A Study of Relationship Between Social Alienation and Psychiatric Disorders among the University Students

Abstract

Alienation is a state of mind in which an individual feels lonely and has a low level of attachment with her society, fails to get control over the environment and gradually becomes isolated and helpless. Psychiatric disorders refer to what a person feels, thinks and act that lead her towards the mental disturbance or spoil his areas of functioning. The present study investigated the relationship between social alienation and psychiatric disorders among university students. 600 students were selected as a sample from different departments of a university. A scale for alienation developed by Guerrero and Castillo (1966) and a scale for psychiatric disorders developed by Lovibond and Lovibond (1995) were used to collect the data. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics and Pearson Correlation. Results showed that certain level of social alienation and psychiatric disorders exist among students, and there was a positive association between social alienation and psychiatric disorders.