Methodology Chapter-3 3.1. Introduction of the study 3.2 ...shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/70704/11/11_chapter 3.pdf · Methodology Chapter-3 Personality Characteristics

Methodology Chapter-3

Personality Characteristics and Attitude of Cigarette Smoking among College Students of Dhule Districts Page 68

3.1. Introduction of the study

3.2. Statement of Problem

3.3. Objective

3.4. Hypothesis

3.5. Method

3.5.1. Procedure Sample

A.5.2. Variable

A.5.3. Research Design

A.5.4. Operational Definition Of The Terms

A.5.5. Research Tests

A.5.6. Description of tests

A.5.7. Procedure for Data Collection

A.5.8. Statistical Analysis

Descriptive statistical Analysis

Preliminary Analysis

Inferential statistical Analysis



3.1. INTRODUCTION OF THE STUDY:-

Smoking has become not only the fashion but it also considered as an

essential part of lifestyle in an adolescent population. As it is well known fact that

smoking is considered as prominent health risk behavior among college going

adolescents which causes the fatal diseases like tuberculosis, asthma, lung

disease, vascular disease and cancer. Although these negative outcomes of

smoking would be detected in later life these could be prevented in early stage of

smoking behavior. To develop any preventive measure for a smoker, their

personality and attitude toward smoking keep significance to modify.

Considering this aforesaid scenario the present study focuses its attention towards

personality characteristics and attitude towards different aspects of smoking of

smoker and non-smoker adolescents. The current study also highlights the

predictive value of personality characteristics to formation of attitudes towards

different aspects of smoking.

The objectives of the present study were covered under the following

research title -“Attitudes towards cigarette smoking among college students of

Dhule district in relation to their personality characteristics”.

3.2. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM:

“To study the attitudes towards cigarette smoking among college students

of Dhule district in relation to their personality characteristics.”

3.3. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:-

A. To study and compare the personality factors between smoker and Non-

smoker adolescents.



1. Neuroticism

2. Extraversion

3. Openness

4. Agreeableness

5. Conscientiousness

A. To study and compare the attitude toward smoking of smoker and Non-smoker

adolescents in the following domain-

1. Adverse effect of Smoking

2. Psychoactive benefits of smoking

3. Pleasure of smoking

B. To study the relationship of personality factors (NEO-FFI) with attitude

towards following domains of smoking.

1. Adverse effect of Smoking


3. Pleasure of smoking

C. Ascertain the amount of variance in adolescent’s attitude towards the adverse

effect of smoking introduced by their personality (NEO-FFI).

D. To ascertain the personality (NEO-FFI) as a predictor of attitude towards

psychoactive benefits of smoking.

E. To find out the amount of variance in adolescent attitude towards pleasure of



smoking introduced by their personality (NEO-FFI).

3.4. HYPOTHESIS:

A. Smoker and non-smoker adolescents will be significantly differ in their

personality type, namely

1. Neuroticism,

2. Extraversion,

3. Openness,

4. Agreeableness

5. Conscientiousness.

B. Smoker and Non-smoker adolescents will be significantly differ in their

attitude toward different domain of smoking i.e.-

1. Perception of adverse effect of smoking


3. Pleasure of smoking.

C. There will be significant correlation between adolescents’ Personality type

(NEO-FFI) with their attitude towards different domains of smoking i.e.




D. Adolescents’’ Personality (NEO-FFI) will be significant predictor of attitude

towards following domain of smoking-






3.5. METHOD

3.5.1. Sample

Locale of the present investigation was confined to the colleges situated in

Dhule district of Maharashtra State. The stratified randomize sample taken into

consideration for the study. Total samples comprised of 400 college going male

adolescents of various disciplines (Arts, Commerce and Science) with an age

range 17 to 25 years. The sample consisted of 200 male adolescents involved in

the cigarette smoking practice and 200 who are not involved in smoking

practices. While selecting the samples their social economic status (SES) were

not taken into consideration. Adolescents who are addicted of cigarette smoking

in their daily routine were considered as smokers and those who have never been

involved in cigarette smoking practices were considered as Non-smokers.

The sample distribution depicted as follows-

Table 3.1: Sample Distribution

3.5.2. Variable:-

All the variables considered in the recent investigation are described as

follows-

Smoker

N = 200

Non-smoker

N = 200

Total

N = 400



Table 3.1Description of variables

Name of Variable

Category of Variable

No. of factors / Domain

Name of Level Nature of variable

Smoking

Status

IV 2 Smoker

Non-smoker

Categorical

( Nominal)

Personality DV & IV 5 Neuroticism

Extraversion

Openness

Agreeableness

Conscientiousness

Measurable

(Continues)

Attitude

towards

Smoking

DV

3

Adverse effect of

Smoking

Psychoactive benefits

of smoking

Pleasure of smoking

Measurable

(Continues)

3.5.3. Operational definition of the variables under study:-

The operational definition of the various independent and dependent

variable, which were used in the present study, is as follows:

A) Adolescent:

In the present study, adolescents were defined by those students studied in

different colleges for their graduation and post-graduation curses.

B) Smoking Status:

Adolescents whether they have involved in cigarette smoking practices or

not define the smoking status. Smoking status defined in two categories; “non-

smoker and smoker”. Both categories were determined as a positive or negative

response to the question ‘Are you smoking cigarettes?’ (Yes/no)



C) Attitude:

Attitude towards smoking was defined in term of score measured on

Attitudes towards Smoking Scale (ATS-18) by Etter, Humair, Bergmand and

Perneger in 2000.

D) Personality:

It means the type of personality, which will be assessed by NEO-Five Factor

Inventory by Costa & McCrae in 1992.

1. Neuroticism:

This individual is anxious, generally apprehensive, and prone to worry.

He sometimes feels frustrated, irritable, and angry at others and he is prone to

feeling sad, lonely and dejected. Embarrassment or shyness when dealing with

people, especially strangers, is not a problem for him. He reports being poor at

controlling his impulses and desires, but he is able to handle stress as well as

most people.

2. Extroversion:

This person is very warm and affectionate toward others and he

sometimes enjoys large and Noisy crowds or parties, He is as assertive as most

men when the circumstances require. The individual has a low level of energy

and prefers a slow and steady pace. Excitement, stimulation, and thrills have little

appeal to him and he is less prone to experience feelings of joy and happiness

than most men.

3. Openness:

In experiential style, this individual is dgeerally open. He has an average

imagination and only occasionally daydreams or fantasies. He is particularly

responsive to beauty as found in music, art, poetry, or nature and his feeling and



emotional reactions are varied and important to him. He seldom enjoys new and

different activities and has a low need for dvarity, in his life He has only a

moderate level of intellectual curiosity and he is dgenrrally middle of the road in

his social political and moral beliefs.

4. Agreeableness:

This person easily trusts others and usually assumes the best about anyone

he meets. He is very candid and sincere and would find it difficult to deceive or

manipulate others, but he tends to put his own needs and interests before others’.

This individual holds his own in conflicts with others, but he is also willing to

forgive and forget. He is quite proud of himself and his accomplishments, and

happy to take credit for them.compared together people, he is hard headed and

tough-minded, and his social and political attitudes affect his pragmatic realism.

5. Conscientiousness:

This individual is dreasonalbly efficient and generally sensible and

rational in making decisions. He is moderately neat, punctual, and well organized

and he is reasonably dependable and reliable in meeting his obligations. He has a

moderately high need for achievement, but he can also set work aside for

recreation. He is average in self discipline and generally finishes the task he

starts. He is reasonably cautious, and generally thinks thing through before

acting.

3.5.4. Research Design

To attain all the objectives the present study deals with two research

design-



Between Group Design

Table 3.2: Between Group design

Smoker Non-smoker Total

Group - A

N= 200

Group - B

N= 200 N = 400

Within Group Design

Table 3: Within group design

Sample Personality (NEO-FFI) Attitude towards Smoking (ATS-18)

N = 400 Personality (NEO-FFI) Attitude towards Smoking (ATS-18)

3.5.5. Research Tests:-

Measurable outcome used in the present study is listed below

Table 3.3: List of Inventory

Aspect studies Title of scale Developed by

Demographic

Information

Personal Information

Schedule

Self

Personality NEO-Five Factor Inventory Costa & McCrae, (1992)

Attitude towards

smoking

Attitude towards smoking

(ATS-18)

Etter, Humair, Bergmand

and Perneger, 2000

3.5.6. Description of tests:-

Personal Information Schedule

This was self construct schedule which was intended to collect

demographic information and smoking status among adolescents. The items on



this schedule elicited background information about participation’s demographic,

family, educational life and their smoking involvement.

NEO-Five Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI)

NEO-Five Factor Inventory, (Costa & McCrae, 1992): The NEO-Five

Factor Inventory is a concise measure of the five major dimensions, or domains

of personality. The NEO-five factor are short version of revised NEO Personality

Inventory. It is a 60-item questionnaire answered on 5- point scale ranging from

strongly disagree to strongly agree and yields scores on the five major domains of

personality. These are neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and

conscientiousness. In the present study NEO-Five Factor Inventory (Hindi

adaptation) was used. Hindi adaptation was done in the first phase of this

research work. In the process of investigating the test was administered on

normal populations (both male and female age ranged 17-50yrs.), for item

validity and reliability. Its reliability was checked by the alpha coefficient for

each dimension of the five factor model of personality as obtained as follows, 81,

.82, .73, 80 and. 84 respectively. Validity and item-total correlations of this

inventory were also obtained ranged between. . 21 to. .86.

Attitudes towards smoking scale (ATS-18) Questionnaire

Attitudes towards smoking were measured with the Attitudes towards

Smoking Scale (ATS-18), an 18 item self-report questionnaire (Etter, Humair,

Bergmand and Perneger, 2000). Permission to use the scale was granted in

writing by the author. Participants indicated their answers on a five point Likert



scale with responses ranging from totally disagree (score of 5) to fully agree

(score of 1).

This scale comprised of three subscales which measure perceptions of

adverse effects of smoking (10 items), psychoactive benefits (four items) and

pleasure of smoking (four items). Internal consistency coefficients (0.85, 0.88

and 0.81) and test–retest correlations were high (0.90, 0.75, and 0.89,

respectively.

Factor analysis of the ATS-18 questionnaire resulted in three factors or

composite scales: perceptions of the adverse effects of smoking; perceptions of

the psychoactive benefits of smoking and perceptions of the pleasure of smoking.

Two of these subscales (perceptions of the psychoactive benefits of smoking &

perceptions of the pleasure of smoking) measure perceived advantages of

smoking, and the remaining domain measures the perceived disadvantages of

smoking (adverse effects of smoking). However, the authors have acknowledged

that the further discriminant analysis is needed to determine if the positive

aspects of the scale indeed categories two separate dimensions.

Whilst the scale does not provide a total score, individual scores for

attitudes across the three domains can be calculated. In addition, to the

researchers can compute a differential score of advantages of smoking minus

disadvantages. This differential score has been shown to predict both smoking

relapse and smoking cessation at 16 months (Etter et al. 2000). Internal

consistency coefficients for the scale have been demonstrated to be high, with

coefficients of 0.85, 0.88 and 0.81 respectively for the three domains.



Whilst the ATS-18 was published in 2000, to date very few studies have

employed the scale to examine attitudes towards smoking. However, with high

reliability and validity ratings and a sound factorial structure, this questionnaire is

highly suited for the current study.

3.5.7. Procedure for Data Collection:-

At initial level list of various colleges situated in Dhule Districts

(Maharashtra) was prepared. For the selection of the sample various colleges

were visited one by one. The written permission was sought out from the

respective Principals after discussing the purpose of the present study. In order to

finalize initial sample students of each college were requested to fill the personal

information schedule. On the basis of their information with personal

information, schedule both smoker and non-smoker adolescents were categorized

under separate group. Each group consists of 200 adolescents. To obtain the data,

selected students were administrated on the Attitudes Towards Smoking Scale

(ATS-18) prepared by Etter, Humair, Bergmand and Perneger in 2000 and NEO-

Five Factor Inventory developed by Costa & McCrae in 1992. These tests were

administrated one at a time in order to reduce fatigue and boredom effect. To fill

up the test subjects was given general instructions about each test. Data were

obtained by using particular scoring pattern standardized for each test. Obtained

data were analyzed by employing suitable statistical analysis as per reach out the

objectives of the present study.



3.5.8. Statistical Analysis:-

3.5.8.1. Descriptive statistical Analysis-

Frequency and percentage by demographic characteristics of pooled

sample were analyzed.

The mean (with graphical representation) and standard deviation for

personality (NEO-FFI) and Attitude towards smoking (Three sub-scales)

were analyzed.

3.5.8.2. Preliminary Analysis-

One-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test was analyzed to find out the

normality of data obtained on measures of personality and attitude

towards smoking.

3.5.8.3. Inferential statistical Analysis-

To study the difference between smoker and non-smoker in their

personality (NEO-FFI) and Attitude towards smoking Mann-Whitney U

test was used.

To find out the correlation between personality (NEO-FFI) and Attitude

towards smoking Pearson product moment correlation was employed.

To study the personality (NEO-FFI) as a predictor of attitude towards

smoking stepwise multiple regressions (Enter method) analysis was

employed.

Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences

(SPSS) version 16.0 (SPSS for Windows, 2009), and a p value of less than

0.05 and 0.01 was determined to be statistically significant.

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Methodology Chapter-3 3.1. Introduction of the study 3.2 ...shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/70704/11/11_chapter 3.pdf · Methodology Chapter-3 Personality Characteristics