RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DYSFUNCTIONAL ATTITUDE, LONELINESS, AND SOCIAL ANXIETY AMONG UNIVERSITY STUDENT

Abstract

The research aimed to explore the predictive role of dysfunctional attitudes as an independent variable in relation to loneliness and social anxiety as dependent variables. The present study examined how dysfunctional attitudes contribute to variation in social anxiety and loneliness among individual. For this purpose, present study tested. The effect of demographic variable was also sought in relation to the mentioned variables. The sample of present research comprised of (N= 300) university students among which (n=150) males and (n=150) females who were selected by convenient sampling to assess to psychometric properties of instruments and test the study hypothesis. Data were collected using standardized instruments including Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS-SF) by Christopher et al; (2007), to measure dysfunctional attitude, UCLA Loneliness scale by Daniel Russell (1996) to measure loneliness and Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS) by Liebowitz, (1987) to measure social anxiety were used to measure study variables. The result confirms the reliability and validity of these scales with the targeted population. Correlation analysis revealed that dysfunctional attitudes is significantly positive correlated with loneliness and social anxiety and social anxiety is significantly positively correlated with loneliness. Regression analysis revealed that dysfunctional attitudes significantly predict to loneliness and social anxiety. The impact of gender was tested through T-test which revealed significant difference in the variables of present study performance. Limitation, suggestions and implication were also discussed.