DEPRESSIVE SYMPTOMATOLOGY AND NEGATIVE AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS AMONG MALAY AND
CHINESE ADOLESCENTS IN MALAYSIA
SALIZA BINTI KARIA @ ZAK.ARIA
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
MASTER OF HUMAN SCIENCE IN PSYCHOLOGY
KULLIYY AH OF ISLAMIC REVEALED KNOWLEDGE AND HUMAN SCIENCES
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
APRIL, 1999
ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS
This study explores depressive symptomatology and various dimensions of negative
automatic thoughts among two groups of adolescents, the Malays and the Chinese in
Malaysia. The objective of the study is to find out whether cultural dictates or ethnic
identity of the subjects influences depression and automatic thoughts. A pilot-study was
conducted to adapt two scales namely, the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale
(RADS) and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) which have been translated
into the Malay language. A sample of 120 subjects within the age range of 16-18 years
was selected. They consisted of 31 male and 25 female Malays, and 37 male and 27
female Chinese. The scales were translated into Malay following the translation and
back-translation procedure. The internal consistency reliability of RADS was 0.74, while
that of ATQ was 0.86. A main study was conducted to examine depressive
symptomatology and automatic thoughts among Malay and Chinese adolescents. The
scales adapted in the pilot-study were used. Three hundred and fifty two subjects,
including 169 Malays and 183 Chinese, from three secondary schools in Kedah
participated in the study. A total of 70 male and 99 female Malays, and 73 male and 99
female Chinese subjects were obtained. The age of the subjects ranged from 16-18 years.
The main result showed that the Malays were significantly more depressed than the
Chinese. Malays also scored higher on negative automatic thoughts although the
difference was not significant. The internal consistency reliability of RADS was 0.79,
while that of ATQ was 0.91. No statistically significant gender differences were found on
both scales.
11
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iii
APPROVAL PAGE
I certify that I have supervised/read this study and that in my opinion it conforms to acceptable standards of scholarly presentation and is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Human Science in Psychology.
~4:dt Syed Ashiq Ali Shah Supervisor
Date: 8 / l/ / / ? 7 ~
Examiner
Date: \ 2. · 4 · \ q '14
This thesis was submitted to the Department of Psychology, Kulliyyah of Islamjc Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences and is accepted as partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Human Science in Psychology.
/1/ -. ol. '!2_ /.-·?:~················ Syed Ashiq Ali Shah Head Department of Psychology
Date: 8 /ft// J ? j
Abdullah Hassan
Date: I :l ~ (p · Cf C(_
lV
DECLARATION PAGE
I hereby declare that this thesis is the result of my own investigations, except where
otherwise stated. Other sources are acknowledged by footnotes giving explicit references
and a bibliography is appended.
Name: Saliza binti Karia@Zakaria
Date: ... ~/ ?i./ C:,.'J ..
V
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all, my utmost praise and syukur be to Allah S.W.T. for granting me the health, patience, and intellectual endurance to withstand the challenges of completing this thesis.
I wish to extent my heartfelt gratitude to my respected Supervisor, Prof. Dr. Syed Ashiq Ali Shah, for his continuous guidance and support in sustaining my potentials as a student researcher.
My deepest appreciation and respect goes to Prof. Dr. Nizar Alani for reinventing my interest in Statistics, and Prof. Dr. Mahfooz A Ansari for nourishing this interest further.
My warmest thanks go to my Advisor, Prof. Dr. Mustapha Achoui, for his tireless encouragement and motivation.
To all my Professors, lecturers and colleagues, thank you for your invaluable feedback and kind support. ·
Last but not least, I wish to reassert my love and gratitude to my beloved family and friends, for bearing with me during those long months of preparing and writing my thesis, and seeing to its completion in the present form.
For those not mentioned here, thank you for your co-operation. JazakumAllahu Khairan Kathira.
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract..................................................................................... n Abstract (Arabic).......................................................................... 111 Approval Page............................................................................. 1v Declaration... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Acknowledgements........................................................................ v111 List of Tables............................................................................... XI
CHAPTER 1: A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Depression and Comorbidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Adolescence and Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 The Cognitive Theory of Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Automatic Thoughts and Depression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Ethnicity and Cognitive Processes... . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Gender Differences............................................................. 14 Research Objectives............................................................ 15 Research Hypotheses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
CHAPTER2:METHODOLOGY PILOT STUDY.................................................................... 18 Method
Sample................................................................... 18 Adaptation of Instruments... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS)......... 19 Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ)... ... ... ... ... 22
Procedure... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Results........................................................................... 24
RADS Item Analysis ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 25 Reliability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
ATQ Item Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Reliability... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Discussion... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
MAIN STIJDY... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Method
Sample................................................................... 29 Instruments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Faces Scale..................................................... 30 Procedure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Results........................................................................... 33
Faces Scale............................................................. 33
ix
RADS.................................................................. 33 ATQ ...... ...... ..................... ............ ............... ... ... 35
Discussion... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
CHAPTER 4: CONCLUSION AND RECOMtvffiNDATIONS... ... ... ... .. . ... . 46 Challenges for Prevention... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
REFERENCES............................................................................ 52
APPENDIX I... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
APPENDIX II...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
APPENDLX III .............................................................................. 61
APPENDIX IV... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
X
LIST OF TABLES
. Table No. Page
Pilot Study 01. Mean and Standard Deviation of Male and Female Malay and Chinese
Subjects on RADS 25
02. Mean and Standard Deviation of Male and Female Malay and Chinese Subjects on ATQ 27
Main Study 03. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups
on RADS 34
04. The Mean. Standard Deviation, and t-value for Male and Female Subjects on RADS 34
05. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups onATQ 35
06. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Male and Female Subjects onATQ 36
07. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on PMDC Sub-scale 36
08. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on NSNE Sub-scale 37
09. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on LSE Sub-scale 3 7
10. The Mean, Standard Deviation, and t-value for Malay and Chinese Groups on H Sub-scale 38
11. Descriptive Statistics and Intercorrelations of RADS, A TQ, and ATQ Sub-scales 38
12. Intercorrelations of RADS, ATQ, and ATQ Sub-scales for Malay Group 39
13. Intercorrelations of RADS, ATQ, and ATQ Sub-scales for Chinese Group 39
Xl
CHAPTER 1
A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS
Depression is an affective disorder that affects people in almost all age groups.
Although a majority of previous researches have focused on its prevalence and
implications in adults, there is still a growing interest to study it in relation to other
populations, such as children, adolescents, and the elderly people. The results of some
epidemiological studies in the United States suggest that as many as 5% of children and
between 10% and 20% of adolescents from the general population have experienced a
depressive disorder (Reynolds, 1992, 1994).
Since depression is on increase in the general population, as evidenced in the
literatures, it is important to give due attention to the younger generation. Hence, the
focus of the present study is to tap the manifestations of depressive symptoms among a
group of school-going adolescents. It is also aimed at examining the impact of cultural
and ethnic differences upon the cognitive processes of adolescents, particularly in relation
to their thought. In short, it is assumed that cultural differences play a significant role in
the way a potentially depressed adolescent think and feel.
Depressive affect is common to the general population. We use the word
"depressed" in our daily conversations almost synonymously with the state of being sad,
"blue", or unhappy. However, having a depressed mood is more than being sad. It is an
emotional state that cannot be easily shrugged off and may impair the normal functioning
or activities of a person. Inappropriate management of depressive mood can lead to a
clinical depression, a condition that signifies a serious disorder with many implications.
There are two approaches that have been used to describe clinical depression. The
"idiographic approach" is one in which a person's disturbance is examined in depth in all
its contextual detail to facilitate a detailed understanding of his or her depressive state.
The second approach is known as the "nomothetic approach." In this approach, various
clinical illnesses are examined for features that can be constructed into a range of
classifications and relationships to summarize the different types of problems across
patients. Although this approach appears to be inadequate for an accurate diagnosis, it
forms an integral part in developing consensual formal diagnostic criteria (Kaelber,
Moul, & Farmer, 1995).
The more recent and popularly used formal diagnostic systems are the 10th
revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10; World Health
Organization, 1992), and the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). In both the ICD
and DSM classification systems, affective disorder is described as a syndrome
characterized by a cluster of signs and symptoms. These include depressed mood; loss of
interest in pleasurable activities; disturbances in sleep, appetite, and psychomotor
activity; fatigue; thoughts of worthlessness or guilt; and difficulties in concentrating.
The DSM-IV lists seven separate depressive and manic disorders in the section on
mood disorders, including classifications on various episode and course specifiers. These
are major depression; atypical depression; melancholia; psychotic depression; dysthymic
disorder; seasonal affective disorder; and organic mood disorder or mood disorder due to
a general medical condition. Current research demonstrates that there are subtypes of
depression (such as unipolar and bipolar) which vary in etiology, course, treatment
2
response, and so on. There is massive evidence that several forms of depression are in
fact illnesses or diseases resulting from genetic and biological dysfunction (Beckham,
Leber & Youll, 1995).
Depression and Comorbidity
Clinical depression can sometimes be the result of another illness or psychosocial
factor and vice versa. This means that depression may occur before, during, or after the
presence of another illness, mental or otherwise. This coexistence is known as
comorbidity. Among the major ones are depression and dysthymia (although dysthymia
is sometimes put in the spectrum of depression itself); depression and schizophrenia;
depression and schizoaffective disorder; depression and anxiety disorders; depression and
eating disorders; depression and somatization disorder; and depression and substance
abuse or dependence.
Comorbidity of depression with other illnesses sometimes results in a
misdiagnosis or no diagnosis at all. As a consequence, the depression itself is not treated.
An awareness of the interplay of various factors in precipitating or even aggravating the
suffering of a depressed person is essential in facilitating research for its new
understanding, diagnostic approaches, and methods of clinical care (Maser, Weise, &
Gwirtsman, 1995).
Adolescence and Depression
Childhood depression may differ from that in adulthood particularly with
reference to demographic features. Nevertheless, Angst (1988) suggests that the
phenomenology of depression in adolescence is generally believed to be similar to adult
manifestations. Reynolds (1986) maintains that depression in adolescents is a
3
psychological disorder that if left untreated, may persist for months or years and in severe
form may have life-threatening consequences.
Although the study of depressive disorders in children and adolescents may be
considered a new field dating back about three decades ago, various schools of thought
have branched out and developed during this period. According to Clarizio ( 1994 ), there
are five schools of thought that address depression in children and adolescents. These are
the psychoanalytic school, the masked-depression school, the adult DSM-criteria school,
the developmental school, and the organizational-developmental school.
The psychoanalytically-oriented theorists believed that superego of children and
young people are not yet well-developed or internalized. Therefore, there could not be
any relevant conflicts between the id, the ego, and the superego, which may develop into
a depressive disorder, as in adults. Although clinical observations of children with mood
disorders proved otherwise, the notion continues to dominate this perspective. As an
example, Lefkowitz and Burton (1978) suggest that many normal children exhibit
depressive symptoms as a transitory nature of their development. Thus, depressive
manifestations were not regarded as deviant in either statistical or psychopathological
sense.
The second school of thought that was popular in the 1960s and the 1970s holds
that depression in the younger population is often manifested in "masked" forms.
Depressive symptoms are manifested in terms of enuresis, learning disabilities,
hyperactivity, delinquent behaviour, and psychosomatic complaints, among others. These
are known as "depressive equivalents". On the basis of this assumption, the theorists
went on to describe children with conduct disorders as being depressed.
4
The question arises, how then are we supposed to differentiate between children
with depression and children with conduct disorder without depression? Reynolds (1994)
believes that the depressed youngster may cause very little discomfort to others, yet feel
intense misery, demoralization, and distress. As a result, poor school performance is
consistent with several symptoms of depressive disorders, including poor concentration
and thinking ability, decreased productivity in school, fatigue, psychomotor retardation or
agitation, and insomnia. However, Zoccolillo (1992) was quoted to posit that the
correlates of major depression might well differ in young persons with and without
conduct disorder with respect to age of onset, family history, and longitudinal course into
adulthood.
In the past 20 years, however, the third school which views that depression in
young people can be diagnosed using the same basic criteria as those used for adults,
such as DSM-III, DSM-III-R, DSM-IV, and Research Diagnostic Criteria (Spitzer,
Endicott, & Robins, 1977), has been the most popular (Speier, Sherak, Hirsch, &
Cantwell, 1995). Proponents of this perspective have recommended universal acceptance
and use of the DSM-III-R criteria as the foundation for diagnosing major affective
disorders in children and adolescents. The advantage of this viewpoint is the availability
of a large collection of studies for comparing research findings. However, there is a
disadvantage of overlooking significant developmental differences in childhood affective
disorders.
Some authors prefer to discuss depression in adolescence as developmentally
determined. This gave birth to the fourth school, the developmental perspective. Weiner
( 1992), for example, believes that compared to early or middle adolescents, late
5
adolescents accordingly resemble adults more closely in both their manic and their
depressive symptoms. However, he exerts that some older adolescents may also express
depression indirectly, as in the case of the younger ones, through maladaptive behaviour.
In the recent years, a new approach called the organizational-developmental
school has evolved. This fifth approach highlights the significant differences in the
developmental sequencing of cognitive, linguistic, and socio-emotional capabilities,
which preclude direct, one-to-one behavioural correspondence between depressed
children and adults. Accordingly, the simple categorization of symptoms and behaviours
is not adequate. Behaviours are then viewed as becoming hierarchically organized into
more complex patterns within developmental systems (Cicchetti & Schneider-Rosen,
1986; Sroufe & Rutter, 1984).
The Cognitive Theory of Depression
In recent years, the more emphasis is on cognitive-attributional approach, and
cognitive-behavioural models of depression have received considerable attention
pertaining to the etiology, symptom display, and treatment of depressed children and
adolescents. They represent a theoretically significant departure from traditional
formulations in emphasizing the essential importance of both cognitive and situational
contributions to depressive states.
The cognitive theory of depression proposes that the essential component of a
depressive disorder is a negative cognitive set--that is, the tendency to view the self, the
future, and the world in a dysfunctional, negative manner. This negative cognitive set is
known as the "cognitive triad" (Beck, 1967; Beck, Rush, Shaw & Emery, 1979). The first
component revolves around the person's negative view of him or herself as defective,
6
inadequate, diseased, or deprived. In the second component, the person makes long-range
projections, anticipating that his or her current difficulties or suffering will continue
indefinitely. Finally, he or she sees the world as making exorbitant demands and/or
presenting obstacles to reaching his or her life goals.
All depressive disorders, regardless of subtype, are said to manifest the negative
cognitive triad. In addition, the major symptoms of a depressive disorder (affective,
behavioural, somatic, and motivational) are viewed as a direct consequence of the
negative thinking pattern (Sacco & Beck, 1995). In quoting an earlier work by Beck
( 1967), Sacco and Beck ( 1995) describe the following common systematic errors in the
depressed individual's information processing:
1. Arbitrary inference--drawing a conclusion in the absence of evidence or when
the evidence is contrary to the conclusion.
2. Selective abstraction--the tendency to focus on a negative detail in a situation
and to conceptualize the entire experience on the basis of this negative
fragment.
3. Overgeneralization--the tendency to draw a general rule or conclusion on the
basis of one isolated incident, and to apply the concept indiscriminately to
both related and unrelated situations.
4. Magnification and minimization--the tendency to overestimate the
significance or magnitude of undesirable events, and to underestimate the
significance or magnitude of desirable events.
5. Personalization--the tendency to relate external events to oneself without
evidence.
7
6. All-or-none thinking--the tendency to think in absolute, black-or-white, all-or
none terms.
Automatic Thoughts and Depression
We are familiar with the expression that says "A thought just popped into my
mind" or "A thought crossed my mind." What do we mean when we say that? Do we
mean that we did not consciously try to think, but somehow the thought came? Or does it
mean that it is an involuntary process? This is an automatic thought process. Specifically,
almost all definitions of automatic processes include the following criteria, as suggested
by Hartlage, Alloy, Vazquez., and Dykman (1993):
a) the processes take place without requiring attention or conscious awareness;
b) automatic processes occur in parallel without interfering with other operations
or stressing the capacity limitations of the cognitive system (many automatic
processes can take place at one time); and
c) automatic processes occur without intention or control.
Other researchers such as Schneider and Shiffrin (1977) and Hasher and Zacks (1979),
assert that, once activated, automatic processes run to completion and are difficult to
suppress, modify, or ignore.
A clinically derived concept of automatic thoughts is central to Beck's (1967,
1976) cognitive theory of depression. A main feature of the theory posits that the
depressed individual's negative thinking is systematically biased in a negative direction.
This suggests that automatic negative thoughts and attributional inferences may be
associated with the depressed state. Most depressed persons regard themselves as
unworthy, incapable, and undesirable. Hence, they expect failure, rejection, and
8
dissatisfaction, and perceive most experiences as confirming these negative expectations.
Their thoughts are automatic, repetitive, unintended, and not readily controllable, hence,
they are termed "negative automatic thoughts." Depressed people experience these
negative automatic thoughts as valid, and in severely depressed individuals they dominate
consc10usness.
As negative automatic thoughts may be associated with cognitive vulnerability to
depression rather than current depression, Beck (1967, 1976) refers to depression-prone
rather than currently depressed people when hypothesizing the existence of embedded
negative attitudes. The hopelessness theory hypothesizes that a particular cognitive style,
that is a negative attributional style, is a contributing factor for depression. Even when
depressives are unaware of negative automatic thoughts, the thoughts can still influence
their affect and behaviour (Beck, 1976). Even cognitive psychologists are in agreement
with the idea that automatic thoughts are difficult to suppress or ignore.
A review of the past literature on cognitive processing by depressed individuals
by Hartlage et.al. (1993) indicates that depression interferes more with effortful
processing as compared to its minimal interference with automatic processes.
Nevertheless, results of experiments conducted on automatic processing indicated that
cognitively depression-prone subjects made internal attributions for negative events and
external attributions for positive events automatically (Hartlage, 1990~ Hartlage & Alloy,
1992). This finding suggests that making depressive-content attributions for negative
events may be automated only in depression-prone people. It provides good support for
the hypothesis that depression-prone people sometimes automatically make maladaptive
attributions for even positive events.
9
Culture, Depression, and Cognitive Processes
Are differences in prevalence rate and incidence of depression across culture
really true? Does culture really make a difference in cognitive processes? The extensive
literature in the field of anthropology points to the vast differences among people and
their cultures. It was found that prevalence and incidence figures of various forms of
depressive disorder vary from culture to culture within country and across countries and
the differences are often enormous (Engelsman, 1980, Murphy, 1982, Murphy &
Leighton, 1965, Silverman, 1968, Singer, 1984). For example, Chinese in Indonesia have
more depression than the Indonesians, and the Indians of Alto-Plano in Argentina have
more depression than those from the villages (Sartorius, 1986). Although psychology is
more interested in studying individual differences, the influence of culture as an element
that moulds the human personality is not undermined.
Bronfenbrenner (1979) proposed that human development is largely influenced by
a series of contexts. One of these, termed as the exosystem, represents the society or
culture in which the child is raised, and the impact of that society's rules, norms, and
structures on significant others in the child's life such as parents and caretakers. This
means that the way the parents or caretakers have been brought up would also influence
their child-rearing practices.
In thinking about human development in cultural context, the idea of
developmental niche can be useful (Super and Harkness, 1986). Three major components
make up the developmental niche. The first component is the physical and social settings,
which includes the size and shape of the living space, sleeping and eating schedules,
caretakers, and playmates. The second component is customs of child care and child
10
rearing practices which covers the various customary and ritual exercises that revolve
around bringing up a child. The psychology of the caretakers constitutes the third
component. It refers to the parents or other caretakers' cultural belief systems and related
underlying emotions in relation to the customary child rearing practices, and the
validation of the organization of the physical and social setting of the child.
As the child matures or blooms into adolescence, new challenges and
developmental tasks would be encountered.· Although many of these challenges and tasks
are faced by the adolescents in general, their contexts would influence their approach and
coping strategies. According to Tan ( 1985), an adolescent in the Malaysian context is
faced with four major tasks:
1) Loosening his or her childhood emotional ties to his or her parents in order to
become an independent person in his or her own right;
2) Finding his or her own system of values, beliefs and principles by which to
live;
3) Establishing feelings about his or her sexuality and sexual relationships with
others and taking on responsibilities related to these relationships; and
4) Choosing a vocation or life role so that he or she can find a place for him or
herself as a useful member of the society.
The Malaysian culture is a unique blend of various cultures integrated by one
nationality. Although the various ethnic groups in Malaysia practice their own cultural
and belief systems in most matters, they share certain common traits and practices in
other matters. This integration of multitudinous cultural systems sets the Malaysian
Malay, Chinese, and Indian, different from the Malays in Indonesia, Chinese in China,
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and Indian in India. Nevertheless, the ethnic identity of each group is well-preserved and
this is marked by clear differences in their values and belief systems. As such, we would
find common characteristics among the subjects of interest in this study, but notable
distinctions in the manner these characteristics are being manifested in their lifestyles.
Malays are generally known for their calm, family-oriented way of life. It is
observed that due to cultural and religious dictates, the Malay adolescent is refrained
from expressing him or herself too much, either verbally or non-verbally. As long as his
or her place in the society is secure, he/she is not expected to achieve more. The father or
eldest male is the head of the Malay family. Hence, he is the most respectable member,
and would take decisions on behalf of other family members. This conviction however,
may not be true to the modem, highly educated Malays raising their children in the city.
It is observed that the modem Malays are more open-minded and competitive. Hence,
children are given more freedom to express their opinions and make their own choices in
life.
Nevertheless, the Malay society as a whole prefers to live peacefully without
much emphasis on adopting faster-paced, success-oriented lifestyles. The Malay sense of
purpose for sharing is strong because they come from a strong patriotic background and a
tradition of government service. They are humble and moderate people who like to enjoy
peaceful and quiet life with their families. Asma (1994) maintained that for the Malays,
success is measured in terms of rapport with family, friends and associates. They may be
drawn by tangible rewards and the chance to penetrate a new circle of influential, high
status friends, but are comfortable enough when they receive the respect of those they
know.
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At least four dimensions characterise Chinese identity in contemporary Malaysia
as suggested by Heng (1998): (1) Confucian values and other elements of the Chinese
cultural heritage; (2) language; (3) diet; and (4) adaptation to Malay hegemony.
Following a socio-anthropological point of view, he went on to describe Chinese
immigrants in Malaysia as having a strong cultural identity inherited from China's
ancient civilisation. Adherence to basic Confucian norms pertaining to family
relationships (such as patriarchal authority, filial piety, ancestor worship, and female
subordination) fostered a high level of uniformity across dialect, class and regional lines
within the Chinese population who immigrated to Malaysia.
The Chinese culture traditionally places greater significance upon social and
moral values than upon personal values and competence in the service of individualistic
goals or self-fulfillment. Furthermore, the family has been described as the pivot of
Chinese culture. Cohesion among family members, dependence on the family,
unquestioning acceptance of parental authority, preservation of the status quo, and
profound loyalty are encouraged as a means of preserving the family system (Bond &
Hwang, 1986; Harrison, Serafica, & McAdoo, 1984). Feldman and Rosenthal (1994)
further added a slight change in the trend of child-rearing practices among modem
Chinese culture.
In comparison to the Malays, it is common fact that Chinese are known for their
aggressive, achievement-oriented lifestyles. The Chinese adolescent is expected to be
assertive and competitive in his or her endeavours from as early as possible. This is
clearly observable even at the pre-school ages. Parents would force their children to
achieve and do well in everything they do. He or she is expected to strive to be the best at
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