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The aim of this article is to highlight the importance of traditional treatment as a complimentary method of treatment for women with postpartum depression and stress. Even though the modern treatment and medicine have been recognised in improving the society’s health and well-being, the traditional medicine and treatment have been part of the society since the very old days. Having said this, the government has developed a National Policy of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (TCM) to facilitate the development of traditional and complementary medicine in order to achieve the quality and safety level of treatment practices recognized by the Helath Ministry by promoting the correct and reasonable use of the medicine, especially in primary health care. The way forward is discussed.

Sejarah baharu pada tahun 2020 telah tercipta apabila kesejahteraan individu dan kemampuannya berfungsi secara efektif tergugat kerana penularan Covid-19 di Malaysia. Pelbagai konflik wujud akibat daripada penularan wabak ini antaranya dari segi kewangan, perhubungan sosial, pekerjaan, pengurusan dan termasuklah kesihatan mental. Namun begitu, dapat dilihat bahawa kajian terdahulu lebih menumpu kepada kesan penularan Covid-19 terhadap psikososial individu tanpa melibatkan data empirikal yang jelas, justeru kajian ini dijalankan bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti tahap tekanan, kebimbangan dan kemurungan remaja di era pandemik Covid-19 dan mengenal pasti tahap resilien serta pengaruhnya terhadap kesihatan mental. Seramai 135 orang remaja telah dipilih secara rawak sebagai responden kajian. Kajian ini berbentuk kajian kuantitatif di mana ujian Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21) dan Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-25) digunakan bagi pengumpulan data. Secara keseluruhan dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa tahap kesihatan mental remaja berada pada tahap yang normal dan majoriti responden mempunyai tahap resilien yang sederhana. Walau bagaimanapun, dapatan juga menunjukkan terdapat 18.6% responden menghadapi tekanan hidup dan 9.5% mempunyai tahap resilien yang rendah. Implikasi kajian ini turut bermanfaat bagi pihak yang berkenaan seperti para kaunselor agar pelbagai pelan pemulihan dan rawatan dapat dilakukan segera bagi kesihatan mental berada pada tahap terbaik.

The aim of this article is to discuss the process of public policymaking and how the policy consultation helps to elaborate the processes involved in enhancing cooperation among government agencies. Existing literature indicates that there has never been any research that studies in detail on the consultative process of the process of policymaking in the country’s public service. The only available guidance is in the National Policy on the Development and Implementation of Regulations to improve the decision-making process for policy implementation. Therefore, a further reference has been done to a qualitative study on the policymaking process of the proposed National Halal Policy. The study indicates that an effective consultative approach must be able to act as either a vehicle of communication or stakeholder management in the policy process. The framework of negotiation-based policy consultative informs clearly on what types of consultative process practiced by the country and how does it operate in promoting wider participation in the policy process.

This paper aims to describe the importance of psychological capital and innovative personality development for the creation of a sustainable educational ecosystem. References are made to some relevant Malaysian education policies. In principle, psychological capital and innovative personality are intertwined and inseparable, and the context of educational development in Malaysia is no exception. Numerous policies have been developed by the Ministry of Education in Malaysia. What is profoundly important after every policy development is its effective implementation. Policy analysis is another initiative. This paper aims to investigate psychological capital as a component of holistic human capital that needs to be developed. The innovative personality profile is briefly described. The role of the education sector, and the progress towards the development of a sustainable education ecosystem, finally conclude the paper. The main emphasis is on training and policy enlightenment.

Human trafficking is an issue that strikes the world globally. This shows that the world is facing human trafficking conflict and requires concern from all parties in the effort to end it. The issue of human trafficking is a global issue that affects most of the countries in the world. This situation calls for government’s efforts from all the countries that involve in this issue including the Malaysian government. The method of writing for a review of efforts to combat human trafficking in Malaysia is based on a qualitative approach, through content analysis of sources of governmental reports, scientific journals, books, articles, and related newspapers. This article is expected to contribute to the corpus of knowledge as well as to provide an understanding of the issues and efforts taken by the government in addressing the issues of human trafficking in Malaysia.

The issue of human trafficking is a global issue that plagues most countries in the world, including Malaysia. This article aims to discuss the qualitative analysis findings on the factors that influence the issue of human trafficking in Malaysia from the perspective of enforcement. This study is an analysis of data obtained from in-depth interviews with five informants among the authorities who are directly involved in dealing with human trafficking issues. Based on the findings from the interviews conducted, the factors that influence the issue of human trafficking in Malaysia can be divided into two, namely, factors that influence the increase and factors that influence the reduction of the issue. Factors influencing the increase in human trafficking issues comprise economic factors in Malaysia and poverty factors of the victims in their country of origin while factors influencing the reduction in these issues are community awareness factors as well as operational and enforcement factors.

Human trafficking is an issue prevalent in most countries including Malaysia.This article aims to discuss the findings of a qualitative analysis on the causes of human trafficking in Malaysia.The study involves data collection, in-depth interviews with five informants among the authorities involved directly in dealing with human trafficking. Based on the findings from the interviews conducted, there are several causes of human trafficking in Malaysia. Among these are human attitudinal weaknesses, the presence of demand and outsourcing companies and foreign employment agencies.

This study aim to investigate the indicator of happiness among Islamic multitasking women. Indicator of happiness consist of five dimension which is cognitive, physiology, psychology, spiritual and social. In-depth interviews were used. A total of four Muslim lecturer in Unversiti Teknologi Malaysia were selected in the interview. A qualitative method by using interview were used. The data from interview were analysed by using thematic analysis from four respondents that meet the selection criteria. The result shows that happiness is comprises of five element which is physiology, psychology, spiritual, cognitive and social. All the elements need to be align with Allah’s commandment as when the element is connected with Allah, then the true happiness would be achieve. A Muslim understand that worldly happiness is just temporary and the eternal happiness are the one that should being pursue and lasting forever.

Addiction to pornography is an act of watching or viewing pornographic material repeatedly which is difficult to dispel by those affected. Pornography addiction among Malaysians not only involves adults but also involves minors such as teenagers. This article aims to discuss the factors that contribute to pornography addiction among teenagers that may be driven by today's technological advances and developments. As a result of analyses from previous studies, most researchers agree that technology is a leading factor in the prevalence of pornography among teenagers today.However, based on the findings of the study, the average researcher focused on the Internet as the only technology that has contributed to pornography addiction without looking at the influence of modern inventions (gadgets) in causing pornography addiction among students. Previous research show that pornography brings about negative implications on the lives and health of those involved. As such, this article provide information and insights for the public, especially parents and students, about the technological factors in adolescent pornography addiction and the negative implications of pornography in life.

The environmental problems faced by the world population today is the result of human daily activities. One of the contributing sources to the environmental problems is the growth of solid waste. Solid waste generation increases as a result of economic progress, urbanization, population growth and consumer-based lifestyles. The urban areas of Asia is expected to spend at least US$50 billion per year in 2025 on solid waste management. Malaysia, experiencing rapid economic prosperity, is also faced with challenges in solid waste management. This paper will highlight the present state of waste generation trends, its management, the waste management policies and strategies with specific focus on recycling for the household sector. Recycling has been highlighted for decades as a plausible option for sustainable waste management but still faced with various challenges. This paper will provide a brief classification of the policy instruments adopted in achieving the policy objectives. This provide the basis for future research to analyse the households’ perspective on the effectiveness of implemented policy instruments. It is crucial for policymakers to understand the behavioral aspect of the policy instruments in planning future comprehensive strategies.

The aim of this paper is to discuss on the application of the main concepts of Islamic Psychology in the practice of Islamic Counselling. In order to reach that aim, the authors will highlight the main concepts in Islamic Psychology as to show how it is different from the conventional psychology. The concept of human nature and our goal in life will be elaborated in view of developing the personality of the Muslim Counsellors and their clients. The compatibility between the personality of the counsellor andhis clients is important in ensuring the existence of congruency. Congruency is required to be one of the counsellor’s characteristics in which the counsellor acts as a role model. Being a role model, he is needed to to be as real, transparent and genuineso as to provide the clients with the necessary strength and willingness to engage in honest and accurate self-exploration. Thus, it is vital for the Muslim counsellors to have the knowledge and understanding in the area of Islamic Psychology and be able to apply them in developing the spiritual inner self of the counsellors as well as in their clients.

The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of Islamic Counselling in promoting the psychological well-being in the society. Its integrated approach being applied in the counselling session involving the Muslim clients allows the counsellor to play a better role and perform more effective as compared to the conventional counselling. The three main elements in counselling adopted from Carl Rogers which is widely accepted to be practised during the counselling session are empathy, congruence and unconditional acceptance. Accommodation of the psycho-spiritual elements in Islamic Psychology which is Ibadah (Motivation), Amanah (Self-Concept) and Ilm(Intellect) are important in developing the Islamic personality of the counsellors. These elements will be able to strengthen their capability in handling the psychological issues faced by the Muslim clients. The development of a strong Islamic personality in a Muslim counsellor would certainly contribute to the positive character building of the clients which finally enable them to independently achieve their psychological well-being. Finally, this paper concludes the discussion by presenting the newly developed model namely, Integrated Approach of Islamic Counselling Model (IAICM).

The purpose of this study is to emphasize on the process of reliability testing for instrument development in measuring the attitudes and perceptions of adolescents towards academic and personality. The testing process is implemented in the form of a quantitative research where data collection is carried out by using questionnaires. The instrument was developed by the researcher under the supervision of experts in the field of psychology. A pilot study of 30 samples was carried out to test the reliability of the instrument. The Rasch Model was used to test the reliability of measurement for each item. A reliability value of .95 for person and .91 for item indicates that the instrument has a high degree of reliability. After aborting the four items misfit, dimensionality testing found that the variance explained by measure for each construct is more than 40 percent. This result shows that the items are highly reliable and suitable for the real data collection.

Personality and religion relationship has long been studied by Western and Muslim researchers in order to find any association between religious factors anda person's behavior and thought. The present study sought to expand research by investigating the differences in the latent factors, namely Tawhid (Belief in God), Nubuwwa(Awareness of Prophetic Teaching), Self-striving, and Self-regard, in a newly developed scale of Integrative Islamic Personality Inventory (IIPI). The sample of this study was a group of undergraduate students (n= 1235) in ten universities in Turkey. Data were analyzed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The main goal of this study was to investigate the statistical properties of this scale and examine if it could be applied across university students. It is apparent that Belief in God and Awareness of Prophetic Teaching, Self-regard and Self-striving represent psychological and social implications for individuals. Thus, the model of this research makes an important contribution to understanding and predicting how Muslims think, act, and experience Islam.

This paper intends to analyse political leadership from the perspective of political behaviour of political leaders. There must be a reason for voters to decide which election candidate to vote. Political leadership as contextually described represent some of the most important elements for voters to decide whether or not a particular leader should be elected as Member of Parliament or State Legislative Assemblies in Malaysia. There are five aspects of political leadership forming leadership characters relevant to voters’ choice and preferences in any given election. They are loyalty, integrity, competency, commitment and resilience. The absence of these characters could render a particular candidacy a fatal. These five characters could be regarded as principle centred of a leader and in the same time the main features that would contribute to the success of an elected political leader. It is not only words best spoken by the candidate but also the campaigner’s success in highlighting these characters to the voters that would open their eyes to vote the best candidate. In some cases, traditionally, at some constituency votes are given to the parties that have been traditionally representing the constituency. To a certain extent it is called the party’s ‘traditional seat’. Now, voters do not only look to a party or the so-called ‘traditional seat’ context. Today voters give high regards to who the candidates are and what are the qualities the candidates have.

This paper intends to reflect on the importance of political trust to voters’ behaviour. Political trust has a strong link to the political leadership legitimacy. Voters voted political leaders because of their trust to them or to their party. In the context of this paper, political trust refers to the performance of political leaders. In essence, political leadership performance of their duties will have a substantive effect to the voters’ decision on who to vote in an election. Political trust characterised the image of the political leaders as well as their party. Political trust is not easy to regain once broken. Voters will remember them. Adversaries will play the issue to gain support towards their party. Trustworthiness and reliability would normally result from good policy and programmes that the leader or party who lead the government initiate or implement. These programmes benefited the people and the country. Trust deficit in the realm of politics is in need of a serious repair. This work will speak of political trust and contextually relate it to political leadership. The performance of political leaders and government will be viewed from the economics, education, health, safety and religious points of views. These are some of the most important factors becoming the supporting pillars of political trust especially in the context of Malaysia. Their upright performance will gather voters’ support and consequently, the opposite will direct to political decline.

This paper attempts to decribe what is Islamic political psychology. The coverage of this paper is preliminary in nature. The study of political psychology came into picture as a discipline of study quite recently. It is a combination of political science and psychology. It is timely to have the study of Islamic Political psychology. If the study of political psychology involves the theories and practice of political science and psychology, necessarily the Islamic political psychology involves the theories and practice of Islamic Politics (siyasah syariyyah) and Islamic psychology (‘ilm nafs al-Islami). This paper intends to look at the principles of Islamic politics and its relationship to Islamic psychology. It will also be describing the characteristic features of politics from the perspective of syariah. The principles that underline the political system of Islam will then be elaborated. This paper will attempt to highlight the similarities and differences between political psychology as perceived by the coventional perspective and the study as expounded by the worldview of Islam. Islamic political psychology will help the understanding of a certain pattern of thinkings and behaviours either of the politicians or the people as they relate to politics.

This paper intends to describe political psychology and the importance of the subject matter to the Malaysian politics. Political studies in Malaysia are largely based on political science, political sociology and socio-political analysis. It is a high time that political environment and issues in Malaysia to be looked upon from a psychological perspective. It is important because the discipline will allow the understanding of why political leaders think and behave in a certain manner. It will also allow the appreciation of voters’ behaviour. These perspectives will enrich our ability to understand politics from different roots. In the context of Malaysia, studying political psychology will help to enhance the understanding of many variables related to the practice of politics in this country. The interactions between politics and psychology particularly the impact of psychology to politics would be an interesting study. As far as Malaysia is concerned, a deeper understanding on political psychology will help leaders to appreciate the nerves and needs of the people and they should put every effort to fulfil their aspirations. Political psychology should help to unfold the minds of the political actors as well as the voters.

This study aims to highlight the process of reliability testing for the instrument development in measuring the attitude and perception of adolescent toward academic and personality. The testing process is implemented in the form of quantitative research where data collection is made by using questionnaires. The instrument was developed by the researcher under the supervision of experts in the field of psychology. A pilot study of 30 samples was carried out to test the reliability of the instrument. Rasch model was used to test the reliability of the measurement for each item. Reliability value of .95 for person and .91 for item indicates that the instrument has a high degree of reliability. After dropping the four items misfit, dimensionality testing found that the variance explained by measure for each construct is more than 40 percent. This result shows that the items are highly reliable and suitable for the real data collection.

The calls for the implementation of Islam in Malaysia from various quarters provide a tremendous challenge to the government—not to its resistance but rather to find the best means of answering these calls. Malaysia is a multi-racial and multi-religious country. Although the Malaysian Federal Constitution provides that Islam is the Religion of the Federation, what must be in place is wisdom – wisdom of thought and wisdom of action. The answer lies in education. The Malaysian educational system has undergone a tremendous metamorphosis, and Islam has a very high place in the education system. However, the presence of colonial masters altered this position. Before Malaysia attained independence from the British, the teaching of Islam was classical in nature. As Malaysia embraces modernity in all sectors of life, questions arise regarding how Islam, particularly Islamic education, can stand tall in the face of modernity. The beauty of the message of Islam should not be reduced to a slogan; it must emerge as a solution to issues. While the world is preoccupied with modernity and secularism, in Malaysia, Islam must be the core of the education system. This goal was and is challenging; however, this challenge has been embraced in a skillful and methodical manner. This goal has been achieved, although many more improvements can be expected. The fabric of the nation remains strong. In the context of Malaysia, this may be one of the greatest signs of social progress for Muslims.

The Malaysian government has given a high commitment in their effort in achieving gender equality by providing education parity, equal employment opportunity and implementing anti-discriminatory tools and regulations. Despite these efforts, discrimination against women still persists in the workplace especially at the managerial level. This paper intends to discuss on the nature and forms of discrimination faced by women employees in Malaysia. It also discusses on how the government, employers, and the educational institutions can better enhance their roles in handling and possibly curbing work discrimination and finally, positively enhance their mental health level.

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This paper intends to describe and analyse the process of education reform that has taken place in Malaysia. Islamisation plays a major role in such reform. The approach is innovative and novel in nature. Historically, Malaysia was under the British colony and the British left a strong impact in the education system. Naturally the position of Islam was not in the priority list. The post-Independent era witnessed a strong demand by the Muslims that Islam should be embedded firmly in the Malaysian education system. This paper also analyse some of the foundational issues relevant to the reform. The concept and methodology of this reform was finally translated in the form of learning institutions. It seeks to harmonise between the western and the Islamic traditions of knowledge. The success is far reaching and has a strong impact on human capital as well as knowledge society developments.

The aim of this study is to explore the characteristics of innovative personality among teachers in Malaysia. Samples of the research were randomly selected among secondary school teachers in three districts in Malaysia. Research instrument was self-developed by the researchers based on interviews carried out with some resource persons who are both experts and authoritative in their fields, as well as through literature review. A pilot study was carried out among 30 respondents. Cronbach’s Alpha value for the whole instrument is .952, indicating that it is reliable and suitable for actual data collection. A total of 484 sets of questionnaires were completed and gathered to form the data for this research. The data were then analysed using an advanced statistical method called Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Findings of the research concluded three constructs, namely, Leadership, Openness and Braveness. The constructs were labelled based on groups of items which were formed as a result of the PCA analysis. Meanwhile, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to validate each dimension and to analyse the coherence of data based on model hypothesis. The findings of CFA indicated the goodness-of-fit values of the revised model, as follows: CMIN/DF=2.56; CFI=.935; and RMSEA=.057; with each figure above the threshold value.

The Ummatic Personality Inventory (UPI)© was devised within a specific framework. It intends to be anassessment tool for self-introspection (muhasabah) and self-improvement (islah). Central to this idea is theconcept that one would be able to identify the area where improvements could be made as far as one’spersonality as a Muslim is concerned. This research was conducted at two universities. The sample size was 588.The statistical method, Principal Component Analysis (PCA), was used. PCA was used to identify the underlyingdimensions for each construct of the instrument. The results provide evidence that the developed instrumentpossesses sound psychometric properties. The reliability test indicated that the instrument was reliable, given thatthe overall reliability value of Cronbach’s Alpha was .963. The findings revealed that with the use of PCA, theIbadah (worship) construct produced 5 significant factors, the Amanah (trust) construct generated 5 factors andthe Ilm(knowledge) construct produced 2 factors. In conclusion, this study produced a prototype of the UmmaticPersonality Inventory that possesses sound psychometric properties and contributes to the development of anovel psychological instrument from the Islamic perspective.

The present work aims at analysing the adoption of eclectic model in the Malaysian education system. The analysis is specifically looked from the angle of Islam and the Muslims. Malaysia has a long history of education system developments, from pre to post independence of the country. From what was initailly traditional, modernity later came to shape the system and practice. The British left many marks and continued to be inherited even after independence. Later, the education philosophy was changed and different approached to education were implemented. Progressing further, symbiotic approach where the normal or conventional academic content were coupled with the Islamic perspective on similar subject matter became part of the system. Eclectic model progresses further and appeared in the form of established higher education system and practice.

The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between self-concept, intrinsic motivation and self-determination with academic achievement among the respondents. The sample of the study was 200 students in standard 5 and standard 6 from a Chinese primary school in Johor, Malaysia. Data was collected using a self-developed set of questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument was tested using Cronbach’s Alpha and the result was 0.941. The data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 17.0. Pearson correlation at the significant level of 0.05 was used in order to determine the relationships among the measured variables. Research finding shows that correlations between independent variables (self-concept, intrinsic motivation and self-determination of the respondents) and dependent variable (academic achievement) were all significantly low. Analysis of previous research discovers several salient factors in relation to the current research findings.

This paper will briefly discuss the condition of muscular dystrophy disease in Malaysia and will explore the potential of psychological approach in managing the muscular dystrophy patients in Malaysia. Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary and progressive degenerative disorder affecting skeletal muscles, and also often other organ systems. This term includes many conditions associated to the muscle wasting and weakness where all are still genetic but having different types due to different genes and differ in severity. It is estimated there are around 43 newborns are affected by muscular dystrophy each year in Malaysia. The real burden of muscular dystrophy in Malaysia is difficult to estimate, since the epidemiological data for each of muscular dystrophies and even for muscular dystrophies in collective are not available. There are not many researches focusing on muscular dystrophy in Malaysia. The few available researches related to muscular dystrophy in Malaysia are mostly revolving around the medical and genetic science aspects of it, not in the psychology and social sides of the disease.

The personality psychology of Islam stands as an essential feature in the understanding of Islamic psychology. Human being, being physical and metaphysical in nature is certainly a complex creature. It is physical as it involves the study of human being and his personality and metaphysical as it is studying the unseen matters of the person such as his heart, mind, spirit and soul. The study of psychology is a scientific domain that deals with behaviour of a person. Thus, this paper briefly analysed the concept of personality in Islam, the Islamic worldview and its relationship with personality and finally Islamic personality psychology.

The aim of this study was to examine the factorial structure of the Ummatic Personality Inventory. The sample of this study was a group of female students ( n= 287) in a government school. Data was analysed using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling. The findings for the structural model revealed that Fardhu ‘Ain correlated to the Fardhu Kifayah (commitment to Islam). This reflects that Fardhu ‘Ain -closing to God, following the teachings of Prophet Muhammad- is significantly related to Islamic-related activities, more particularly participating in Islamic organization and giving charity. Thus, more efforts should be put on educating the closing to God and following up Prophet, representing Fardhu ‘Ain .