PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA

College of Arts and Sciences

Department of Psychology

THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS, LONELINESS AND

LIFE
ATTITUDE AMONG WORKING PERSON WITH DISABILITIES

An Undergraduate Thesis Presented to

The Faculty of College of Arts and Sciences
Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Muntinlupa
Poblacion, Muntinlupa City

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Science in Psychology

Espinili, Justine Claire A.

Rafallo, Cristine Z.
Ramirez, Aira L.
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

CHAPTER I

Introduction

To ensure government policies that aims to promote the equal opportunity

for employment of PWD’s like Republic Act (RA) No.10524 and implementing

Rules and regulations (IRR) of RA 10524 ensures that employees with disability

shall have the same terms and conditions of employment, name compensation,

privileges, benefits, fringe benefits, incentives allowances as a qualified able-

bodied person. The person with disability shall not be discriminated on the basis

of disability like in recruitment, hiring and employment, carrier advancement and

safe and healthy working conditions.

To ensure that PWDs also get an opportunity in government agencies,

offices, or corporal ions, one percent (1%) of all position are reserved for person

with person with disability and private corporations with more than a hundred

(100) employees are encouraged to reserve at least one percent (1%) of all

positions for PWDs must also be upheld and must not create or impose any

burden on the PWD being employed. Republic Act No. 1179 is an act that aims

to help the blind and other PWDs in terms of employment..

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Republic Act No. 1179 aims to help the blind and other PWD’s in terms of

employment. The vocational rehabilitation office, provides vocational

rehabilitation services for PWD’s to prepare them for suitable employment by

maintaining the vocational rehabilitation of disable individual including census

and placement of employment opportunities. The most PWD’s are being

employed by private institutions, particularly PWD institutions that provide

training and equip PWD’s with necessary skills for job based on the employment

of PWD’s in selected region of the Philippines.

A study or employment profile of person with disabilities (PWDs).

According to the Department of Health, in the Philippines the latest Census of

population & housing (2010 CPH) show that out of 92.1 million household, 1.443

million Filipinos have some form of disability; the highest number of being in

Region VI-A on the Calabarzon region. The same research show’s that among

the age groups, the majority of PWD’s belong to the working age group 15-64

years old.

Disability serves as a multi-definition that is associated with people who

have mental, physical and intellectual changes and also been classified into

biomedical and social modes. The biomedical modes means disability that
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

accredited to medical challenges while the social modes refers to disability that

associated with social challenges. Disability can defined as a “fixed condition of

present illness with cannot be changed” (Smith, 2009) and the person with

disability (PWD’s) need the most attention from the government this is the reason

why the institutional and legal government has been made favourable to this

group, especially in the area of employment.

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Loneliness and social connectedness can affect anyone, but some people

are more vulnerable to it than other’s. Like disabled people but disabled people

often face barriers in daily life that can make them more likely to be chronically

lonely than non-disabled people.

Life attitude level is in fact determined by the ratio between what we have

and want in our life. When a PWD can cope well to his/her environment. Maybe

he/she can be successful in life.

The problem may occur when the person with disability became lonely

and cannot properly interact to other people and to the world, maybe his/her

attitude to life can be a bad attitude towards themselves.

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

People with physical disabilities and their working life is the topic

discussed in the study. The main aim of the study was to make all the persons

with disability feel that we are equal for housing, education, jobs, and

transportation.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

Connectedness Theory

Belongingness is a powerful, fundamental, and pervasive human need based on

strong biological and psychological mechanisms (Desi & Ryan, 2000; Patrick, Knee,

Canivello & Lons Bary, 2007).the safety needs and basic psychological needs is the

importance in feeling connected to others (Maslow, 1968). Extensive evidence underlines

the important of belonging for human well-being, physical health, and metal health (for

an overview see Bauneister and Lea Ry, 1995).By Mediating communication through a

telephone, text messaging, email, instant messaging, and online communities as

broadened our communication horizon significantly. Because Communication technology

affords social interaction of awareness of people situation, activities, well-being over

geographical distance and time and this allow as to fulfill our fundamental social needs of

changing life styles, like families dispersing over larger areas, elderly living alone, and to
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

increase business travel however, doubts remain to whether mediate communication can

afford the affective characteristics a face to face interaction, which is often considered as

the gold standards of communication. Some research has been done in this area and have

shown that meditated communication helps maintain feeling of closeness after a

residential mode (Shklovsk, Kraut and cumming, 2008). The concept of connectedness

has been characterized as a sense of keeping up to date, being involved, being in touch or

sharing with others within on going social relationships, or a sense of having company

( Ijsselsteijn, Vanvaren, & Vanlanen, 2003; Markopoulus, Romero, Vanvaren,

Ijsselsteijn, De Ruyter & Farshchian, 2007). However, the exact nature of this key

outcome of mediated communication has hihert remained but the exact nature of

mediated communication has hihert remained relatively an explored, most research and

design of communication technology has largely based on an intuitive sense of what the

feeling of connectedness is. Social present has been more commonly discussed in

literature on mediated communication application (Biocca, Harms & Burgoon, 2003).

Social present differs markedly from connectedness; were as social connectedness is a

more lingerly feeling of belonging and to achieve the more fundamental insight in the

feeling of connectednes is to be collected and used a relevant knowledge in the Fields of

social connectedness, media psychology and HCI to established the concepts of social
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

connectedness and its concept is to timely and necessary in order to theoretically anchor

and embed belongingness in the context of both mediated and unmediated

communication.

Attitude Theory

Functional attitude theory (FAT) suggests that beliefs and attitudes are

influential to various psychological functions. Attitudes can be influential on many

processes such as being useful, social, relating to values, or reduction of

cognitive dissonance. They can be beneficial and help people interact with the

world. In the late 1950s when psychoanalysis and behaviourism reigned

supreme as the focus of psychological studies, Smith, Bruner, and White (1956)

and Kats, Daniel (1960) separately and independently developed typologies of

human attitudes in relation to the functions to which they believed the attitudes

are served. Carpenter, Christopher (2012). This theory proposes that attitudes

are held by individuals because they are important and integral to psychological

functioning. The function of an attitude is more important than whether the

attitude is accurate or correct.

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Loneliness Theory

Hawkey and John T. Cacioppo (2010). Loneliness is a very painful thing. There are

so many people in the world that are feeling lonely or socially isolated and can start one

to feel unsafe. (Louise C. Hawkley & John T. Cacioppo, 2010). This in turns makes one,

often without being fully aware of his, hypervigilant for more social challenges in the

environment (Louise C. Hawkley & John T. Cacioppo, 2010). Being loneliness typically

feels unconcious as a result of living alone, lack of close family or friends,

communication and connection to other people. Lonely individuals see the social world

as a more threatening place, Negative social expectation tend to elicit behaviors from

others that confirm the lonely person’s expectations, thereby setting in motion a self-

fulfilling prophecy in which people actively distance themselves from would be social

partners even as they believe that the cause of the social distance is attributable to others

and is beyond their own control. People think being alone makes you lonely but the truth

is being surrounded by the world people can be the loneliest in the world. (Louise C.

Hawkley & John T. Cacioppo. 2010

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Loneliness

Life Attitude

Social

Connectedness
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Figure 1. The diagram above shows the relationship of social connectedness,

Life Attitude and Loneliness. This Loneliness and Social connectedness serves

as a predictors of Life attitude among working persons with disabilities.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

This study intends to determine the relationship of loneliness, social

connectedness and Life attitude among persons with disabilities employees in

city hall in Muntinlupa City. The researchers come up with supporting problems in

answering the main problem:

What is the profile of the respondent in terms of?

1.1 Age

1.2 Gender

1.3 length of service

What is the level of loneliness of the respondent?

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

What is the level of social connectedness of the respondent?

What is the level of life attitude of the respondent?

Is there a significance relationship between loneliness, social connectedness and

life attitude of the respondent?

STATEMENT OF THE HYPOTHESIS

Ho: There is no significant relationship between loneliness, social

connectedness, and life attitude among working person with disability.

ASSUMPTIONS OF THE STUDY

The researcher study is anchored on the assumption that the respondents will

be honest in answering the questionnaires which upon data to be gathered by

the researchers valid and reliable for correlation. In addition, the researcher study

is believed to be timely relevant to the respondents that will result into an

outcome providing basis of knowledge to the question.

SCOPE AND DELIMITATIONS

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

The goal is to know if loneliness and social connectedness are predictors

of life attitude. This research study will only focus on the respondent of city hall

employees where identified with their personal characteristics which is their age,

employees status, and monthly income the respondents will be so only 50 female

50 male. The respondents should be working in city hall of Muntinlupa. This

factors are not included personal problem, relationship with their partners, and

intelligence quotient the variables were measured through their scale which is

loneliness, social connectedness and life attitude scale.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study focuses on the relationship of loneliness, social connectedness and

life attitude among PWD City hall employees of Muntinlupa. The results of the

study could be significant of the following:

Researchers, this study hopes to be a place for applying theories and give them

the needed knowledge for their future job, especially in handling future problems

similar to the research topic. In doing this study, the researchers will have the

chance to help the organization establish a basis motivation for employee.

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

PWD employees, this study hopes to give them opportunity to identify the

factors, which leads to job satisfaction. It will provide the employees needed

awareness of how perceived stress

affects their performance in work with this, the proper attitude or behaviour to

display to encourage productivity or otherwise, will be known, as well as the

possible effects which may occur after.

Family of PWD, this study hopes to help them understand and support a family

member who are experiencing stress and thus help him/her cope up in life.

Future researchers, this study hopes to further knowledge and become a

significant source of information, regarding job satisfaction and perceived stress

of an employee which could be useful for other further studies, which was not yet

done by other studied that use job satisfaction and perceived stress as their

variables.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

Social connectedness is a personal sense of belonging to a group, family, or

community. It’s about the relationships people have with each other and their

engagement with the border community

This is operationally defined as a scale to measure the level of the response of

the study

Loneliness is a complex and usually unpleasant emotional response to isolation.

Loneliness typically includes anxious feelings about a lack of connection or

communication with other beings, both with the present and extending in to the

future.

This is operationally defined as a scale to measure the level of the response of

the study.

Life attitude is a reflection, our attitude in life determines life’s atittude to us. This

simply means we shape our lives that successful people have a good attitude

towards themselves, they expect to succeed more than they fail. Without a doubt,

your attitude determines how far you get in life.

 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

This is operationally defined as a scale to measure the level of the response of

the study

Disability a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements,

senses, or activities.

Person with disability Employee a person who works for another person or for

company for wages or a salary.

This is operationally defined as employee and or the participants/ respondents in

the study.

Age the length of time that the person has lived or a thing has existed.

It operationally defined the level of needs of our respondents based on their age.

Gender the state of being male and female.

It operationally defined the equality of male and female in the study.

_____
 PAMANTASAN NG LUNGSOD NG MUNTINLUPA
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326173745_A_STUDY_ON_CHALLENGE

S_FACED_BY_DISABLED_PEOPLE_AT_WORKPLACE_IN_MALAYSIA/link/5b

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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254441750_Factors_Motivating_Participation_
of_Persons_with_Disability_in_the_Philippines_The_Discount_Privilege_in_Goods_and
_Services/link/5ada88aeaca272fdaf83c26f/download