(Exclusively for the 5th National Conference of the Association of Psychological Counseling, Mind India, and Gawahati)
The search for a perfect height in Sensation seeking
Dr. Athiqul H. Laskar, M.Sc. (USA), Ph.D., (USA),
Sports Psychology & Motivation Consultant,
New Jersey, U.S.A.
Introduction
The term “sensation” is used rather than “stimulation” because it shows the sensory effects of external stimulation that is most important in defining the value of primary reinforcement. A television addict might be called a stimulation seeker, but television provides little in the way of novel sensation. Sensation seeking may be described as a “trait” or a “state”. A trait can be defined as the tendency to experience the relevant state and behave in a specific manner on many occasions in many (but certainly not all) situations. The trait of sensation seeking refers to the tendency to seek and explore relatively novel and stimulating situations. The state of sensation seeking is one defined by a predominance of characteristic types of strong, positive affect feelings in novel and risky.
If we look at the past history of sensation seeking(Dr. A.H. Laskar55), we may find that the sensation seeking and the thrill of adventure has attracted many people to the sports of : mountain climbing, skydiving, extreme sports, public speaking, roller coaster riding, extreme sports, hang gliding, thrill seekers report, bridge jumping, developing skill, self efficacy, outcome efficacy, people who avoid risk, negative thoughts, antidote for negative thoughts, rope courses, Marvin Zuckerman form V of Sensation Seeking, sensory deprivation, sensation seeking scale, sss components, sss predictor of addiction, male-limited alcoholic, brain response to novelty, psychological characteristics, brain chemistry differences, and important for prevention.
The search for sensation has caused many people to launch expeditions in risk involving mountains around the world, and other form of risking involving sports often without considering their own safety. As a result, many lives have been lost in the bed of sports arenas around the world so far including the Himalayas(1 & 56). Pinpointing the motivation for sensation seeking is difficult. What sensation seekers like Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, Nail Armstrong, John Gland (Astronauts), Tenzing Norgay (Mt. Everest Climber) and others see or feel is the beauty of the sports or invention, purity of its very spirit, solitude glory or the great challenge to ones endurance and resourcefulness. However, very few persons possess the actual requisite for physiological activation or interest in undertaking the risk of these extreme risking involving sports.
The concept of Sensation Seeking(1) is to assess individual differences in optimal levels of stimulation. Since its initial development, the sensation seeking scale has undergone various changes. The most recent form has 40 forced-choice items separated into factorial derived subscales designed to measure the dimension of sensation seeking (2) as a whole as well as Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Risk, Experience Seeking, Dis-inhibition, and Boredom Susceptibility, in another word, likely to be influenced or harmed by a specific thing.
The very concept of optimal level of stimulation, excitation, or activation(3) in a person who needs experiences to maintain an optimal level of arousal is called sensation seeking. His or her optimal level of arousal is assumed to be greater than that of non-sensation seekers. When stimuli and experience become repetitive, it is assumed that the sensation seeker will become bored and non - responsive more quickly than most other individuals. He or she is presumed to be sensitive to inner sensation and non - confirming to external constraints (restriction). The sensation seeking scale was developed to asses individual differences in optimal levels of stimulation.
Sensation Seeking as a Human Trait
The first scale developed was the general sensation seeking scale by Dr. Marvin Zuckerman(4). This scale was obtained from factor analyses of a broad range of items expressing preferences for or avoidance of dangerous sports, the need for general excitement, attraction to new and unfamiliar situations, a preference for irregularity as opposed to routine, and preference for exciting, as opposed to reliable or predictable, friends. Later factor analyses in America and England using rotational methods found four factors indicating a substantial factor reliability have been found in several other countries: Sensation seekers or mountain climbers according to Fowler,(5) person interested in climbing mountain in the Himalayas and other high mountain ridges around the world involving risk and danger. However, mountain climbing or any similar sports require skill, technique, and high activation. Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) subscale consists of items expressing desires to engage in sports or activities involving some physical danger or risk, such as mountain-climbing, bridge jumping, extreme sports, skydiving, parachute jumping, scuba diving, car speeding or racing, high altitude ski racing, etc(6). Experience Seeking (ES) subscale consists of items describing the desire to seek new experiences through travel and through the mind and senses by living in a non-conforming lifestyle with unconventional friends(6). Disinhibition (Dis) (less inhibited) subscale items describe the need to disinhibit behavior in the social sphere by drinking, partying, and seeking a variety of sexual partners.(6). Boredom Susceptibility (BS) subscale items indicate an aversion for repetitive experience of any kind, routine work, or even dull or predictable people. Other items indicate a restless reaction when things are unchanging(6).
Theories of Sensation Seeking
To understand Sensation Seeking more clearly, one needs an explanation of the many of the many theoretical views of the Sensation Seeking need. Sports psychologists and authors over the years have developed many scales to measure sensation seeking.
Penny’s(7) Stimulus Variation Seeking Scale was constructed to determine the amount of exteroceptive stimulus variation seeking customarily engaged in by an individual. Fiske and Madi (unpublished); in their paper proposed that varied experience is oriented toward and sought for its own sake. Anyone can choose to vary his environment by responding and changing stimulus conditions. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that stimulus variations seeking underlie exploration, alteration, curiosity, and play.
Another concept of stimulus variation seeking is optimal level of stimulation. A number of researchers and sports psychologists have suggested that stimulus seeking activity is designed to maintain stimulation at an optimal level. Other studies have yielded wide individual differences in stimulus variation seeking and presumably individual differences in optimal levels of stimulation.
Three properties of the Stimulus Variation Seeking Scale have been reported. The first property investigated was the reliability of the scale. The second property explored was its discriminant validity, i.e., a test can be invalidated by high correlation with other test can be invalidated by high correlation with other tests that purport or suggest to measure different traits. The third property investigated was the convergent (which comes together from all directions) validity of the scale. The Stimulus Variation Seeking Scale has been found to be related to auto kinesis (indirect movement of cell) and sensation seeking.
Leuba(8) adds that the principle of optimal stimulation may have a good deal to do with the gaining of ascendancy of priority by certain responses over others. He also adds that in infancy, random movements, as in babbling or during optimal stimulation, are reinforced over movements accompanied by either too little or too much environment to bear upon tactual and other sense organs, it will be most strongly reinforced provided only exploration does not produce excessive stimulation.
Atkinson’s(9) (study states that the first problem in risk-taking behavior is to account for an individual’s selection of one path of action from a set of possible alternatives. The second problem is to account for the amplitude or vigor of the action tendency once it is initiated, and for its tendency to persist for a timed in a given direction. According to Hebb,(10) man’s motivation is a function of his exteroceptive or physiology of stimuli that are external to an organism & stimulation. Isolation produces motivational and emotional disturbance quickly.
The stimulus seeking motivation of Farley’s(11) study is one of the most consistent findings with the Sensation Seeking Scale, as well as with some of the other measures, since age seems to be negatively correlated with stimulation seeking. In other words, stimulation seeking, as measured by these tests, seems to decline with age. O’Conner’s study(12) has stated that theory of achievement motivation provides a rationale for an achievement risk preference scale, which is a paired-comparison test of the intra-individual strength of motive to achievement success relative to strength of motive to avoid failure.
The Measurement of Sensation-Seeking Tendencies
Fowler(13), compared mountaineers, and a smaller group of persons not interested in mountaineering. Those compared a group of persons from a club interested in interested in mountaineering or mountain climbing scored significantly higher on the general and Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale IV form than the other student non-mountain climbers. However, his study was done on platelet non-mountain oxidize (MAO) enzyme, which is contained in the mitochondria of neurons in the brain as well as in other tissues. In the brain, MAO metabolizes the monoamine neurotransmitters.
Negative relationships have been found between MAO levels and the sensation-seeking trait in two studies conducted by Murphy, et al, (14, & 15). High sensation seekers tend to have high levels of MAO. The relationship between MAO and participation in mountain climbing is consistent with the idea that the same biological factors that play a role in the broad trait of sensation seeking may influence the attraction of some individuals to risky sports.
During 80s I have made a through research study concentrating on the measurement of Dr. Zuckerman’s Form V sensation seeking scale questionnaire instead of MAO enzyme. There has been no such investigation conducted in the past, particularly with mountain climbers and non-mountain climbers using this scale.
Other studies in this area of sensation seeking include in this area include the work of Hymbough and Garrett(16), in which skydivers were compared with an equal number of controls matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic variables. As a result, the skydivers scored higher than the control group. In a similar study, straub (17 & 18) compared groups of male Hang-Gliders and Auto Racers with a group of inter-collegiate bowlers (base ball) on the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V of Dr. Zuckerman. Three of the four subscales, TAS, ES, and BS, significantly differentiated the groups. The ES scale actually accounted for the most between group variance in a stepwise discriminant function. However, discriminant function indicated that the automobile racers were higher than the hang-gliders and both of these groups were higher than the bowlers on sensation seeking.
Finally, in another study of Treiber(19) suggested that the Sensation Seeking may be systematically related to motives and patters or continues of use of drugs that are common in-groups of alcohol and drug abusers. Tendencies towards alcohol and drug abusers’ pleasure and motives violate social norms in search of excitement, mood state changes, and physiological arousal. Treiber, also found that in alcoholic offenders, sensation seeking as a personality trait was related to heighten social deviance or diverting from accepted social standards, and an alcoholic lifestyle, as reflected by repeated violations of public drunkenness statutes.
Form V of the Sensation Seeking Scale was developed based on factor analyses of Form IV that used a large heterogeneous sample of English students of both sexes (Male & Female). Factor analyses in the English samples yielded factors highly similar to those found in the American factor analyses. Based on the cross-sex and cross-national similarities in item loading, Form V was constructed. This form contains ten items representing each of the four factors. It does not contain the general scale, but uses a total score based on the sum of four factor scores.
Farley and Cax(20) in their study suggested that there might be more than one factor of sensation seeking; factor analysis was used in an attempt to discover what other factors might be included. Dr. Marvin Zuckerman (21) reported on the dimension of sensation seeking found in samples of male and female undergraduates in the Philadelphia area, where four factors were identified, three of them showed good reliability in their loading across the sexes.
Penny(22) defined Sensation Seeking optimal stimulation which is purported to measure individual differences as they are sensation oriented. However, Blackburn (23) rejects both Sensation Seeking and Sensation Seeking Scale because they do not measure Impulsivity or a strong urge to do something risky. On the other hand, different kinds of tests have been used to measure sensation seeking. These include (i) Dr. Marvin Zuckerman’s ii) Sensation Seeking Scale, (iii) Social Desirability Scale, (iv) Sensation Variation Seeking Scale, (v) Fear of Success Scale (FOSS), and (vi) Change Seeker Index (CSI).
The Sensation Seeking Scale of Dr. Marvin Zuckerman (24) designed to quantify the construct “optimal stimulation level.” The first version of the Sensation Seeking Scale was given to 268 male and 277 female undergraduate students at Brooklyn College. On about two-thirds of the items, the proportion of the Subjects choosing one of the forced-choices fell in the 30-70 percent range. The four items with the most extreme splits (greater than 85.15 percent) were dropped from the test. The remaining 50 items were Interco-related by using tetrachloric or four way correlation. The results revealed that large factor did emerge for both males and females. Twenty-six items for the males and 30 items for the females loaded. Thirty or higher on this factor. To determine the similarity of the item factor structure across the sexes, the item-factor loading of sexes were ranked for the males and females, and the two sets of ranks were correlated by using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation. Rho was 0.91, indicating near identity between the items-factor pattern in both Sexes.
Change Seeker Index (CSI) is habitually consistent pattern of behavior that controls the amount and the kind of stimulus input a given organism receives. Stimulus input includes stimuli from both internal and external sources. Change Seeker Index (CSI) items were selected from a number of existing personalities questionnaire items that seemed to reflect change seeking. A number of other items were also devised. The preliminary questionnaire consisted of 211 items. These were administered to 3 groups, 105 college males, 137 college females, and 60 soldiers. A “phi” or a plane angle coefficient or the constant quantity placed before and multiplying the variables in an algebraic expression was computed between each item response and the upper and lower 27 percent of each distribution. The items that correlated at the .05 level in two of the three groups were retained. The 95 items that make up the present form of the CSI meet these criteria.
Fear of Success Scale (FOSS) was developed by Dr. Marvin Zuckerman and Tresemer(25) to assess individual differences in the motive to avoid success. The first part of the manual deals with the construction of a fear-of success scale; the second part deals with personality correlates of the FOSS; the third presents experimental evidence supporting the predictive validity of the FOSS. Twenty-seven items of the FOSS were written with items total correlation or having relationship with affects with one score with another for males and females. The correlation was small but consistent.
High Risk Sports Populations
Hymbaugh and Garrett(26) compared 21 skydivers with an equal number of controls matched on age, sex, socio-economic, and occupational variables. They used the earlier Form II of the Sensation Seeking Scale, which contained only the General scales. As expected, the skydivers scored significantly higher than the control group on the General Sensation Seeking Scale. The mean difference of 8 points between the groups indicated that a single item pertaining to parachuting cannot account for the difference between the groups, but the other physical risk-taking items may have accounted for a large part of the difference. Straub(27) from here put all in the back compared groups of male Hang-Gliders and Auto-Racers (AR) with a group of inter-collegiate bowlers on the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V. Three of the four subscales, TAS, ES and BS, significantly differentiated the groups. The second-ranking discriminant variables were the Experience Seeking (ES), which actually accounted for the most between group variance in a stepwise discriminant function analysis. The TAS scale was the most discriminating variable. The Disinhibition scale, which ranked third, did not play a significant role in the discriminant function analysis. The BS scale ranked fourth in discriminative power. Discriminant-function analysis indicated that the automobile racers were higher than the hang-gliders were, and both of these groups were higher than the bowlers on sensation seeking. The hang-gliders and auto racers reported receiving more injuries than the bowlers did, and the majority of subjects from both of these groups regarded their sport as a high-risk activity. None of the blowers regarded their sport as a high-risk activity. None of the bowlers regarded that sport as risky. These items were not related to Sensation Seeking Scale in Stroub’s study, although reported injuries and risk appraisals might have proved an interesting comparison.
Kusyszynm, Steinberg and Elliot(28) compared a miscellaneous experimental group of “risk-takers,” including firemen, riot-squad policemen, Race-Car drivers, parachutists, and snowmobilers, with a control group consisting of 70 civil servants and college students. The risk takers scored significantly higher on the General and TAS scales of Form IV. It is not clear whether the two groups were compared on the other subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale or how well the groups were matched. The risk group included vocational risk takers, like firemen and policemen, along with sports participants like parachutists and snow-mobilers (motor-bike). While those choosing risky occupations, such as policemen, or firemen, or military aviation personnel may score high on TAS, they typically score lower on less “socially desirable” Sensation Seeking Scales like Experience Seeking and Dishibition (DIS). The control group, including civil servants and college students, was similarly heterogeneous or diverse in its characteristics.
Becon’s(29) salvage divers were experienced divers who volunteered their services for dangerous rescue and salvage diving. To raise funds for their work, this group held Stock-Car Races (SCR), in which the divers were the drivers. The group was a high sensation-seeking group by all behavioral criteria. The scored significantly higher than a group of college students, matched for age and socioeconomic back ground on the General, TAS, Dis, and BS scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V.
Connolly(30) compared skiers, including ski instructors, with non-skiers, including ski instructors, with non-skiers recruited from a health spa. Sky-divers scored higher than those in the control group on the total and TAS scales of Sensation Seeking scale Form V, and ski instructors scored higher than the other skiers on the Total, TAS, and ES scales.
Comparing 24 skiers who reported skiing injuries in the past and 20 who did not report any injuries, Connolly(31) found that skiers who had accidents were significantly higher than the others on the total, TAS and Dis Scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V. These results show that Sensation Seeking may influence the degree of risk taking within a high Sensation Seeking group. This statement assumes that the skiers with accidents took risks, rather than that they were simply less competent skiers would not explain the result showing higher Sensation Seeking Scale scores for the ski instructors, who were undoubtedly more competent than most of the other skiers. More than three-fourths of those reporting accidents were males, consistent with the higher scores of male skiers on the Total and TAS, Sensation Seeking Scales (SSS) in Connolly’s study.
Fowler, Von Knorring, and Oreland(32) compared a group of persons from a club devoted to mountain climbing and a smaller group of persons interested in mountain climbing with a group of students not experienced or interested in mountain climbing. Those interested in mountain climbing scored significantly higher on the General and TAS scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale V than the other students. Blood samples were obtained from all subjects and levels of platelet (small cell) monoamine exidase (an enzyme present in most tissues which catalyses the oxidation and inactivation of monoamine neurotransmitters, in another word, allowing accumulation of serotonin and noradrenalin in the brain) (MAO) were assayed or a procedure adopted for measuring the biochemical activity of a samplewe. Those interested in mountain climbing had significantly lower MAO levels. MAO is an enzyme that is contained in the mitochondria biological structure found in most cells, in which respiration and energy production occur of neurons a specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses in the brain as well as in other tissues. In the brain, MAO serves the function of metabolizing the monoamine neurotransmitters. The highest levels of MAO are found in the limbic brain system, which have important functions in the regulation of appetite, pleasure, and the pain, sensitivity to reward and punishment, and emotional and behavioral arousal in general. The relationship between MAO and participation in mountain climbing is consistent with the idea that the same biological factors that play a role in the broad trait of Sensation Seeking may influence the attraction of some individuals to risky sports.
Lower Risk Sport Populations
McCuthcheon(33) compared a group of 62 runners participating in races with group of non-runners matched for sex and age. The male runners did not differ significantly from non-runners on any of the Sensation Seeking Scale V except for a borderline significant difference (P<, 10) on the Dis scale; the ratings of the male runners were lower than those of the non-runners on this scale. The non-runners at a borderline significant level (P<, 10) on the Total score and were also significantly lower (P<.05) on the TAS scale. There was no correlation between Sensation Seeking Scale scores and the order of finish in the races in either sex. Apparently Sensation Seeking is less relevant to this low-risk sport than it is to the high-risk sports already discussed. The finding of a tendency toward lower Sensation Seeking, particularly in the female runners, must be interpreted cautiously because the control-group scores were somewhat higher than might be expected for persons of the age. There is one type of running in which the running in which the runners were found to have relatively high Sensation Seeking Scores, that is “streaking”a mark a fad of the early 1970’s, which has not been classified as a sport. The participants were persons, largely college students, who felt impelled to run total naked across campuses or down city street. Their numbers along prevented alone prevented mass arrests for exhibition or defiance of public decency. The individual motives for streakers remain a mystery to this day; however, one topical investigator at the University of West Virginia, Bone(34), felt compelled to investigate the phenomenon. Using an unstandardized, one-item streaking rating scale ranging from “no desire to streak” to “have streaked,” he found significant correlation between streaking and all of the subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale. The highest correlation were with the General and TAS Scales, supporting the contention were with the General and TAS scales, supporting the contention of those who characterized streaking as a sport. Whatever it was, it apparently satisfied many kinds of needs related to Sensation Seeking. Certainly it provided a novel experience for most participants with only modicum of risk. There are no data on how many real athletic runners participated; but, according to Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, guess, the participation was low in this group, if for nothing else than the risk of stepping barefooted on broken glass.
Straub(35) contrasted female gymnasts and bowlers on the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V. Although gymnastics is probably a higher risk sport than bowling, no differences were found between the two groups on any of the Sensation Seeking scales.
Do physical education majors, as a broad group of persons generally interested in sports, differ from other college students? Wickoff(36) compared male and female physical education major students with college normative groups. No differences were found on any of the Sensation Seeking Scale. In another study relating Sensation Seeking to participation in sports in a different kind of non-college group, Cellini(37) gave the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V scale, along with rating scales of participation in various sports, to a group of 65 ex-convicts tested for vocational guidance following parole. The primary findings were significant correlation of the Total, TAS, and ES scales with participation in football. Other sports, such as running, tennis, bicycling, and swimming, showed little significant correlation with the Sensation Seeking Scales. Football may be one of the best sports for draining some of the aggressive Sensation Seeking needs characteristic of this population.
Sensation Seeking Impulsivity and Psychopathic Personality Scales
For inclusion in the Social Desirability Scale (SDS) of Marlowe-Crowne(38) a number of current personality inventories were consulted in order to devise items. An item had to meet the criterion of cultural approval and was required to have minimal pathological or abnormal implication if responded to in either the socially desirable or undesirable directions. A major objective in the development of the MC SDS was the elimination of pathology relevant to item content. To test this and for comparative purposes, the M-C SDS was submitted and graduate students in a psychology department, for ratings of the degree of maladjustment implied by socially undesirable responses to the items. A five point scale, ranging from extremely well adjusted(Black 39) to extremely maladjusted persons was employed for all the items in the M-C SDS. The mean score of 2.8, slightly below the mid-point of the scale, implied neither good nor poor adjustment. The mean rating SDS items was 3.9, which indicates that the judges considered socially undesirable responses on this scale to be definitely indicative of maladjustment.
A preliminary scale was then administered to 76 students in two introductory psychology courses, and an item analysis was completed. Thirty three items discriminated at the 0.05 levels or better between high and low total scores. Of the 33 items, 18 were keyed true and 15 false, making a response set interpretation of scores highly improbable.
Conclusion
In general reviewing the above literature the researcher discovered that a problem in the investigation of Sensation Seeking behavior is the risk-taking behavior. A true definition of this concept has been made by Dr. Marvin Zuckerman(40, 41, 42, 43, 44). The main purpose is to predict the responses in experimental situations of sensory deprivation of subjects. Farley and Berkowitz(45, 46) also contributed much to the understanding of stimulus seeking behavior. Various theories of Penny and Zuckerman(47, 48) also clearly indicate that Sensation Seeking is another concept of the optimal level of stimulation (OLS). Leuba(49) adds that the principal of optimal stimulation may have a good deal to do the gaining of ascendancy by certain responses over others. Atkinson(50) in his study of risk-taking behavior clearly indicates that man’s motivation is a function of his exteroceptivestimuli external to organism stimulation. Farley(51, 52, & 53) also adds that stimulation seeking is held to be physiologically based in the concept of physiological activation with high stimulation seekers being characteristically low in physiological activation.
The broad trait of Sensation Seeking is related to a participation in specific kinds of sports; namely, those that provide unusual sensations and novel experience, such as those involved with skydiving, hang-gliding, skiing, and scuba diving. Persons who are more experienced in these activities generally score higher than novices or less experienced persons. Risk may not be the primary requisite of these sports. The study of novice divers(54) showed that, given the choice of more prolonged, shallow dives, which provide more opportunity for exploration of the novel underwater world, and more risky deeper dives, the high Sensation Seekers opted for prolonged exploration at the shallower depths; however, high Sensation seeking skiers. High Sensation Seekers have a pronounced tendency to underestimate risk, relative to low Sensation Seekers. This cognitive difference between high and low Sensation Seekers may account for the participation of Sensation Seekers in sports or activities shunned by low Sensation Seekers. It should be emphasized that only low negative correlation exist between Sensation Seeking and anxiety traits, and even these correlation are limited to a specific kind of anxiety trait; Fear and Physical harm.
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47 R.K. Penney, R.C. Reinehr, “Development of a stimulus variations seeking scale for adult”, Psychological Reports, 1966, 18, 631-638.
48 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, and K. Link, “Construct Validity for the Sensation-Seeking Scale”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1968, 32, 420-426.
49 C. Leuba, “Toward some integration of learning theories: The concept of optimal stimulation: Psychological Reports, 1955, 1, 27-33.
50 J.W. Atkinson, “Motivational Determinants of Risk-taking Behavior”, Psychological Review, 1957, 64, 359-372.
51 F.H.Farley, “Social Desirability and Dimensionally in the Sensation-Seeking Scale”, Acta Psychological, 1967, 26, 89-96.
52 F.H. Farley, and S.O.Cox, “Stimulus-Seeking Motivation in adolescent as a function of age and sex”, Adolescence, 1971, 6, 207-216.
53 F.H.Farley, and S.V. Farley, “Extroversion on Stimulus-Seeking motivation”, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, 31, 215-216.
54 S.R. Heymen, and K.G. Rose, “Psychological variables affecting Scuba performance”, Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
55 Dr. Athilqul H. Laskar, M.Sc., Ph.D., “The 20th Century Phenomenon Sensation Seeking Tendency in Mountain Climbers”, ISBN 0-595-09023-0, Writer’s Club Press, San Jose, New York, Lincoln, (Nebraska), Shanghai, 2000.
56 H.Woodburn, T.H. Scot, and W.H. Bexton, “Effects of deceased variation in the sensory environment”, Canada Journal of Psychology, 1954, 8, 70-76.
Recommendation
The recommendations for any future research study with sensation seeking are:
1. an expansion of this study on a large sample is needed to generalize the findings in the sensation seeking tendency of mountain climbers and non-mountain climbers in India, especially in the North Eastern India.
2. A research study should explore the Sensation Seeking (SS) tendency in professional risk takers sports in India including a large sample size in order to determine any differences in sensation seeking tendency.
3. Further research investigation needs to be completed among professional risk takers in their day to day job of different cultures of India to determine any differences in sensation seeking tendency.
4. A broader study should compare the children of high sensation seeking parents with those of low sensation seeker parents who are involved in Assam Forest department including Kaziranga game sanctuary including other risky jobs in India to see whether there is any SS tendency difference.
5. a study should also explore for SS tendency between males in addition, females between 17 and 21 year of age of India based on India culture to see whether there are any SS tendency differences.
6 A study should explore whether there are any SS tendency differences between educated and uneducated sample youth of India
7. A study should explore whether there are any high risk takers between Indian University students and rural school students for recruitment of personnel in Indian armed forces for a more efficient army.
8. A study may also include to explore Sensation Seeking tendency among meritorious students and non-meritorious students in India universities.
9. A special study should included to explore high Sensation Seekers in coal mine workers and Police department personnel in India.
10. An exclusive study should be included to explore actual Sensation Seekers among members of Indian Olympic teams and Assam State Sports members to determine potential sports person for national team.
11. A study may include to explore possibilities among would be candidates seeking to join Indian Air Force and Indian Army.
12. An exclusive research study should also be done between Assam Refinery workers and Civil Secretariat workers in Assam.
13. A complete research investigation needs to be completed among professional risk takers among Industrial workers and administrative workers of India to determine any differences of risk taking and sensation seeking tendency.
Power Point Presentation:
Slide #1ROLLER COASTERS
• Some folks love them.
• Go on coasters in the dark.
• Loosen seatbelts.
• Travel around the country.
• Exciting and pleasurable.
• For others, it’s a near death experience.
Slide#2 SKY DIVING
• Friend wanted to do something unique for her 50th birthday.
• Her kids suggested skydiving.
• Tandem dive.
• Great experience even with a broken ankle.
Slide#3 EXTREME SPORTS
• Thrill seekers.
• Natural highs.
• Action gamblers.
• Speed freaks.
• What do they have in common?
• Rewarding pathways in the brain.
Slide# HANG GLIDING
• Sport most likely to result in death.
• Thrill seeking appears irrational.
• Take unreasonable risks.
• Trigger fight or flight response.
• Adrenalin surge.
• Stress reaction.
• Why take the risk?
Slide # THRILL SEEKERS REPORT
• Psychological high.
• Sense of mastery.
• Have developed skills.
• Know how to use gear.
• Coping skills.
• Able to handle situation
Slide # BRIDGE JUMPING
Slide # DEVELOPING SKILL
• First timers report intense fear.
• With practice, fear disappears
• Psychological high remains.
• Self-satisfaction associated with highly developed coping skill.
• Learn how to control fear
Slide # SELF EFFICACY
• Belief in your abilities.
• Mobilize your energy.
• Physical and psychological resources.
• Know the appropriate action to take.
• Emergency responders.
• Handle the fear.
Slide # OUTCOME EFFICACY
• Belief that you will experience satisfaction from reaching goal.
• Mastery in the past.
• Sense of accomplishment.
• Worth taking the risk.
• Joy of success.
Slide # PEOPLE WHO AVOID RISKS
• Not because they experience fear
• Not close enough to experience fear
• Haven’t even approached the threat.
• In reality, they won’t be able to cope with the situation
• Expectation of fear and failure.
Slide # FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
• Work of Bandura.
• Greatest source of threat is our inability to deal with nagging doubts about our performance.
• Should I take public speaking course?
• Will I freeze?
• What will people think?
• Never sign up
Slide # NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
• Negative thoughts are powerful un-motivating force.
• Negative thoughts create anxiety.
• Anxiety makes us apprehensive.
• Avoid situation.
Slide # ANTIDOTE FOR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
• Self-efficacy best prevention against negative thoughts.
• Mastery in risky situations.
• Rope courses.
• Bob Marsh: “push the envelope of comfort.”
Slide # ROPE COURSES
• Safe way to develop mastery.
• Overcome fears.
• Develop trust in community.
• Improve self-image.
• Used extensively in drug rehab with adolescents.
• Team building for many different groups.
Slide # MARVIN ZUCKERMAN
Slide # SESORY DEPRIVATION
• Zuckerman was grad student in these studies.
• Interested in subjects who hated deprivation.
• Couldn’t tolerate low levels of stimulation.
• Wanted new experiences.
Slide # SENSATION SEEKING SCALE
• Developed new scale: SSS.
• Zuckerman on sensation seeking:
• “a trait defined by the need for varied, novel and complex sensations and experiences.
• And the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences.”
Slide # SSS COMPONENTS
• Thrill and adventure seeking. (action gamblers).
• Seek experiences outside the conventional lifestyle (travel, friends, and art).
• Disinheriting: release of inhibitions, escape the pressures of daily life. (escape gamblers).
• Low tolerance for boredom, repetition and sameness.
Slide # SSS PREDICTOR OF ADDICTION
• Sensation seeking as personality trait.
• Correlated with alcoholism.
• Gambling.
• Perhaps common in all addictions.
Slide # MALE-LIMITED ALCOHOLISM
• Males particularly susceptible
• Male limited.
• More severe, early onset.
• Many negative consequences.
• Trouble with law, at school, on job.
• Environment plays less of a role but can lessen the severity.
Slide # BRAIN RESPONSE TO NOVELTY
• Brain waves to novel stimuli.
• P3 waves.
• Less reaction in alcoholics.
• Need more stimulation?
Slide # PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
• Related to biology?
• Reward seeking.
• Impulsive.
• Easily bored.
• Risk takers
• Gregarious
• Push the limits
• Act out
Slide # BRAIN CHEMISTRY DIFFERENCES
• Naturally higher levels of some mood chemicals.
• Brain in high gear.
• In order to feel high, have to push the brain beyond normal level of activity.
• Greater sensation to get reward.
• Potential for addiction.
Slide # IMPORTANT FOR PREVENTION
• Gambling as example.
• Primary: before start gambling. Prevent early exposure.
• Secondary: intervene in early stages. Provide alternatives.
• Tertiary: treatment.
• Understand the role of sensation seeking to avoid switching addictions.
Slide # Conclusion
oOo
(Exclusively for the 5th National Conference of the Association of Psychological Counseling, Mind India, and Gawahati)
The search for a perfect height in Sensation seeking
Dr. Athiqul H. Laskar, M.Sc. (USA), Ph.D., (USA),
Sports Psychology & Motivation Consultant,
New Jersey, U.S.A.
Introduction
The term “sensation” is used rather than “stimulation” because it shows the sensory effects of external stimulation that is most important in defining the value of primary reinforcement. A television addict might be called a stimulation seeker, but television provides little in the way of novel sensation. Sensation seeking may be described as a “trait” or a “state”. A trait can be defined as the tendency to experience the relevant state and behave in a specific manner on many occasions in many (but certainly not all) situations. The trait of sensation seeking refers to the tendency to seek and explore relatively novel and stimulating situations. The state of sensation seeking is one defined by a predominance of characteristic types of strong, positive affect feelings in novel and risky.
If we look at the past history of sensation seeking(Dr. A.H. Laskar55), we may find that the sensation seeking and the thrill of adventure has attracted many people to the sports of : mountain climbing, skydiving, extreme sports, public speaking, roller coaster riding, extreme sports, hang gliding, thrill seekers report, bridge jumping, developing skill, self efficacy, outcome efficacy, people who avoid risk, negative thoughts, antidote for negative thoughts, rope courses, Marvin Zuckerman form V of Sensation Seeking, sensory deprivation, sensation seeking scale, sss components, sss predictor of addiction, male-limited alcoholic, brain response to novelty, psychological characteristics, brain chemistry differences, and important for prevention.
The search for sensation has caused many people to launch expeditions in risk involving mountains around the world, and other form of risking involving sports often without considering their own safety. As a result, many lives have been lost in the bed of sports arenas around the world so far including the Himalayas(1 & 56). Pinpointing the motivation for sensation seeking is difficult. What sensation seekers like Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, Nail Armstrong, John Gland (Astronauts), Tenzing Norgay (Mt. Everest Climber) and others see or feel is the beauty of the sports or invention, purity of its very spirit, solitude glory or the great challenge to ones endurance and resourcefulness. However, very few persons possess the actual requisite for physiological activation or interest in undertaking the risk of these extreme risking involving sports.
The concept of Sensation Seeking(1) is to assess individual differences in optimal levels of stimulation. Since its initial development, the sensation seeking scale has undergone various changes. The most recent form has 40 forced-choice items separated into factorial derived subscales designed to measure the dimension of sensation seeking (2) as a whole as well as Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Risk, Experience Seeking, Dis-inhibition, and Boredom Susceptibility, in another word, likely to be influenced or harmed by a specific thing.
The very concept of optimal level of stimulation, excitation, or activation(3) in a person who needs experiences to maintain an optimal level of arousal is called sensation seeking. His or her optimal level of arousal is assumed to be greater than that of non-sensation seekers. When stimuli and experience become repetitive, it is assumed that the sensation seeker will become bored and non - responsive more quickly than most other individuals. He or she is presumed to be sensitive to inner sensation and non - confirming to external constraints (restriction). The sensation seeking scale was developed to asses individual differences in optimal levels of stimulation.
Sensation Seeking as a Human Trait
The first scale developed was the general sensation seeking scale by Dr. Marvin Zuckerman(4). This scale was obtained from factor analyses of a broad range of items expressing preferences for or avoidance of dangerous sports, the need for general excitement, attraction to new and unfamiliar situations, a preference for irregularity as opposed to routine, and preference for exciting, as opposed to reliable or predictable, friends. Later factor analyses in America and England using rotational methods found four factors indicating a substantial factor reliability have been found in several other countries: Sensation seekers or mountain climbers according to Fowler,(5) person interested in climbing mountain in the Himalayas and other high mountain ridges around the world involving risk and danger. However, mountain climbing or any similar sports require skill, technique, and high activation. Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) subscale consists of items expressing desires to engage in sports or activities involving some physical danger or risk, such as mountain-climbing, bridge jumping, extreme sports, skydiving, parachute jumping, scuba diving, car speeding or racing, high altitude ski racing, etc(6). Experience Seeking (ES) subscale consists of items describing the desire to seek new experiences through travel and through the mind and senses by living in a non-conforming lifestyle with unconventional friends(6). Disinhibition (Dis) (less inhibited) subscale items describe the need to disinhibit behavior in the social sphere by drinking, partying, and seeking a variety of sexual partners.(6). Boredom Susceptibility (BS) subscale items indicate an aversion for repetitive experience of any kind, routine work, or even dull or predictable people. Other items indicate a restless reaction when things are unchanging(6).
Theories of Sensation Seeking
To understand Sensation Seeking more clearly, one needs an explanation of the many of the many theoretical views of the Sensation Seeking need. Sports psychologists and authors over the years have developed many scales to measure sensation seeking.
Penny’s(7) Stimulus Variation Seeking Scale was constructed to determine the amount of exteroceptive stimulus variation seeking customarily engaged in by an individual. Fiske and Madi (unpublished); in their paper proposed that varied experience is oriented toward and sought for its own sake. Anyone can choose to vary his environment by responding and changing stimulus conditions. Furthermore, it has been hypothesized that stimulus variations seeking underlie exploration, alteration, curiosity, and play.
Another concept of stimulus variation seeking is optimal level of stimulation. A number of researchers and sports psychologists have suggested that stimulus seeking activity is designed to maintain stimulation at an optimal level. Other studies have yielded wide individual differences in stimulus variation seeking and presumably individual differences in optimal levels of stimulation.
Three properties of the Stimulus Variation Seeking Scale have been reported. The first property investigated was the reliability of the scale. The second property explored was its discriminant validity, i.e., a test can be invalidated by high correlation with other test can be invalidated by high correlation with other tests that purport or suggest to measure different traits. The third property investigated was the convergent (which comes together from all directions) validity of the scale. The Stimulus Variation Seeking Scale has been found to be related to auto kinesis (indirect movement of cell) and sensation seeking.
Leuba(8) adds that the principle of optimal stimulation may have a good deal to do with the gaining of ascendancy of priority by certain responses over others. He also adds that in infancy, random movements, as in babbling or during optimal stimulation, are reinforced over movements accompanied by either too little or too much environment to bear upon tactual and other sense organs, it will be most strongly reinforced provided only exploration does not produce excessive stimulation.
Atkinson’s(9) (study states that the first problem in risk-taking behavior is to account for an individual’s selection of one path of action from a set of possible alternatives. The second problem is to account for the amplitude or vigor of the action tendency once it is initiated, and for its tendency to persist for a timed in a given direction. According to Hebb,(10) man’s motivation is a function of his exteroceptive or physiology of stimuli that are external to an organism & stimulation. Isolation produces motivational and emotional disturbance quickly.
The stimulus seeking motivation of Farley’s(11) study is one of the most consistent findings with the Sensation Seeking Scale, as well as with some of the other measures, since age seems to be negatively correlated with stimulation seeking. In other words, stimulation seeking, as measured by these tests, seems to decline with age. O’Conner’s study(12) has stated that theory of achievement motivation provides a rationale for an achievement risk preference scale, which is a paired-comparison test of the intra-individual strength of motive to achievement success relative to strength of motive to avoid failure.
The Measurement of Sensation-Seeking Tendencies
Fowler(13), compared mountaineers, and a smaller group of persons not interested in mountaineering. Those compared a group of persons from a club interested in interested in mountaineering or mountain climbing scored significantly higher on the general and Thrill and Adventure Seeking (TAS) scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale IV form than the other student non-mountain climbers. However, his study was done on platelet non-mountain oxidize (MAO) enzyme, which is contained in the mitochondria of neurons in the brain as well as in other tissues. In the brain, MAO metabolizes the monoamine neurotransmitters.
Negative relationships have been found between MAO levels and the sensation-seeking trait in two studies conducted by Murphy, et al, (14, & 15). High sensation seekers tend to have high levels of MAO. The relationship between MAO and participation in mountain climbing is consistent with the idea that the same biological factors that play a role in the broad trait of sensation seeking may influence the attraction of some individuals to risky sports.
During 80s I have made a through research study concentrating on the measurement of Dr. Zuckerman’s Form V sensation seeking scale questionnaire instead of MAO enzyme. There has been no such investigation conducted in the past, particularly with mountain climbers and non-mountain climbers using this scale.
Other studies in this area of sensation seeking include in this area include the work of Hymbough and Garrett(16), in which skydivers were compared with an equal number of controls matched on age, sex, and socioeconomic variables. As a result, the skydivers scored higher than the control group. In a similar study, straub (17 & 18) compared groups of male Hang-Gliders and Auto Racers with a group of inter-collegiate bowlers (base ball) on the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V of Dr. Zuckerman. Three of the four subscales, TAS, ES, and BS, significantly differentiated the groups. The ES scale actually accounted for the most between group variance in a stepwise discriminant function. However, discriminant function indicated that the automobile racers were higher than the hang-gliders and both of these groups were higher than the bowlers on sensation seeking.
Finally, in another study of Treiber(19) suggested that the Sensation Seeking may be systematically related to motives and patters or continues of use of drugs that are common in-groups of alcohol and drug abusers. Tendencies towards alcohol and drug abusers’ pleasure and motives violate social norms in search of excitement, mood state changes, and physiological arousal. Treiber, also found that in alcoholic offenders, sensation seeking as a personality trait was related to heighten social deviance or diverting from accepted social standards, and an alcoholic lifestyle, as reflected by repeated violations of public drunkenness statutes.
Form V of the Sensation Seeking Scale was developed based on factor analyses of Form IV that used a large heterogeneous sample of English students of both sexes (Male & Female). Factor analyses in the English samples yielded factors highly similar to those found in the American factor analyses. Based on the cross-sex and cross-national similarities in item loading, Form V was constructed. This form contains ten items representing each of the four factors. It does not contain the general scale, but uses a total score based on the sum of four factor scores.
Farley and Cax(20) in their study suggested that there might be more than one factor of sensation seeking; factor analysis was used in an attempt to discover what other factors might be included. Dr. Marvin Zuckerman (21) reported on the dimension of sensation seeking found in samples of male and female undergraduates in the Philadelphia area, where four factors were identified, three of them showed good reliability in their loading across the sexes.
Penny(22) defined Sensation Seeking optimal stimulation which is purported to measure individual differences as they are sensation oriented. However, Blackburn (23) rejects both Sensation Seeking and Sensation Seeking Scale because they do not measure Impulsivity or a strong urge to do something risky. On the other hand, different kinds of tests have been used to measure sensation seeking. These include (i) Dr. Marvin Zuckerman’s ii) Sensation Seeking Scale, (iii) Social Desirability Scale, (iv) Sensation Variation Seeking Scale, (v) Fear of Success Scale (FOSS), and (vi) Change Seeker Index (CSI).
The Sensation Seeking Scale of Dr. Marvin Zuckerman (24) designed to quantify the construct “optimal stimulation level.” The first version of the Sensation Seeking Scale was given to 268 male and 277 female undergraduate students at Brooklyn College. On about two-thirds of the items, the proportion of the Subjects choosing one of the forced-choices fell in the 30-70 percent range. The four items with the most extreme splits (greater than 85.15 percent) were dropped from the test. The remaining 50 items were Interco-related by using tetrachloric or four way correlation. The results revealed that large factor did emerge for both males and females. Twenty-six items for the males and 30 items for the females loaded. Thirty or higher on this factor. To determine the similarity of the item factor structure across the sexes, the item-factor loading of sexes were ranked for the males and females, and the two sets of ranks were correlated by using the Spearman Rank Order Correlation. Rho was 0.91, indicating near identity between the items-factor pattern in both Sexes.
Change Seeker Index (CSI) is habitually consistent pattern of behavior that controls the amount and the kind of stimulus input a given organism receives. Stimulus input includes stimuli from both internal and external sources. Change Seeker Index (CSI) items were selected from a number of existing personalities questionnaire items that seemed to reflect change seeking. A number of other items were also devised. The preliminary questionnaire consisted of 211 items. These were administered to 3 groups, 105 college males, 137 college females, and 60 soldiers. A “phi” or a plane angle coefficient or the constant quantity placed before and multiplying the variables in an algebraic expression was computed between each item response and the upper and lower 27 percent of each distribution. The items that correlated at the .05 level in two of the three groups were retained. The 95 items that make up the present form of the CSI meet these criteria.
Fear of Success Scale (FOSS) was developed by Dr. Marvin Zuckerman and Tresemer(25) to assess individual differences in the motive to avoid success. The first part of the manual deals with the construction of a fear-of success scale; the second part deals with personality correlates of the FOSS; the third presents experimental evidence supporting the predictive validity of the FOSS. Twenty-seven items of the FOSS were written with items total correlation or having relationship with affects with one score with another for males and females. The correlation was small but consistent.
High Risk Sports Populations
Hymbaugh and Garrett(26) compared 21 skydivers with an equal number of controls matched on age, sex, socio-economic, and occupational variables. They used the earlier Form II of the Sensation Seeking Scale, which contained only the General scales. As expected, the skydivers scored significantly higher than the control group on the General Sensation Seeking Scale. The mean difference of 8 points between the groups indicated that a single item pertaining to parachuting cannot account for the difference between the groups, but the other physical risk-taking items may have accounted for a large part of the difference. Straub(27) from here put all in the back compared groups of male Hang-Gliders and Auto-Racers (AR) with a group of inter-collegiate bowlers on the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V. Three of the four subscales, TAS, ES and BS, significantly differentiated the groups. The second-ranking discriminant variables were the Experience Seeking (ES), which actually accounted for the most between group variance in a stepwise discriminant function analysis. The TAS scale was the most discriminating variable. The Disinhibition scale, which ranked third, did not play a significant role in the discriminant function analysis. The BS scale ranked fourth in discriminative power. Discriminant-function analysis indicated that the automobile racers were higher than the hang-gliders were, and both of these groups were higher than the bowlers on sensation seeking. The hang-gliders and auto racers reported receiving more injuries than the bowlers did, and the majority of subjects from both of these groups regarded their sport as a high-risk activity. None of the blowers regarded their sport as a high-risk activity. None of the bowlers regarded that sport as risky. These items were not related to Sensation Seeking Scale in Stroub’s study, although reported injuries and risk appraisals might have proved an interesting comparison.
Kusyszynm, Steinberg and Elliot(28) compared a miscellaneous experimental group of “risk-takers,” including firemen, riot-squad policemen, Race-Car drivers, parachutists, and snowmobilers, with a control group consisting of 70 civil servants and college students. The risk takers scored significantly higher on the General and TAS scales of Form IV. It is not clear whether the two groups were compared on the other subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale or how well the groups were matched. The risk group included vocational risk takers, like firemen and policemen, along with sports participants like parachutists and snow-mobilers (motor-bike). While those choosing risky occupations, such as policemen, or firemen, or military aviation personnel may score high on TAS, they typically score lower on less “socially desirable” Sensation Seeking Scales like Experience Seeking and Dishibition (DIS). The control group, including civil servants and college students, was similarly heterogeneous or diverse in its characteristics.
Becon’s(29) salvage divers were experienced divers who volunteered their services for dangerous rescue and salvage diving. To raise funds for their work, this group held Stock-Car Races (SCR), in which the divers were the drivers. The group was a high sensation-seeking group by all behavioral criteria. The scored significantly higher than a group of college students, matched for age and socioeconomic back ground on the General, TAS, Dis, and BS scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V.
Connolly(30) compared skiers, including ski instructors, with non-skiers, including ski instructors, with non-skiers recruited from a health spa. Sky-divers scored higher than those in the control group on the total and TAS scales of Sensation Seeking scale Form V, and ski instructors scored higher than the other skiers on the Total, TAS, and ES scales.
Comparing 24 skiers who reported skiing injuries in the past and 20 who did not report any injuries, Connolly(31) found that skiers who had accidents were significantly higher than the others on the total, TAS and Dis Scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V. These results show that Sensation Seeking may influence the degree of risk taking within a high Sensation Seeking group. This statement assumes that the skiers with accidents took risks, rather than that they were simply less competent skiers would not explain the result showing higher Sensation Seeking Scale scores for the ski instructors, who were undoubtedly more competent than most of the other skiers. More than three-fourths of those reporting accidents were males, consistent with the higher scores of male skiers on the Total and TAS, Sensation Seeking Scales (SSS) in Connolly’s study.
Fowler, Von Knorring, and Oreland(32) compared a group of persons from a club devoted to mountain climbing and a smaller group of persons interested in mountain climbing with a group of students not experienced or interested in mountain climbing. Those interested in mountain climbing scored significantly higher on the General and TAS scales of the Sensation Seeking Scale V than the other students. Blood samples were obtained from all subjects and levels of platelet (small cell) monoamine exidase (an enzyme present in most tissues which catalyses the oxidation and inactivation of monoamine neurotransmitters, in another word, allowing accumulation of serotonin and noradrenalin in the brain) (MAO) were assayed or a procedure adopted for measuring the biochemical activity of a samplewe. Those interested in mountain climbing had significantly lower MAO levels. MAO is an enzyme that is contained in the mitochondria biological structure found in most cells, in which respiration and energy production occur of neurons a specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses in the brain as well as in other tissues. In the brain, MAO serves the function of metabolizing the monoamine neurotransmitters. The highest levels of MAO are found in the limbic brain system, which have important functions in the regulation of appetite, pleasure, and the pain, sensitivity to reward and punishment, and emotional and behavioral arousal in general. The relationship between MAO and participation in mountain climbing is consistent with the idea that the same biological factors that play a role in the broad trait of Sensation Seeking may influence the attraction of some individuals to risky sports.
Lower Risk Sport Populations
McCuthcheon(33) compared a group of 62 runners participating in races with group of non-runners matched for sex and age. The male runners did not differ significantly from non-runners on any of the Sensation Seeking Scale V except for a borderline significant difference (P<, 10) on the Dis scale; the ratings of the male runners were lower than those of the non-runners on this scale. The non-runners at a borderline significant level (P<, 10) on the Total score and were also significantly lower (P<.05) on the TAS scale. There was no correlation between Sensation Seeking Scale scores and the order of finish in the races in either sex. Apparently Sensation Seeking is less relevant to this low-risk sport than it is to the high-risk sports already discussed. The finding of a tendency toward lower Sensation Seeking, particularly in the female runners, must be interpreted cautiously because the control-group scores were somewhat higher than might be expected for persons of the age. There is one type of running in which the running in which the runners were found to have relatively high Sensation Seeking Scores, that is “streaking”a mark a fad of the early 1970’s, which has not been classified as a sport. The participants were persons, largely college students, who felt impelled to run total naked across campuses or down city street. Their numbers along prevented alone prevented mass arrests for exhibition or defiance of public decency. The individual motives for streakers remain a mystery to this day; however, one topical investigator at the University of West Virginia, Bone(34), felt compelled to investigate the phenomenon. Using an unstandardized, one-item streaking rating scale ranging from “no desire to streak” to “have streaked,” he found significant correlation between streaking and all of the subscales of the Sensation Seeking Scale. The highest correlation were with the General and TAS Scales, supporting the contention were with the General and TAS scales, supporting the contention of those who characterized streaking as a sport. Whatever it was, it apparently satisfied many kinds of needs related to Sensation Seeking. Certainly it provided a novel experience for most participants with only modicum of risk. There are no data on how many real athletic runners participated; but, according to Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, guess, the participation was low in this group, if for nothing else than the risk of stepping barefooted on broken glass.
Straub(35) contrasted female gymnasts and bowlers on the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V. Although gymnastics is probably a higher risk sport than bowling, no differences were found between the two groups on any of the Sensation Seeking scales.
Do physical education majors, as a broad group of persons generally interested in sports, differ from other college students? Wickoff(36) compared male and female physical education major students with college normative groups. No differences were found on any of the Sensation Seeking Scale. In another study relating Sensation Seeking to participation in sports in a different kind of non-college group, Cellini(37) gave the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V scale, along with rating scales of participation in various sports, to a group of 65 ex-convicts tested for vocational guidance following parole. The primary findings were significant correlation of the Total, TAS, and ES scales with participation in football. Other sports, such as running, tennis, bicycling, and swimming, showed little significant correlation with the Sensation Seeking Scales. Football may be one of the best sports for draining some of the aggressive Sensation Seeking needs characteristic of this population.
Sensation Seeking Impulsivity and Psychopathic Personality Scales
For inclusion in the Social Desirability Scale (SDS) of Marlowe-Crowne(38) a number of current personality inventories were consulted in order to devise items. An item had to meet the criterion of cultural approval and was required to have minimal pathological or abnormal implication if responded to in either the socially desirable or undesirable directions. A major objective in the development of the MC SDS was the elimination of pathology relevant to item content. To test this and for comparative purposes, the M-C SDS was submitted and graduate students in a psychology department, for ratings of the degree of maladjustment implied by socially undesirable responses to the items. A five point scale, ranging from extremely well adjusted(Black 39) to extremely maladjusted persons was employed for all the items in the M-C SDS. The mean score of 2.8, slightly below the mid-point of the scale, implied neither good nor poor adjustment. The mean rating SDS items was 3.9, which indicates that the judges considered socially undesirable responses on this scale to be definitely indicative of maladjustment.
A preliminary scale was then administered to 76 students in two introductory psychology courses, and an item analysis was completed. Thirty three items discriminated at the 0.05 levels or better between high and low total scores. Of the 33 items, 18 were keyed true and 15 false, making a response set interpretation of scores highly improbable.
Conclusion
In general reviewing the above literature the researcher discovered that a problem in the investigation of Sensation Seeking behavior is the risk-taking behavior. A true definition of this concept has been made by Dr. Marvin Zuckerman(40, 41, 42, 43, 44). The main purpose is to predict the responses in experimental situations of sensory deprivation of subjects. Farley and Berkowitz(45, 46) also contributed much to the understanding of stimulus seeking behavior. Various theories of Penny and Zuckerman(47, 48) also clearly indicate that Sensation Seeking is another concept of the optimal level of stimulation (OLS). Leuba(49) adds that the principal of optimal stimulation may have a good deal to do the gaining of ascendancy by certain responses over others. Atkinson(50) in his study of risk-taking behavior clearly indicates that man’s motivation is a function of his exteroceptivestimuli external to organism stimulation. Farley(51, 52, & 53) also adds that stimulation seeking is held to be physiologically based in the concept of physiological activation with high stimulation seekers being characteristically low in physiological activation.
The broad trait of Sensation Seeking is related to a participation in specific kinds of sports; namely, those that provide unusual sensations and novel experience, such as those involved with skydiving, hang-gliding, skiing, and scuba diving. Persons who are more experienced in these activities generally score higher than novices or less experienced persons. Risk may not be the primary requisite of these sports. The study of novice divers(54) showed that, given the choice of more prolonged, shallow dives, which provide more opportunity for exploration of the novel underwater world, and more risky deeper dives, the high Sensation Seekers opted for prolonged exploration at the shallower depths; however, high Sensation seeking skiers. High Sensation Seekers have a pronounced tendency to underestimate risk, relative to low Sensation Seekers. This cognitive difference between high and low Sensation Seekers may account for the participation of Sensation Seekers in sports or activities shunned by low Sensation Seekers. It should be emphasized that only low negative correlation exist between Sensation Seeking and anxiety traits, and even these correlation are limited to a specific kind of anxiety trait; Fear and Physical harm.
Bibliography
1 H.P.S. Ahluwalia’s “higher than Everest”, Vikas Publishing House, (P) Ltd, Delhi, Bombay and London, 1973, W.R. Berkowitz’s “Use of the Sensation Seeking Scale with Thai Subjects”, Psychological Reports, 1967,20, 635-641, and Dr. Marvin
Zuckerman’s “Sensation Seeking in England and America: cross-cultural, age and sex comparisons”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1978, 46,139-149)
2 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman’s “Dimensions of Sensation-Seeking”, Journey of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1971, 36, 53-60)
3 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman. “Sensation Seeking: Beyond and Optimal level of arousal”, Lawrence Erlbaum, Associates, Inc., Publishers, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 07642
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5 F.H. Farley, “Social Desirability and Dimensionally in the Sensation Seeking Scale,” Acta Psychological, 1967, 26, 89-96.
6 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, “Dimensions of Sensation Seeking”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1971, 36, 53-60.
7 R.K. Penney, R.C. Reinehr, “Development of a stimulus variations seeking scale for adult”, Psychological Reports, 1966, 18, 631-638.
8 C. Leuba, “Toward some integration of learning theories: The concept of optimal stimulation: Psychological Reports, 1955, 1, 27-33.
9 J.W. Atkison, “Motivational Determinants of Risk-taking Behavior”, Psychological Review, 1957, 64, 359-372.
10 D.O. Heeb, “The motivating effects of extroceptive dimension”, American Psychology, 1958, 13, 109-113.
11 F.H. Farley, “Social Desirability and Dimensionally in the Sensation Seeking Scale,” Acta Psychological, 1967, 26, 89-96
12 O’Conner, P., “An achievement Risk Preference Scale: A Preliminary Report”, American Psychologist, 1962, 17, 317, (Abstract).
13 C.J. Fowler, L. Von Knorring, and L. Oreland, “Platelet monoamine exidase activity in Sensation Seekers”, Psychiatry Research, 1980, 3, 273-279.
14 F. Johansson, L. Von Knorring, and L. Oreland, “Platelet MAO activity in patients with chronic pain syndromes”, Unpublished manuscript, 1976.
15 D.L. Murphy, R.H. Belmaker, M.S. Buchsbaum, N.F. Martin, R. Ciaranello, and R.J. Wyatt, “Biogenic amine related enzyme and personality variations in normalis”, Unpublished manuscript, 1977.
16 S.R. Heymen, and K.G.Rose, “Psychological variables affecting Scuba performance”, Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
17 W.F. Straub, “Sensation Seeking and Locus of Control of high and low risk female athletes”, Unpublished manuscript, 1982.
18 W.F., Straub, “Validation of Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale using high and low risk male athletes”, Unpublished Manuscript, 1982 (a).
19 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, “Sensation-Seeking in England and America: cross-cultural, age and sex comparisons”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1978, 46, 139-149.
20 F.H.Farley, and S.O. Cox, “Stimulus Seeking Motivation in adolescent as a function of age and sex”, Adolescence, 1971, 6, 207-218.
21 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, and Duane P. Schulz, “Sensation Seeking and Volunteering for sensory deprivation and hypnosis experiments”, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, 31, 358-363.
22 R.K. Penney, R.C. Reinehr, “Development of a stimulus variations seeking scale for adult”, Psychological Reports, 1966, 18, 631-638.
23 R. Blackburn, “Emotionally, extroversion and aggression in paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenic offenders”, British Journey of Psychiatry, 1968, 114, 130-132.
24 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, and Duane P. Schulz, “Sensation Seeking and Volunteering for sensory deprivation and hypnosis experiments”, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, 31, 358-363.
25 D.Tresemer, “Fear of Success: Popular but unproven”, Psychology Today, 1974, 7, 82-85.
26 K. Hymbought, and J. Garret, “Sensation-Seeking among sky divers”, Perceptual and Motor Skills. 1974, 38, 118.
27 W.F Straub, “Validation of Zuckerman’s Sensation Seeking Scale using high and low risk male athletes”, Unpublished Manuscript, 1982 (a).
28 I. Kusyszy, P. Steinberg, and B. Elliot., “Arousal Seeking Physical risk-taking, and personality”, paper read at the 18th International Congress of Applied Psychology, Montreal, Canada, July, 1974.
29 J. Bacon., “Sensation-Seeking Levels for members of high risk organization”, Unpublished manuscript, 1974.
30 P.M. Connoly, “An exploratory study of adults engaging in the high risk sports of skiing”, Master Thesis, Rutgers University, 1981.
31 P.M. Connoly, “An exploratory study of adults engaging in the high risk sports of skiing”, Master Thesis, Rutgers University, 1981.
32 C.J. Fowler, L. Von Knorring ,and L. Oreland, “Platelet monoamine exidase activity in sensation seekers”, Psychiatry Research, 1980, 3, 273-279.
33 L.NMcCuthcheon, “Running and Sensation seeking”, North Virginia Community College Journal, fall 1980, II.
34 R.N.Bone, D.D.Montgomery, and E.S. Philip, “Relationship of Sensational-Seeking and anxiety”, Psychological Reports, 1972, 30, 874.
35 W.F.Straub, “Sensation-Seeking and Locus Control of high and low risk female athletes”, Unpublished manuscript, 1982 (b).
36 W.L. Wyckoff, “Are Physical Education majors Sensation Seekers?”, unpublished manuscript, 1982.
37 H.R. Cellini, “Personal Communication”, Study done for Safer Foundation, 1982.
38 D.P.Crowne, and D. Marlowe, “A new scale of social desirability independent of psychopathology”, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1960, 24, 349-354.
39 R. Blackburn, “Emotionally, extroversion and aggression in paranoid and non-paranoid schizophrenic offenders”, British Journal of Psychiatry, 1968, 114, 130-132.
40 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, “The development of an affect adjective check list for the measurement of anxiety”, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1960, 24, 957-962.
41 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, and R.N. Bone, “What is a Sensation Seeker? Personality trait and experience correlates of the Sensation-seeking Scale”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1972, 308-321.
42 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, “Sensation-Seeking: Beyond and optimal level of arousal”, Lawrence Erlbaum, associates, Inc., Publishers, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 07642.
43 Dr.Marvin Zuckerman, and C. Nathan, “Source of reports of visual and auditory sensations in perceptual isolation”, Psychological Bulletin, 1964, 62, 1-20 (b).
44 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, and L. Wheeler, “To dispel fantasies about the fantasy-based measure of fear of success”, Psychological Bulletin, 1975, 2
45 W.R. Berkowitz, “Use of the Sensation Seeking Scale with Thai Subjects”, Psychological Reports, 1967, 20, 635-641.
46 F.H.farley, and S.V. Farley, “Extroversion on Stimulus seeking motivation”, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, 31, 215-216.
47 R.K. Penney, R.C. Reinehr, “Development of a stimulus variations seeking scale for adult”, Psychological Reports, 1966, 18, 631-638.
48 Dr. Marvin Zuckerman, and K. Link, “Construct Validity for the Sensation-Seeking Scale”, Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 1968, 32, 420-426.
49 C. Leuba, “Toward some integration of learning theories: The concept of optimal stimulation: Psychological Reports, 1955, 1, 27-33.
50 J.W. Atkinson, “Motivational Determinants of Risk-taking Behavior”, Psychological Review, 1957, 64, 359-372.
51 F.H.Farley, “Social Desirability and Dimensionally in the Sensation-Seeking Scale”, Acta Psychological, 1967, 26, 89-96.
52 F.H. Farley, and S.O.Cox, “Stimulus-Seeking Motivation in adolescent as a function of age and sex”, Adolescence, 1971, 6, 207-216.
53 F.H.Farley, and S.V. Farley, “Extroversion on Stimulus-Seeking motivation”, Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1967, 31, 215-216.
54 S.R. Heymen, and K.G. Rose, “Psychological variables affecting Scuba performance”, Unpublished manuscript, 1980.
55 Dr. Athilqul H. Laskar, M.Sc., Ph.D., “The 20th Century Phenomenon Sensation Seeking Tendency in Mountain Climbers”, ISBN 0-595-09023-0, Writer’s Club Press, San Jose, New York, Lincoln, (Nebraska), Shanghai, 2000.
56 H.Woodburn, T.H. Scot, and W.H. Bexton, “Effects of deceased variation in the sensory environment”, Canada Journal of Psychology, 1954, 8, 70-76.
Recommendation
The recommendations for any future research study with sensation seeking are:
1. an expansion of this study on a large sample is needed to generalize the findings in the sensation seeking tendency of mountain climbers and non-mountain climbers in India, especially in the North Eastern India.
2. A research study should explore the Sensation Seeking (SS) tendency in professional risk takers sports in India including a large sample size in order to determine any differences in sensation seeking tendency.
3. Further research investigation needs to be completed among professional risk takers in their day to day job of different cultures of India to determine any differences in sensation seeking tendency.
4. A broader study should compare the children of high sensation seeking parents with those of low sensation seeker parents who are involved in Assam Forest department including Kaziranga game sanctuary including other risky jobs in India to see whether there is any SS tendency difference.
5. a study should also explore for SS tendency between males in addition, females between 17 and 21 year of age of India based on India culture to see whether there are any SS tendency differences.
6 A study should explore whether there are any SS tendency differences between educated and uneducated sample youth of India
7. A study should explore whether there are any high risk takers between Indian University students and rural school students for recruitment of personnel in Indian armed forces for a more efficient army.
8. A study may also include to explore Sensation Seeking tendency among meritorious students and non-meritorious students in India universities.
9. A special study should included to explore high Sensation Seekers in coal mine workers and Police department personnel in India.
10. An exclusive study should be included to explore actual Sensation Seekers among members of Indian Olympic teams and Assam State Sports members to determine potential sports person for national team.
11. A study may include to explore possibilities among would be candidates seeking to join Indian Air Force and Indian Army.
12. An exclusive research study should also be done between Assam Refinery workers and Civil Secretariat workers in Assam.
13. A complete research investigation needs to be completed among professional risk takers among Industrial workers and administrative workers of India to determine any differences of risk taking and sensation seeking tendency.
Power Point Presentation:
Slide #1ROLLER COASTERS
• Some folks love them.
• Go on coasters in the dark.
• Loosen seatbelts.
• Travel around the country.
• Exciting and pleasurable.
• For others, it’s a near death experience.
Slide#2 SKY DIVING
• Friend wanted to do something unique for her 50th birthday.
• Her kids suggested skydiving.
• Tandem dive.
• Great experience even with a broken ankle.
Slide#3 EXTREME SPORTS
• Thrill seekers.
• Natural highs.
• Action gamblers.
• Speed freaks.
• What do they have in common?
• Rewarding pathways in the brain.
Slide# HANG GLIDING
• Sport most likely to result in death.
• Thrill seeking appears irrational.
• Take unreasonable risks.
• Trigger fight or flight response.
• Adrenalin surge.
• Stress reaction.
• Why take the risk?
Slide # THRILL SEEKERS REPORT
• Psychological high.
• Sense of mastery.
• Have developed skills.
• Know how to use gear.
• Coping skills.
• Able to handle situation
Slide # BRIDGE JUMPING
Slide # DEVELOPING SKILL
• First timers report intense fear.
• With practice, fear disappears
• Psychological high remains.
• Self-satisfaction associated with highly developed coping skill.
• Learn how to control fear
Slide # SELF EFFICACY
• Belief in your abilities.
• Mobilize your energy.
• Physical and psychological resources.
• Know the appropriate action to take.
• Emergency responders.
• Handle the fear.
Slide # OUTCOME EFFICACY
• Belief that you will experience satisfaction from reaching goal.
• Mastery in the past.
• Sense of accomplishment.
• Worth taking the risk.
• Joy of success.
Slide # PEOPLE WHO AVOID RISKS
• Not because they experience fear
• Not close enough to experience fear
• Haven’t even approached the threat.
• In reality, they won’t be able to cope with the situation
• Expectation of fear and failure.
Slide # FEAR OF PUBLIC SPEAKING
• Work of Bandura.
• Greatest source of threat is our inability to deal with nagging doubts about our performance.
• Should I take public speaking course?
• Will I freeze?
• What will people think?
• Never sign up
Slide # NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
• Negative thoughts are powerful un-motivating force.
• Negative thoughts create anxiety.
• Anxiety makes us apprehensive.
• Avoid situation.
Slide # ANTIDOTE FOR NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
• Self-efficacy best prevention against negative thoughts.
• Mastery in risky situations.
• Rope courses.
• Bob Marsh: “push the envelope of comfort.”
Slide # ROPE COURSES
• Safe way to develop mastery.
• Overcome fears.
• Develop trust in community.
• Improve self-image.
• Used extensively in drug rehab with adolescents.
• Team building for many different groups.
Slide # MARVIN ZUCKERMAN
Slide # SESORY DEPRIVATION
• Zuckerman was grad student in these studies.
• Interested in subjects who hated deprivation.
• Couldn’t tolerate low levels of stimulation.
• Wanted new experiences.
Slide # SENSATION SEEKING SCALE
• Developed new scale: SSS.
• Zuckerman on sensation seeking:
• “a trait defined by the need for varied, novel and complex sensations and experiences.
• And the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experiences.”
Slide # SSS COMPONENTS
• Thrill and adventure seeking. (action gamblers).
• Seek experiences outside the conventional lifestyle (travel, friends, and art).
• Disinheriting: release of inhibitions, escape the pressures of daily life. (escape gamblers).
• Low tolerance for boredom, repetition and sameness.
Slide # SSS PREDICTOR OF ADDICTION
• Sensation seeking as personality trait.
• Correlated with alcoholism.
• Gambling.
• Perhaps common in all addictions.
Slide # MALE-LIMITED ALCOHOLISM
• Males particularly susceptible
• Male limited.
• More severe, early onset.
• Many negative consequences.
• Trouble with law, at school, on job.
• Environment plays less of a role but can lessen the severity.
Slide # BRAIN RESPONSE TO NOVELTY
• Brain waves to novel stimuli.
• P3 waves.
• Less reaction in alcoholics.
• Need more stimulation?
Slide # PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
• Related to biology?
• Reward seeking.
• Impulsive.
• Easily bored.
• Risk takers
• Gregarious
• Push the limits
• Act out
Slide # BRAIN CHEMISTRY DIFFERENCES
• Naturally higher levels of some mood chemicals.
• Brain in high gear.
• In order to feel high, have to push the brain beyond normal level of activity.
• Greater sensation to get reward.
• Potential for addiction.
Slide # IMPORTANT FOR PREVENTION
• Gambling as example.
• Primary: before start gambling. Prevent early exposure.
• Secondary: intervene in early stages. Provide alternatives.
• Tertiary: treatment.
• Understand the role of sensation seeking to avoid switching addictions.
Slide # Conclusion
oOo
Sunday, May 1, 2011
A Responsible Budget
From Dr Athiqul H. Laskar, Chennai, 20 April 23, 2010
To The Editor,
Sir,
A Responsible Budget
A responsible budget, which takes a holistic view of the needs of all sections of society, is the hallmark of a successful Democracy. This is a time-honored sentiment that pervades the minds of literate and informed citizenry of India, the world’s largest Democracy. However, what happens when all the efforts of arriving at such a ‘responsible budget’ gets caught midway in the mess of corruption, and ends up being nothing more than an eye-wash? What use is it when a huge part of budgetary allocations is siphoned out to fulfill personal agendas of our political leaders, rather than expanding to meet intended developmental purposes? With no accountability for public money, and with insignificant public participation, such a budget fails its very purpose of ‘rescuing the economy’.
To give a perspective, it is no secret that Assam has extremely high levels of unemployment. In such a scenario, year after year, the state budget promises that funds would be directed towards alleviating the unemployment crisis. However, amidst these well-meaning directives, the actual goings-on at the grassroots level are totally different. How? A simple example is the glaring discrepancy between the actual wages that daily wage workers receive vis-Ã -vis the amount that they are officially made to sign against.
Moreover, in a state like Assam, where child abuse, women trafficking is the highest amongst other Indian states, more than ever, child issues are heavily neglected in budgetary considerations. Compare this to US directives that allocate substantial amount of funds to combat juvenile delinquency, and rehabilitate these delinquents. A case in point is the allocation of USD $397,000, in the 2010-11 budget, to check international drug trafficking that ultimately gives rise to such delinquency.
On the whole, it is high time our political leadership absorbed valuable lessons from the above, and aimed to arrive at a more streamlined budget. This is possible only if they pulled up their socks against systemic corruption. Otherwise the noble intention behind a ‘good budget’ will remain restricted to being a mere gimmickry, a yearly ritual of running pen on paper. Yours etc. Dr. Athiqul H. Laskar, Chennai.
To The Editor,
Sir,
A Responsible Budget
A responsible budget, which takes a holistic view of the needs of all sections of society, is the hallmark of a successful Democracy. This is a time-honored sentiment that pervades the minds of literate and informed citizenry of India, the world’s largest Democracy. However, what happens when all the efforts of arriving at such a ‘responsible budget’ gets caught midway in the mess of corruption, and ends up being nothing more than an eye-wash? What use is it when a huge part of budgetary allocations is siphoned out to fulfill personal agendas of our political leaders, rather than expanding to meet intended developmental purposes? With no accountability for public money, and with insignificant public participation, such a budget fails its very purpose of ‘rescuing the economy’.
To give a perspective, it is no secret that Assam has extremely high levels of unemployment. In such a scenario, year after year, the state budget promises that funds would be directed towards alleviating the unemployment crisis. However, amidst these well-meaning directives, the actual goings-on at the grassroots level are totally different. How? A simple example is the glaring discrepancy between the actual wages that daily wage workers receive vis-Ã -vis the amount that they are officially made to sign against.
Moreover, in a state like Assam, where child abuse, women trafficking is the highest amongst other Indian states, more than ever, child issues are heavily neglected in budgetary considerations. Compare this to US directives that allocate substantial amount of funds to combat juvenile delinquency, and rehabilitate these delinquents. A case in point is the allocation of USD $397,000, in the 2010-11 budget, to check international drug trafficking that ultimately gives rise to such delinquency.
On the whole, it is high time our political leadership absorbed valuable lessons from the above, and aimed to arrive at a more streamlined budget. This is possible only if they pulled up their socks against systemic corruption. Otherwise the noble intention behind a ‘good budget’ will remain restricted to being a mere gimmickry, a yearly ritual of running pen on paper. Yours etc. Dr. Athiqul H. Laskar, Chennai.
Youth and parent relationship
Dr.Athiqul H. Laskar
Youth and parent relationship
With more than 60% of India under the age of 30, this country has a young population that makes way for an interesting study of how the Indian youth relates to ideologies of their older generation. It is the purpose of this study not only to examine where the youth stand today, as compared to their yesteryears’ counterparts, but also to assess how dynamics of this changing world has altered their relationship with their parents/elders. Before I make any attempt to offer my perspective on the above issue, I would like to clarify that this case study cannot encapsulate the crux of an entire generation absolutely precisely. However, it is certainly within the scope of this study to offer a balanced representation of a fairly large cross-section of today’s youth, be it in India or abroad.
More often than not, there are sociological perspectives that apply sweeping adjectives, such as ‘rebellious’, ‘non-conformist’, ‘apathetic’, ‘morally degraded’, ‘brash’, ‘disrespectful towards elders’, to today’s youth; in fact, there are hundreds of similar tags that are attached to the youth. It is undoubtedly true that a lot has changed in our world, in so far as how the current generation relates to its socio-cultural environment. For instance, while the older generation were very rooted to the family unit, and turned to their elders for advice when it was time to take important life-altering decisions, the youth are charged with a somewhat ‘I-know-what-I-want-from-my-life’ kind of attitude. Moreover, for today’s youth, their peers’ opinion matters much more to them than that of their parents. In such a scenario, parents find it hard to turn a blind eye to what they feel might be a ‘dangerous path’ being treaded by their children. It is natural for parents to get anxious over their children’s welfare; they want to protect their children from any pitfalls that the latter might encounter along the way. After all, they are convinced (and rightly so) that no amount of knowledge can substitute their wisdom, which has stemmed from age and experience. In their unwillingness to accept their children’s new-found freedom, parents become skeptical of the company that the youngster is keeping, and their sense of judgment, behaving like a moral police most of the time. The ‘good old days in which we grew up’ is a common sentiment amongst the elderly. Needless to say, children do not take too kindly to what they consider ‘undue interference’ from their parents, and land up retaliating. This ultimately leads to the ‘I-know-what-I-am-doing’ refrain. All this boils down to nothing but a never-ending tussle between youngsters and their parents.
The above scenario is typical of the early 1990s. This was the time when, as a result of globalization, there was a sudden change in social values. Opening up of the economy led to an increased access not just to foreign products, but also to foreign culture and values. This unprecedented ‘cultural diffusion’ led our youth to a somewhat confused state of mind, in terms of where their ambitions lay. All of a sudden, bizarre things like getting one’s navel or temples pierced, and studding it with rings of all shapes and sizes, became ‘cool’. To add to this, the youth of this period was overawed by the sudden spurt in spending power, leading to rise in consumerism.
While the youth managed to flow with the tide of this so-called modernity, the transition was not so easy for the elders of this period; the latter could not come to terms with such changes. No wonder, the chasm, or the proverbial ‘generation gap’ as we like to call it, between parents and their children, widened. As parental hold on children started diminishing, the former realized that they too needed to be in sync with the changing times. If the onset of adolescence is a (physically, mentally and emotionally) difficult time for the youngster, it is a period of equal angst for the parents as well, as they too are entering a new phase of their life – that of mid-life crisis; they too try hard to strike a balance between exercising parental authority and being a friend to their young son/daughter. In this mental dilemma, while some parents land up being too authoritative and dictatorial, some others become overly permissive. The extent to which each side acknowledges the changes happening in the other, and the degree of acceptance will determine the parent-child relationship. Nevertheless, this ‘acceptance’ does not have to be blind or all-pervasive. Here, let’s take a case in point.
Mr. Harish Dhiman is a 65-year old self-made man. Born in a typical middle-class family, he was forced to drop out of school at the age of 18. The reason was his bad eyesight. With a power of -10 and -11 in both his eyes, he was virtually blind. The doctors (in their wisdom) had advised his parents not to make him study too much, lest he should become totally blind. Despite this lack of opportunity, the young Harish could barely complete class 12. Thereafter, he decided to start his own construction business. As the senior Dhiman was only a clerk in a government office, there was little financial support that could be expected from him. He started by working in a marble factory, keeping his mental faculties open to whatever new learning came is way. Within a couple of years, as he learnt a few tricks of the trade, and also saved some money, he took some loan from a bank and embarked on his own venture. Initially, Harish used to travel from Delhi to Jaipur on his bike (his most prized possession in those days), twice a week to get orders for raw material. Gradually, with a lot of hard work, he succeeded in settling down fairly well. Today, he is the owner of a 100-crore company in New Delhi, which is North India’s biggest in the plumbing and fire-fighting space. Needless to say, Harish has nurtured his new company just like his own child, the fruit of his labor.
Anyone would expect this gentleman to be a sagacious old man, who has overcome immense trials and tribulations of life. This is certainly true. Today, he is one of India’s highest tax-payers, and is looked up to by all his family and friends for sane advice. However, unfortunately, none of his two children live up to the standing created by their father. The eldest daughter, Vrinda, is aged 41.She is a divorcee with 2 grown-up children. Although Vrinda had a love marriage, much against the parents’ wishes, she could not come to terms with her husband’s ‘lesser status’. This is where parental guidance (or lack of it) came into play. Harish’s wife, Radha could not see her daughter moving around in a Maruti 800, while she herself had access to a chauffer-driven Mercedes. So, she forced her husband, Harish, to gift their daughter a luxury car on the latter’s first wedding anniversary. This was not taken too well by Vrinda’s self-respecting husband, who however, managed to hide his displeasure. But this carried on, as Radha continued to send goodies, such as expensive imported fruits, newly-bought jewellery, dresses, etc. (without any occasion) to her daughter’s new home. She even went as far as sending a bunch of thousands every week, so that her beloved daughter did not have to compromise on the expensive beauty salons that she was accustomed to, in favor of local and non-descript parlours.
It was not long before Vrinda’s husband’s self-esteem became too strong for him to digest such goings-on, and he decided to put his foot down, only to be labeled as ‘a husband not capable enough to give his wife her due’. Within 4 years, the marriage fell part. Today, it is not just Vrinda who lives off her father’s wealth, but also her two children, who also take their grandfather’s money for granted.
Moving on to Harish’s only son, 38-year old Manik, his case is even worse. Though born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, he is the typical instance of an over-indulged, narcissistic and self-centered adult. Although he has had the privilege of being educated in one of the city’s premier schools, and is an alumnus of a US business school, his personal conduct betrays an absolute disregard for the value of money or time. As the son of one of the city’s leading businessmen, armed with a good business education, he has had all possible avenues to embark on sturdy and successful professional life; the least he could have done was to start going to his father’s office, once he completed his MBA education at the age of 28. There was a lot he could have absorbed from his father, who has tougher business mettle (albeit without any formal business degree) than any formally qualified business leader. But, unfortunately, Manik has been unwise enough to squander his chances away, which is such a pity.
It is not that Manik is a vagabond or a good-for-nothing alcoholic. His problem is that he is lackadaisical. He thinks that he is ‘Mr. Know-it-all’, who knows, better than the wisest people around, how to succeed in life. In his aspiration to surpass his father’s glory, he tries business after business – from starting a construction company, to export and import of Italian sauces and other edibles, to becoming an agent for a company that sells weight loss products. Whenever he has a new whim, the father is always there to finance his son’s new venture. Two years back, Manik expressed his desire to learn about the family business, and contribute towards it. Hearing this, Harish’s joy knew no bounds. The upcoming project required Manik to relocate a different city. Harish got down to arranging all necessary infrastructures for his son and his (second) wife in the new city. More than investing his time and energy towards the actual business that he was supposed to have relocated for, Manik spent a greater part of his efforts in furnishing his new house and buying a new car, which had to be nothing less than a Skoda Octavia. To sum it all up, Manik suffered from complete lack of focus.
Despite his many (ill-focused) endeavors, although he starts each business venture with tremendous enthusiasm, the steam runs out within 6 months. The root cause is that, since he gets the initial capital for starting any new business very easily from his father, as soon as the going gets a little tough, he does not mind quitting the present initiative in favor of greener and easier pastures. This is a never-ending chain; today, even at 38 years of age, and a 5 year old daughter, he is still not settled.
Harish is still slogging when he could have retired a decade earlier; he knows that if the son is given charge of the business, his four-and-a-half decades of hard work will come to naught within merely a couple of years. How could a self-made man like Harish, with all his sagacity and prudence, not groom either of his children to be worth their salt? This is a question that intrigues many, and understandably so.
The above is a typical case of over-indulgence, and blind permissiveness, on the parents’ part. In this regard, it would be fair to say that, although Harish was more mature in how to bring up the children with their head on their shoulders, it was his wife, Radha, who was over-protective. As the mother and house-keeper, she had a bigger role to play in this regard, and therefore, her word prevailed. Since she too had gone through hard times while her husband was struggling, she always wanted to protect her children from the need to make both ends meet. As an over-protective mother, she shielded them from all mistakes – big or small. If her elder daughter Vrinda broke a glass of milk, she would take the blame on herself; if her younger son (Manik) flicked a neighbour’s toy, and was questioned by Harish, Radha would quickly protect him by claiming that the toy was bought by her “just yesterday”. In all, she made sure that her children did not have to face the consequences of their own mistakes. No wonder, the kids got used to getting away with just about anything, without having to be grateful for the wonderful life and privileges they had. The result is that, today, both these children are absolutely directionless.
What should the parents have done 2 decades ago? Firstly, they should have denied the children easy access to all luxuries. This way, the latter would have respected the privileges they had, besides acknowledging their father’s hard work that had gone into earning all that wealth. A good step in this direction could have been for the parents to take their children around the less privileged localities, maybe even made them do some community service, to reinforce how fortunate they were to have all that they did, sensitizing them towards the plight of the less fortunate lot of people in this world.
It is when the youth expects quick results and easy gratification for their efforts, without getting their fingernails dirty, that the problem rises - another significant difference between the ‘then’ and ‘now’ generations. The above case of the Dhimans is the general story of the youth born between the 1960s and the early 1970s. As I have already clarified to my readers, in the opening paragraph, that the purpose of my study is not to tie an entire generation with one thread, the perspective that I am offering is only one that has been deduced from my personal observations, analysis and experience.
Moving further, now that we have entered the new millennium, the picture of today’s youth is not all that dark and gloomy any more. In the present times, it would be unfair to perpetuate stereotypes, and tag the youth as those belonging to the ear-nose-navel pierced generation of youngsters, who know nothing better than how to blindly ape their western counterparts. No doubt, there are still significant differences in the perspectives of today’s youth vis-a-viz their parents, but this is unavoidable.
A decade ago, globalization largely led to blind aping of the West; today it means that the youth have become a near-perfect blend of the East and the West; while, on one hand, they seem all too ready to embrace the modernization of the western world, on the other hand, they are also not embarrassed to adopt traditional values, such as participating in most of the family’s religious functions, greeting their elders in a traditional way, touching their feet, etc. With this dual cultural passport, today’s youth are more mature, adaptable and tolerant of those who may be different from them. Although urban as well as a large part of rural India is progressing by leaps and bounds, it is a welcome change to see the youth adhere to boundaries of acceptable behavior. ‘What is socially acceptable and what is not’, and the “how-will-my-parents-react-to-this” mindset does play a role in how they conduct themselves. This means that today’s youth have evolved, not just in what they wear, or in terms of the latest gizmos they flaunt, but, more importantly in their mindset.
This is not to say that there are absolutely no deviations between the youth’s perspectives and that of their parents; expecting such absolute harmony is expecting a little too much. There is certainly a reasonable amount of tussle between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’’ like the Swedish saying that says, “If the Stone Age children had obeyed their parents we would still be living in the Stone Age”. But the scene is a lot better than it was some time back.
Parents of today’s youth (assuming that the term ‘youth’ includes all those in the 15-30 age group) were born sometime between 1950 and 1970. They have tasted much more turbulent times with their older generations. As a result, they have become more tolerant towards their children than their own parents were, decades ago. They are quick to understand that communication gap with their children will yield nothing more than emotional issues for the latter. About 20 years ago, a youngster’s cry for freedom and ‘personal space’ might have been (mis)construed by the parent as ‘defiance’. However this is far from the truth. The child’s motive behind asserting himself/herself is not to challenge his/her parent’s authority. They are just exploring their own capabilities, and wanting to carve their standing / self-esteem in their own eyes. They want their voice to be heard. This is a passing phase for the youngster, and if parents are supportive at this point, it can reap great dividends for the future parent-child relationship. However, if the parent gets too authoritative and dictatorial at this point, it can lead to a psycho-socially mal-adjusted child. In other words, parents need to be perceptive enough to identify the signs when the child expects them to relinquish control.
Therefore, today’s parents make all possible efforts to make communication more fearless and democratic than they themselves had the luxury of. They realize that the erstwhile “You-must-do-this-because-I-say-so” approach does no go well with today’s youth. Such efforts on the parents’ part engender trust amongst the youth, who find it easier to confide in their parents, whenever the need arises.
This argument reminds me of an interesting case depicting how the youth-parent relationship has changed for the better, in the last decade or so. Rahul is a Hospitality industry graduate, currently working as an Airlines professional, in the flight catering division. By virtue of his profession, he has daily interactions with people from across the globe. During one such interaction, in February 2008, he met Corinne, who is an American. As luck would have it, they met again a couple of months later, and yet again. Gradually, their professional association evolved into a friendship, which finally metamorphosed into a deeper relationship. Early this year, as their relationship has seen around 18 months of success, Rahul and Corinne have decided to tie the knot. When Rahul shared his plans with his parents, they were shocked, and understandably more so because Corinne is 3 years older than Rahul, and belongs to a culture that is very different from the one that their son has been brought up amidst. Like most middle-class Indian parents, they too had nurtured the dream of seeing their son settled with a ‘homely’ Indian girl. So, Rahul’s announcement came as a rather unpleasant surprise to them.
Fortunately, the old couple has displayed tremendous maturity in this situation. Had the same situation arisen in a family around the late 1980s or early 1990s, in all probability, the concerned parents may have been too shell-shocked to think rationally; they would have made the son feel guilty for not having thought of family honour, or the community, or for having dashed his old parents’ hopes to the ground. They may even have taken a drastic step like disowning their son (although, I re-iterate, I am not making any generalizations, and these may certainly not be applicable across the board). Instead, Rahul’s parents have been more stoic in how they have handled the situation. They are matured enough to understand that their son would perhaps go ahead with his plans, despite all resistance. Even if he does not do so, it will only be because he would find himself overwhelmed by his responsibility towards his parents’ sentiments. They have assessed the situation well. They have voiced their concerns not so much regarding the age difference, but more regarding the cultural differences between both of them. So, they have chosen their battles carefully. Although their fears are still not allayed completely, they have decided to be a support for their son. Agreeing to this proposed alliance has not been easy for them at all.
Such unconditional support from his parents has engendered a profound respect in Rahul’s heart for his parents, and he has vowed to himself that he would never let them down. He has had a heart-to-heart talk with his fiancée, explaining it well to her that, although she is going to be an important part of his life from now, his parents form an equally integral part of his life. He has made her understand the difference between the perspectives of Indian parents vis-a-viz that of American parents. So now Corinne too understands that Rahul’s parents’ acquiescence, in so far as their relationship is concerned, is actually a big deal, seen from a traditional Indian parent’s viewpoint.
Although the wedding has not yet been solemnized, Rahul’s parents are trying to be as optimistic as possible, although they still fear the worst. Even if, God forbid, things go wrong somewhere, Rahul is sure of still having a very strong support system, in the form of his parents. This has strengthened their bond like never before. Even his parents can rest assured in the knowledge that Rahul will never forget to confide in them, no matter how seemingly insurmountable the issue may be.
From the above case of Rahul, it is evident that, although today’s Indian youth seek (financial as well as emotional) independence, they are still much more rooted, and more content to remain within the institution called the family, as compared to their American contemporaries. Unlike the latter, they are not seeking complete emancipation from parental bond. This is precisely the reason why Rahul thought that his issue was important enough to be discussed with his parents, before he went ahead with it. After all, Corinne was not as weighed down, as Rahul was, by the sense of duty of making this announcement for her parents’ prior approval. In fact, as far as her household was concerned, this news was broken like any other piece of news, which did not require much debate or deliberation from the family’s elders.
This is nothing but social conditioning. Intrinsic American culture endorses that their youth be weaned away from parents’ decision-making influence latest by the age of 18 years, whereas Indian social conditioning is rather different. In this regard, I wish to highlight one point of difference between the Indian youth and their American counterparts. While the former seek this independence, albeit still going back to their parents every now and then, it is not very common to see the latter have an equivalent sense of cohesion towards the basic family unit, once they have been weaned away. An Indian teenager’s attempt to ‘break free’ is looked down upon as ‘callousness’, ‘irresponsible attitude’ and ‘insensitivity towards aging parents’ needs’. In this context, simply visiting parents on weekends or holidays is not enough; children (particularly male) are expected to keep their identity firmly entwined with that of their families and communities. It is interesting to note that here, ‘family’ constitutes not just the immediate family (parents and siblings) but, in a lot of cases, the wider family consisting of uncles and aunts as well as their respective families also. Perhaps, this acts as a cementing force in case of the Indian youth.
Having spent time and efforts in making all the above observations, we can aver that it would be a gross and unfortunate misinterpretation of today’s youth, if we were to associate them with adjectives, such as ‘rebellious’, ‘defiant’ or ‘non-conformist’. No doubt, they find it hard to accept directives (whether it is from their parents or anyone else) with unquestioned obedience. They want to be convinced about the veracity of a certain issue before acknowledging the same as worthy enough to gain their acceptance. In today’s times, such a mindset is healthy, maybe even desirable. With Charles Darwin’s theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ becoming applicable in today’s socio-cultural times, more than any other time in history, it is imperative that the youth be given the leeway to venture into the outside world, take independent decisions, and learn from their mistakes, relatively earlier than their parents or grandparents did. Indian as well as American parents too realize that those amongst them who can adapt to this kind of requirement raise happier and more socially well-adjusted children.
So, in a nutshell, we can safely arrive at a fair conclusion (even if it is not unanimous) that the current generation is not so much in jeopardy, as feared by some. This is a generation that is liberated and confident, stretching their minds to discover new worlds and new horizons. The best part is that an encouragingly large part of them is fortunate enough to receive parental support, which is a welcome change from the past.
Youth and parent relationship
With more than 60% of India under the age of 30, this country has a young population that makes way for an interesting study of how the Indian youth relates to ideologies of their older generation. It is the purpose of this study not only to examine where the youth stand today, as compared to their yesteryears’ counterparts, but also to assess how dynamics of this changing world has altered their relationship with their parents/elders. Before I make any attempt to offer my perspective on the above issue, I would like to clarify that this case study cannot encapsulate the crux of an entire generation absolutely precisely. However, it is certainly within the scope of this study to offer a balanced representation of a fairly large cross-section of today’s youth, be it in India or abroad.
More often than not, there are sociological perspectives that apply sweeping adjectives, such as ‘rebellious’, ‘non-conformist’, ‘apathetic’, ‘morally degraded’, ‘brash’, ‘disrespectful towards elders’, to today’s youth; in fact, there are hundreds of similar tags that are attached to the youth. It is undoubtedly true that a lot has changed in our world, in so far as how the current generation relates to its socio-cultural environment. For instance, while the older generation were very rooted to the family unit, and turned to their elders for advice when it was time to take important life-altering decisions, the youth are charged with a somewhat ‘I-know-what-I-want-from-my-life’ kind of attitude. Moreover, for today’s youth, their peers’ opinion matters much more to them than that of their parents. In such a scenario, parents find it hard to turn a blind eye to what they feel might be a ‘dangerous path’ being treaded by their children. It is natural for parents to get anxious over their children’s welfare; they want to protect their children from any pitfalls that the latter might encounter along the way. After all, they are convinced (and rightly so) that no amount of knowledge can substitute their wisdom, which has stemmed from age and experience. In their unwillingness to accept their children’s new-found freedom, parents become skeptical of the company that the youngster is keeping, and their sense of judgment, behaving like a moral police most of the time. The ‘good old days in which we grew up’ is a common sentiment amongst the elderly. Needless to say, children do not take too kindly to what they consider ‘undue interference’ from their parents, and land up retaliating. This ultimately leads to the ‘I-know-what-I-am-doing’ refrain. All this boils down to nothing but a never-ending tussle between youngsters and their parents.
The above scenario is typical of the early 1990s. This was the time when, as a result of globalization, there was a sudden change in social values. Opening up of the economy led to an increased access not just to foreign products, but also to foreign culture and values. This unprecedented ‘cultural diffusion’ led our youth to a somewhat confused state of mind, in terms of where their ambitions lay. All of a sudden, bizarre things like getting one’s navel or temples pierced, and studding it with rings of all shapes and sizes, became ‘cool’. To add to this, the youth of this period was overawed by the sudden spurt in spending power, leading to rise in consumerism.
While the youth managed to flow with the tide of this so-called modernity, the transition was not so easy for the elders of this period; the latter could not come to terms with such changes. No wonder, the chasm, or the proverbial ‘generation gap’ as we like to call it, between parents and their children, widened. As parental hold on children started diminishing, the former realized that they too needed to be in sync with the changing times. If the onset of adolescence is a (physically, mentally and emotionally) difficult time for the youngster, it is a period of equal angst for the parents as well, as they too are entering a new phase of their life – that of mid-life crisis; they too try hard to strike a balance between exercising parental authority and being a friend to their young son/daughter. In this mental dilemma, while some parents land up being too authoritative and dictatorial, some others become overly permissive. The extent to which each side acknowledges the changes happening in the other, and the degree of acceptance will determine the parent-child relationship. Nevertheless, this ‘acceptance’ does not have to be blind or all-pervasive. Here, let’s take a case in point.
Mr. Harish Dhiman is a 65-year old self-made man. Born in a typical middle-class family, he was forced to drop out of school at the age of 18. The reason was his bad eyesight. With a power of -10 and -11 in both his eyes, he was virtually blind. The doctors (in their wisdom) had advised his parents not to make him study too much, lest he should become totally blind. Despite this lack of opportunity, the young Harish could barely complete class 12. Thereafter, he decided to start his own construction business. As the senior Dhiman was only a clerk in a government office, there was little financial support that could be expected from him. He started by working in a marble factory, keeping his mental faculties open to whatever new learning came is way. Within a couple of years, as he learnt a few tricks of the trade, and also saved some money, he took some loan from a bank and embarked on his own venture. Initially, Harish used to travel from Delhi to Jaipur on his bike (his most prized possession in those days), twice a week to get orders for raw material. Gradually, with a lot of hard work, he succeeded in settling down fairly well. Today, he is the owner of a 100-crore company in New Delhi, which is North India’s biggest in the plumbing and fire-fighting space. Needless to say, Harish has nurtured his new company just like his own child, the fruit of his labor.
Anyone would expect this gentleman to be a sagacious old man, who has overcome immense trials and tribulations of life. This is certainly true. Today, he is one of India’s highest tax-payers, and is looked up to by all his family and friends for sane advice. However, unfortunately, none of his two children live up to the standing created by their father. The eldest daughter, Vrinda, is aged 41.She is a divorcee with 2 grown-up children. Although Vrinda had a love marriage, much against the parents’ wishes, she could not come to terms with her husband’s ‘lesser status’. This is where parental guidance (or lack of it) came into play. Harish’s wife, Radha could not see her daughter moving around in a Maruti 800, while she herself had access to a chauffer-driven Mercedes. So, she forced her husband, Harish, to gift their daughter a luxury car on the latter’s first wedding anniversary. This was not taken too well by Vrinda’s self-respecting husband, who however, managed to hide his displeasure. But this carried on, as Radha continued to send goodies, such as expensive imported fruits, newly-bought jewellery, dresses, etc. (without any occasion) to her daughter’s new home. She even went as far as sending a bunch of thousands every week, so that her beloved daughter did not have to compromise on the expensive beauty salons that she was accustomed to, in favor of local and non-descript parlours.
It was not long before Vrinda’s husband’s self-esteem became too strong for him to digest such goings-on, and he decided to put his foot down, only to be labeled as ‘a husband not capable enough to give his wife her due’. Within 4 years, the marriage fell part. Today, it is not just Vrinda who lives off her father’s wealth, but also her two children, who also take their grandfather’s money for granted.
Moving on to Harish’s only son, 38-year old Manik, his case is even worse. Though born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, he is the typical instance of an over-indulged, narcissistic and self-centered adult. Although he has had the privilege of being educated in one of the city’s premier schools, and is an alumnus of a US business school, his personal conduct betrays an absolute disregard for the value of money or time. As the son of one of the city’s leading businessmen, armed with a good business education, he has had all possible avenues to embark on sturdy and successful professional life; the least he could have done was to start going to his father’s office, once he completed his MBA education at the age of 28. There was a lot he could have absorbed from his father, who has tougher business mettle (albeit without any formal business degree) than any formally qualified business leader. But, unfortunately, Manik has been unwise enough to squander his chances away, which is such a pity.
It is not that Manik is a vagabond or a good-for-nothing alcoholic. His problem is that he is lackadaisical. He thinks that he is ‘Mr. Know-it-all’, who knows, better than the wisest people around, how to succeed in life. In his aspiration to surpass his father’s glory, he tries business after business – from starting a construction company, to export and import of Italian sauces and other edibles, to becoming an agent for a company that sells weight loss products. Whenever he has a new whim, the father is always there to finance his son’s new venture. Two years back, Manik expressed his desire to learn about the family business, and contribute towards it. Hearing this, Harish’s joy knew no bounds. The upcoming project required Manik to relocate a different city. Harish got down to arranging all necessary infrastructures for his son and his (second) wife in the new city. More than investing his time and energy towards the actual business that he was supposed to have relocated for, Manik spent a greater part of his efforts in furnishing his new house and buying a new car, which had to be nothing less than a Skoda Octavia. To sum it all up, Manik suffered from complete lack of focus.
Despite his many (ill-focused) endeavors, although he starts each business venture with tremendous enthusiasm, the steam runs out within 6 months. The root cause is that, since he gets the initial capital for starting any new business very easily from his father, as soon as the going gets a little tough, he does not mind quitting the present initiative in favor of greener and easier pastures. This is a never-ending chain; today, even at 38 years of age, and a 5 year old daughter, he is still not settled.
Harish is still slogging when he could have retired a decade earlier; he knows that if the son is given charge of the business, his four-and-a-half decades of hard work will come to naught within merely a couple of years. How could a self-made man like Harish, with all his sagacity and prudence, not groom either of his children to be worth their salt? This is a question that intrigues many, and understandably so.
The above is a typical case of over-indulgence, and blind permissiveness, on the parents’ part. In this regard, it would be fair to say that, although Harish was more mature in how to bring up the children with their head on their shoulders, it was his wife, Radha, who was over-protective. As the mother and house-keeper, she had a bigger role to play in this regard, and therefore, her word prevailed. Since she too had gone through hard times while her husband was struggling, she always wanted to protect her children from the need to make both ends meet. As an over-protective mother, she shielded them from all mistakes – big or small. If her elder daughter Vrinda broke a glass of milk, she would take the blame on herself; if her younger son (Manik) flicked a neighbour’s toy, and was questioned by Harish, Radha would quickly protect him by claiming that the toy was bought by her “just yesterday”. In all, she made sure that her children did not have to face the consequences of their own mistakes. No wonder, the kids got used to getting away with just about anything, without having to be grateful for the wonderful life and privileges they had. The result is that, today, both these children are absolutely directionless.
What should the parents have done 2 decades ago? Firstly, they should have denied the children easy access to all luxuries. This way, the latter would have respected the privileges they had, besides acknowledging their father’s hard work that had gone into earning all that wealth. A good step in this direction could have been for the parents to take their children around the less privileged localities, maybe even made them do some community service, to reinforce how fortunate they were to have all that they did, sensitizing them towards the plight of the less fortunate lot of people in this world.
It is when the youth expects quick results and easy gratification for their efforts, without getting their fingernails dirty, that the problem rises - another significant difference between the ‘then’ and ‘now’ generations. The above case of the Dhimans is the general story of the youth born between the 1960s and the early 1970s. As I have already clarified to my readers, in the opening paragraph, that the purpose of my study is not to tie an entire generation with one thread, the perspective that I am offering is only one that has been deduced from my personal observations, analysis and experience.
Moving further, now that we have entered the new millennium, the picture of today’s youth is not all that dark and gloomy any more. In the present times, it would be unfair to perpetuate stereotypes, and tag the youth as those belonging to the ear-nose-navel pierced generation of youngsters, who know nothing better than how to blindly ape their western counterparts. No doubt, there are still significant differences in the perspectives of today’s youth vis-a-viz their parents, but this is unavoidable.
A decade ago, globalization largely led to blind aping of the West; today it means that the youth have become a near-perfect blend of the East and the West; while, on one hand, they seem all too ready to embrace the modernization of the western world, on the other hand, they are also not embarrassed to adopt traditional values, such as participating in most of the family’s religious functions, greeting their elders in a traditional way, touching their feet, etc. With this dual cultural passport, today’s youth are more mature, adaptable and tolerant of those who may be different from them. Although urban as well as a large part of rural India is progressing by leaps and bounds, it is a welcome change to see the youth adhere to boundaries of acceptable behavior. ‘What is socially acceptable and what is not’, and the “how-will-my-parents-react-to-this” mindset does play a role in how they conduct themselves. This means that today’s youth have evolved, not just in what they wear, or in terms of the latest gizmos they flaunt, but, more importantly in their mindset.
This is not to say that there are absolutely no deviations between the youth’s perspectives and that of their parents; expecting such absolute harmony is expecting a little too much. There is certainly a reasonable amount of tussle between the ‘old’ and the ‘new’’ like the Swedish saying that says, “If the Stone Age children had obeyed their parents we would still be living in the Stone Age”. But the scene is a lot better than it was some time back.
Parents of today’s youth (assuming that the term ‘youth’ includes all those in the 15-30 age group) were born sometime between 1950 and 1970. They have tasted much more turbulent times with their older generations. As a result, they have become more tolerant towards their children than their own parents were, decades ago. They are quick to understand that communication gap with their children will yield nothing more than emotional issues for the latter. About 20 years ago, a youngster’s cry for freedom and ‘personal space’ might have been (mis)construed by the parent as ‘defiance’. However this is far from the truth. The child’s motive behind asserting himself/herself is not to challenge his/her parent’s authority. They are just exploring their own capabilities, and wanting to carve their standing / self-esteem in their own eyes. They want their voice to be heard. This is a passing phase for the youngster, and if parents are supportive at this point, it can reap great dividends for the future parent-child relationship. However, if the parent gets too authoritative and dictatorial at this point, it can lead to a psycho-socially mal-adjusted child. In other words, parents need to be perceptive enough to identify the signs when the child expects them to relinquish control.
Therefore, today’s parents make all possible efforts to make communication more fearless and democratic than they themselves had the luxury of. They realize that the erstwhile “You-must-do-this-because-I-say-so” approach does no go well with today’s youth. Such efforts on the parents’ part engender trust amongst the youth, who find it easier to confide in their parents, whenever the need arises.
This argument reminds me of an interesting case depicting how the youth-parent relationship has changed for the better, in the last decade or so. Rahul is a Hospitality industry graduate, currently working as an Airlines professional, in the flight catering division. By virtue of his profession, he has daily interactions with people from across the globe. During one such interaction, in February 2008, he met Corinne, who is an American. As luck would have it, they met again a couple of months later, and yet again. Gradually, their professional association evolved into a friendship, which finally metamorphosed into a deeper relationship. Early this year, as their relationship has seen around 18 months of success, Rahul and Corinne have decided to tie the knot. When Rahul shared his plans with his parents, they were shocked, and understandably more so because Corinne is 3 years older than Rahul, and belongs to a culture that is very different from the one that their son has been brought up amidst. Like most middle-class Indian parents, they too had nurtured the dream of seeing their son settled with a ‘homely’ Indian girl. So, Rahul’s announcement came as a rather unpleasant surprise to them.
Fortunately, the old couple has displayed tremendous maturity in this situation. Had the same situation arisen in a family around the late 1980s or early 1990s, in all probability, the concerned parents may have been too shell-shocked to think rationally; they would have made the son feel guilty for not having thought of family honour, or the community, or for having dashed his old parents’ hopes to the ground. They may even have taken a drastic step like disowning their son (although, I re-iterate, I am not making any generalizations, and these may certainly not be applicable across the board). Instead, Rahul’s parents have been more stoic in how they have handled the situation. They are matured enough to understand that their son would perhaps go ahead with his plans, despite all resistance. Even if he does not do so, it will only be because he would find himself overwhelmed by his responsibility towards his parents’ sentiments. They have assessed the situation well. They have voiced their concerns not so much regarding the age difference, but more regarding the cultural differences between both of them. So, they have chosen their battles carefully. Although their fears are still not allayed completely, they have decided to be a support for their son. Agreeing to this proposed alliance has not been easy for them at all.
Such unconditional support from his parents has engendered a profound respect in Rahul’s heart for his parents, and he has vowed to himself that he would never let them down. He has had a heart-to-heart talk with his fiancée, explaining it well to her that, although she is going to be an important part of his life from now, his parents form an equally integral part of his life. He has made her understand the difference between the perspectives of Indian parents vis-a-viz that of American parents. So now Corinne too understands that Rahul’s parents’ acquiescence, in so far as their relationship is concerned, is actually a big deal, seen from a traditional Indian parent’s viewpoint.
Although the wedding has not yet been solemnized, Rahul’s parents are trying to be as optimistic as possible, although they still fear the worst. Even if, God forbid, things go wrong somewhere, Rahul is sure of still having a very strong support system, in the form of his parents. This has strengthened their bond like never before. Even his parents can rest assured in the knowledge that Rahul will never forget to confide in them, no matter how seemingly insurmountable the issue may be.
From the above case of Rahul, it is evident that, although today’s Indian youth seek (financial as well as emotional) independence, they are still much more rooted, and more content to remain within the institution called the family, as compared to their American contemporaries. Unlike the latter, they are not seeking complete emancipation from parental bond. This is precisely the reason why Rahul thought that his issue was important enough to be discussed with his parents, before he went ahead with it. After all, Corinne was not as weighed down, as Rahul was, by the sense of duty of making this announcement for her parents’ prior approval. In fact, as far as her household was concerned, this news was broken like any other piece of news, which did not require much debate or deliberation from the family’s elders.
This is nothing but social conditioning. Intrinsic American culture endorses that their youth be weaned away from parents’ decision-making influence latest by the age of 18 years, whereas Indian social conditioning is rather different. In this regard, I wish to highlight one point of difference between the Indian youth and their American counterparts. While the former seek this independence, albeit still going back to their parents every now and then, it is not very common to see the latter have an equivalent sense of cohesion towards the basic family unit, once they have been weaned away. An Indian teenager’s attempt to ‘break free’ is looked down upon as ‘callousness’, ‘irresponsible attitude’ and ‘insensitivity towards aging parents’ needs’. In this context, simply visiting parents on weekends or holidays is not enough; children (particularly male) are expected to keep their identity firmly entwined with that of their families and communities. It is interesting to note that here, ‘family’ constitutes not just the immediate family (parents and siblings) but, in a lot of cases, the wider family consisting of uncles and aunts as well as their respective families also. Perhaps, this acts as a cementing force in case of the Indian youth.
Having spent time and efforts in making all the above observations, we can aver that it would be a gross and unfortunate misinterpretation of today’s youth, if we were to associate them with adjectives, such as ‘rebellious’, ‘defiant’ or ‘non-conformist’. No doubt, they find it hard to accept directives (whether it is from their parents or anyone else) with unquestioned obedience. They want to be convinced about the veracity of a certain issue before acknowledging the same as worthy enough to gain their acceptance. In today’s times, such a mindset is healthy, maybe even desirable. With Charles Darwin’s theory of ‘survival of the fittest’ becoming applicable in today’s socio-cultural times, more than any other time in history, it is imperative that the youth be given the leeway to venture into the outside world, take independent decisions, and learn from their mistakes, relatively earlier than their parents or grandparents did. Indian as well as American parents too realize that those amongst them who can adapt to this kind of requirement raise happier and more socially well-adjusted children.
So, in a nutshell, we can safely arrive at a fair conclusion (even if it is not unanimous) that the current generation is not so much in jeopardy, as feared by some. This is a generation that is liberated and confident, stretching their minds to discover new worlds and new horizons. The best part is that an encouragingly large part of them is fortunate enough to receive parental support, which is a welcome change from the past.
Globalization And Its Impact On The Indian Youth
Dr.Athiqul H. Laskar
Globalization And Its Impact On The Indian Youth
(Emerging (promising )Issues of youth)
India, as a nation, underwent tremendous change on the social, economical and cultural fronts as it stepped into the 21st century. The past decade had been eventful in terms of technological advancements, industrialization and even education. It may be said that the process of globalization has made India a bigger country and the world, a smaller place. Quite obviously, the young Indian lives in a world radically different from that his parents grew up in. This also means that the Indian youth is faced with issues and dilemmas that were unknown and unheard of in previous generations. In order to address and resolve these issues, it may help to first understand the dynamics of change at multiple levels stemming from the process of globalization.
Youth and the BPO culture (business Process outsource)
For ages, young educated Indians battled unemployment and poor wages. With international businesses and MNCs setting base on Indian soil, things took a drastic turn for the better. The job openings created by these international companies filled up that gaping chasm in the job market, much to the relief of many an employable youth. Today, even regular graduates can expect to land up a decent job provided they possess adequate communication and language skills. The BPO and IT sectors have been the primary generators of jobs in India – a boon for urban, English-speaking youth. What’s more, these jobs allow young people to earn almost twice as much as their parents and that too at a starting level. But upsides and flipsides seldom exist without each other. Most employees in these sectors are fresh graduates aged between 20 and 30 who are required to work odd hours (during US and UK work hours) in exchange of a handsome salary. This erratic schedule takes a toll on young bodies within a short period of time and health problems like obesity, insomnia, depression and chronic stress rear their ugly faces at a very early age. Reshma, who works in a Hyderabad-based call center says, “I have gained around 10 kilos in the past year since I started working. I hardly find time to cook or exercise because I come home in the morning and sleep through the day. It is difficult to catch up with old friends since their work hours are very different from mine but I cannot leave my job because I live on my own and I need the money to sustain myself in a big city like Hyderabad.” Just like Reshma, many youngsters feed off fast-food that is served in office cafeterias. Working during nights and sleeping during the day disrupts the body’s’ biological clock and confuses the system leading to a host of health issues. Some companies even offer high monetary incentives to encourage employees to work graveyard shifts. This unhealthy phenomenon breeds physical, mental and emotional problems like burnout, poor nutrition and lack of social life.
Youth and Social Media:
The latest manifestation of globalization comes in the form of social media – a phenomenon that has the world hooked; young and old alike. Social networking sites like Face-book, Orkut and Twitter are a rage among the youth though their advantages and disadvantages are still under a lot of scrutiny. These sites specifically target the young population although the number of older users is steadily on the rise. A section of the population may consider these sites an addictive waste of time but for many young Indians, it is the only medium to stay in constantly in touch with friends and family. In between academic and professional commitments, many people find it difficult to make time for personal phone calls or detailed e-mails. In such a scenario, posting a short message on a friend’s message board during work breaks seems like an ideal option. Moreover, users can update their family and friends about what is going on with their lives via status updates, photographs and videos. Social networking is a way of life for a large percentage of urban Indian youth as it helps them stay connected to the world 24/7. Says Arti, a young banking executive, “Our work schedules are so busy and weekends are the only time when we get to relax and complete pending chores at home. It used to be difficult to take time out for family but with social networking sites, it is possible to stay connected with everyone on a regular basis and keep each other updated”.
Social networking sites being a relatively new concept, young professionals occasionally jumble up professional and personal aspects of their lives leading to conflicts and complications. Recently, there have been instances of people losing their jobs because they unwittingly gave out confidential details about projects and companies on public networks and even for bad-mouthing bosses and colleagues. On the other hand, if used wisely and to effect, these networks can help find and secure suitable jobs and even promote businesses. For a global citizen it is convenient and easy to market their products and services through blogs, online advertisements, forums and e-campaigns. Job-seekers may choose to display their portfolio, hold discussions and network with like-minded people on professional sites such as LinkedIn.
Youth and Technology:
The modern day Indian is a lot more tech-savvy that his counterpart from yesteryears. Personal computers and mobile phones, which were an exclusive domain of the crème-de-la-crème of the society until a few years ago, have now managed to spill across socio-economic boundaries. India has now emerged as one of the largest user of mobile phones in the world. The availability of a source of constant communications has made life much easier for the youth of today. Many corporate professionals are now able to fulfill their professional commitments from remote locations which make working from home a feasible and much-desired option.
Information pertaining to just about anything on earth is now available at a click of a button. From health, academics and travel to finding local services, people can browse the internet and find an answer to almost anything. They can read up on news, opinions and trends and even share their own viewpoints on discussion forums. The result is a smarter and more aware generation equipped to make informed decisions.
Youth and Education Trends:
While Generation X is frequently referred to as the ‘brain-drained generation’, Generation Y is experiencing a reinforced pride in their national and ethnic identity. Now that job opportunities abound, fewer people prefer to leave home ground for the ‘Big American Dream’. The educational infrastructure in India, however, leaves much to be desired and improved upon. The paucity of seats in good colleges and the lack of standardization still force many students to move abroad for better educational opportunities. India is a powerhouse of talent when it comes to sports, music, arts and other creative fields. The youth today are aware of many such career opportunities and are confident enough to make a living out of ‘unconventional’ job profiles. The obsession for medical and technical degrees is fast waning and needless to say, this is a good sign. However, many ambitious and talented young people from conservative backgrounds still face resistance from their parents and society if they choose to walk down a less-trodden path. There was a time when young people were hardly allowed to form opinions, let alone express them or argue their point; ‘freedom of choice’ was an unpopular concept and children had to study, marry, work and behave as their parents wished them to. With a new generation of educated and socially aware parents, the Indian society is slowly but steadily inching towards liberalization and things are taking a favorable turn.
With new and rewarding career avenues opening up, the youth today face a lot less pressure for academic performance. The flipside is that the lure of plump salary packages by the BPO sector causes many young people to drop out of college and start working full-time when they could be pursuing higher education. The salaries are several times higher than what students get as pocket money from their parents and frequent raises in salaries keep them glued to the job.
Youth and Body Identity:
With the advent of globalization, media has gained a stronger foothold in the society. From politics and sports to movies and fashion, the media has the power to influence opinions, perspectives and decisions of the common man. The Indian youth is subjected to images of stick-thin models with perfect complexions and facial features. This propagates a certain ideal of beauty that is both fake and unrealistic. Impressionable youngsters are unaware of how images of these models are photo shopped and airbrushed to make them look otherworldly and perfect. In real life, models are as flawed as any of us. At present, the thinness frenzy has reached a level where a healthy teenage girl would consider herself a misfit in society if she piled on a couple of kilos. Young people who are even slightly overweight face immense pressure from their peers and are looked upon differently. Here it may be important to note that Indians are genetically very different from Caucasians and their body types are different too. Indian women inherently have rounder and curvier bodies as compared to western women who are more muscular, angular and athletic. It is not only impractical but also dangerous to try to conform to beauty standards that are not meant for your race. It is not uncommon to see teenage girls living off salads and soups and adolescent boys pumping supplements to achieve that lean, muscular look. It is an unhealthy pattern and more and more youngsters are falling prey to eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Cashing in on the youths’ vulnerability, ‘slimming clinics’ that use dubious methods for weight loss have started sprawling all over the place. Young people must understand that poor nutrition in early years can lead to lifelong hormonal balances and metabolic problems. Youth is a challenging period in life when the body needs adequate nutrition to sustain itself through a demanding academic, personal and professional life.
Indians have forever been famous for their obsession for fair skin. Until a few years ago, girls with darker or whitish complexions were looked down upon and discriminated against. Even today, an average Indian would prefer to turn a few shades lighter if he/she could help it which is why fairness creams and lotions are a booming business all over the country. It is only recently that darker women have been accepted in the mainstream media and this has brought along a change in the way Indians perceive themselves.
In their quest for physical perfection, many young people miss out on a lot of fun and even put their health in peril. In short, we have an entire generation that is trying to squeeze itself into the mould of ‘perfect 10’ that the media and society seem to have created. It is important for young people to be aware and accepting of their physical characteristics and not allow media-generated perspectives affect their self-esteem.
Youth and Popular Culture:
The process of globalization has blurred national and cultural boundaries to a large extent. Indian youth now have an opportunity to understand and interact with people from different cultures. Give and take is a natural process when two or more cultures intermingle. Western values have slowly crept into the Indian mindset which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, this exposure has been instrumental in raising a generation that is far more open-minded, liberal and equipped to fight social evils like dowry, infanticide, illiteracy and the ill-treatment meted out to women. There is no harm is adopting positive aspects of the western culture but at the same time it is also important to remain grounded to our roots and cultural identity. The problem arises when young people get carried away under the pressure to come across as ‘cool’ and begin to feel ashamed and embarrassed of their language, culture, traditions and family values – this leads to an identity crisis where an individual struggles to fit in with a culture that his not his own while rejecting his core identity. The ideal situation would be when the youth learns to dissociate “modernism” with “westernism”; while modernism is a state of mind, westernism is a way of life. For a healthy and progressive Indian society, we need more of the former that the latter.
With young people forming a large chunk of the corporate workforce, their spending power has increased by a few leaps. Just like the US, India is fast emerging as a consumerist society with all the big global brands making their way into the Indian market. The mall culture has drastically transformed shopping patterns. A few years ago, Rs.10000 would be the monthly income of a well-to-do family but today, an upper middle class lady would not flinch before swiping her credit card for a handbag costing the same!
Credit cards and bank loans have made it easier for young people to own things that may be priced beyond their reach. While the smarter ones invest in property and deposits, the frivolous ones shop their way into debts that they find impossible to pay back. This is precisely what happened in the US recently - many banks went bankrupt just because of indiscriminate use of credit cards and loans. If Indian youth are made aware of financial management and saving schemes, we may succeed in avoiding a similar situation in our country. Considering that people as young as 20 are working full-time, this becomes more of a necessity than an option.
Youth and Marriage:
The present generation is far more ambitious and career-driven than their previous counterparts and this includes women too. Career-oriented and materialism-driven lifestyles may be attributed to an increased level of competition in professional fields and the skyrocketing inflation. As a result, most young people prefer to postpone marriage and parenthood until they are well-settled in life. The obvious advantage is that young people get more time to devote to their work without any distraction from the domestic front, especially for women. However, the problems arising from this recent trend far outweigh the benefits. As people choose to marry late, they find it increasingly difficult to adjust to a new life with a new person. Rekha, 30 and single, was not ready for marriage until a few years ago. Now that she is doing well in her career as an advertizing professional, she wishes to settle down and start a family. The only problems is that her parents have been looking for a suitable groom but there is none that she considers good enough for herself and her criteria for selection is very complex too. Rekha is not alone - with maturity comes a certain level of strong-headedness and rigidity which is easier to ply with at a younger age. Also, since both spouses are career-driven, they find it hard to make time for each other and communicate important issues. The result is a higher divorce rate among young couples. Just as they delay marriage, women also prefer to push motherhood into their thirties. As a consequence, infertility related problems are commonplace and becoming a mother becomes more of a medical struggle than a natural biological process.
With demanding jobs, long commutes and extended office hours, young couples are struggling to strike a healthy work-life balance. Bringing work home and working past office hours or on weekends are common causes of marital conflicts.
Youth as an Individual:
Since the past few decades, there has been a drastic transformation in the Indian family structure. The joint family system, very common until a few years ago, is now an exception rather than a norm. Educated Indians move from smaller towns to bigger cities in search of better job opportunities and settle there as nuclear families. Due to financial support and lack of familial support, Gen X couples chose to have one, two or rarely, three children as opposed to their parents’ generation where broods of six to ten children were not an uncommon sight. This paradigm shift in social and family structure has had its impact on the personality of the modern-day Indian youth. Since most people from the present generation have grown up without the company of multiple siblings and extended family, they tend to be more introverted and self-centered. They sometimes find it frustrating and burdensome to adjust to relatives when they meet them occasionally. The concept of ‘personal space’ is fast taking over familial bonding and quality time with family as young people prefer to be on their own or with people from the same age group. Says Ashutosh, 20, “I don’t have anything against my extended family and cousins but whenever a relative comes to visit, I feel stifled and can’t wait for them to leave. I would rather be alone that in a company that I don’t enjoy”. For many a youth, mobile phones and the internet are the sole means of communication with the outside world. One can’t help but wonder if globalization and nuclear setups have given rise to a generation that is maladjusted and ill-equipped to deal with emotional factors.
Religion also seems to be losing its significance among the younger, educated generation which comes as a welcome change. For centuries, Indian society has been following unreasonable and rigid religious rituals that do nothing but hamper personal and societal growth. In order to establish ourselves as global citizens from a progressive nation, the youth must learn to differentiate between right and wrong; traditions and superstitions; as well as faith and unnecessary rituals.
Youth and Migration:
Gone are the days when young people migrated to a developed country (for education and employment) completely clueless about the language, culture and civic norms. Globalization and the internet have exposed the Indian youth to a variety of cultures, lifestyles and communication styles and most urban individuals don’t find it too hard to blend into the new society. Communication barriers have rarified as most Indians are well versed with globally accepted forms of English and social etiquette. Part of this may be attributed to the growing popularity of western TV shows and movies among the Indian youth. This may indeed be a positive manifestation but we must not forget that there is a large section of Indian youth in smaller towns and villages that still does not have access to quality education and training. In comparison with previous generations however, they are better informed and not as vulnerable.
Conclusion:
The picture painted by the current state of Indian youth may not be all rosy but it shows signs of positive change nevertheless. In a country with a population of over a billion, it does take time before reforms can make themselves significantly visible. Globalization comes as a boon to a nation that is home to so many natural resources, manpower, culture and industries. Thousands of new jobs are generated each day and local talent that was hitherto being wasted is now optimally utilized; although a lot more is left to be done in this direction.
The concept of ‘society’ and ‘culture’ is a dynamic one and it would help the country if the youth embrace positive aspects of global culture open-heartedly instead of clinging on to age-old value systems that pose an obstacle to growth and progression. In the same breath, it is also important to stay rooted to our identity as Indians as that is what makes us unique.
We live in an era of rapid urban and industrial growth but at the same time, it is our responsibility to stop for a moment and realize our boundaries. Growth and development should never be at the cost of environment and nature. The modern day youth is far more aware of environmental and conservation issues that affect the whole world. As responsible global citizens, we must pledge to do all that we can to make the world a better place.
Globalization And Its Impact On The Indian Youth
(Emerging (promising )Issues of youth)
India, as a nation, underwent tremendous change on the social, economical and cultural fronts as it stepped into the 21st century. The past decade had been eventful in terms of technological advancements, industrialization and even education. It may be said that the process of globalization has made India a bigger country and the world, a smaller place. Quite obviously, the young Indian lives in a world radically different from that his parents grew up in. This also means that the Indian youth is faced with issues and dilemmas that were unknown and unheard of in previous generations. In order to address and resolve these issues, it may help to first understand the dynamics of change at multiple levels stemming from the process of globalization.
Youth and the BPO culture (business Process outsource)
For ages, young educated Indians battled unemployment and poor wages. With international businesses and MNCs setting base on Indian soil, things took a drastic turn for the better. The job openings created by these international companies filled up that gaping chasm in the job market, much to the relief of many an employable youth. Today, even regular graduates can expect to land up a decent job provided they possess adequate communication and language skills. The BPO and IT sectors have been the primary generators of jobs in India – a boon for urban, English-speaking youth. What’s more, these jobs allow young people to earn almost twice as much as their parents and that too at a starting level. But upsides and flipsides seldom exist without each other. Most employees in these sectors are fresh graduates aged between 20 and 30 who are required to work odd hours (during US and UK work hours) in exchange of a handsome salary. This erratic schedule takes a toll on young bodies within a short period of time and health problems like obesity, insomnia, depression and chronic stress rear their ugly faces at a very early age. Reshma, who works in a Hyderabad-based call center says, “I have gained around 10 kilos in the past year since I started working. I hardly find time to cook or exercise because I come home in the morning and sleep through the day. It is difficult to catch up with old friends since their work hours are very different from mine but I cannot leave my job because I live on my own and I need the money to sustain myself in a big city like Hyderabad.” Just like Reshma, many youngsters feed off fast-food that is served in office cafeterias. Working during nights and sleeping during the day disrupts the body’s’ biological clock and confuses the system leading to a host of health issues. Some companies even offer high monetary incentives to encourage employees to work graveyard shifts. This unhealthy phenomenon breeds physical, mental and emotional problems like burnout, poor nutrition and lack of social life.
Youth and Social Media:
The latest manifestation of globalization comes in the form of social media – a phenomenon that has the world hooked; young and old alike. Social networking sites like Face-book, Orkut and Twitter are a rage among the youth though their advantages and disadvantages are still under a lot of scrutiny. These sites specifically target the young population although the number of older users is steadily on the rise. A section of the population may consider these sites an addictive waste of time but for many young Indians, it is the only medium to stay in constantly in touch with friends and family. In between academic and professional commitments, many people find it difficult to make time for personal phone calls or detailed e-mails. In such a scenario, posting a short message on a friend’s message board during work breaks seems like an ideal option. Moreover, users can update their family and friends about what is going on with their lives via status updates, photographs and videos. Social networking is a way of life for a large percentage of urban Indian youth as it helps them stay connected to the world 24/7. Says Arti, a young banking executive, “Our work schedules are so busy and weekends are the only time when we get to relax and complete pending chores at home. It used to be difficult to take time out for family but with social networking sites, it is possible to stay connected with everyone on a regular basis and keep each other updated”.
Social networking sites being a relatively new concept, young professionals occasionally jumble up professional and personal aspects of their lives leading to conflicts and complications. Recently, there have been instances of people losing their jobs because they unwittingly gave out confidential details about projects and companies on public networks and even for bad-mouthing bosses and colleagues. On the other hand, if used wisely and to effect, these networks can help find and secure suitable jobs and even promote businesses. For a global citizen it is convenient and easy to market their products and services through blogs, online advertisements, forums and e-campaigns. Job-seekers may choose to display their portfolio, hold discussions and network with like-minded people on professional sites such as LinkedIn.
Youth and Technology:
The modern day Indian is a lot more tech-savvy that his counterpart from yesteryears. Personal computers and mobile phones, which were an exclusive domain of the crème-de-la-crème of the society until a few years ago, have now managed to spill across socio-economic boundaries. India has now emerged as one of the largest user of mobile phones in the world. The availability of a source of constant communications has made life much easier for the youth of today. Many corporate professionals are now able to fulfill their professional commitments from remote locations which make working from home a feasible and much-desired option.
Information pertaining to just about anything on earth is now available at a click of a button. From health, academics and travel to finding local services, people can browse the internet and find an answer to almost anything. They can read up on news, opinions and trends and even share their own viewpoints on discussion forums. The result is a smarter and more aware generation equipped to make informed decisions.
Youth and Education Trends:
While Generation X is frequently referred to as the ‘brain-drained generation’, Generation Y is experiencing a reinforced pride in their national and ethnic identity. Now that job opportunities abound, fewer people prefer to leave home ground for the ‘Big American Dream’. The educational infrastructure in India, however, leaves much to be desired and improved upon. The paucity of seats in good colleges and the lack of standardization still force many students to move abroad for better educational opportunities. India is a powerhouse of talent when it comes to sports, music, arts and other creative fields. The youth today are aware of many such career opportunities and are confident enough to make a living out of ‘unconventional’ job profiles. The obsession for medical and technical degrees is fast waning and needless to say, this is a good sign. However, many ambitious and talented young people from conservative backgrounds still face resistance from their parents and society if they choose to walk down a less-trodden path. There was a time when young people were hardly allowed to form opinions, let alone express them or argue their point; ‘freedom of choice’ was an unpopular concept and children had to study, marry, work and behave as their parents wished them to. With a new generation of educated and socially aware parents, the Indian society is slowly but steadily inching towards liberalization and things are taking a favorable turn.
With new and rewarding career avenues opening up, the youth today face a lot less pressure for academic performance. The flipside is that the lure of plump salary packages by the BPO sector causes many young people to drop out of college and start working full-time when they could be pursuing higher education. The salaries are several times higher than what students get as pocket money from their parents and frequent raises in salaries keep them glued to the job.
Youth and Body Identity:
With the advent of globalization, media has gained a stronger foothold in the society. From politics and sports to movies and fashion, the media has the power to influence opinions, perspectives and decisions of the common man. The Indian youth is subjected to images of stick-thin models with perfect complexions and facial features. This propagates a certain ideal of beauty that is both fake and unrealistic. Impressionable youngsters are unaware of how images of these models are photo shopped and airbrushed to make them look otherworldly and perfect. In real life, models are as flawed as any of us. At present, the thinness frenzy has reached a level where a healthy teenage girl would consider herself a misfit in society if she piled on a couple of kilos. Young people who are even slightly overweight face immense pressure from their peers and are looked upon differently. Here it may be important to note that Indians are genetically very different from Caucasians and their body types are different too. Indian women inherently have rounder and curvier bodies as compared to western women who are more muscular, angular and athletic. It is not only impractical but also dangerous to try to conform to beauty standards that are not meant for your race. It is not uncommon to see teenage girls living off salads and soups and adolescent boys pumping supplements to achieve that lean, muscular look. It is an unhealthy pattern and more and more youngsters are falling prey to eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia. Cashing in on the youths’ vulnerability, ‘slimming clinics’ that use dubious methods for weight loss have started sprawling all over the place. Young people must understand that poor nutrition in early years can lead to lifelong hormonal balances and metabolic problems. Youth is a challenging period in life when the body needs adequate nutrition to sustain itself through a demanding academic, personal and professional life.
Indians have forever been famous for their obsession for fair skin. Until a few years ago, girls with darker or whitish complexions were looked down upon and discriminated against. Even today, an average Indian would prefer to turn a few shades lighter if he/she could help it which is why fairness creams and lotions are a booming business all over the country. It is only recently that darker women have been accepted in the mainstream media and this has brought along a change in the way Indians perceive themselves.
In their quest for physical perfection, many young people miss out on a lot of fun and even put their health in peril. In short, we have an entire generation that is trying to squeeze itself into the mould of ‘perfect 10’ that the media and society seem to have created. It is important for young people to be aware and accepting of their physical characteristics and not allow media-generated perspectives affect their self-esteem.
Youth and Popular Culture:
The process of globalization has blurred national and cultural boundaries to a large extent. Indian youth now have an opportunity to understand and interact with people from different cultures. Give and take is a natural process when two or more cultures intermingle. Western values have slowly crept into the Indian mindset which is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, this exposure has been instrumental in raising a generation that is far more open-minded, liberal and equipped to fight social evils like dowry, infanticide, illiteracy and the ill-treatment meted out to women. There is no harm is adopting positive aspects of the western culture but at the same time it is also important to remain grounded to our roots and cultural identity. The problem arises when young people get carried away under the pressure to come across as ‘cool’ and begin to feel ashamed and embarrassed of their language, culture, traditions and family values – this leads to an identity crisis where an individual struggles to fit in with a culture that his not his own while rejecting his core identity. The ideal situation would be when the youth learns to dissociate “modernism” with “westernism”; while modernism is a state of mind, westernism is a way of life. For a healthy and progressive Indian society, we need more of the former that the latter.
With young people forming a large chunk of the corporate workforce, their spending power has increased by a few leaps. Just like the US, India is fast emerging as a consumerist society with all the big global brands making their way into the Indian market. The mall culture has drastically transformed shopping patterns. A few years ago, Rs.10000 would be the monthly income of a well-to-do family but today, an upper middle class lady would not flinch before swiping her credit card for a handbag costing the same!
Credit cards and bank loans have made it easier for young people to own things that may be priced beyond their reach. While the smarter ones invest in property and deposits, the frivolous ones shop their way into debts that they find impossible to pay back. This is precisely what happened in the US recently - many banks went bankrupt just because of indiscriminate use of credit cards and loans. If Indian youth are made aware of financial management and saving schemes, we may succeed in avoiding a similar situation in our country. Considering that people as young as 20 are working full-time, this becomes more of a necessity than an option.
Youth and Marriage:
The present generation is far more ambitious and career-driven than their previous counterparts and this includes women too. Career-oriented and materialism-driven lifestyles may be attributed to an increased level of competition in professional fields and the skyrocketing inflation. As a result, most young people prefer to postpone marriage and parenthood until they are well-settled in life. The obvious advantage is that young people get more time to devote to their work without any distraction from the domestic front, especially for women. However, the problems arising from this recent trend far outweigh the benefits. As people choose to marry late, they find it increasingly difficult to adjust to a new life with a new person. Rekha, 30 and single, was not ready for marriage until a few years ago. Now that she is doing well in her career as an advertizing professional, she wishes to settle down and start a family. The only problems is that her parents have been looking for a suitable groom but there is none that she considers good enough for herself and her criteria for selection is very complex too. Rekha is not alone - with maturity comes a certain level of strong-headedness and rigidity which is easier to ply with at a younger age. Also, since both spouses are career-driven, they find it hard to make time for each other and communicate important issues. The result is a higher divorce rate among young couples. Just as they delay marriage, women also prefer to push motherhood into their thirties. As a consequence, infertility related problems are commonplace and becoming a mother becomes more of a medical struggle than a natural biological process.
With demanding jobs, long commutes and extended office hours, young couples are struggling to strike a healthy work-life balance. Bringing work home and working past office hours or on weekends are common causes of marital conflicts.
Youth as an Individual:
Since the past few decades, there has been a drastic transformation in the Indian family structure. The joint family system, very common until a few years ago, is now an exception rather than a norm. Educated Indians move from smaller towns to bigger cities in search of better job opportunities and settle there as nuclear families. Due to financial support and lack of familial support, Gen X couples chose to have one, two or rarely, three children as opposed to their parents’ generation where broods of six to ten children were not an uncommon sight. This paradigm shift in social and family structure has had its impact on the personality of the modern-day Indian youth. Since most people from the present generation have grown up without the company of multiple siblings and extended family, they tend to be more introverted and self-centered. They sometimes find it frustrating and burdensome to adjust to relatives when they meet them occasionally. The concept of ‘personal space’ is fast taking over familial bonding and quality time with family as young people prefer to be on their own or with people from the same age group. Says Ashutosh, 20, “I don’t have anything against my extended family and cousins but whenever a relative comes to visit, I feel stifled and can’t wait for them to leave. I would rather be alone that in a company that I don’t enjoy”. For many a youth, mobile phones and the internet are the sole means of communication with the outside world. One can’t help but wonder if globalization and nuclear setups have given rise to a generation that is maladjusted and ill-equipped to deal with emotional factors.
Religion also seems to be losing its significance among the younger, educated generation which comes as a welcome change. For centuries, Indian society has been following unreasonable and rigid religious rituals that do nothing but hamper personal and societal growth. In order to establish ourselves as global citizens from a progressive nation, the youth must learn to differentiate between right and wrong; traditions and superstitions; as well as faith and unnecessary rituals.
Youth and Migration:
Gone are the days when young people migrated to a developed country (for education and employment) completely clueless about the language, culture and civic norms. Globalization and the internet have exposed the Indian youth to a variety of cultures, lifestyles and communication styles and most urban individuals don’t find it too hard to blend into the new society. Communication barriers have rarified as most Indians are well versed with globally accepted forms of English and social etiquette. Part of this may be attributed to the growing popularity of western TV shows and movies among the Indian youth. This may indeed be a positive manifestation but we must not forget that there is a large section of Indian youth in smaller towns and villages that still does not have access to quality education and training. In comparison with previous generations however, they are better informed and not as vulnerable.
Conclusion:
The picture painted by the current state of Indian youth may not be all rosy but it shows signs of positive change nevertheless. In a country with a population of over a billion, it does take time before reforms can make themselves significantly visible. Globalization comes as a boon to a nation that is home to so many natural resources, manpower, culture and industries. Thousands of new jobs are generated each day and local talent that was hitherto being wasted is now optimally utilized; although a lot more is left to be done in this direction.
The concept of ‘society’ and ‘culture’ is a dynamic one and it would help the country if the youth embrace positive aspects of global culture open-heartedly instead of clinging on to age-old value systems that pose an obstacle to growth and progression. In the same breath, it is also important to stay rooted to our identity as Indians as that is what makes us unique.
We live in an era of rapid urban and industrial growth but at the same time, it is our responsibility to stop for a moment and realize our boundaries. Growth and development should never be at the cost of environment and nature. The modern day youth is far more aware of environmental and conservation issues that affect the whole world. As responsible global citizens, we must pledge to do all that we can to make the world a better place.
Education and Academic Excellence of Indian Youth
Education and Academic Excellence of Indian Youth
India’s historical position in Education is no doubt very well-known. Since its Independence in 1947, India has made tremendous advances in every field. Be it Agriculture, Technology, Science, Humanities, so on and so forth. This was possible only because of a strong educational system. The Indian educational system has created some of the most marvelous geniuses in the world, like Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam, Dr. Sarabhai and many more. However with the advent of the 21st century, increasing globalization has changed the face of the world and hence major changes need to be introduced in the Indian Education Scenario as well, in order to make it competitive and relevant. How can India stay relevant in the highly charged era of information technology? Can the youth, as students, maintain learning-orientation while they succumb to the pressures of competition? Is brain drain an avoidable phenomenon? In this highly competitive arena of grade hungry institutions and societal pressures, can the youth of India maintain the basic aim of education which is ‘love of truth’ and ‘thirst for knowledge’. This paper discusses these issues with special emphasis on steps to be taken to improve the standards of Indian education system, while presenting a comparative analysis with the American System of Education. Keywords: education, globalization, competition, ICSE, exam pressure.
India has, probably, the world’s oldest history in education. When most of the western world was wandering in savage wilderness, India had a most advanced form of schooling in the ‘Gurukul System’. In this system, Students resided in the ‘Ashrams’ or the hut abodes of their ‘Gurus’ or teachers and engaged in active learning for a number of years. Only after successfully completing this phase of their life known as the ‘Brahmacharyashram’ or the student phase of one’s life, were they considered fit for a public or routine life of a householder ( A Grihasth). However, even in those days, caste had a major role to play in the imparting of education to these students. Children belonging, only to the upper castes namely the ‘Brahmans’ (the priests) and the Kshtriyas (the warriors) had exclusive rights to this ‘Ashram-based’ education and the lower castes namely the scavengers, the cobblers, the manual labourers and other such communities as well as women were denied any form of education. The lower castes were only expected to perform their duties towards their master, perfectly and women were more or less, considered instruments of child-bearing. When Jainism and Buddhism spread across India, education became more and more liberated from caste-barriers, although the caste-consciousness of Indians could not be eliminated altogether. During those days, India was considered by many as a great educational hub. Many famous Universities like ‘Takshashila’ (now in Pakistan) and ‘Nalanda’ attracted students from various parts of the world. With the Muslim invasion, Persian and Arabic came to be studied by the Indians. The British rule changed the outlook of the Indian men. Although the British administration was oppressive, its educational policies towards Indians proved to be nothing short of a boon for India. Thus, with the British education system, taking firm roots in the Indian soil, Indians began to cultivate a scientific and rational temper.
With this history in mind, let us now evaluate the Indian education system as we see it today. After its Independence in 1947, India has certainly made progress in the field of education. However, there are some deficiencies that are still remaining to be addressed. Firstly, it is very important to understand that there is a basic difference in the aim of schools and universities. “It is commonly stated that the function of a school is to provide a' good general education to its, pupils', but it is necessary to know what exactly are the elements of this good general education which will not only prepare a pupil for university work, but at the same time prepare him for practical work to earn his living if he does not proceed to a university. The university, on the other hand, should be a great meeting ground for young men and women, where they receive higher instruction from their teachers as well as prepare for life through contact with their contemporaries and their seniors.” (www.education.nic.in, 1997). When it is estimated that “50-55 per cent students actually go up for the intermediate after passing the high school examination, while the remaining 45-50 per cent do not” (www.education.nic.in, 1997), then it is a huge area of concern. What happens to this 45-50 per cent of students who do not have the opportunity of higher education? In an era of cut-throat competition do these students stand a chance of gainful employment? The answer to this question is ‘no’. A few of these students might be successful in moulding a successful entrepreneurial venture with their own inherent intellectual capacity or talent. However, a majority of these students run the risk of being unemployed or poorly employed in ‘on-off’ jobs requiring low academic skills. It is highly distressing to imagine the situation of a country with almost 45-50 per cent of its young and working population in the unemployed or poorly employed category. Solving the problem of employment of these so called ‘half-educated’ students is the need of the hour. Since they do not have time and resources for higher education, it becomes imperative to provide them with lesser expensive and relatively lower time-consuming educational facilities that could provide them with technical skills to start their own ventures. “The Sri Jayachamarajendra Occupational Institute at Bangalore, started by Sir M. Visvesvaraya in1943, which is now run by the Government of Mysore, is one such institution. It offers occupational courses in 26 branches-diplomas- in 19 branches and certificate courses in 7. The duration ranges from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of 3 years.” (www.education.nic.in, 1997). The government of India should strive to establish more such institutions. Such institutions will go a long way in developing the potential of those Indian youth who have the technical aptitude but for some reasons cannot pursue a university education, thereby giving them a fair chance of surviving in the global scenario.
Increasing globalization also underscores the need for developing new academic content, relevant not only in India, but everywhere else in the world. There is a general notion among parents, students, coaching classes etc. that the SSC board syllabus (state board) is inferior to that of the ICSE or CBSE boards (International boards, accredited by University of Cambridge). One cannot blame them for thinking so. A casual glance at the books of these boards will confirm this hypothesis. How are these syllabi formulated? The SSC board syllabus is formulated by bureaucrats sitting in their conference rooms and often is decided by what they want the students to learn and not really what the students need to be learning. It is usually out-dated and seldom helps the student in his/her career. The CBSE methodology is but a foreign version of SSC board. As this model of syllabus ceases to be of practical use to students, they often lose interest in studies and cram their way through exams, learning very little and forgetting everything once the exams are over. The ICSE board however has special and qualified content developers to design their syllabus. These experts may include professors and subject matter experts and they design the curriculum in such a way as to be of interest to the students. A lot of emphasis is placed on creativity and practical work instead of the majorly theory-based system of SSC. This model of education comes very close to the holistic model of education and students are encouraged to think instead of mugging up and clearing the examinations. This also prepares the students for future challenges in university life, for e.g. clearing the various entrance tests, preparing dissertations etc.
Let us take the example of Neeta Mathur. Last year, Neeta decided to shift her 9 year old son, Shreyas, from an SSC board school to the ICSE board P.G. Garodia high school in Ghatkopar, with the result that her son is now more excited about going to school every day. He loves the projects given at school because he says he doesn’t sit with his books the entire day and engages in lots of impromptu debates and elocutions held by his teacher. Since the numbers of students in his new classroom are less compared to his old school, he gets personal attention from his teachers which, according to Neeta, is the reason why Shreyas has started paying more attention while studying. He devotes an equal amount of time to studies and sports. When the process of education is interesting and engaging, the result is an involved student and a happy child. This gradual shift in the mindset of parents, students and educational institutions can be illustrated from the move a lot of schools have made recently. For e.g., a few schools who have changed from the SSC to the ICSE methodology are P.G. Garodia English High School (Ghatkopar), St. Annes High School (Fort), G.D. Somani High School (Cuffe Parade) and many more.
However not everyone is as lucky as Shreyas. The ICSE board has a limited reach. The teachers here are definitely paid higher than the SSC teachers, but certainly the fee-structures of these schools are on the higher end and not everyone can afford them. So whether or not one gets to attend these schools depends on the monetary aspects of the parents. This brings us to the question why should students of one country be subjected to such a vast differences in the levels of education and methods of teaching? The government should take adequate steps to promote ICSE type schooling or best combine these methods with the SSC board and bring out one centralized board for everyone. According to Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys, “courses should be restructured so that undergraduate students have access to all disciplines.” (Nilekani, 2009). Such an initiative would go a long way in developing rational thinking among the students. Student will have the option to learn more about the subjects they wish to study at the graduate and post-graduate level. Also, No doubt, for so many years, the control of education was in the hands of the State Governments, however now the time is ripe to introduce a change and centralization of education is one of the changes that are much desired. However, in a political situation as challenging as in India, it is a difficult nut to crack. It is very difficult to expect a change from bureaucracy, especially when it comes to a curb on their own powers. If the teaching methodology all over India is updated to international levels, students will stand a better chance of not only clearing entrance tests but also of surviving the research-oriented world of tomorrow. However at present, there is a vast difference between the levels of education received by students of different background and this fact is becoming a major cause of concern by widening the cultural and social gap between our citizens of tomorrow.
Inspite of the many reforms that the Indian Government is undertaking, somewhere there is a basic flaw in the implementation of these laws. The year 2009 was an eventful year for Indian Education as new reforms were proposed by the Governmen. The Harvard Educated HRD minister Mr. Kapil Sibal certainly deserves ‘kudos’ for coming out with certain progressive ideas. His basic premise for improving the system rests on lightening the pressure on students. Let us first understand the background because of which such reforms are needed. Increasing globalization and cut-throat competition has changed the face of the Indian corporate world. Getting a well-paying job has become more competitive. So, while our grand-parents would have advised our parents to get good grades, get a good job and eventually earn lots of money, our parents certainly preferred to tell us to top the exams, enroll in a top institution and get hired in a top organization that could pay top-class pay-checks. It might not, in all cases, be said upfront but it is almost always understood. One always knows it at the back of one’s minds. There is immense pressure on students both from parents and educational institutions. This affects the mindset of students and they find themselves stuck in a ‘rat race’ for topping the exams, irrespective of whether they have the interest or aptitude for it. “According to a study conducted by the Delhi-based Hindustan Times, north India’s leading daily, nearly 70 percent of Indian students after class VIII experience severe academic stress, especially during exam time with nearly 10 percent having contemplated suicide at some point during their academic years. In addition, there were seven suicides and nine attempted suicides in and around Delhi during this year till March-end.” (Lal, 1999) “According to the National Crime Record Bureau, students try to commit suicide every 90 minutes across the country. During 2006-07, 5,857 students committed suicide. A study by a magazine found that approximately 4,000 students commit exam-related suicide in India each year.” (Merinews, 2010). These statistics are alarming and demand urgent attention. In the light of these statistics the move by Mr. Kapil Sibal to “abolish CBSE Board exams for class X from 2010-2011 session and introduction of grading system from the current year” deserves appreciation. (Merinews, 2010). This example can be followed by state boards as well. However, it is a difficult proposal as there is a total lack of co-ordination between different State Boards. In such circumstances it is difficult to bring about uniformity between different boards. In order to bring about uniformity a centralized control is required. The reforms made by the Central Government are often refuted by the State Governments who want to safeguard their own power. Consider for e.g. the NCHER bill 2010. “Point 53 in the 7th Chapter of the bill clearly empowers the Central Government as a supreme rule-maker in the educational policy.” (NCHER Bill, 2010). However the “State governments are arguing that this is leading towards centralization of power and is taking away their autonomy of approving institutions through legislation and appointment of Vice-chancellors.” (Choudaha, 2010). One still does not know what the fate of this bill would be. Yet, there is a glimmer of hope as the government finally seems to have started taking steps towards standardizing education for the benefits of students and not for those of politicians. However these games of politics do have a profound effect on the psyche of the youth. One often blames the students for their apathy towards politics. However, at the risk of sounding judgemental, one has to acknowledge the fact that the educated youth of today cannot quite bring themselves to ‘revere’ the political system because of such a profound hunger of power that exists in a murky system. Given the ‘red-tapism’ involved, it will take years for us to see the reforms actually bearing any fruit in the society.
There are little opportunities for world-class higher education in India and the possibility of such opportunities are diminished by bureacratic concerns. Lets take for e.g., the Foreign Universities Bill-2010. Its basic premise operates on limiting the autonomy of foreign institues looking to operate in India. (Choudaha, 2010). On one hand it is a necessary measure to ensure the safety of funds involved and other such concerns, however on the other hand, it is also a major demotivating factor for foreign universities looking to set up centres in India. It shouldn’t be surprising at all that the capable minds of young India would seek foreign opportunities in education and leave the Indian soil in search of their ‘thirst for knowledge’. It is a different question that some of them go abroad purely for their thirst for knowledge while some of them go for the status attached to it. Whatever the situation, if we consider the exorbitant amount of fees they pay for a foreign higher education degree, it is a major loss in terms of revenue for the Indian government. If these students come back, they can still contribute to the growth of the country. However, if they decide to stay in their country of higher education, the loss in terms of ‘Brain Drain’ is unimaginable.
After understanding the psyche of the students going abroad for higher education, if we want to save this money going out of the country in the form of educational fees, we have to implement many changes in the Indian Education System. The government needs to understand that atleast in matters of education the ‘power-lobbying’ tactics of corrupt politicians should be handled with strictness. It is an open secret that many colleges (usually owned by politicians) take the sanctions from universities and operate haphazardly by offering ‘paid’ seats to students securing low marks and who are totally unfit for the professional training that the college offers (thanks to the meagre level of education they might have received at the primary and secondary phases). This is achieved by the give and take of bribe, which basically amount to entry of black money in the educational structure. This is effectively illustrated by the recent Tata Tea Advertisement which is aired on behalf of their corporate social responsibility venture- “Jaago-re.com”. In this advertisement two youngsters who look like seniors in a college happen to overhear a conversation in a college canteen between a father and a son who have arrived at the college for admission. The son who seems to have scored less marks is pacified by his father who says he will secure an admission by paying money. When the two seniors approach them on pretext of negotiating a deal for admission the father shows his willingness to pay 3 lakh rupees for admission in Engineering. The two seniors then come to the actual message of the advertisement. They make the father realise that he is teaching his son wrong values and his son will operate in a similar manner everywhere in his future life- by paying bribes. This advertisement covers a quintessential fact of Indian student life, “Make it on your merit, but if you cant, then atleast you will make it on the merit of your money”. It ends with a social message saying that if we stop paying bribes, we can change the system. While this thought is absolutely right, to implement it will take a robust government control on the arbitrary operation of certain educational institutions. It is not to say that all institutions owned by politicians are havens of corruption. There are glorious exceptions like the D.Y.Patil educational empire built by one of the most visionary leaders of India, Dr. D.Y. Patil. This institution till date shapes and moulds the future of thousands of deserving students, but such examples are few and far in between.
Another detrimental policy of the government that closes the doors of higher education to meritorius students is the reservation policy. Students of the backward classes, scheduled classes and scheduled tribes are till date offered reservation based seats in institutions of higher education. The students who take advantage of the reservation policy, are generally those who have secured average or less than average percentage in the qualifying exams but because of their caste they are given the reserved seats over some very meritorious students. This not only, on one hand, kills the learning instincts of the deserving students but also on the other hand drives the students belonging to the ‘reserved’ category into a complacency mode. None of the political parties in India seem to take the risk of initiating a drive towards non-caste-based reservation to safegaurd their votebank. The glorious India of tomorrow that each one of them professes to create, is filled with a frustrated but talented young crowd who have lost the reservation race. A very dangerous situation indeed. If we look at the history of reservation we will have to go back to the formation of the Indian Constitution. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar included this clause in the constitution when India was a newly liberated nation facing the challenges of growth. It was an uphill task and it was necessary to provide equal opportunities to everyone including the lower castes who had been ostracized and denied educational opportunities for centuries. Considering this situation, reserving seats for them was the only option available to bring them on a common platform with everyone else. However, today, as we enter the 64th year of independence, the scenario has changed. Many of the first and the second generations of the lower castes who took advantage of the reservation system did reach high positions of social and cultural status. The reservation system certainly helped them but many of them also succeeded in life on their own merit. Such people do have the resources now to educate their children according to the best standards. So caste-based reservations for their children, cannot be justified. If any reservations are to be made for them, it should be made only on the basis of economical handicaps and not caste. The meritorious students among the ‘Scheduled Castes’ do no need such reservations. Even Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had recommended the reservation system only for ten years. However, today, the reservation issue is still ongoing because of political vote-bank hungry ‘netas’ who fear that relinquishing the reservation system will result in the loss of their ‘Scheduled Caste’ vote banks. Only when there is a fair and equal dissemination of knowledge can we attempt to bring out the real academic excellence of India.
In order to see where we stand internationally, let us compare and analyse our educational system with the educational system of the United States of America. It is agreed upon that these two countries have totally different social structures and national ethos and a comparison between the systems of these two vastly different countries would always be open for criticism. But we need to remember that there are some similarities in the situations between them too. For e.g. if India has its caste-problems, the U.S of A have their own race-oriented problems. In 2001, the Bush Government passed the ‘No Child Left Behind’ law in an attempt to create a more accountable system of education. This law implied that schools will have to prove their efficiency to secure educational funds from the federal government. More importance was given to Math and English Reading in the curriculum and subjects like science were neglected . The parents had the option to shift their kids to better performing schools and that too at the expense of the local districts. This move seems to aim at improving the efficiency however it was seen as a government interference in the state handled education policies. Standardized methods of testing were too rigid to allow individuality of students. The result was a decline in the quality of education. Recent reports do indicate that education in the United States of America shows declining trends. “In 2002, UNICEF compared public education in twenty four nations around the world: the US ranked 18. US 4th grade math grades have remained the same since 1995, while other countries have improved.” (Faler, 2008). “Forty years ago America had the highest graduation rate: now America is ranked as the 21st”. It is but natural that a majority of the youth of America feels a general lack of enthusiasm towards education. A huge number of American youth today dreams of making it big by being a ‘celebrity’. Very few of them dream of being scientists or engineers. Firstly, higher education is expensive and secondly, financial aid is hard to receive. In fact the increasing drop-out rates is an area of national concern for the present Obama Government. The study conducted by Center of Labor Market Studies in co-operation with the Chicago Alternative Schools concluded that there were “6.2 Million high school drop-outs in the year 2007” (Left Behind, 2009). If we compare the situation with India, the students here drop-out more because of lack of financial support than less interest in education. The Obama government through the ‘HOPE USA Federal incentive program’ is working towards restructuring the NCLB (No Child Left Behind). It hopes to help fund the re-enrollment of the dropped-out students. Re-enrolled students who successfully obtain the diploma could earn $400,000 more during their lifetimes than the drop-outs. (Center for Labor and Market studies, 2009). The American president seems to send out a message to his countrymen to get educated so that more and more jobs would stay in America and not have to be outsourced. Indian bureaucrats can emulate the prompt action taken by the American government. By putting their money where it matters the most, the Obama administration has set an example of prudent and wise governance.
In conclusion, we must acknowledge the fact that the Indian youth are gold-mines full of a promising future. Only the right policies and a strong leadership can take this potential to its highest peak, leading India to being the super-power that it is predicted to be.
Works Cited
Center for Labor and Market studies. (2009, May 5). Left Behind. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.clms.neu.edu: http://www.clms.neu.edu/publication/documents/CLMS_2009_Dropout_Report.pdf
Choudaha, D. R. (2010, May 19). www.dreducation.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.dreducation.com: http://www.dreducation.com/search/label/Higher%20Education
Excel ImageTech. (1997, August 9). www.education.nic.in. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from Ministry of Human Resource development- compilation of 50 Years of Indian Education : 1947-1997: http://www.education.nic.in/cd50years/n/75/7Y/757Y0501.htm
Faler, M. (2008, November 26). educationalissues.suite101.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from suite101.com: http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_state_of_education_in_the_united_states
Lal, N. (1999, November 30). www.educationonline.net. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.educationonline.net: http://www.educationworldonline.net/index.php/page-article-choice-more-id-365
Merinews. (2010, January 1). www.merinews.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.merinews.com: http://www.merinews.com/article/recent-education-sector-reforms-in-india--for-whose-benefit/15792908.shtml
Nilekani, N. (2009, June 5). Imagining India.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.imaginingindia.com: http://imaginingindia.com/2009/06/
Singh, P. (2005, March 17). Storycellar.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from Blogspot.com: http://storycellar.blogspot.com/2007/07/ssc-versus-icse.html
India’s historical position in Education is no doubt very well-known. Since its Independence in 1947, India has made tremendous advances in every field. Be it Agriculture, Technology, Science, Humanities, so on and so forth. This was possible only because of a strong educational system. The Indian educational system has created some of the most marvelous geniuses in the world, like Dr. A. P. J Abdul Kalam, Dr. Sarabhai and many more. However with the advent of the 21st century, increasing globalization has changed the face of the world and hence major changes need to be introduced in the Indian Education Scenario as well, in order to make it competitive and relevant. How can India stay relevant in the highly charged era of information technology? Can the youth, as students, maintain learning-orientation while they succumb to the pressures of competition? Is brain drain an avoidable phenomenon? In this highly competitive arena of grade hungry institutions and societal pressures, can the youth of India maintain the basic aim of education which is ‘love of truth’ and ‘thirst for knowledge’. This paper discusses these issues with special emphasis on steps to be taken to improve the standards of Indian education system, while presenting a comparative analysis with the American System of Education. Keywords: education, globalization, competition, ICSE, exam pressure.
India has, probably, the world’s oldest history in education. When most of the western world was wandering in savage wilderness, India had a most advanced form of schooling in the ‘Gurukul System’. In this system, Students resided in the ‘Ashrams’ or the hut abodes of their ‘Gurus’ or teachers and engaged in active learning for a number of years. Only after successfully completing this phase of their life known as the ‘Brahmacharyashram’ or the student phase of one’s life, were they considered fit for a public or routine life of a householder ( A Grihasth). However, even in those days, caste had a major role to play in the imparting of education to these students. Children belonging, only to the upper castes namely the ‘Brahmans’ (the priests) and the Kshtriyas (the warriors) had exclusive rights to this ‘Ashram-based’ education and the lower castes namely the scavengers, the cobblers, the manual labourers and other such communities as well as women were denied any form of education. The lower castes were only expected to perform their duties towards their master, perfectly and women were more or less, considered instruments of child-bearing. When Jainism and Buddhism spread across India, education became more and more liberated from caste-barriers, although the caste-consciousness of Indians could not be eliminated altogether. During those days, India was considered by many as a great educational hub. Many famous Universities like ‘Takshashila’ (now in Pakistan) and ‘Nalanda’ attracted students from various parts of the world. With the Muslim invasion, Persian and Arabic came to be studied by the Indians. The British rule changed the outlook of the Indian men. Although the British administration was oppressive, its educational policies towards Indians proved to be nothing short of a boon for India. Thus, with the British education system, taking firm roots in the Indian soil, Indians began to cultivate a scientific and rational temper.
With this history in mind, let us now evaluate the Indian education system as we see it today. After its Independence in 1947, India has certainly made progress in the field of education. However, there are some deficiencies that are still remaining to be addressed. Firstly, it is very important to understand that there is a basic difference in the aim of schools and universities. “It is commonly stated that the function of a school is to provide a' good general education to its, pupils', but it is necessary to know what exactly are the elements of this good general education which will not only prepare a pupil for university work, but at the same time prepare him for practical work to earn his living if he does not proceed to a university. The university, on the other hand, should be a great meeting ground for young men and women, where they receive higher instruction from their teachers as well as prepare for life through contact with their contemporaries and their seniors.” (www.education.nic.in, 1997). When it is estimated that “50-55 per cent students actually go up for the intermediate after passing the high school examination, while the remaining 45-50 per cent do not” (www.education.nic.in, 1997), then it is a huge area of concern. What happens to this 45-50 per cent of students who do not have the opportunity of higher education? In an era of cut-throat competition do these students stand a chance of gainful employment? The answer to this question is ‘no’. A few of these students might be successful in moulding a successful entrepreneurial venture with their own inherent intellectual capacity or talent. However, a majority of these students run the risk of being unemployed or poorly employed in ‘on-off’ jobs requiring low academic skills. It is highly distressing to imagine the situation of a country with almost 45-50 per cent of its young and working population in the unemployed or poorly employed category. Solving the problem of employment of these so called ‘half-educated’ students is the need of the hour. Since they do not have time and resources for higher education, it becomes imperative to provide them with lesser expensive and relatively lower time-consuming educational facilities that could provide them with technical skills to start their own ventures. “The Sri Jayachamarajendra Occupational Institute at Bangalore, started by Sir M. Visvesvaraya in1943, which is now run by the Government of Mysore, is one such institution. It offers occupational courses in 26 branches-diplomas- in 19 branches and certificate courses in 7. The duration ranges from a minimum of 1 year to a maximum of 3 years.” (www.education.nic.in, 1997). The government of India should strive to establish more such institutions. Such institutions will go a long way in developing the potential of those Indian youth who have the technical aptitude but for some reasons cannot pursue a university education, thereby giving them a fair chance of surviving in the global scenario.
Increasing globalization also underscores the need for developing new academic content, relevant not only in India, but everywhere else in the world. There is a general notion among parents, students, coaching classes etc. that the SSC board syllabus (state board) is inferior to that of the ICSE or CBSE boards (International boards, accredited by University of Cambridge). One cannot blame them for thinking so. A casual glance at the books of these boards will confirm this hypothesis. How are these syllabi formulated? The SSC board syllabus is formulated by bureaucrats sitting in their conference rooms and often is decided by what they want the students to learn and not really what the students need to be learning. It is usually out-dated and seldom helps the student in his/her career. The CBSE methodology is but a foreign version of SSC board. As this model of syllabus ceases to be of practical use to students, they often lose interest in studies and cram their way through exams, learning very little and forgetting everything once the exams are over. The ICSE board however has special and qualified content developers to design their syllabus. These experts may include professors and subject matter experts and they design the curriculum in such a way as to be of interest to the students. A lot of emphasis is placed on creativity and practical work instead of the majorly theory-based system of SSC. This model of education comes very close to the holistic model of education and students are encouraged to think instead of mugging up and clearing the examinations. This also prepares the students for future challenges in university life, for e.g. clearing the various entrance tests, preparing dissertations etc.
Let us take the example of Neeta Mathur. Last year, Neeta decided to shift her 9 year old son, Shreyas, from an SSC board school to the ICSE board P.G. Garodia high school in Ghatkopar, with the result that her son is now more excited about going to school every day. He loves the projects given at school because he says he doesn’t sit with his books the entire day and engages in lots of impromptu debates and elocutions held by his teacher. Since the numbers of students in his new classroom are less compared to his old school, he gets personal attention from his teachers which, according to Neeta, is the reason why Shreyas has started paying more attention while studying. He devotes an equal amount of time to studies and sports. When the process of education is interesting and engaging, the result is an involved student and a happy child. This gradual shift in the mindset of parents, students and educational institutions can be illustrated from the move a lot of schools have made recently. For e.g., a few schools who have changed from the SSC to the ICSE methodology are P.G. Garodia English High School (Ghatkopar), St. Annes High School (Fort), G.D. Somani High School (Cuffe Parade) and many more.
However not everyone is as lucky as Shreyas. The ICSE board has a limited reach. The teachers here are definitely paid higher than the SSC teachers, but certainly the fee-structures of these schools are on the higher end and not everyone can afford them. So whether or not one gets to attend these schools depends on the monetary aspects of the parents. This brings us to the question why should students of one country be subjected to such a vast differences in the levels of education and methods of teaching? The government should take adequate steps to promote ICSE type schooling or best combine these methods with the SSC board and bring out one centralized board for everyone. According to Nandan Nilekani, the co-founder of Infosys, “courses should be restructured so that undergraduate students have access to all disciplines.” (Nilekani, 2009). Such an initiative would go a long way in developing rational thinking among the students. Student will have the option to learn more about the subjects they wish to study at the graduate and post-graduate level. Also, No doubt, for so many years, the control of education was in the hands of the State Governments, however now the time is ripe to introduce a change and centralization of education is one of the changes that are much desired. However, in a political situation as challenging as in India, it is a difficult nut to crack. It is very difficult to expect a change from bureaucracy, especially when it comes to a curb on their own powers. If the teaching methodology all over India is updated to international levels, students will stand a better chance of not only clearing entrance tests but also of surviving the research-oriented world of tomorrow. However at present, there is a vast difference between the levels of education received by students of different background and this fact is becoming a major cause of concern by widening the cultural and social gap between our citizens of tomorrow.
Inspite of the many reforms that the Indian Government is undertaking, somewhere there is a basic flaw in the implementation of these laws. The year 2009 was an eventful year for Indian Education as new reforms were proposed by the Governmen. The Harvard Educated HRD minister Mr. Kapil Sibal certainly deserves ‘kudos’ for coming out with certain progressive ideas. His basic premise for improving the system rests on lightening the pressure on students. Let us first understand the background because of which such reforms are needed. Increasing globalization and cut-throat competition has changed the face of the Indian corporate world. Getting a well-paying job has become more competitive. So, while our grand-parents would have advised our parents to get good grades, get a good job and eventually earn lots of money, our parents certainly preferred to tell us to top the exams, enroll in a top institution and get hired in a top organization that could pay top-class pay-checks. It might not, in all cases, be said upfront but it is almost always understood. One always knows it at the back of one’s minds. There is immense pressure on students both from parents and educational institutions. This affects the mindset of students and they find themselves stuck in a ‘rat race’ for topping the exams, irrespective of whether they have the interest or aptitude for it. “According to a study conducted by the Delhi-based Hindustan Times, north India’s leading daily, nearly 70 percent of Indian students after class VIII experience severe academic stress, especially during exam time with nearly 10 percent having contemplated suicide at some point during their academic years. In addition, there were seven suicides and nine attempted suicides in and around Delhi during this year till March-end.” (Lal, 1999) “According to the National Crime Record Bureau, students try to commit suicide every 90 minutes across the country. During 2006-07, 5,857 students committed suicide. A study by a magazine found that approximately 4,000 students commit exam-related suicide in India each year.” (Merinews, 2010). These statistics are alarming and demand urgent attention. In the light of these statistics the move by Mr. Kapil Sibal to “abolish CBSE Board exams for class X from 2010-2011 session and introduction of grading system from the current year” deserves appreciation. (Merinews, 2010). This example can be followed by state boards as well. However, it is a difficult proposal as there is a total lack of co-ordination between different State Boards. In such circumstances it is difficult to bring about uniformity between different boards. In order to bring about uniformity a centralized control is required. The reforms made by the Central Government are often refuted by the State Governments who want to safeguard their own power. Consider for e.g. the NCHER bill 2010. “Point 53 in the 7th Chapter of the bill clearly empowers the Central Government as a supreme rule-maker in the educational policy.” (NCHER Bill, 2010). However the “State governments are arguing that this is leading towards centralization of power and is taking away their autonomy of approving institutions through legislation and appointment of Vice-chancellors.” (Choudaha, 2010). One still does not know what the fate of this bill would be. Yet, there is a glimmer of hope as the government finally seems to have started taking steps towards standardizing education for the benefits of students and not for those of politicians. However these games of politics do have a profound effect on the psyche of the youth. One often blames the students for their apathy towards politics. However, at the risk of sounding judgemental, one has to acknowledge the fact that the educated youth of today cannot quite bring themselves to ‘revere’ the political system because of such a profound hunger of power that exists in a murky system. Given the ‘red-tapism’ involved, it will take years for us to see the reforms actually bearing any fruit in the society.
There are little opportunities for world-class higher education in India and the possibility of such opportunities are diminished by bureacratic concerns. Lets take for e.g., the Foreign Universities Bill-2010. Its basic premise operates on limiting the autonomy of foreign institues looking to operate in India. (Choudaha, 2010). On one hand it is a necessary measure to ensure the safety of funds involved and other such concerns, however on the other hand, it is also a major demotivating factor for foreign universities looking to set up centres in India. It shouldn’t be surprising at all that the capable minds of young India would seek foreign opportunities in education and leave the Indian soil in search of their ‘thirst for knowledge’. It is a different question that some of them go abroad purely for their thirst for knowledge while some of them go for the status attached to it. Whatever the situation, if we consider the exorbitant amount of fees they pay for a foreign higher education degree, it is a major loss in terms of revenue for the Indian government. If these students come back, they can still contribute to the growth of the country. However, if they decide to stay in their country of higher education, the loss in terms of ‘Brain Drain’ is unimaginable.
After understanding the psyche of the students going abroad for higher education, if we want to save this money going out of the country in the form of educational fees, we have to implement many changes in the Indian Education System. The government needs to understand that atleast in matters of education the ‘power-lobbying’ tactics of corrupt politicians should be handled with strictness. It is an open secret that many colleges (usually owned by politicians) take the sanctions from universities and operate haphazardly by offering ‘paid’ seats to students securing low marks and who are totally unfit for the professional training that the college offers (thanks to the meagre level of education they might have received at the primary and secondary phases). This is achieved by the give and take of bribe, which basically amount to entry of black money in the educational structure. This is effectively illustrated by the recent Tata Tea Advertisement which is aired on behalf of their corporate social responsibility venture- “Jaago-re.com”. In this advertisement two youngsters who look like seniors in a college happen to overhear a conversation in a college canteen between a father and a son who have arrived at the college for admission. The son who seems to have scored less marks is pacified by his father who says he will secure an admission by paying money. When the two seniors approach them on pretext of negotiating a deal for admission the father shows his willingness to pay 3 lakh rupees for admission in Engineering. The two seniors then come to the actual message of the advertisement. They make the father realise that he is teaching his son wrong values and his son will operate in a similar manner everywhere in his future life- by paying bribes. This advertisement covers a quintessential fact of Indian student life, “Make it on your merit, but if you cant, then atleast you will make it on the merit of your money”. It ends with a social message saying that if we stop paying bribes, we can change the system. While this thought is absolutely right, to implement it will take a robust government control on the arbitrary operation of certain educational institutions. It is not to say that all institutions owned by politicians are havens of corruption. There are glorious exceptions like the D.Y.Patil educational empire built by one of the most visionary leaders of India, Dr. D.Y. Patil. This institution till date shapes and moulds the future of thousands of deserving students, but such examples are few and far in between.
Another detrimental policy of the government that closes the doors of higher education to meritorius students is the reservation policy. Students of the backward classes, scheduled classes and scheduled tribes are till date offered reservation based seats in institutions of higher education. The students who take advantage of the reservation policy, are generally those who have secured average or less than average percentage in the qualifying exams but because of their caste they are given the reserved seats over some very meritorious students. This not only, on one hand, kills the learning instincts of the deserving students but also on the other hand drives the students belonging to the ‘reserved’ category into a complacency mode. None of the political parties in India seem to take the risk of initiating a drive towards non-caste-based reservation to safegaurd their votebank. The glorious India of tomorrow that each one of them professes to create, is filled with a frustrated but talented young crowd who have lost the reservation race. A very dangerous situation indeed. If we look at the history of reservation we will have to go back to the formation of the Indian Constitution. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar included this clause in the constitution when India was a newly liberated nation facing the challenges of growth. It was an uphill task and it was necessary to provide equal opportunities to everyone including the lower castes who had been ostracized and denied educational opportunities for centuries. Considering this situation, reserving seats for them was the only option available to bring them on a common platform with everyone else. However, today, as we enter the 64th year of independence, the scenario has changed. Many of the first and the second generations of the lower castes who took advantage of the reservation system did reach high positions of social and cultural status. The reservation system certainly helped them but many of them also succeeded in life on their own merit. Such people do have the resources now to educate their children according to the best standards. So caste-based reservations for their children, cannot be justified. If any reservations are to be made for them, it should be made only on the basis of economical handicaps and not caste. The meritorious students among the ‘Scheduled Castes’ do no need such reservations. Even Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar had recommended the reservation system only for ten years. However, today, the reservation issue is still ongoing because of political vote-bank hungry ‘netas’ who fear that relinquishing the reservation system will result in the loss of their ‘Scheduled Caste’ vote banks. Only when there is a fair and equal dissemination of knowledge can we attempt to bring out the real academic excellence of India.
In order to see where we stand internationally, let us compare and analyse our educational system with the educational system of the United States of America. It is agreed upon that these two countries have totally different social structures and national ethos and a comparison between the systems of these two vastly different countries would always be open for criticism. But we need to remember that there are some similarities in the situations between them too. For e.g. if India has its caste-problems, the U.S of A have their own race-oriented problems. In 2001, the Bush Government passed the ‘No Child Left Behind’ law in an attempt to create a more accountable system of education. This law implied that schools will have to prove their efficiency to secure educational funds from the federal government. More importance was given to Math and English Reading in the curriculum and subjects like science were neglected . The parents had the option to shift their kids to better performing schools and that too at the expense of the local districts. This move seems to aim at improving the efficiency however it was seen as a government interference in the state handled education policies. Standardized methods of testing were too rigid to allow individuality of students. The result was a decline in the quality of education. Recent reports do indicate that education in the United States of America shows declining trends. “In 2002, UNICEF compared public education in twenty four nations around the world: the US ranked 18. US 4th grade math grades have remained the same since 1995, while other countries have improved.” (Faler, 2008). “Forty years ago America had the highest graduation rate: now America is ranked as the 21st”. It is but natural that a majority of the youth of America feels a general lack of enthusiasm towards education. A huge number of American youth today dreams of making it big by being a ‘celebrity’. Very few of them dream of being scientists or engineers. Firstly, higher education is expensive and secondly, financial aid is hard to receive. In fact the increasing drop-out rates is an area of national concern for the present Obama Government. The study conducted by Center of Labor Market Studies in co-operation with the Chicago Alternative Schools concluded that there were “6.2 Million high school drop-outs in the year 2007” (Left Behind, 2009). If we compare the situation with India, the students here drop-out more because of lack of financial support than less interest in education. The Obama government through the ‘HOPE USA Federal incentive program’ is working towards restructuring the NCLB (No Child Left Behind). It hopes to help fund the re-enrollment of the dropped-out students. Re-enrolled students who successfully obtain the diploma could earn $400,000 more during their lifetimes than the drop-outs. (Center for Labor and Market studies, 2009). The American president seems to send out a message to his countrymen to get educated so that more and more jobs would stay in America and not have to be outsourced. Indian bureaucrats can emulate the prompt action taken by the American government. By putting their money where it matters the most, the Obama administration has set an example of prudent and wise governance.
In conclusion, we must acknowledge the fact that the Indian youth are gold-mines full of a promising future. Only the right policies and a strong leadership can take this potential to its highest peak, leading India to being the super-power that it is predicted to be.
Works Cited
Center for Labor and Market studies. (2009, May 5). Left Behind. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.clms.neu.edu: http://www.clms.neu.edu/publication/documents/CLMS_2009_Dropout_Report.pdf
Choudaha, D. R. (2010, May 19). www.dreducation.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.dreducation.com: http://www.dreducation.com/search/label/Higher%20Education
Excel ImageTech. (1997, August 9). www.education.nic.in. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from Ministry of Human Resource development- compilation of 50 Years of Indian Education : 1947-1997: http://www.education.nic.in/cd50years/n/75/7Y/757Y0501.htm
Faler, M. (2008, November 26). educationalissues.suite101.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from suite101.com: http://educationalissues.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_state_of_education_in_the_united_states
Lal, N. (1999, November 30). www.educationonline.net. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.educationonline.net: http://www.educationworldonline.net/index.php/page-article-choice-more-id-365
Merinews. (2010, January 1). www.merinews.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.merinews.com: http://www.merinews.com/article/recent-education-sector-reforms-in-india--for-whose-benefit/15792908.shtml
Nilekani, N. (2009, June 5). Imagining India.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from www.imaginingindia.com: http://imaginingindia.com/2009/06/
Singh, P. (2005, March 17). Storycellar.blogspot.com. Retrieved May 28, 2010, from Blogspot.com: http://storycellar.blogspot.com/2007/07/ssc-versus-icse.html
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