Psychology

Having a child with disability in a family is not the same as having a child without a disability. Parents of disabled children after knowing that their children have disability, develop highly ambivalent feelings towards their babies. Parent’s social life becomes restricted, and feelings of social rejection and isolation may follow. Parents having a child with mental retardation experience a variety of stressors and stress reactions related to the child’s disability and the parents have the feelings of guilt, anxiety, hostility, and insecurity. Having a child with autism also found to be a significant financial burden to the family. Parents of children with autism are more likely to use avoidant coping strategies that may have a negative impact on the marital relationship. Parents may feel self-conscious about taking a child with autism out into the community. An attempt has been made to present a critical analysis of a preliminary review of epidemiological studies on psychological distress in parents of children with mental retardation and autism.

The effect of gender role perception and sense of efficacy on mental health of married employed women was examined. The study adopted a 2 (androgynous and sex-typed) x 2 (efficacious and less-efficacious) factorial design. One hundred twenty employed women participated in the study. They were categorized into androgynous and sex-typed on the basis of the median split of their scores on the measure of androgyny. Again androgynous and sex-typed women were categorized into efficacious and less efficacious subgroups on the basis of the median split of their scores on self-efficacy measures. The participants of all the four groups were compared with respect to their mental health. The result indicated that androgynous women showed better mental health than that of sex-typed women. Women with high sense of efficacy showed better mental health and scored higher in almost all dimensions of mental health than less-efficacious women.

The purpose of this study was to examine the Status of teacher adequacy in public Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) centres in Nandi County, Kenya. The study adopted descriptive survey design using mixed methodology and pragmatism paradigm. The target population comprised of 1387 pre-school teachers, 1 county Director of ECDE, 6 Sub-County ECDE Directors and 651 primary school head teachers. A sample size of 301 teachers and 208 head teachers was obtained. Stratified and simple random sampling was used to select teachers and headteachers while purposive sampling was used in selecting the county director of ECDE and 6 Sub-County ECDE Directors. Questionnaire and interview schedules were used for collecting data for the study. Validity and reliability of the instruments were determined before data collection. Quantitative data was analyzed using frequencies and percentages while content analysis was used to analyze qualitative information. The study found out that majority of the pre-schools in the study area lacked adequate pre-school teachers, textbooks and play materials. Majority (72.0%) of the employed pre-school teachers had undergone pre-school teacher training courses therefore they had adequate and current pedagogical skills which allowed them to effectively handle pre-school learners. Majority of the pre-schools lacked adequate teaching and learning materials. The study recommended that there is need for employment of more trained pre-school teachers by the county government to improve learning. This is attributed to the fact that there were inadequate trained pre-school teachers employed by the county government yet early childhood education is a devolved function.

Teachers’ support is key in effective implementation of formative assessment strategies towards improvement of learners’ achievement in Mathematics instruction. However, there is lack of attention it has previously received hence the need for teacher support on effective implementation of the Five key Formative Assessment Strategies(FAS) in Mathematics instruction including: Clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success, Engineering effective classroom discussions, questions and learning tasks, Feedback that moves learners forward, Self-assessment and Peer assessment towards improved learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate Teachers’ support on effective implementation of the five key Formative Assessment Strategies in Mathematics instruction in secondary schools. The study was carried out in secondary schools in Nandi County, Kenya. Proportionate, stratified and simple random sampling was used to select 12 schools, 33 mathematics teachers and 12 head teachers. Quasi-experimental mixed method intervention design was employed. Data was collected using teachers’ questionnaires, head-teachers interviews and teachers’ focus group interviews. Data was analyzed by use of descriptive and thematic analyses. The findings revealed that there was inadequate support was due to: lack of training offered to teachers on FAS, lack of adequate resources and materials, big class sizes which did not favor the good use of FAS, lack of time to plan for FAS, FAS not included in curriculum and inadequate head teacher support.The study recommends that Teacher support is needed in terms of time, curriculum modifications, resources/materials, class sizes and periods. Intensive training of head teachers and all stakeholders should also be done on the support needed for successful implementation of FAS.Curriculum reviewers must involve stakeholders (Mathematics teachers) so that the reviewed curriculum supports effective implementation of FAS in terms of class sizes, time, learning materials and class periods.

Differential Item Functioning (DIF) is a statistical method that determines if test measurements distinguish abilities by comparing two sub-population outcomes on an item. The Logistic Regression (LR) statistic provides an effect size measure that can give the magnitude of DIF. The purpose of the study was to investigate through simulation the effects of sample size, ability distribution and test length on the Effect Size (ES) of DIF and their influence on detection of DIF using LR method. A Factorial research design was used in the study. The population of the study consisted of 2000 examinee responses. A stratified random sampling technique was used with the stratifying criteria as the reference (r) and focal (f) groups. A small sample size (60r/60f) and a large sample size (1000r/1000f) were established. WinGen3 statistical software was used to generate dichotomous item response data which was replicated 1000 times. The findings of the study showed that whereas sample size and ability distribution had significant effects on the ES of DIF items when LR was used, test length had no statistically significant effect on the ES of DIF items. However, the number of DIF detections using LR statistic increased with test length regardless of the nature of Ability Distribution, The findings of the study are of great significance to teachers, educational policy makers, test developers and test users.

The Internet is a widely used tool known to foster addictive behavior, and Internet addiction threatens to develop into a major public health issue in the near future in a rapidly developing country like India. Internet addiction in adolescence can have a negative impact on identity formation and may negatively affect cognitive functioning, lead to poor academic performance and engagement in risky activities, and inculcate poor dietary habits. Recent reports indicated that some online users were becoming addicted to the Internet in much that same way that others became addicted to drugs or alcohol, which resulted in academic, social, and occupational impairment. The aim of the study is to examine the prevalence of internet addiction among adolescents.For the purpose of the study 272 adolescent’s students (176 male, 96 female) from formal schools and colleges at Chhattisgarh. The sampling was based on random sampling method. The age range of the students is 14yrs-19yrs. The tools, demographic data sheet designed for the purpose of this study and Internet Addiction Test (IAT) by Dr. Kimberly Young to measure the levels of internet addiction were used. The results revealed that prevalence of average internet addiction was 57%, problematic addiction was 41.9% and severe addiction was 0.7%. The gender difference was found on internet addiction that males were more addicted to the internet than female. It was also found that the duration of internet surfing and time spent for internet usage of the students were significant for internet addiction. Based on the results, internet addiction should be considered as a serious problem in adolescents and young adults. So, it is necessary that proper use of internet to be educated to adolescents and young adults to prevent the risk of internet addiction.

Depression is a serious mental disease that affects both young and old people in the society. Depressed people harbor negative thoughts, and this makes them perceive life issues negatively. Depression is common among university students and despite the methods provided for its intervention, the prevalence of depression among university students remain higher than in the general population. The objective of this study was to determine and compare the current prevalence of depression among engineering students at the University of Nairobi and at the Technical University of Kenya. A quasi-experimental research design was adopted, where two Kenyan public universities were conveniently sampled. Engineering students from the University of Nairobi and those from The Technical University of Kenya who were studying undergraduate degree in any engineering courses were sampled for the study. The study data was collected using questionnaires and the Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI). The prevalence of depression was determined through proportions obtained from the data from the BDI in the two different universities. The findings indicated that 66.4% of the respondents from University of Nairobi had no depression, 16.9% registered moderate depression levels, 15.5% had mild depression, while 1.2% of the respondents exhibited severe depression. Further, results revealed that 67.1% of the respondents from Technical University of Kenya exhibited had no depression, 16.9% registered mild depression levels, 14.8% had moderate depression, while 1.2% of the respondents exhibited severe depression. The study concluded that about a third of the students studying engineering degree courses at the University of Nairobi and at the Technical University of Kenya are currently going through different levels of depression ranging from mild, moderate and severe depression. The implication of the findings is that depression is a serious concern among university students and therefore should not be ignored.

The purpose of this paper is comparing the role of teachers on teaching - learning process in ordinary and smart schools of Bojnurd (the center of north-eastern province of Iran). This type of survey and the questionnaire as a data collection tool is a cross-sectional study. This study was based upon descriptive-measuring model and due to its objective is categorized in functional research group. The population of the study including the teachers, girls and boys of middle school and high schools are in Bojnourd during Spring-2013. Cochran's formula for determining the sample size and the method used are stratified random sampling. It was found that the reliability obtained was high. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics for the analytical tests such as correlation analysis, analysis of variance and Tukey test. The statistical analyses used are SPSS and Microsoft Excel. The effect of variables such as attitudes toward technology, job outlook and teachers’ teaching methods in teaching-learning process are also investigated in this paper.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ self-efficacy and anxiety while conducting research. The population of this study was postgraduate research students in Women University, Bagh, Pakistan. A sample of 100 students was selected using random sampling technique. A questionnaire was developed to take the data from sample of the study. The validity and reliability were estimated based on opinions of a panel of experts and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient, respectively. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and correlation. Results revealed that the respondents had a moderate level of research anxiety and high level of research self-efficacy. Overall, Women University students tend that there was a positive significant relationship between self-efficacy and self anxiety while conducting research.

The writing assessment has long been considered a problematic area for educational assessment professionals and TEFL practitioners in particular. Due to a significant growth in the number of language learners in the past two decades, fairness issues in ESL writing assessments have been of growing interest and importance and have given birth to a great deal of theoretical and empirical research which have been examining the effect of various factors on the evaluation of students’ writing. The result of such studies leads us to question the accuracy and the raters’ fairness in rating learners’ written works. Hence, the rater variable, affected by various factors, has always been an important issue in the literature of writing assessment. This paper aims at investigating the impact of raters’ personality traits on the analytic evaluation of the students’ writings, encapsulating the probable effect of the genre too. In order to measure the personality traits of raters, NEO FFI developed by Costa and McCrae has been applied. A group of language instructors rated an expository essay and an argumentative one based on Jacobs’ rating scale. The results of the study indicate that there is a relationship between the raters’ personalities and the score they have assigned to the students’ writing. The genre of the essay has also been significant in the process of rating.