MPW 2133 MALAYSIAN STUDIES

SEMESTER MAY 2013

TASK 1 (40%) : GERONTOLOGY AND SUSTAINABILITY: UNDERSTANDING,PRACTICE AND ATTITUDES We cannot hope to create a sustainable culture with any but sustainable souls. Derrick Jensen, Endgame, Vol. 1: The Problem of Civilization Sustainability has emerged as a result of significant concerns about the unintended social, environmental, and economic consequences of rapid population growth, economic growth and consumption of our natural resources. Based on the above statement, form a group of 10 (TEN). Your group is required to do a qualitative and quantitative study on the sustainability in the fabrics of society/societies - the aged in particular . Your study must be conducted among the aged on one area in order to assess their attitudes, understanding and practice towards sustainability. The information gathered may provide useful insights to aid future policy development and encourage behavioural changes within the field of Gerontology in support of issues related to sustainability. You are given total freedom to define the members of the gerontology. It can be between/among the races ,genders, job professions and even nations. Write a FORMAL REPORT to present your views. When writing the report, you have to address the followings: I) Introduction : The concept of sustainability and relate it to the Gerontology .(max 2 pages)

ii) Design objective/s and methodology of your study. ( 2-3 pages) (You need to brainstorm this section to produce set of interviewed questions and questionnaires).The good news! Research questions and questionnaire are provided so that you are in the right tracks.

Samplings: Please conduct the study according to one specific zone area/state. To be fair to all, Perak is excluded from the study. When you narrow the area/state of your study, it is easier for you to overgeneralise your findings. There is no limit with the number of samplings/ respondents but the more samplings you have, the higher validity of results you will obtain. iii) Literature Review. ( 5-7 pages). Each member of the group is advised to select one (1) article that is related to the field chosen. The article should be taken from credible sources such as from scholarly journals and books or chapter(s) of a book. Good and reliable sources should be published within the past five(5) years. No articles from unreliable sources: wikis website, personal blogs, personal websites or tabloids newspapers or magazines or equivalents are allowed. The chosen 5 article(s) should be photocopied/printed and attached in the Attachment. Work must be cited according to A.P.A. standards and will have a works cited section on the final page. PLAGIRISM is strictly prohibited. The plagiarised work ( at the degree of 40% or more in similarities) entitled 0 ( zero) mark. IV Findings, results and discussions. (max 7-10 pages)

iii. Conclusion (1-2 page) . Conclude your report by giving some wrap-up, prediction of the future sustainable development . V References According to APA method VI Appendix- Interviewed questions (English version) and at least 3 sets of Original Transcription ( can be in English or attacked language). Photocopied/printed of the articles used in summary. Compile all questionnaires in a separate file. VII Students Profiles ( Self portrait, country of origin, matric number, programme, interests, email address and contact number).

Submission Please submit the hard copy of your final paper on or before the 21 July 2013 before 12 p.m (gmt).The soft and hard copy must be emailed to projectmlw@gmail.com and submitted to the advisor on/before the same day and stated time. You may correspond with thaliq abdul via the facebook for further inquiries. Maximum attachment file size should not exceed 5 MB under normal circumstances. Please send it in the word format and name your file as the following format:Sustainability(place of data collection) ex: sustainability(kelantan).

EVALUATION FORM (Date:)

Topic: .. Zone area/state: 1 2 Contents Page Introduction : The concept of sustainability and relate it to the society(ies)and the aged in particular .(max 2 page) Design objective/s and methodology (max 3 pages) You need to brainstorm this section to produce set of interviewed questions and questionnaires. The Research objectives and method-clear and concise (5m) Construction of the Questionnaire: Validity and reliability (5m) Literature Review. (max 7 pages). Each member of the group is advised to select one (1) article that is related to the field chosen. Work must be cited according to A.P.A. standards and will have a works cited section on the final page. Findings, results and discussions. (max 10 pages) Quantitative parts (15 m) Qualitative parts (15m) References According to APA method Appendix Photocopied/printed Articles Minimum of five (5) articles should be taken from credible sources such as from scholarly journals and books or chapter(s) of a book. Good and reliable sources should be published within the past five (5) years. No articles from unreliable sources: wikis website, personal blogs, personal websites or tabloids newspapers or magazines or equivalents are allowed. Interviewed questions (qualitative) (English version) and at least 3 sets of Original Transcription ( can be in English or attacked language). The questionnaire (quantitative) 7 8 Students Profiles (Self-portrait, country of origin, matric number, programme, interests, email address and contact number). Attachment of Draft 1st Draft: Topic, Research method, demography, research objectives (5 marks) 2nd Draft: Results and discussions (5 marks) M /5 /10 Remarks

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9 Cosmetic (acknowledgment, table of content, numbering, front page etc) 10 PLAGIRISM

9 - Penalty - Deduction

The plagiarised work (at the degree of 40% or more in similarities) will be entitled 0
11 Submission (Penalty of Late Submission- 5% for each day, up to one week - 21 th July 2013, before 12 pm )
name ID(programme) Sign name

ID(programme)

Sign

1 2 3 4 5 The General Idea

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Attitudes towards Reuse, Reduce and Recycle Activities: a case study among the Senior Citizens in Selected Area :.
Research Objectives The inclusive objective of this research is to underwrite to quantum of knowledge that occurs in the area of environmental studies. Precisely, among other things are to determine attitude of the senior citizens toward reuse, reduce and recycle activities ; determine the effect of demographic variables on attitude towards these three 3 rs activities ; examine the various items in 3rs; the appropriate strategies to improve 3rs; reasons for 3rs and the sources of 3rs information. The research intends to explore the senior citizens attitude toward reuse,reduce and recycle activities in ( ) Interestingly, no such research was conducted before in the study area and this research fills in the gap in literature. The findings of the research may give better insights of the theories on environmental sustainability. The findings also offer concerned authorities sufficient evidence on approaches to develop reuse,reduce and recycling behaviour for the society later on. At one point, the findings can be a platform for future reference material in the area of environmental studies.

The research questions for the study are as follows: What are the attitudes of the senior citizens towards 3rs activities reuse, reduce and recycle What are the factors influence the senior citizens attitude towards 3rs activities- reuse,reduce and recycling? What are the right strategies to improve 3r activities among the senior citizens? How does demography in selected area affect the 3Rs activities?

The study is conducted in five zones of the state (name it ) involving the senior citizens from both rural and urban areas. It looks at whether certain demographic variables such as age range, race and gender have an effect on attitude towards 3Rs activities Reuse,reduce and recycle activities. The research focus on the survey to see respondents attitude towards waste within the household as the management of such waste has not been a problem. The senior citizens spend most of the time at home and engage themselves to litters which some are non biodegradable and might pose hazards to the life of the people and surrounding as well.

Methodology and sampling The population of Malaysia stands at over 28 million in 2012 (http://www.statistics.gov.my/portal/index.php?lang=en ). Malaysia's population comprises many ethnic groups, with the Malays at around 50.4% , followed by 23.7% of Chinese descent, and approximately 7.1% is Indian descent and the remaining are others at 18.8 %. The population distribution is highly uneven, with some 20 million residents concentrated in Peninsula Malaysia and 70% of the population is urban. Due to the Britishs policy that colonized the country before some tabulations of the people are still ethnical based. When it comes to senior citizens, this group is referred to those who are 65 years and above. They form 5% of the whole population with 44.1% or 526967 males compared to 55.9% or 667831 females. Prior to this, this study is done by looking at the ratio of the races so it can mirror the real number of population even not to the utmost. The sample for the study is based on convenience and may not necessarily be representative of all the senior citizens. Two important notions to be noted involving the samplings are that the senior citizens in this study are sound and healthy and stay at home. The results from the senior citizens who are bedridden and stay at the old folk homes might be different.

Table 1 Demographic characteristics of the respondents

Item Sex Race Malay Chinese Indian Others Area Town Rural Professio n Retiree Workin g

Descriptive statistics Male (44%), Female (56%) (n=?)