Differential effects of prolonged deprivation on adolescents’ behavioural characteristics Singh R. N.1, Singh Priyanka2 1Prof. (Retd), Dept. of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (U.P.) 218 Ananya Apartment C-1st Floor, College Road, Near Godown Gate, Hawrah-711103 Online published on 28 March, 2024. Abstract This study was conducted to examine the differential effects, if any, of prolonged deprivation on behavioural characteristics among adolescents. The behavioural (human) characteristics were measured in terms of trustworthiness, strength of will and rationality, altruism, independence of group pressure, complexity of human nature, and variability in human nature. In all 428 adolescents of intermediate standard were administered the Human Nature Inventory (Hindi version- Singh & Singh, 1997) to measure the above characteristics. The Prolonged Deprivation scale (PDS- Mishra & Tripathi,1971) was administered to classify the participants in low deprived group (LDG), moderately deprived (MDG) and high deprived groups (HDG). The scores of three groups (PDG) on human nature inventory were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics to analyse the data obtained in the study. The three PDGs differed significantly on all but one dimension, i.e., variability in human nature. Thus, the results obtained make it evident that prolonged deprivation exerts adverse differential effects on behavioural characteristics or personality characteristics of adolescents. Out of the six hypotheses, the first five hypotheses were accepted, while the sixth hypothesis was rejected. The results are thoroughly discussed and implications and limitations of the study are also underlined. In addition to it, suggestions for future research are also offered. Top Keywords Prolonged deprivation (PD), SES, Human nature, Behavioural characteristics, Adolescents, SES. Top |