ABSTRACT. Appraisal theorists have argued that anger is elicited when important goals have been obstructed. Using an indigenous psychology approach, the current study aims to test this premise by investigating the events that account for a person’s anger among Indonesian senior high school students. Data was collected using the anger item from the Happiness open-ended questionnaire, asking about events that make the subjects’ most angry. A total of 425 senior high school students consisting of 171 males and 254 females were involved in the study. The data was analyzed using an indigenous psychological approach by analyzing the content of the open-ended responses, categorization of the responses, and cross-tabulations with the respondent’s sex. The findings suggest that Indonesian senior high school students become angry when they their trust has been violated, insulted, encounter an unpleasant experience, and disturbance. Further analysis was conducted to identify variability upon male and female subjects. The chi square test that was run towards the variables events for causing anger and sex indicated a significant relationship (p<0.03). Male respondents were most likely to become angry when encountering unpleasant experiences while females were most likely to become angry when their trust has been violated. The findings are contrary to the notions that goal obstruction is central in eliciting anger. read more

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to examine the role trust plays in shaping the parent-child relation and the reasons why children trust and distrust their mother. A total number of 507 university students (males= 140, females=367) at the Universitas Gadjah Mada completed an open-ended questionnaire that asked how much they trust their mothers and the reason why they trust and distrust their mothers. The data was analyzed using indigenous psychological approach of analyzing the content of open-ended responses, categorization of the responses, and cross tabulating. Result from these study shows that 57.63% of participants’ trust their mothers to a great extent and 33.69% of respondents largely trust their mothers. Second, there are five main categories of reasons for trusting mothers and six main categories of reasons for distrusting their mothers that have emerged. First category focuses on mother’s personal quality such as honesty and reliability. Second, what mothers are able to bring into the life being that involved mother critical role for children surviving the world, physically, psychologically, and socially. Third, what exist between the relations counts the trust existence. Fourth, the perceived figure of mother. Fifth, the role of self in deciding when to trust. The six categories for distrust suggest the unconditional trust toward mother that indicate the strong bend of trust-relation between mother and children once it is established. It reaches to the conclusion that reasons for trusting mother is much colored by the spiritual and emotional nuance, whereas honesty and reliability, empathy, give the best, closeness and consanguinity, are factors that play quite important role in the development or establishment of trust to mother. From the reasons of trust and distrust, we learned that trust can play as the modality to consider act or to relate and as a product or result and is dynamic rather than static. read more

ABSTRACT. The aim of this research was to explore what make teenagers happy. The study was a survey on the total number of 467 high school students (males=198, females=269). An open ended questionnaire was used to learn what makes teenager happy. The data was analyzed using indigenous psychological approach. Preliminary coding, categorization, axial coding and cross-tabulation were run accordingly. The respondents’ answers were analyzed using descriptive analysis. Results showed that there were three elements of the source of teenager’s happiness, those are: (1) relations with others (50.1%) consisting of events concerning their families, relations with friends, and events related to love and being loved; (2) Self-fulfillment (32.67%) consists of events related to achievement, the use of leisure time, and money; (3) Relation with God (9.63%) consists of spiritual events that involve the relations between teenagers and God. This study gave the insight that family-bond remain importance. Their being teenagers does not shift the reference into peer groups, rather than that, family is the main source of their happiness. It is also concluded that all are nothing but social engagement. read more

ABSTRACT. The word among is used to describe the parent-child relationship in Javanese cultural context. Javanese is one of ethnic groups in Indonesia. According to Dewantara (1968), among consists of three nurturing components: providing affection (asih), stimulating potentials of the child (asah), and fulfilling the needs of the child (asuh). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the concept of among and the development of trust towards parents. This study examines the reasons why Javanese trust their mothers and fathers. A total number of 356 Javanese students (males = 97, females = 259) at Universitas Gadjah Mada completed open-ended questionnaires, asking how much they trust their parents, and the reasons why they trust their parents. The data was analyzed using indigenous psychological approach. Preliminary coding, categorization, axial coding and cross-tabulations were run accordingly. Results show as the following: first, the students tend to trust their mothers more than their fathers. Second, trust to mothers was more on the direction of emotional bonds, whereas trust to fathers was more related to the cultural expectations. The three components of among (asih, asah, and asuh) were also found in the results of the study and appeared to be frequently stated in the responses. The study concluded that Javanese children’s trust to mother tends to base on affectional (asih) and caring (asuh) aspects, while their trust to fathers laid on teaching and modeling (asuh) aspects. Many psychologists believe that the characteristics of children’s general trust which is growing in the family context become the basis of social relation in the social interaction. It is good to know that, so parents will also have to learn the expection of their children to facilitate them growing, and eventually leading to their fruitful accomplishments of the children. Parental education in forming the basic trust for facilitating the children’s growth in the local context is something we might need to develop and construct in the future. In the long future these will contribute, to the reduction of any conflicts and social friction, which (was suspected) originated from the lack of trust between social groups. A strong foundation of trust is eventually strenthening the establishment of harmonious society under the frame of Unity in Diversity (Bhinneka Tunggal Ika), the basis of Indonesian nationalism. read more