Social Psychology -Nitin Sharma

7/29/2019 Social Psychology -Nitin Sharma

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International Journal of Management and Leadershi

RTETMSD-2013

ABSTRACT

In todays competitive world what we teach our young

generation is how to crack the competition and how to beatand win but are they mentally trained to handle the outerpressure? What we want from students or employees is to

perform better than best. In our society and in ourcorporate world, todays youth is facing mental pressure

to be on the top, may be as a student or as an employee. Areport of BBC says India is at number one in suicide foryoungsters aged 15-29. The report also state that suicide

rate was higher among well-educated young men. Theremust be some reason behind this and there must be a

solution. Here, in this article we discussed about the mostcommon reasons for these tragic happenings, which all arein concern with mental pressure. Weve studied mentalstatus of students from two different countries, India andUnited States, and with that we came up with a reason, and

that is hidden within the education and training of thestudents and employees respectively. When we looked atthe contents at educational institutes or in training atcorporate world, we found a common subject of social

psychology, and critical thinking, as its main content. Here

we are focusing on the ways which we can implement intotrainings in the organizations and in educational institutes.Weve done a before-after analysis of the performance ofemployees in a NGO and students of a school in NewDelhi to whom a week training was provided. Fortunately,

we have seen a dramatic rise in their performance and alsoin their mental state. Finally we reached on a conclusion

that we must take some initiatives towards up gradation intrainings to save todays young generation from goingdeep into mental illness and towards suicide.

Keywords: Social Psychology, Critical Thinking

Self-deception, needs of critical thinking, psychologicaneed of self-deception, and suicide rate in India.

1. INTRODUCTION

This world is changing rapidly with industrializatio

globalization and economic boom. And with these opemarkets and opportunities, more competition, more jo

anxiety, higher expectations and more and more pressurto achieve have been invited, as per The Times of IndiaAlso, mental health experts said that more and mor

students and young employees are attempting suicidevery single day due to this unseen mental pressure. Th

study published in Lancet Medical Journal on June 222012 said that suicide rates in India are higher among aggrouped 15-29 from southern part of the nation which i

considered more developed with better education anbetter opportunities. After studying all these its not wronto say that our young generation is at high risk. There arthousands of analysis, reports and research have been don

on suicide rate in the country but unfortunately its hard tfind solutions and recommendation based papers. Here aeffort to understand the solutions for the causes has beemade to reduce the unfortunate life-taking thoughts out oyoungsters.

According to latest census, 50% of Indian population below 25 years and here we need to understand the needand problems of this new generation. We also need tanalyze the causes and reasons behind the increasin

suicide attempts. Of-course, its all about thoughts anthoughts-generator mind. And to study and analyze thesthoughts we need psychology or I must say socia

psychology. In simple words if we say, social psycholog

International Journal of Management and Lead

Social Psychology: Neeof Critical Thinking and

Self-Dece tion-Nitin Sharma, Director of Education & Co-Founder,YOTI Foundation, New Delhi.


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is study of human trails, behavior and emotions. It also

helps in observe the influence of environments andsituations on human actions, including relationships andsocial interactions. Now the question here is that do wereally understand the thoughts of todays teenagers and

youngsters or in other words do we have a psychologicaleye on our society? How many parents do understand the

psychological problems or mental state of a child? Howmany teachers do tell the correct reasons why a student isunable to achieve good grades? And how many employers

provide training to fresher employee to make him/her

comfortable to the corporate pressure and to understandthe mental pressure? Most of us as parents, teachers andemployers dont. It may sound unrealistic but we need tokeep an eye on thoughts of this young generation and we

have to teach them how to think, how to make decisionand how to control and observe the thoughts. We need to

make them understand the power of thinking and thoughtsso that they can use it in positive way and not in negative.

2. PROBLEM ANALYSIS

It is already mentioned above that first we need tounderstand the problem this new generation is facing

which leads them to take tragic steps like suicide. TheTimes of India report dated June 22, 2012 and severalother expert state that middle class youth gain pressure tomeet achievement expectations and on other side newtechnologies like cell phones, internet and social

networking websites is breaking traditional family units.Today, most of the youth keeps itself busy with socialnetworking and cell phone chit-chats rather than beingwith family. We do have positive boom in the industrywith internet but we do need to understand the

psychological impact on young brains of the nation. Theydont talk, neither they share their problems with anyone,

not even with the family which always used to be thereliable support. Who else is there for them to share andvomit out what they have in the depth of emotions; the

outer world or social networking websites? But there they

cant as they need to fight the competition of achievementsout there. Everything is interrelated and in this relationtodays youth is pressed both ways. Families have higherexpectations from children as students as well as moneymaker and the world outside is ready to push them downin competition so they left no one to be with. This all

together takes them towards loneliness or in the state ofdepression. The higher suicide rates may come from "the

greater likelihood of disappointments when aspiration

that define success and happiness are distorted or unmeby the reality faced by young people in a rapidly changinsociety," said Dr. Vikram Patel, one of the report's authorin an editorial printed in The Hindu. He also noted onlin

social networking was making "loneliness morcommon." He admits his conclusion is conjecture, but say"I cannot think of any more plausible explanation." Threvelation has shocked many in a country notorious fo

poor maternal health care statistics. "Mental health is noa priority in India. It has to be a priority. Many people ar

not aware of the fact that mental health is behind suicide.said Dr. Roy Abraham, president of the Indian PsychiatriSociety, in one of the article printed in The Times oIndia. This is a major problem and here again the questio

rises that are they prepared for the unmeasurable peepressure they are bearing? We all know the answer bu

problem is why, why our youth is not capable of handlinany kind of mental pressure and why they candifferentiate personal and professional emotions. Th

answer is hidden in our training and development sectionof educational institutes and corporate organizations. Wnever teach them any of psychological contents, not eve

basics including how to think or what to think. Wnever train them for any of these situations. Yes, now

days some institutes and organizations are taking initiativin this direction but unfortunately they all are foreig

based and none of them is Indian. If we talk about any o

subjects, courses we study in United States, no matter hig

school or post-graduation, we do have subjects related tsocial psychology which teach the students how to handltheir thoughts and how to manage themselves. Foexample in Stratford University, USA no matter in whic

academic program you are enrolled in, graduation ohigher studies, they have a subject of Critical Thinkingcode PSY340 which itself means Think out of the Box

but when we looked at Indian educational contents, tihigh school we dont have anything which can be relate

to the study of human nature or behavior and in graduatioand post-graduation, except for psychology subjecowners we dont have must-do psychological contents i

any other subjects courses. This may be the answer whour students are not mentally prepared anyhow for ansituation. Weve found that students from any AmericaUniversity are emotionally and mentally stable rather tha

students in India and the reason is already mentionedformer students are prepared and trained to fight with th

problems, the problems which are now reasons foincreasing mental illness of Indian Students and youn

professionals.

Social Psychology: Need of Critical Thinking and Self-Dec

-Nitin S


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2.1 Student Performance Analysis (USA & India)

Weve studied mental stress and thinking power of

students of two different universities; Stratford University,USA and Delhi University, India by a small survey and

some online tests. We picked random 20 students fromeach university and the results were unbelievable. Stresslevel of students from Delhi University was much higher

than that of Stratford University. The average PerceivedStress Scale (PSS) units for students of Delhi Universitycame out 25 PSS whereas international students got 10PSS as average. More we are near 40 PSS, more mentalstress were dealing with. Also, if we talk about simple

reasoning tests, yes Indian students tried their best and butunfortunately they were unable to beat the other ones. Nodoubt students from India are placed everywhere on the

planet in every big multinationals we talk about and they

deserves this being on the top of the academicperformance but here need to accept that majority of ouryoungsters are facing mental illness including depressionand mental stress.

3. CRITICAL THINKING & SELF-DECEPTION

After studying and analyzing the problem and afterstudying the differences and effects of teaching basics of

social psychology such as Critical Thinking and Self-Deception, it could be possible to reduce the mental

pressure and stress on large scale. And now it is importantto understand these two contents of social psychology. Aswe know social psychology is study of how someones

feelings, emotions, thoughts and behavior are effected orinfluenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence ofothers or others thoughts by perceptions or assumptions.Critical thinking and self-deception are the contents of thesubject to understand our own assumptions, perceptions

and unwilling self-betrayed respectively.

3.1 Critical Thinking

In a very simple line if we define Critical Thinking then itis the ability to think clearly and rationally. Or we can saymaking relevant decisions out of fake assumptions andunrealistic perceptions. It includes the component skills of

analyzing a problem, making solutions using reasoningand evaluating something or judging someone. A criticalthinker do understands the logics and think on the basic oflogics which helps him in solving a problemsystematically. Also, Critical Thinking is quite

compatible with thinking "out-of- the-box", challengin

consensus and perusing less popular approaches. anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativit

because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improvour creative ideas an online blogger wrote. In th

simplest words, this subject teaches to think above thmatter. To analyze the thoughts from common point oview and it teaches them to take the correct decisions.

3.2 Need and Effects of Critical Thinking

As the definition says, Critical Thinking helps ianalyzing the problem and gives a systematic solution tresolve it. If we talk about the problem we are discussio

on, has a solution if we make our students and employeelearn how to use this concept. Critical Thinking simpl

reduces the chances of taking a wrong decision in an

situation and in any stress or pressure. It reduces thchances of mental illness and the person starts thinkinout-of-the-box without fake assumptions and perceptionStudy of this branch of psychology will effect in reducin

the suicide rates in the nation and will help in reducing thmental pressure, which will directly affect the efficienc

and effectiveness of our youngsters.

3.3 Self-Deception

Self-Deception itself is a wide term which covers a hug

range of concepts and contents. Here well only discusthe basic of this section. As the name says, deceiving th

self. There are many ways we ditch others by lying themor by hiding the truth or ignoring the must-needs of onefor self-interest. And in the same manner by ignoring th

truth and facts, by lying to ourselves and ignoring selneeds, we are ditching ourselves and thats what we caSelf-Deception. Now the question is do we really deceivourselves? For this lets look at this example; in a studenlife at the time of preparation for exams an averag

student, every night decide to wake up early in thmorning to study. We know, everyone do that. But whahappens in the morning? They wake up, switch off th

alarm and go to sleep again. That is every second story

Here the student ignores the truth that he has to study, alsoneglects the promise he made to himself at night. In thsame way, every time, everyone knows what is right anwhat is wrong but the fact is they ignores it. A youngste

decides to go for exercise in the morning. That is his neebut again he ignores his own needs. Here this subject anits study realize them this ignorance its effects. It teachethem how to overcome all these problems of seldeception.

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3.4 Needs and effects of Self-Deception

All needs and effects are almost clear from Section 3.3 but

if we takes it with the problem were focusing on, self-deception will play a major role in helping the young

generation to understand the truths and realities and tounderstand what they really wish. It will help them inreducing the internal or external influence of any negative

thoughts. People who are trained against self-deceptionare the one who really know themselves. What they reallywish and what they really need to do. And when from the

beginning anyone knows what s/he really need to do thenthere are minimum chances of big troubles and problems

which finally helps in reducing the mental illness.

4. CONCLUSION

Our nation is fighting with a big unseen problem of mentalillness, most commonly in new generation, teenagers and

youngsters. India is the youngest country on the globe. In2020, the average age of the country would be nearly 29

but on the other hand the future of the nation is at risk.

After all these studies, we conclude that we need to takeinitiatives regarding the increasing mental illness. Wehave to make everyone understand that we should takedepression and stress as priority. The country needs an

awareness revolution regarding the situation. Also, we as,corporate organization, educational instituted and social

organizations need to introduce the above said conceptsinto our training and education. And believe me we dontrequire an entire subjects, we just need few workshops to

make them understand the power of mind and thoughts.For example we had done a two days work shop in a NPO,YOTI Foundation and a one day workshop in an another

NGO, Save the Children India and you have to believe thatwe were able to reduce the mental stress of the employees

by 80%. Also weve seen an increment in attendance andpunctuality. People started taking decisions and we haveseen the increased confidence level. It is just not about the

employees but also in students we measured a rapid better

growth. A training workshop was conducted in Save theChildren India premises, New Delhi, where 60 localstudents from age group 16 to 20 were invited. We weresurprised to see the rapid changes in the youngsters. They

stopped waiting time in unproductive things, they startedtaking interest in studies and they started generating newinnovative ideas in their respective fields. Combining all,we can say that we need a psychological revolution in the

society and we need to train our growing generation t

handle anything they strike with.

Also, with the trainings, we also need to keep an eye omental state and behavior of our subject. We would like t

make a suggestion that every organization or educatioinstitute must have a psychologist within the premisewho in schools sits with the student to understand the

learning and behavioral problems and in workplaces, thestudy the working environment and suggests the needfuchanges, if any, to reduce the work-stress.

Finally, the mentioned two solutions, all together areffective to reduce the mental pressure or stress within th

young population which will definitely reduce thgrowing suicide rates. Save these youngsters, they are th

future of this nation, they are the nation.

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Dr. AshimPuri, a well-known psychologist in New Delhi for heguidelines as a mentor and Ms. Mansi Handa, professo

of Philosophy, MAII-Stratford University, for her valuabtime in the study and the research, Save the Childre

India, the NGO provided a platform to perform thworkshops and provided a chance to be within the youn

generation to understand them.

About the Author:

5. REFERENCES

Geoffrey Reed (2002), Article in a regular journaProfessional Psychology: Research and Practic

33, 6, pp. 536-545.

Vikram Patel, Chinthanie RamasundarahettigLakshmi Vijayakumar, J S Thakur, Vendha

Gajalakshmi, Gopalkrishna Gururaj, WilsoSuraweera and Prabhat Jha (2012), Article in

regular journal, Lancet Medical Journal, 379, Jun22, pp. 234351.

M.Neil Browne (2000), Article in a regulajournal, College Student Journal, Sept 2000, pp1-5.

William von Hippel (2011), Article in a regulajournal, Behavioral and Brain Science, 34, pp. 156.

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Baljinder Sahbra and Paul Thagard (2003),Article in a regular journal, Minds and Machines,13, pp. 213- 231.

M.L.Meena and G.S.Dangayach (2012), Articlein a regular journal, International Journal of

Humanities and Applied Sciences (IJHAS), 1, 2,pp. 78-81.

Gregory Bassham, William Irwin, HenryNardone and James M. Wallace (2006), CriticalThinking: a students introduction, TataMcGraw-Hill, New Delhi.

Social Psychology -Nitin Sharma

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