Communal Prejudice as Related To Paranormal Beliefs among Adolescence

The present study is an effort to explore communal Prejudice as Related to Paranormal Beliefs among Adolescence boys. The sample of the study consists of 80 subjects and the tools used were: communal prejudice scale and paranormal belief. We applied Pearson Product Moment correlation for the analysis of data. The results expose the positive correlation between communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs. On the basis of result, we can state that communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs are interrelated. It means if paranormal beliefs increase the communal prejudice will also increase and vice versa. In this study we found positive but slight relationship between these two variables that is communal prejudice & paranormal beliefs.

scientifically. Description of such believes are beyond normal experience. Stenger and Victor (1990) specified paranormal phenomenon as different from hypothetical concepts such as dark matter and dark energy. Unlike paranormal phenomena, these hypothetical concepts are based on empirical observations and experimental data gained through the scientific method. There are numerous forms of paranormal belief. Gordon and Stuart (1993) explicated the most common paranormal believe of human life as ghosts, extra-terrestrial life, unidentified flying objects, psychic abilities or extrasensory perception and cryptids. These types of objects influence significantly the personality as well as behavior (Lester, 1994;So sis, Strickland, & Haley, 1980).Various factors such as family, peer group, media and society influence individuals heavily. Besides this, culture, tradition, social and religious organizations e.g. the churches (Schriever, 2000) are also collaborate in altering the stage of human mind. Lester, Thinschmidt and Trautman (1987) explored a fact in their study that precognition experience and paranormal belief both have a direct relation with feeling and intuition scores. Through this study they disclosed an interesting view that such types of believers are open minded but they are irrational. They prefer to live in the fantasy mare than nonbelievers.

Prejudice
Prejudice generally refers to negative attitudes or response that is directed towards social outgroups. As an attitude, prejudice is the negative feelings experienced on the part of the prejudiced when they are in the presence of, or merely think about, members of the groups they dislike (Brewer and Brown 1998). These negative attitudes solely based on the membership of that individual in the particular group. Prejudice forces the individual to act often with a discriminatory approach towards members of these groups but the expression of such overt or covert discrimination depends on the norms and acceptance of doing such attitude in the culture (Crandall et al, 2002., Jetten, Spears and Manstead, 1997., Turner et al., 1987. However there is not enough research on prejudice that can determine the cause of development of prejudice among children and adults. Adolescence's prejudice about their society and peers can affect their outcome.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Despite the fact that adolescence may be an important age for prejudice development, relatively little research has focused on this age group. Moreover, most research on the development of prejudice comes either from a cognitive developmental perspective or from non-developmental social psychological theories regarding adults applied to children and adolescents. Thus, little is known about the paranormal beliefs important to prejudice during adolescence.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The main objective of the current study is to find out the relation between communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs among adolescence boys getting education in madrasa.

HYPOTHESIS
For the present research study, we have conducted null hypothesis. Therefore we assumed that there is no relationship between communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs.

METHODOLOGY
Sample and sampling design -for conducting the present research study and measuring the correlation between communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs, a sample consists of 80 adolescence boys were selected. The age of the sample ranged from 15 to 19. All the subjects were selected randomly from the madrasa of Aligarh.

Tool for the research
Prejudice scale-Prejudice scale introduced by QamarJahan, Bharadwaj and Saeeduzzafar in (1986) was applied to measure the prejudice among adolescence. The total items in this scale are 32 which show the prejudice level of subjects. It is a seven point scale. Minimum score of this scale is 32 and highest score is 160. This scale contains satisfactory reliability and validity.

Procedure
For conducting research, we approached the students of madrasa through the head of the institutions for the purpose of getting data from them. Before collecting information, we established good rapport with them. We collected data from each student individually. We applied both the two scales on all of the students. We took them in confidence and instructed them to fill up the questionnaires as per the guide line printed on each questionnaire. We asked them to co-operate to do this work for academic purpose and they agreed to give information on the entire questionnaire. In this way we collected the data and scored for analysis.

DATA ANALYSIS
In the present study, we assessed communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs among adolescence. We analyzed the obtained data with the help of Karl-Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation to establish the relation between mentioned variables. Below the table, shows relation between communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs among adolescence. The present result reveals that that correlation value, established between communal prejudice and paranormal beliefs is r= 0.20. The obtained value represents that there is significantly positive but slight correlation between both the variables. We found this value significant at 0.5 level. It means that increased level of paranormal beliefs helps in the development of prejudice and vice versa among adolescence madrasa boys. Though the obtained data shows slight relationship, it can be stated that paranormal beliefs are not wholly responsible for producing communal prejudice in them. There may be some other factors responsible for communal prejudice in madrasa adolescence boys.

CONCLUSION
The present research discloses the fact that increased level of paranormal beliefs leads the madrasa adolescence boys to be prejudiced. Therefore it is harmful for the adolescence to have strong paranormal beliefs as they become prejudiced. Michael Dambrun (2004) also explored in a study that paranormal belief that is belief in astrology become a significant predictor of prejudice for stigmatized group of people. His research supports the present study.