COGNITIVE STYLES PERSONALITY AND WELL BEING OF TRIBAL STUDENTS A COMPARATIVE STUDY

Abstract

The major objective of the present study was to investigate the cognitive style, personality, and wellbeing of tribal students. The sample for the study consisted of two groups- the main sample comprising of 380 tribal students studying in classes from 9th to 11th standards randomly drawn from 15 schools belonging to seven districts in Kerala, and a matched comparison group of nontribal students. The data were gathered via self-report questionnaires including the Group Embedded Figure Test, Big Five Personality Inventory, Psychological Well Being Scale, and the Personal Data Sheet. The collected data were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods including the t test, One- way ANOVA, Scheffe s post hoc test, and Pearson s correlation coefficient. The results revealed significant differences between the tribal and the nontribal students in cognitive style, personality, and psychological wellbeing, while there was not much difference among tribal students belonging to different castes in cognitive style, personality, and psychological wellbeing. The tribal students were predominantly field-dependent in their cognitive style, while the nontribal students were more field independent. The male students were more field independent in their cognitive style than their female counterparts, while the tribal female students were more extraverted than their male counterparts. There were significant gender differences among the tribal students in six of the twelve components of psychological wellbeing. Place of stay (Model residential schools/Premetric hostels/Own homes) did not have any impact on the cognitive style and psychological wellbeing of the tribal students but had significant impact on newlinepersonality. Cognitive style had significant and moderate positive relationships with newlinethe big five personality factors and psychological well being. newline