Dysfunctional Attitudes and Automatic Thoughts among University Students of Pakistan

Existent literature has evident that dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts are associated with mental health difficulties...


Introduction
Universities play major role in training the individuals socially and intellectually in addition to transferring the facts and values to every generation. University not only helps in cognitive acquisitions but are also main source of student's personal, social and academic activities and advancement Eisen & Kearney [1]. In general, university students are more vulnerable of developing different emotional disorders Benton, Robertson, Tseng, Newton & Benton [2]; Eisenberg, Gollust, Golberstein, & Hefner [3] due to numerous factors such as academic stress, growing into adulthood, uncertainty of future, and poor relationships. These problems have enduring effects on student's life and impair their personal, social, and academic achievement, and lowers the quality of life in later years e.g. Cooley [7]. Consistent with the growing number of psychological issues among university students, role of cognition is essential to investigate covert process involved in psychopathologies such as depression Free & Oei [8]; Kendall [9]. Accuracy in assessment of psychopathologies increases therapist ability to provide effective management plan. Current study emphases on two cognitive evaluation of depression, dysfunctional attitudes and Automatic thoughts because these both constructs have been extensively applied in clinical research and practice and are more consistent with Becks theoretical context Clark [10]. Development  will not respect me". Individuals with dysfunctional attitudes believe that everything should be in their control, they need social approval, no matter what they do, and they should be successful in every aspect of life, moreover they report more depression and anxiety Azizoğlu [20]; Palabıyıkoğlu et al. [21]; Tschacher [22].
In terms of automatic thoughts, Beck [23] believed that core beliefs develop during early childhood due to interplay of the environment, these core beliefs manifest as automatic thoughts, appears unexpectedly and can reoccur at any phase of life Kılınç & Sevim [24]. Activation of negative core beliefs fil the mind with the automatic negative thoughts Hjemdal, Stiles & Wells [25]. These Mariamma [26]. The interpretation of automatic thoughts depends upon individuals' experiences, they gained from their environment Nobre & PintoGouveia [27]. Individuals make their world and understand others on the bases of their schemas demonstrated as automatic thoughts Wenzel & Cochran [28]. These automatic thoughts influence the individuals' behaviors and feelings directly Beck [29]; Bask and Can [30] [42], no study has addressed the dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts despite their strong association with psychological issues among university students of non-Western culture of Pakistan (which is important for making trans-cultural comparisons). Therefore, current study addressed this research gap and would be helpful for educationist, counsellors and psychotherapist in assessment of mental health problems of students. Consequently, it was hypothesized that (a) There is relationship between dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts among university students.
(b) There is gender difference in dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts among male and female university students.
(c) There would be differences in dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts in students from different socioeconomic status. technique was used to collect the data. Age of students were ranged between 18 years to 40 years. Students less than 18 and more than 40 years of age, with previous psychiatric history, which would limit the study method were excluded from current study. Students

Procedure
Correlational cross-sectional research design was applied. After informed consent, participants were given questionnaire.
They were explained items of questionnaire and encouraged to ask questions in case of any ambiguity. Participants took about 20 minutes in completion of survey.

Statistical analysis
Data was analyzed by using Statistical package of social science 24 (SPSS). Descriptive analysis was tabulated in term of frequency, mean, standard deviation, skewness and kurtosis. T-test was used to analyses the gender difference and correlational analysis was used to analysis the correlation between dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts. One-way analysis was used to examine the effect of socioeconomic status on dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts.

Demographic characteristics
Missing data were completely deleted from the data set.
Frequencies, and percentages of demographic variables of participants such as age, gender, education and socioeconomic status were presented in Table 1. Descriptive characteristics of both scales such as mean, standard deviation, minimum, maximum, skewness, and kurtosis are presented in Table 2.

Correlation between dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts
Correlation between dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts were examined. Results showed that dysfunctional attitudes are not associated with automatic thoughts except confusion escape (r = .348, p < 0.001) ( Table 3).

Gender differences
We applied independent t-test to analyze the gender differences and found that male students experience more dysfunctional attitudes and confusion escape automatic thoughts than female students, whereas there were no gender differences in negative self-concept, personal maladjustment, loneliness, and giving up subscales of automatic thoughts (Table 4).

One-way analysis (ANOVA)
ANOVA was used to investigate the difference in the socioeconomic classes among students from different socioeconomic class. We found that dysfunctional attitudes are higher among students belongs to lower socioeconomic class as compared to students from middle and upper socioeconomic class (Table 5).  Duly [45] found significant relationship between "perfectionist attitudes" sub-dimension of DAS and loneliness in a sample of university students and suggested that social skills training based on cognitive approaches could be significantly helpful in decreasing dysfunctional attitudes among university students.
In the current study, we found that male have higher dysfunctional attitudes and confusion escape subscale of automatic thoughts in comparison to women. These gender differences in dysfunctional attitudes could be attributed to the financial and cultural role of the men. In Pakistan, men are considered responsible for earning and all matters of home, they remain under pressure and do not share their problems as compared to women, consequently, experience more dysfunctional attitudes.
In consistent to our study, previous studies indicated that female have more desire of approval, to be loved and need for parental approval as compare to males Coleman & Ganong, [46]; Eryüksel'in, [47]. Yurtal [48] found in his study conducted with the university students that male students have more accusatory tendencies than the female students. Kiliç [35] in his study with the sample of university students found gender differences in dysfunctional attitudes. He found that female students experience significantly higher dysfunctional attitudes than male students. Similarly, Lichterberg and Johnson [49] conducted study on adult sample and reported that female scored higher on competence, achievement and approval.
We also hypothesis that there would be differences in Despite of many strengths, current study has also some limitations, first data was collected from few universities of Pakistan, which may not be true representative. Secondly, sample size of study was small. Due to this, we cannot generalize finding of current study. One must interpret results cautiously. Thirdly, we applied self-report inventories which are easy to apply and cost effective, however can leads to social desirability. Hence study investigated dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts, future studies should improve the sample size to broaden the generalization of the study and continue to investigation other psychological variables such as symptoms of depression, stressful events, attribution style, which are associated with these both variables [50].
The current study has practical implication for counsellor, psychotherapist, educationist administration and policy makers.
They all should collaborate to develop effective polices and management plans to address the dysfunctional attitudes and automatic thoughts among students. As they cause depression,

Conclusion
Present study found that higher dysfunctional attitudes are not associated with dysfunctional negative automatic thoughts. Gender