Bahria Journal of Professional Psychology

1-19

Authors: Jawaria Shaukat, Nida Zafar and Rukhsana Kausar

The present paper investigated relationship between self-compassion and positive psychological functioning, i.e., hope, gratitude and psychological well-being, in women with primary and secondary infertility. It was hypothesized that there is likely to be a relationship in self-compassion and positive psychological functioning in women with infertility; self-compassion, hope and gratitude are likely to predict psychological well-being of women with infertility; and there is likely to be difference in self-compassion and positive psychological functioning in women with primary and secondary infertility. A sample of 60 women with infertility (n=30 with primary infertility; n=30 with secondary infertility) was taken from Hameed Latif Hospital and Tariq Clinic, Lahore, Pakistan. For assessment Self-Compassion Scale by Neff (2003a), Hope Trait Scale by Snyder, Irving, and Anderson (1991), Gratitude Scale by McCullough, Emmons, and Tsang (2002) and Psychological Well Being Scale by Ryff (1989) were used. Pearson Product Moment Correlation, Hierarchical Regression and Independent Sample t test were applied. Results indicated a significant relationship of self-compassion with psychological well-being of women. Results showed that self-compassion (isolation and mindfulness) predicted psychological well-being (personal growth) after controlling the effects of demographic characteristics. Moreover, women with secondary infertility were more self–compassionate (over identification) and had better psychological well-being (environmental mastery) as compared to women with primary infertility. Findings have important implications for infertile women to enhance their psychological well-being by highlighting the importance of positive thinking.

32-43

Authors: Sarwat Sultan, Rizwana Amin and Muhammad Shahzad Naseem

This study intended to explore effects of students’ anxiety that they experience towards math and perceived teachers’ social support on their achievement towards math. Participants were 345 elementary school students (157 female and 188 male students) aged 12-14 years. Participants were approached through convenient sampling technique at their schools in Vehari city. Math anxiety and perception about instructor’s support were measured through Math Anxiety Questionnaire (Wigfield & Meece, 1988) and Teacher Social Support Scale (Malecki, Demaray, & Elliot, 2000) respectively. Students’ performance score in mathematics in their annual examination was used as math achievement. Employing Pearson Correlation and Regression Analysis, results revealed that math achievement was found with inverse relationship with math anxiety while was found positively correlated with teachers’ support. Findings further indicated that students’ anxiety towards math and perception of teacher’s social support were found significant determinants of achievements in math. On the basis of these findings, it is suggested that teachers should provide support, autonomy, and empowerment to their students because the students’ perception about their teachers always affect their performance in the course to be learnt.

55-69

Authors: Sadiq Hussain and Ghulam Rasool Lakhani

Keeping in view the importance of psychological adjustment in students’ academic achievement this research was conducted to assess the predictive power of psychological adjustment for students’ academic achievement. A total of 171 (85 male & 86 female) students between the ages of 17-35 years (M = 22.08, SD = 2.7) were recruited from Karakoram International University, Gilgit, Pakistan. The adult version of Personality Assessment Questionnaire along with the obtained marks in last semester of the students was recorded to assess their academic achievement. Results showed that students’ psychological adjustment was significantly related with their academic achievement. Hierarchical regression analysis indicated that only students’ negative self-adequacy, a subdomain of psychological adjustment, independently predicted their academic achievement. Additionally, gender differences were also found in emotional instability and academic achievement.