psychological well-being and prosocial by sarah …
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PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND PROSOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS
IN IIUM
BY
SARAH BINTI SHAMSUL AZMAN
A dissertation submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for
the degree of Master of Education
Kulliyyah of Education
International Islamic University Malaysia
FEBRUARY 2020
ii
ABSTRACT
Psychological well-being is important for students because it has six elements, namely
autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others,
purpose in life, and self-acceptance that can affect prosocial behaviour among students.
Psychological well-being can give benefits to the students whether good or bad
depending on individuals. Specifically, the researcher used gender, psychological
well-being, and prosocial behaviour as the variables of the study. Hence, the aim of
this study is to identify psychological well-being and prosocial behaviour among
postgraduate students at the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM),
Gombak. In doing so, this study compared two Kulliyyahs, i.e. Kulliyyah of
Education and Kulliyyah of Engineering. A total number of 1241 IIUM postgraduate
students were selected as respondents for this study. The researcher randomly selected
294 respondents by using Raoft Calculator. In this study, the data is valid and reliable
to address the research questions. The analysis of the means, standard deviation,
standard of error of means, kurtosis and skewness have also been presented in this
study. Having large samples helped the study to avoid and minimize certain violations
of assumptions including normal distribution. Thus, having met the assumption of the
normal distribution helped the researcher to address research questions in this study.
On top of that, the descriptive analyses as well as inferential analysis, such as
independent t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and bivariate Pearson were used in
this study to answer to all of research questions. The result of this study is
postgraduate students are well in terms of psychological well-being and prosocial
behaviour. The students are able to manage their well-being, personal matter, stress,
time management, acceptance of emotions and thoughts.
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خلاصة البحثABSTRACT IN ARABIC
الراحة النفسية مهمة بالنسبة للطلاب لأنها تشتمل على ستة عناصر وهي: الاستقلال الذاتي، والسيطرة على البيئة، والنمو الشخصي، والعلاقات الإيجابية مع الآخرين، والهدف في الحياة، وتقبّل الذات؛ حيث
لاجتماعي الإيجابي بين الطلاب. وتمنح الراحة النفسية الطلاب تقوم هذه العناصر بالتأثيرعلى السلوك اعدد من الفوائد سواء أكانت إيجابية أم سلبية حسب الشخص. على وجه التحديد، فإن الباحث قد استخدم الجنس و الراحة النفسية والسلوك الاجتماعي كمتغيرات لهذه الدراسة. وبالتالي؛ فإنّ الهدف من
احة النفسية واالسلوك الاجتماعي لدى طلبة الدراسات العليا في الجامعة الإسلامية الدراسة هو فحص الر جومباك. وقارنت هذه الدراسة بين طلاب كليتين من كليات الجامعة، وهما (IIUM) العالمية بماليزيا
نة لهذه كعي IIUMطالباً من طلبة الدراسات العليا في 1141كلية التربية وكلية الهندسة. وتمَّ اختيار مجيبًا عن طريق استعمال برنامج حاسبة راوفت 194الدراسة. وقام الباحث عشوائيًا باختيار
(Raoft Calculator.) .تمَّ تقديم في هذه الدراسة، البيانات صالحة وموثوقة لمعالجة أسئلة البحثابي، و التفرطح، والانحراف تحليل المتوسطات الحسابية، والانحراف المعياري، ومعيار الخطأ في الوسط الحس
في هذه الدراسة. وجود عينات كبيرة ساعد الدراسة على تجنب وتقليل خروقات معينة من الافتراضات وبالتالي، فإن تلبية افتراض التوزيع الطبيعي ساعد الباحث على معالجة أسئلة .بما في ذلك التوزيع الطبيعيستخدام التحليل الوصفي بالإضافة إلى التحليل علاوة على ذلك، تم ا .البحث في هذه الدراسةفي ثنائي المتغير Pearson ، و (ANOVA)المستقل، وتحليل التباين t الاستدلالي، مثل اختبار
نتيجة هذه الدراسة هي أن طلاب الدراسات العليا في .هذه الدراسة للإجابة على جميع أسئلة البحثك الاجتماعي الإيجابي، فهم قادرون على إدارة صحتهم حالة جيدة من حيث الصحة النفسية والسلو
.النفسية، والأمور الشخصية، والإجهاد، وإدارة الوقت، وقبول العواطف والأفكار
iv
APPROVAL PAGE
I certify that I have supervised and 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 dissertation for the degree of Master of Education.
…………………………………..
Siti Rafiah Abdul Hamid
Supervisor
I certify that I have 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
dissertation for the degree of Master of Education.
…………………………………..
Aishah Hanim Abd Karim
Examiner
This dissertation was submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and
Counseling and is accepted as a fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master
of Education.
…………………………………..
Siti Kholijah Kassim
Head, Department of Educational
Psychology and Counseling
This dissertation was submitted to the Kulliyyah of Education and is accepted as a
fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Education.
…………………………………..
Ainol Madziah Zubairi
Dean, Kulliyyah of Education
v
DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this dissertation is the result of my own investigations, except
where otherwise stated. I also declare that it has not been previously or concurrently
submitted as a whole for any other degrees at IIUM or other institutions.
Sarah Binti Shamsul Azman
Signature ................................................. Date .........................................
vi
COPYRIGHT
INTERNATIONAL ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA
DECLARATION OF COPYRIGHT AND AFFIRMATION OF
FAIR USE OF UNPUBLISHED RESEARCH
PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND PROSOCIAL
BEHAVIOUR AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN IIUM
I declare that the copyright holders of this dissertation are jointly owned by the student
and IIUM.
Copyright © 2020 Sarah Binti Shamsul Azman and International Islamic University Malaysia. All
rights reserved.
No part of this unpublished research may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder
except as provided below
1. Any material contained in or derived from this unpublished research may
only be used by others in their writing with due acknowledgement.
2. IIUM or its library will have the right to make and transmit copies (print
or electronic) for institutional and academic purposes.
3. The IIUM library will have the right to make, store in a retrieved system
and supply copies of this unpublished research if requested by other
universities and research libraries.
By signing this form, I acknowledged that I have read and understand the IIUM
Intellectual Property Right and Commercialization policy.
Affirmed by Sarah Binti Shamsul Azman
……..…………………….. ………………………..
Signature Date
vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
All glory is due to Allah, the Almighty, whose Grace and Mercies have been with me
throughout the duration of my programme. Although, it has been tasking, His Mercies
and Blessings on me ease the task of completing this thesis.
Special appreciation goes to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Rafiah Abdul
Hamid, for her supervision and constant support. Her invaluable help of constructive
comments and suggestions throughout the experimental and thesis works have
contributed to the success of this research. Sincere thanks to all my friends for their
kindness and moral support during my study. Thanks for the friendship and memories.
Last but not least, my deepest gratitude goes to my beloved parents and family for
their endless love, prayers and encouragement.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract ........................................................................................................................ ii Abstract in Arabic ........................................................................................................ iii Approval Page .............................................................................................................. iv Declaration ................................................................................................................... v Copyright ..................................................................................................................... vi Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... vii List of Tables ............................................................................................................... xi
List of Figures .............................................................................................................. xiii
List of Abbreviations ................................................................................................... xiv
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1 1.1 Background of the Study ........................................................................... 1 1.2 Statement of Problem ................................................................................ 6 1.3 Research Objective.................................................................................... 8 1.4 Research Questions ................................................................................... 8 1.5 Significance of Study ................................................................................ 9 1.6 Delimitation of the Study .......................................................................... 10 1.7 Definition of Terms ................................................................................... 11
1.7.1 Psychological Well-being ............................................................... 11
1.7.2 Prosocial Behaviour ........................................................................ 11
1.7.3 Operational Definition of Terms .................................................... 11
1.7.3.1 Psychological Well-being ................................................... 11
1.7.3.2 Prosocial Behaviour ............................................................ 12
1.8 Chapter Summary...................................................................................... 12
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................... 13 2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 13 2.2 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................. 16
2.3 Related Theories........................................................................................ 19
2.4 Conceptual Framework ............................................................................. 21
2.5 Islamic Perspectives .................................................................................. 23
2.6 Review of Related Literature .................................................................... 25
2.6.1 Europian Countries ......................................................................... 26
2.6.2 Americas ......................................................................................... 29
2.6.3 Asia ................................................................................................. 33
2.7 Chapter Summary...................................................................................... 41
CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY ................................................................ 43 3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 43 3.2 Population ................................................................................................. 43
3.2.1 Population Setting ........................................................................... 43
3.3 Sample ....................................................................................................... 45
3.3.1 Sampling Technique ....................................................................... 46
3.4 Instrument ................................................................................................. 47
3.4.1 Reliability ....................................................................................... 49
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3.5 Research Procedure ................................................................................... 49
3.5.1 Pilot Test ......................................................................................... 49
3.5.2 Data Collection ............................................................................... 50
3.6 Data Analysis ............................................................................................ 51
3.7 Chapter Summary...................................................................................... 53
CHAPTER FOUR: ANALYSIS AND RESULTS .................................................. 54 4.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 54
4.1.1 Respondent’s Demographic Details ............................................... 54
4.2 Frequencies ............................................................................................... 56
4.2.1 Normal Curve ................................................................................. 57
4.3 Research Question 1: What is the IIUM postgraduate student’s
level of psychological well-being?............................................................ 63 4.3.1 Gender ............................................................................................. 64
4.3.2 Age .................................................................................................. 69
4.3.3 Kulliyyah ........................................................................................ 74
4.3.4 Level of Study ................................................................................. 79
4.3.5 CGPA .............................................................................................. 81
4.4 Research Question 2: What is the level of prosocial behaviour
among IIUM postgraduate students? ........................................................ 86
4.4.1 Gender ............................................................................................. 87
4.4.2 Age .................................................................................................. 89
4.4.3 Kulliyyah ........................................................................................ 91
4.4.4 Level of Study ................................................................................. 94
4.4.5 CGPA .............................................................................................. 96
4.5 Research Question 3: Is there a significant relationship between
psychological well-being and prosocial behaviour among
postgraduate students in IIUM? ................................................................ 98
4.6 Chapter Summary...................................................................................... 100
CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION ....................................... 101 5.1 Introduction ............................................................................................... 101 5.2 Summary of the Study ............................................................................... 101
5.3 Discussion ................................................................................................. 102 5.3.1 Psychological Well-being ............................................................... 102
5.3.1.1 Gender ................................................................................ 102
5.3.1.2 Age...................................................................................... 103
5.3.1.3 Kulliyyah ............................................................................ 104
5.3.1.4 Level of Study .................................................................... 104
5.3.1.5 CGPA.................................................................................. 105
5.3.2 Prosocial Behaviour ........................................................................ 106
5.3.2.1 Gender ................................................................................ 106
5.3.2.2 Age...................................................................................... 106
5.3.2.3 Kulliyyah ............................................................................ 107
5.3.2.4 Level of Study .................................................................... 107
5.3.2.5 CGPA.................................................................................. 108
5.4 Recommendations ..................................................................................... 109 5.4.1 Psychological need satisfaction and psychological well-
being ............................................................................................... 109
x
5.4.2 Prosocial behaviour ........................................................................ 110
5.4.3 Educators contributions .................................................................. 111
5.4.4 Peer learning ................................................................................... 112
5.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 113
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................... 115
APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE ......................................................................... 131
xi
LIST OF TABLES
Table No. Page No.
2.1 Review of Empirical Studies 37
3.1 Distribution of Population Characteristic for Malaysian
postgraduate students IIUM 45
3.2 The Content of the Questionnaire 47
3.3 Research questions and Analysis 53
4.1 Demographic Characteristics (n=294) 55
4.2 Statistics 56
4.3 The Comparison of Male and Female on Psychological Well-
being (n= 87 Males and 207 Female) 65
4.4 Independent Samples Test 67
4.5 Descriptive Analysis: Age and Psychological Well-being 70
4.6 ANOVA 73
4.7 Comparison of Kulliyyah 74
4.8 Independent Samples Test 77
4.9 Descriptives 79
4.10 ANOVA 80
4.11 Descriptives 82
4.12 ANOVA 85
4.13 Group Statistics 87
4.14 Independent Samples Test 88
4.15 Descriptives - Prosocial Behaviour 90
4.16 ANOVA - Prosocial Behaviour 91
4.17 Comparison of Kulliyyahs 92
4.18 Independent Samples Test 93
xii
4.19 Comparison of Level of Study 94
4.20 Independent Samples Test 95
4.21 Descriptives - Prosocial Behaviour 97
4.22 ANOVA - Prosocial Behaviour 98
4.23 Descriptive Statistics 98
4.24 Correlationsb 99
xiii
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure No. Page No.
2.1 Ryff’s Six Dimensions of Psychological Well-Being 18
2.2 Bronfenbrenner’s Theory 19
2.3 The Conceptual Framework 21
4.1 Autonomy 57
4.2 Environmental Mastery 58
4.3 Personal Growth 59
4.4 Positive Relations with Others 60
4.5 Purpose in Life 61
4.6 Self-Acceptance 62
4.7 Prosocial Behaviour 63
xiv
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PWB
WB
BFA
IPIP
Psychological Well-being
Well-being
Big Five Approach
International Personality Item Pool
SCS Self-Construal Scale
SWB Subjective Well-being
HBSC Health Behaviour in School-aged Children
FFM Five-factor Model
EWB Existential Well-Being
EPD Experiential/ Phenomenological Dimension
PAR Paranormal Beliefs
REL Religiousness
1
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
World Health Organization (WHO) defines mental health as a state of well-being
when a person realizes his or her potential to cope with the normal stresses of life, to
work productively and fruitfully, be and able to contribute to the community (WHO,
2014). According to WHO (2014), the epidemiological studies of positive mental
health in Europe have also been accepted by many people. The results from the
Eurobarometer survey showed variation population when women had poorer mental
health including poorer groups and weak social support, especially at the workplace.
The studies mentioned that mental health problems have been increasing among
students of higher education, which is in university that usually the majority of
youngsters attend (Rice et al., 2016). Strayhorn (2018) said that universities are
known to promote mental health among young adults which include important
elements, such as academic performance, health services, residences, social networks,
and extracurricular activities. Priester et al. (2016) also mentioned that mental health
setting might be the reason to reach a large number of the young adult population of
mental health. There are increasing concerns globally about the mental health of
students, especially when it relates to psychological wellness (Levecque et al., 2017).
Also, there are complex genetic, biomedical and social factors that influence
whether someone develops a mental illness such as stress, depression, and anxiety
which can affect psychological well-being and prosocial behaviour (Petrocchi&
Couyoumdjian, 2016). Age is also undoubtedly an important factor in explaining the
2
increase in students with severe mental health problems attending university
counselling as the peak onset for mental health problems is before the age of 24 years,
especially for postgraduate students because most of them are working and married
(Kassymova et al., 2018). The stresses associated with the transition to university add
additional risk factors of mental health. Hence, it is important for students to be aware
of the factors because it can affect the psychological elements and directly influence
prosocial behaviour (Bryde & Milburn, 1990; Chemers, Hu & Garcia, 2001; Gall,
Evans & Bellerose, 2000; Montgomery & Côté, 2003). The stresses frequently
involve living away from home for the first time, having to make new friends, handle
finances, adjusting to new learning regimes, and creating a new identity as a student,
especially in the first year of study (Zimmaro et al., 2016).
Mental illness is costly to individuals, their families, communities and the
economy which can give impact to student’s psychological well-being and prosocial
behaviour (Dovidio et al., 2017). Other than that, the scholars and researcher
suggested that early intervention can play a crucial role in the outcome in order to
make the universities an easy way for students to access a special treatment by
ensuring they provide adequate resourced services, especially counselling in
university because it is an easy access for students to go (Dixon, Holoshitz & Nossel
(2016). Moir et al. (2018) mentioned that university counselling services also need to
work with their local National Health Service (NHS) mental health services to
improve access for students because students also need to be encouraged to seek
treatment wherever they are.
Furthermore, according to Caroll Ryff’s theory in psychological well-being, it
has autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive relations with others,
purpose in life, and self-acceptance elements which can give impact to human beings
3
(Ryff, 1989). In this sense, psychological well-being has been composed to have the
autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, positive growth, positive growth,
positive relations, purpose in life, and self-acceptance (Ryff, 1989). According to
Anglim and Grant (2016), the relationship of personality to well-being has shed light
on well-being temporal stability and it is helpful to have a basic understanding about
the role of personality when designing interventions related to increasing well-being.
Anglim and Grant (2016) mentioned the studies that said that neuroticism,
extraversion and conscientiousness are the most important elements for psychological
well-being. It stated that psychological well-being is better to predict by personality
rather than subjective well-being.
Ryff (1989) said that Ryffs measure the positive relations to measure the
presence of or satisfaction with an interpersonal relationship, evaluate judgements
between friendship and skills in friendship formation, suggesting different personality
dimensions. Personality is linked to positive relations with the Big Five Traits (Pei-
Lee et al., 2017). Lambert, Passmore & Joshanloo (2019) mentioned that the seminal
work, distinguished between positive and negative effect and defined happiness as the
balance between the two, can give advantages and disadvantages for students. The
conceptual and methodological refinements built on this early operationalization of
well-being is because the researcher found that well-being has strengths for build
prosocial behaviour (Ryff and Keyes, 1995). Erikson's (1959) psychosocial stages,
Buhler's (1935) basic life tendencies, and Neugarten's (1973) personality changes
articulate well-being as trajectories of continued growth across the life cycle that can
strengthen psychological well-being in many ways. In addition, clinical psychologists
offered that further descriptions of well-being through Maslow's (1968) conception of
self-actualization, Allport's (1961) formulation of maturity, Rogers' (1961) depiction
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of the fully-functioning person and Jung's (1933) account of individuation of
psychological well-being can lead to a positive impact to build prosocial behaviour.
Mental health literature, which typically elaborates the negative end of
psychological functioning, nonetheless includes some exposition of positive health
especially when it comes to university students (Birren & Renner, 1980; Jahoda,
1958). Moreover, the psychological functioning included are six distinct components
of positive psychological functioning, which are autonomy, environmental mastery,
personal growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance
(Ryff, 1989). These elements are important for human to have because they are basic
elements that encompass a breadth of well-being that includes positive evaluations of
oneself and one's past life which is self-acceptance, a sense of continued growth, and
development as a person which is personal growth, the belief that one's life is
purposeful and meaningful which is purpose in life, the possession of quality relations
with others, in other words, are positive relations with others, the capacity to manage
effectively one's life and surrounding world which is environmental mastery, and
lastly, a sense of self-determination which means autonomy (Ryff & Keyes, 1995).
The definitions of “prosocial” describe a summary term for a broad category
of interpersonal actions, defined within a given socio-cultural system such as to bring
benefits to other people (Dovidio et al., 2006; Penner et al., 2005). Other than that, it
is hard to find a prosocial personality or behaviour and it has a long story that
researchers are still looking for the answers (Habashi et al., 2016). Habashi et al.
(2016) mentioned that morality and prosocial actions are rarely seen in social
psychology and personality studies. An approach to the prosocial personality can be
found in the subsequent works on the acquisition of moral reasoning (Eisenberg et al.,
2015; Turiel, 2015). Furthermore, the prosocial behaviour is integrated and
5
modularized to deal with sets of related prosocial behaviours including helping,
sharing, cooperating, and aiding strangers (Habashi et al., 2016). The association
between prosocial behaviour and well-being has become a target of an increasing
amount of empirical works because it can give impact whether in a good or bad way
(Aknin et al. 2013a; Poulin et al. 2012; Shariff & Norenzayan 2007).
Other than that, a number of studies have used experimental manipulations. It
was found that prosocial behaviour leads to increased well-being in a good way
because psychological well-being has elements that can strengthen prosocial
behaviour (Harris 1977; Weinstein & Ryan 2010; Williamson & Clark 1989). Lopez,
Pedrotti & Synder (2018) said that prosocial behaviour represents a broad category of
acts that are defined by some significant segments of society and one’s social group
as generally beneficial to other people because it involves someone to do something
good such as helping other people.Weie (2016) argued that prosocial behaviour is the
result of “tender emotions” created by parental instinct because behaviour can always
be built at home.
In addition, prosocial behaviours can also refer to voluntary actions when it
can specifically intended to benefit or improve the well-being of another individual or
group of individuals. The examples of such behaviours include helping, sharing,
consoling, comforting, cooperating, and protecting someone from any potential harm
which are the best elements to represent prosocial behaviour (Silke et al., 2018).
Prosocial behaviour is critical to creating trust and cooperation. It is necessary to
sustain impersonal and complex societies and markets because it is hard for someone
to trust and cooperate with other people, especially the strangers (Bowles & Gintis,
2003; Fehr & Schmidt, 1999; Hamilton, 1964; Henrich et al., 2011; Trivers, 1971).
Helping other people can increase self-worth because prosocial behaviour is
6
universally admired and valued by people in every religion (Buss, 1989; Klein et al.,
2015). Moreover, helping other people is a way for helpers to gain social acceptance
and build a positive reputation, which in turn increase helpers’ social status in their
communities and develop psychological well-being (Flynn, 2003; Flynn et al., 2006;
Grant & Gino, 2010; Lee, 1997). Thus, social acceptance is a critical determinant of
self-worth and self-esteem that should be developed by human beings (Leary, 1999;
Leary & Baumeister, 2000). The reputational benefits of prosocial behaviour are
likely to increase self-worth, which in turn can increase the sense that life is
meaningful and also can build psychological well-being.
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Professionals in Malaysia stated that by 2020, mental illness is expected to be the
second biggest health problem after heart disease (The Sun Daily, 2018). Moreover,
there is still a lack of understanding of this issue as well as the causes and the
consequences of major problems for mental health. The studies found that one of the
causes of mental health is depression that can affect individuals and their loved ones,
which can lead to mental illnesses that can damage psychological well-being (Ng,
2014). The National Health Morbidity Survey (NHMS) in Malaysia revealed that the
statistics for mental health has been increased in 2015 among adults of 16 years and
above escalating from 10.7% in 1996 to 29.2% in 2015 (Leng, Hutagalung & Li,
2017). According to Leng, Hutagalung and Li (2017), people should pay more
attention to mental health problems because it can affect someone’s lives emotionally
and it can disturb psychological well-being. It is true that mental health problems have
been remarkably increased among younger adults with adolescents aged 16 to 19
(34.7%) followed by those aged 20 to 24 (32.1%), and those aged 25 to 29 (30.5%)
7
(Ahmad et al., 2015). Levecque et al (2017) said that studies on mental health among
students, especially in higher education, are limited. For example, when a student
wants to enrol in IIUM, the university did not ask the student to take a mental health
assessment.
Moreover, previous studies on mental health stated that university students
have issues, such as personal and social adjustment, academic and career concerns,
stress, and other related psychosomatic issues that lead to unhealthy mental conditions
which can give impact to psychological well-being and prosocial behaviour. Leng,
Hutagalung and Li (2017) said that almost 65.5% of students were mentally healthy
while there were 34.4% exhibits potential mental health problems by suffering from
anxiety and worries. They were confronted with social dysfunction and confidence
levels in their daily lives. According to Islam et al. (2018), depression is one of the
mental health problems that students need to face, especially university students,
during their studies. In this study, approximately 30% of the respondents experienced
depression in university including 4.4% of severe depression (Islam et al., 2018).
It has been stated earlier that higher institutions need to pay more attention to
the students, especially second year students because most of them have stress
problems including independent living, academic and planning for their future.
Nevertheless, many studies had exclusively concentrated on negative indicator of
mental health problems to students’ educational success such as depression, anxiety
and other illnesses where psychological well-being usually been neglected as an
indicator of mental health, resulting in lack of empirical studies done to it. This paper
is inclined towards understanding the aspects of the psychological well-being and
prosocial behaviour. Hopefully, this study would help researchers to better understand
the psychological predictors to some of the components of well-being and prosocial
8
behaviour which could provide a framework for developing more effective
interventions for betterment of the students in the future.
1.3 RESEARCH OBJECTIVE
This study discussed psychological well-being elements to strengthen pro-social
behaviour for postgraduate students at the International Islamic University Malaysia
(IIUM), Gombak. This study was set out to address the following objectives:
i. To examine IIUM postgraduate student’ levels of psychological well-being.
ii. To identify the level of prosocial behaviour among postgraduate students in
IIUM.
iii. To ascertain the relationship between psychological well-being and
prosocial behaviour among postgraduate students in IIUM.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The following research questions were addressed to guide the study’s design and the
process of collecting the data:
i. What is IIUM postgraduate students’ level of psychological well-being?
ii. What is the nature of prosocial behaviour among IIUM postgraduate
students?
iii. Is there any significant relationship between psychological well-being and
prosocial behaviour among postgraduate students in IIUM?
9
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Mental health in psychological well-being among university students has been
tremendously studied because scholars believed that psychological well-being can
affect mental health in a good or bad way (Levecque et al., 2017). The elements of
psychological well-being, which are autonomy, environmental mastery, personal
growth, positive relations with others, purpose in life, and self-acceptance can give
problem in terms of mental health when students are not able to reduce their mental
health problems, but in fact, they are going to affect their prosocial behaviour during
their studies (Malkoc & Yalcin, 2015). Moreover, it is pointed out that oriented and
self-oriented motivations in prosocial behaviour have a close connection (Kar, 2018).
These two elements can affect each other in terms of real-life helping behaviours that
people have in self-oriented and other-oriented motivations which can give benefits to
the students to handle mental health in psychological well-being (Tong et al., 2019).
Additionally, psychological well-being was studied from various aspects such as
personal and cultural differences affecting psychological well-being, predictors of
psychological well-being and change of psychological well-being over lifespan
(Blanchflower & Oswald, 2008; Brown & Ryan, 2003; Diener & Diener, 1995; Kwan
et al., 1997; Roothman et al., 2003; Sheldon & Niemiec, 2006; Shields & Price, 2005).
This paper is a continuous study of many other factors and elements that
would be added to mental health in psychological well-being. It could also strengthen
prosocial behaviour during the studies and comparison between gender and
Kulliyyahs. Other than that, this study also examined the relationship between
psychological well-being and prosocial behaviour. Thus, it should help the educators,
counsellors and psychologists to develop new intervention programme that is suitable
to student’s level and conduct new strategies to help the students to have good
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behaviour and at the same time controlled their mental health, emotions, and thoughts.
The government could further help the students to design a suitable programmes for
the student that could further addressed issues on having difficulties over mental
problems. More importantly, it is anticipated that it could help students to achieve
their academic performance without much trouble. The findings of this study will
help to decrease mental health problems among university students, especially in
IIUM. Ministry of Education (MOE) should also design programmes that could help
the students to succeed in their academic and indirectly avoid mental health which is
inline with MOE focus that is strengthening the foundation for quality education.
Students could further seeking help from professionals in the university pertaining to
their problems.
1.6 DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In this study, the researcher used Malaysian student’s population in IIUM. For that
reason, the researcher needed to obtain the students email addresses to deliver
questionnaires to them because it is easy and fast. In addition, the study was
conducted in IIUM only because it helps the researcher to collect data by asking
permission from the Dean to get or approve the student’s personal information. In
this research paper, foreign students were not included because the researcher has an
interest-only for students. In this way, the researcher believed that it can specifically
contribute to the country. For the demographic details in the questionnaire, the
researcher included CGPA because the researcher needed to know academic
performance since the beginning in order to have complete data of student’s academic
performance. The data shall not be generalized to the whole IIUM population because
it only focus on Kulliyyah of Education and Kulliyyah of Engineering.