Muddanagouda Patil
2016
Citations
0
Influential Citations
3
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
International journal of scientific research
Abstract
The Montessori method of schooling that focuses on personal development rather than exams. The method of education produces more mature, creative and socially adept children compared to traditional method of education. The present study aimed to assess the aggression and frustration of Montessori and traditional school children. It was hypothesized that the traditional method children have significantly higher aggression and frustration than the Montessori method children. In order to verify the above hypothesis a sample of 120 children were selected from schools which offer education with Montessori (N=60) and traditional methods (N=60). To measure aggression, the aggression scale developed by Pal and Naqvi; and to measure frustration, the frustration test developed by Chauhan & Tiwari, was administered individually to the subjects. The data were subjected to ‘t’ analyses and the major findings of the study reveal that the children of traditional school has significantly higher level of aggression and frustration compared to children of traditional method of education. Introduction The Montessori method of schooling that focuses on personal development rather than exams produces more mature, creative and socially adept children, scientists have found. Psychologists in the US found that across a range of abilities, children at Montessori schools out-performed those given a traditional education. Some of the biggest differences were seen in social skills and behaviour. Montessori children displayed a greater sense of “justice and fairness”, interacted in an “emotionally positive” way, and were less likely to engage in “rough play” during break times. The Montessori method discourages traditional competitive measurements of achievement, such as grades and tests, and instead focuses on the individual progress and development of each child. The scientists concluded: “Montessori education fosters social and academic skills that are equal or superior to those fostered by a pool of other types of schools.” Montessori education is fundamentally a model of human development, and an educational approach based on that model. The model has two basic elements. First, children and developing adults engage in psychological self-construction by means of interaction with their environments. Second, children, especially under the age of six, have an innate path of psychological development. Based on her observations, Montessori believed that children at liberty to choose and act freely within an environment prepared according to her model would act spontaneously for optimal development. Montessori’s education method called for free activity within a “prepared environment”, meaning an educational environment tailored to basic human characteristics and to the specific characteristics of children at different ages. The function of the environment is to allow the child to develop independence in all areas according to his or her inner psychological directives. In addition to offering access to the Montessori materials appropriate to the age of the children, the environment should exhibit the following characteristics: Aggression: Aggression may be defined operationally in terms of rude answering to elder, irritation, feeling of unfairness, carrying grudges, frequent quarrelling, broken engagement, impulse to take revenge, and reactionary attitudes to traditions or beliefs (Chauhan & Tiwari, 1972). James Davies (1970) writes that aggressiveness implies a “predisposition, an attitude of mind, an underlying characteristic” whose likely product is a tendency for a violent action, injury, or damage. Leonard Berkowitz (1993) writes that aggression is “any form of behaviour that is intended to injure someone physically or psychologically”. This term is widely accepted and used in the majority of books that deal with human aggression. Frustration: Freud developed the concept of frustration first time in human beings. According to Freud, “frustration occurs whenever pleasure seeking or pain-avoiding behaviour is blocked”. He established a causal relationship between frustration and aggression. Frustration refers to the blocking of behaviour that is directed towards a goal. Frustration is ‘motivational or affective state resulting from being blocked, thwarted, disappointed or defeated’ has a different mechanism of behaviour, lacking goal-orientation, having feeling of intensity, compulsiveness, appearing a product of need-deprivation (Chauhan & Tiwari, 1972). Frustration-Aggression Theory: Freud emphasizes the study of aggression to understand human behaviour disorders. For Freud, aggression is one of the consequences of frustration. This suggestion of Freud widely accepted by Dollard et al., (1939), and formulated a theory and postulated that frustration results in aggression. “Aggression has been defined as an act, whose goal response is injury to an organism or organism-surrogate” (Dollard et al., 1939). Aggression is defined as behavior intended to injure the person toward whom it is directed. Yale group hypothesis of ‘frustration-aggression’ defined aggressive behaviour as logical and expected consequence of frustration. They state that when our efforts relate to the goal-directed behaviour suffers interference; our first reaction is often one of attacking and attempting to remove the obstacle (Dollard et al., 1939) Yale group theory of ‘frustration-aggression’ asserts, the occurrence of aggression always presupposes the existence of frustration and contrariwise, that the existence of frustration always leads to some forms of aggression. According to revised model of the frustration-aggression hypothesis (Berkowitz, 1989), frustrations lead to aggression to the extent that frustrations produce anger or other types of negative emotions such as sadness, disappointment, threats to identity, physical pain etc., (Berkowitz, 1983, 1989). The frustration-aggression hypothesis has many implications for individual and social behaviour. It implies, for example, that adolescent aggression is caused by the increased frustrations of that stage of life. A large body of research on aggression indicates that frustration often produces aggression but this relationship is always not true. It is influenced by situations and by individual differences in personality factors.