Subjects for study, i.e., from whom is the data to be collected, how to reach persons who are available for study, whether selecting sample will be appropriate, and if yes, how to select this sample and how to insure that research that is being conducted will not harm the respondents. • Measurement, i.e., determining key variables for the study, how will these variables be defined and measured, how will these defi¬nitions and measurements differ from previous researches on the topic. • Data, collection methods, i.e., determining methods to be used for collecting data-survey or experiment, etc ?. statistics to be used or not. • Analysis, i.e., spell out the logic of analysis whether variations in some quality are to be accounted or not, and the possible explana¬tory variables to be analysed. Horton and Hunt (1984:10) have pointed out eight steps in scien¬tific research or scientific method of investigation: 1. Define the problem, which is worth studying through the methods of science. 2. Review literature, so that errors of other research scholars may not be repeated. 3. FormHlate the hypotheses, i.e., propositions which can be tested, 4. Plan the research design, i.e., outlining the process as to how, what and where the data is to be collected, processed and analysed. 5. Collect the data, i.e., actual collection of facts and information in accordance With the research design. Sometimes it may become necessary to change the design to meet some unforeseen difficulty. 6. Analyse the data, i.e., classify, tabulate and compare the data, mak¬ing whatever tests are necessary to get the results. 7. Draw conclusions, i.e., whether the original hypothesis is found true or false and is confirmed or rejected, or are the results incon¬clusive? What has the research added to our knowledge? What implications has it for sociological theory? What new questions have been posed for further research? 8. Replicate the study. Though the above-mentioned seven steps com¬plete a single research study but research findings are confirmed by replication. Only after several researches can the research con¬clusions be accepted as generally true. These steps help us in summarising the so-called scientific ap¬proach to inquiry. First, there is doubt whether an indeterminate situation can be made determinate. The scientist experiences vague doubts and is emotionally disturbed. He struggles to formulate the problem, even if inadequately. He studies the literature and scans his own experience and the experiences of others. With the problem for¬mulated, with the basic questions properly asked, he constructs the hypotheses mainly on experimented lines. By collecting the required data, he tests the hypotheses which he may ultimately accept, change, abandon, broaden or narrow down. In this process, sometimes one phase may be expanded, other may be skimped and there may be fewer or more steps involved. These things are not important. What is important is a controlled rational process of reflective inquiry. Example of a research problem indicating steps We may take one example to understand the steps in social research as suggested by various scholars. As a first step, we need a research prob¬lem. Suppose our problem is "Role Adjustment of Working Women", i.e., how do working women face conflict between the role of a house¬holder and that of a wage-earner and how do they adjust themselves in family and office? In fact, this problem covers too many aspects. We need a limited and a specific aspect for research. For this we take the as¬pect of assessing: "Do working women suffer professionally by not devoting much time to their work? The review of the literature—the second step—may not provide us much information; yet it is necessary to check whether this theme has been studied by other scholars and what are their findings? One can check from books and journals, in- eluding Sociological Abstracts. This search of literature is extremely im¬portant. The third step is to formulate one or more hypotheses. One might be: "Married working women get less promotions than single (unmarried, divorcee) working women." Other might be: "The repu¬tation of childless married women of being dedicated and committed workers is much higher than women with two or more children." Planning research design is the fourth step. Ali categories must be de¬signed and the variables to be controlled must be decided. We must be sure that the two groups we compare are similar in all important re¬spects except marital status or number of children. We must select sources of data, kinds of data sought, and procedures for collecting and processing them. One possibility is that the research is confined to female lecturers in a university, the other possibility is to study female clerks in some office (say secretariat) and so forth. The fifth step is ac¬tual collection of data and classifying and processing it. In this age of research, the data are generally made "computer sensible" (prepared for computer processing by assigning codes to various response cate-^ gories, etc.). The computer gives the desired computations and comparisons including data for statistical tests. The sixth step is to ana¬lyse data for finding out contrast between the two groups. In this process, sometimes unexpectedly, even some additional hypotheses may be developed. The seventh step is drawing conclusions. Are our hypotheses true or false? What further study is suggested by our re¬search? Finally, other researchers will undertake replication studies. The basic procedure is the same for all scientific inquiries and re¬searches. Only techniques may vary according to the problem under study. However, one thing that needs to be remembered is that hy¬potheses are not involved in all researches. Some researches may only collect the data and develop hypotheses from the analysis of data. Thus, "anything involving careful objective collecting of verifiable evidence in search for knowledge is scientific research" (Horton and Hunt, op.cit.:12).