A STUDY OF SUPERSTITIONS AMONG HIGHER SECONDARY SCHOOL TEACHERS IN KERALA

Superstitions are beliefs or feelings which are irrational and cannot be explained by reasons or facts. The assessment of superstitiousness as a component of paranormal belief has encountered many conceptual and psychometric difficulties (Harvey j. Irwin). Many superstitions deal with important events in a person's life such as birth and entering adulthood. Superstition is primarily ignorance. Men due to lack of proper culture and education had one time depended upon certain happenings. Effects of superstition on student life are mainly loss of concentration, lack of interest in studies, mental disorder and hampering the development of an individual's personality. To irradiate this, present study made an attempt to study the superstitions of higher secondary school teachers by taking a sample of 200 teachers. The present study also aims to find out the difference between superstition of higher secondary male and female teachers, Christian and Hindu teachers and Science and Language teachers in Pathanamthitta, Kollam and Alapuzha districts in Kerala. The superstitions do not differ significantly between that groups classified in terms of gender, religion and subject of specialization. The analysis and interpretation were made by us in authentic statistical techniques.