International Journal of Management and Leadership

Social Psychology: Need of Critical Thinking and Self-Deception

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

RTETMSD-2013
ABSTRACT In todays competitive world what we teach our young generation is how to crack the competition and how to beat and win but are they mentally trained to handle the outer pressure? What we want from students or employees is to perform better than best. In our society and in our corporate world, todays youth is facing mental pressure to be on the top, may be as a student or as an employee. A report of BBC says India is at number one in suicide for youngsters aged 15-29. The report also state that suicide rate was higher among well-educated young men. There must be some reason behind this and there must be a solution. Here, in this article we discussed about the most common reasons for these tragic happenings, which all are in concern with mental pressure. Weve studied mental status of students from two different countries, India and United States, and with that we came up with a reason, and that is hidden within the education and training of the students and employees respectively. When we looked at the contents at educational institutes or in training at corporate world, we found a common subject of social psychology, and critical thinking, as its main content. Here we are focusing on the ways which we can implement into trainings in the organizations and in educational institutes. Weve done a before-after analysis of the performance of employees in a NGO and students of a school in New Delhi to whom a week training was provided. Fortunately, we have seen a dramatic rise in their performance and also in their mental state. Finally we reached on a conclusion that we must take some initiatives towards up gradation in trainings to save todays young generation from going deep into mental illness and towards suicide. Keywords: Social Psychology, Critical Thinking, Self-deception, needs of critical thinking, psychological need of self-deception, and suicide rate in India.

1. INTRODUCTION This world is changing rapidly with industrialization globalization and economic boom. And with these open markets and opportunities, more competition, more job anxiety, higher expectations and more and more pressure to achieve have been invited, as per The Times of India. Also, mental health experts said that more and more students and young employees are attempting suicide every single day due to this unseen mental pressure. The study published in Lancet Medical Journal on June 22, 2012 said that suicide rates in India are higher among age grouped 15-29 from southern part of the nation which is considered more developed with better education and better opportunities. After studying all these its not wrong to say that our young generation is at high risk. There are thousands of analysis, reports and research have been done on suicide rate in the country but unfortunately its hard to find solutions and recommendation based papers. Here an effort to understand the solutions for the causes has been made to reduce the unfortunate life-taking thoughts out of youngsters. According to latest census, 50% of Indian population is below 25 years and here we need to understand the needs and problems of this new generation. We also need to analyze the causes and reasons behind the increasing suicide attempts. Of-course, its all about thoughts and thoughts-generator mind. And to study and analyze these thoughts we need psychology or I must say social psychology. In simple words if we say, social psychology

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Social Psychology: Need of Critical Thinking and Self-Deception -Nitin Sharma.

International Journal of Management and Leadership

is study of human trails, behavior and emotions. It also helps in observe the influence of environments and situations on human actions, including relationships and social interactions. Now the question here is that do we really understand the thoughts of todays teenagers and youngsters or in other words do we have a psychological eye on our society? How many parents do understand the psychological problems or mental state of a child? How many teachers do tell the correct reasons why a student is unable to achieve good grades? And how many employers provide training to fresher employee to make him/her comfortable to the corporate pressure and to understand the mental pressure? Most of us as parents, teachers and employers dont. It may sound unrealistic but we need to keep an eye on thoughts of this young generation and we have to teach them how to think, how to make decision and how to control and observe the thoughts. We need to make them understand the power of thinking and thoughts so that they can use it in positive way and not in negative. greater likelihood of disappointments when aspirations that define success and happiness are distorted or unmet by the reality faced by young people in a rapidly changing society," said Dr. Vikram Patel, one of the report's authors, in an editorial printed in The Hindu. He also noted online social networking was making "loneliness more common." He admits his conclusion is conjecture, but says "I cannot think of any more plausible explanation." The revelation has shocked many in a country notorious for poor maternal health care statistics. "Mental health is not a priority in India. It has to be a priority. Many people are not aware of the fact that mental health is behind suicide." said Dr. Roy Abraham, president of the Indian Psychiatric Society, in one of the article printed in The Times of India. This is a major problem and here again the question rises that are they prepared for the unmeasurable peer pressure they are bearing? We all know the answer but problem is why, why our youth is not capable of handling any kind of mental pressure and why they cant differentiate personal and professional emotions. The answer is hidden in our training and development sections of educational institutes and corporate organizations. We never teach them any of psychological contents, not even basics including how to think or what to think. We never train them for any of these situations. Yes, now a days some institutes and organizations are taking initiative in this direction but unfortunately they all are foreign based and none of them is Indian. If we talk about any of subjects, courses we study in United States, no matter high school or post-graduation, we do have subjects related to social psychology which teach the students how to handle their thoughts and how to manage themselves. For example in Stratford University, USA no matter in which academic program you are enrolled in, graduation or higher studies, they have a subject of Critical Thinking, code PSY340 which itself means Think out of the Box but when we looked at Indian educational contents, till high school we dont have anything which can be related to the study of human nature or behavior and in graduation and post-graduation, except for psychology subject owners we dont have must-do psychological contents in any other subjects courses. This may be the answer why our students are not mentally prepared anyhow for any situation. Weve found that students from any American University are emotionally and mentally stable rather than students in India and the reason is already mentioned, former students are prepared and trained to fight with the problems, the problems which are now reasons for increasing mental illness of Indian Students and young professionals.

2. PROBLEM ANALYSIS It is already mentioned above that first we need to understand the problem this new generation is facing which leads them to take tragic steps like suicide. The Times of India report dated June 22, 2012 and several other expert state that middle class youth gain pressure to meet achievement expectations and on other side new technologies like cell phones, internet and social networking websites is breaking traditional family units. Today, most of the youth keeps itself busy with social networking and cell phone chit-chats rather than being with family. We do have positive boom in the industry with internet but we do need to understand the psychological impact on young brains of the nation. They dont talk, neither they share their problems with anyone, not even with the family which always used to be the reliable support. Who else is there for them to share and vomit out what they have in the depth of emotions; the outer world or social networking websites? But there they cant as they need to fight the competition of achievements out there. Everything is interrelated and in this relation todays youth is pressed both ways. Families have higher expectations from children as students as well as money maker and the world outside is ready to push them down in competition so they left no one to be with. This all together takes them towards loneliness or in the state of depression. The higher suicide rates may come from "the

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Social Psychology: Need of Critical Thinking and Self-Deception -Nitin Sharma.

2.1 Student Performance Analysis (USA & India) Weve studied mental stress and thinking power of students of two different universities; Stratford University, USA and Delhi University, India by a small survey and some online tests. We picked random 20 students from each university and the results were unbelievable. Stress level of students from Delhi University was much higher than that of Stratford University. The average Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) units for students of Delhi University came out 25 PSS whereas international students got 10 PSS as average. More we are near 40 PSS, more mental stress were dealing with. Also, if we talk about simple reasoning tests, yes Indian students tried their best and but unfortunately they were unable to beat the other ones. No doubt students from India are placed everywhere on the planet in every big multinationals we talk about and they deserves this being on the top of the academic performance but here need to accept that majority of our youngsters are facing mental illness including depression and mental stress.

compatible with thinking "out-of- the-box", challenging consensus and perusing less popular approaches. If anything, critical thinking is an essential part of creativity because we need critical thinking to evaluate and improve our creative ideas an online blogger wrote. In the simplest words, this subject teaches to think above the matter. To analyze the thoughts from common point of view and it teaches them to take the correct decisions. 3.2 Need and Effects of Critical Thinking As the definition says, Critical Thinking helps in analyzing the problem and gives a systematic solution to resolve it. If we talk about the problem we are discussion on, has a solution if we make our students and employees learn how to use this concept. Critical Thinking simply reduces the chances of taking a wrong decision in any situation and in any stress or pressure. It reduces the chances of mental illness and the person starts thinking out-of-the-box without fake assumptions and perceptions. Study of this branch of psychology will effect in reducing the suicide rates in the nation and will help in reducing the mental pressure, which will directly affect the efficiency and effectiveness of our youngsters. 3.3 Self-Deception

3. CRITICAL THINKING & SELF-DECEPTION After studying and analyzing the problem and after studying the differences and effects of teaching basics of social psychology such as Critical Thinking and SelfDeception, it could be possible to reduce the mental pressure and stress on large scale. And now it is important to understand these two contents of social psychology. As we know social psychology is study of how someones feelings, emotions, thoughts and behavior are effected or influenced by the real, imagined, or implied presence of others or others thoughts by perceptions or assumptions. Critical thinking and self-deception are the contents of the subject to understand our own assumptions, perceptions and unwilling self-betrayed respectively. 3.1 Critical Thinking In a very simple line if we define Critical Thinking then it is the ability to think clearly and rationally. Or we can say making relevant decisions out of fake assumptions and unrealistic perceptions. It includes the component skills of analyzing a problem, making solutions using reasoning and evaluating something or judging someone. A critical thinker do understands the logics and think on the basic of logics which helps him in solving a problem systematically. Also, Critical Thinking is quite Self-Deception itself is a wide term which covers a huge range of concepts and contents. Here well only discuss the basic of this section. As the name says, deceiving the self. There are many ways we ditch others by lying them or by hiding the truth or ignoring the must-needs of ones for self-interest. And in the same manner by ignoring the truth and facts, by lying to ourselves and ignoring selfneeds, we are ditching ourselves and thats what we call Self-Deception. Now the question is do we really deceive ourselves? For this lets look at this example; in a student life at the time of preparation for exams an average student, every night decide to wake up early in the morning to study. We know, everyone do that. But what happens in the morning? They wake up, switch off the alarm and go to sleep again. That is every second story. Here the student ignores the truth that he has to study, also, neglects the promise he made to himself at night. In the same way, every time, everyone knows what is right and what is wrong but the fact is they ignores it. A youngster decides to go for exercise in the morning. That is his need but again he ignores his own needs. Here this subject and its study realize them this ignorance its effects. It teaches them how to overcome all these problems of selfdeception.

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Social Psychology: Need of Critical Thinking and Self-Deception -Nitin Sharma.

3.4 Needs and effects of Self-Deception All needs and effects are almost clear from Section 3.3 but if we takes it with the problem were focusing on, selfdeception will play a major role in helping the young generation to understand the truths and realities and to understand what they really wish. It will help them in reducing the internal or external influence of any negative thoughts. People who are trained against self-deception are the one who really know themselves. What they really wish and what they really need to do. And when from the beginning anyone knows what s/he really need to do then there are minimum chances of big troubles and problems which finally helps in reducing the mental illness.

society and we need to train our growing generation to handle anything they strike with. Also, with the trainings, we also need to keep an eye on mental state and behavior of our subject. We would like to make a suggestion that every organization or education institute must have a psychologist within the premises, who in schools sits with the student to understand their learning and behavioral problems and in workplaces, they study the working environment and suggests the needful changes, if any, to reduce the work-stress. Finally, the mentioned two solutions, all together are effective to reduce the mental pressure or stress within the young population which will definitely reduce the growing suicide rates. Save these youngsters, they are the future of this nation, they are the nation. Acknowledgements: I would like to thank Dr. Ashima Puri, a well-known psychologist in New Delhi for her guidelines as a mentor and Ms. Mansi Handa, professor of Philosophy, MAII-Stratford University, for her valuable time in the study and the research, Save the Children India, the NGO provided a platform to perform the workshops and provided a chance to be within the young generation to understand them.

4. CONCLUSION Our nation is fighting with a big unseen problem of mental illness, most commonly in new generation, teenagers and youngsters. India is the youngest country on the globe. In 2020, the average age of the country would be nearly 29 but on the other hand the future of the nation is at risk. After all these studies, we conclude that we need to take initiatives regarding the increasing mental illness. We have to make everyone understand that we should take depression and stress as priority. The country needs an awareness revolution regarding the situation. Also, we as, corporate organization, educational instituted and social organizations need to introduce the above said concepts into our training and education. And believe me we dont require an entire subjects, we just need few workshops to make them understand the power of mind and thoughts. For example we had done a two days work shop in a NPO, YOTI Foundation and a one day workshop in an another NGO, Save the Children India and you have to believe that we were able to reduce the mental stress of the employees by 80%. Also weve seen an increment in attendance and punctuality. People started taking decisions and we have seen the increased confidence level. It is just not about the employees but also in students we measured a rapid better growth. A training workshop was conducted in Save the Children India premises, New Delhi, where 60 local students from age group 16 to 20 were invited. We were surprised to see the rapid changes in the youngsters. They stopped waiting time in unproductive things, they started taking interest in studies and they started generating new innovative ideas in their respective fields. Combining all, we can say that we need a psychological revolution in the

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Baljinder Sahbra and Paul Thagard (2003), Article in a regular journal, Minds and Machines, 13, pp. 213- 231. M.L.Meena and G.S.Dangayach (2012), Article in a regular journal, International Journal of Humanities and Applied Sciences (IJHAS), 1, 2, pp. 78-81. Gregory Bassham, William Irwin, Henry Nardone and James M. Wallace (2006), Critical Thinking: a students introduction, Tata McGraw-Hill, New Delhi.

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