An exploratory study of how students deal with rejection.

GROUP: HAPPIOLOGY

Title : An exploratory study of how students deal with rejection.

Date : 11th January 2008, AY 2007/08, Semester 2

Conducted by : Amelia Chung (0713847)
Alicia So (0645429)
Dawn Then (0745345)
Koo Li Yun (0738341)
Ling Rong Fa (0624367)
Hu Qui Ling (0735012)
Ter Teng Teng (0714794)
Noraien Jaini (0536099)
Valerie Tan (0764728)

Aim of the study
Our main aim of the study conducted was to the find out how youths deal with rejection in terms of interpersonal relationships. Ultimately, to further support the aim of the study, research questions posed by the group had to be answered.
The main research questions are as follows:
How do students respond to rejection? at first? Why?

Data Collection and Analysis Methods
After, we had conducted the interviews for our main and sub research questions, we obtained a wide collection of information. We have written data, videos and audios and these combine to give our interviews more credibility. Using the data collected, we did our analysis and reformatted the data, while maintaining its credibility. We analysed the data and used statistics to enhance our understanding of it. Besides that, we also categorised our data into two parts: the viewpoint of the rejecter and that of the rejected.

Findings
Data Analysis

Friends
Who/what did students seek refuge from after rejection?

Where did students obtain the courage to reject the other party?
Friends

Self-Reassurance
Themselves
Media
Others (e.g. food, retail therapy, sports)


Do the rejected parties still keep in contact with the rejecters?
Is rejection the best solution with regards to those who were the parties rejecting the other?
Yes
No-18%
No-50%

Discussion
Rejection is “the act or process of rejecting”, according to http://www.dictionary.com/ but to most of us, it is a sensitive issue that we fail to discuss regardless of whether we have been through it as the rejecter or the rejected. Why is that so? Most of us have been through various forms of rejection; the minor incidents (e.g. when you reject your friend when he/she asks you out) or major ones (e.g. you were rejected by your group of friends or rejection in the context of boy-girl relationships) or perhaps both for the unfortunate few. We have two options: to face up to rejection or to avoid it. The former requires a great amount of courage and perchance support from friends and/or family but will most probably enable one to get past the sorry state and move on, knowing that life is so much more than just rejection. The latter is sadly, what most people would do, regardless of what they say. The embarrassment of approaching the utmost sensitive topic of rejection and telling your loved ones of the entire episode may be too much to bear for some who choose to take the easy way out by forcing themselves to forget about it or to avoid thinking about it. Honestly ask yourself, is it possible to truly forget about the whole process of rejection simply by evading the issue? Absolutely not! This will give rise to a reverse effect and cause the parties involved to mull over the painful process with feelings of bitterness trapped in their hearts; not forgetting the resentment of the other party or even of oneself. We have conducted research to help people find better and more effective ways of moving on and getting over this agonizing process but ultimately, it is their choice to take it or to leave it.

Conclusion
Rejection is inevitable, regardless of how you may try to avoid or deny it. It is not about what we can do to prevent rejection, but how we can better cope with the aftermath of it that makes us a smarter and stronger person, maybe even wiser for some. Man has evolutionalised from the primitive caveman to today’s well-informed and educated individual who has access to the complicated technologies of today. Sadly, with all this knowledge, we have not been able to get in touch with our inner self and help improve our emotional state of health. Perhaps with all this globalization and rapid use of technology, we have even increased the pressure on our mental state of mind such that we have lost touch with ourselves and may not know who we truly are and the methods to rid ourselves of problems such as rejection. We hope to be able to tackle the problem of rejection whilst at a young age (schooling at educational institutes such as Singapore Polytechnic) and hopefully enable Singaporeans to have a stronger and more stable state of health.