Resilience and Cognitive Styles Among Pre and Post-Independence Generations in Malaysia

Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country and achieved her independence in 1957. After independence, Malaysia continued to develop various aspects that economically, socially, politically and cultural experiences. Changes that occurred after independence, has made this study crucial in understanding differences between the generations of pre and post independence in terms of certain psychological constructs. Hence, this study attempts to examine the differences in resilience and cognitive styles among these generations. A total of 552 respondents comprising of 261 born before 1957 and 291 born after 1957 took part in this study. Resilience Scale was used to measure resilience level and GEFT (Group Embedded Figures Test) for cognitive styles. Results indicated that there were significant difference in cognitive style between these groups but no significant difference were found in resilience. Implications of this study were discussed.