Indian Journal of Positive Psychology

Pages:563-567
Avas Sahu and Kailash B. L. Srivastava (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Kharagpur, WB)

Positive emotions of employees in an organization yield emotional reactions that influence commitment and individual performance, which contributes to organizational performance. This paper has reviewed existing literature in the field of emotions in workplace and identified various antecedent and outcome variables of emotions in organizational settings. A conceptual framework is proposed based on literature review to examine the relationships between the antecedent variables and emotions among employees. The antecedent variables include individual-level (social relations, role characteristics, Big Five personality factors), group-level (leadership, group emotions) and organization-level (HRM practices, organizational culture) variables. Also, consequent effects of emotions on outcome variables (job satisfaction, stress, work motivation, individual performance) have been appropriately established. For academics as well as top management of organizations, it is important to understand emotions of employees working in organizations. The antecedent factors of emotions can be suitably managed to increase positive emotions which will contribute to better organizational performance.

Pages:571-574
Sutriyantono, Thamrin Abdullah and Bibin Rubin (Study Program of Educational Management, School Postgraduate Studies, Pakuan University, Bogor, West Java Province Indonesia)

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers Attitudes, motivation, organizational culture toward performance. The design applied is experiment with proportional random sampling techniques to a sample of 235 respondents. Linear regression analysis was conducted to test the hypothesis. Results emerged that there is a strong linear and significant relationship between all variables tested in the study: teacher's attitudes to their performance Y = 21.821 + 0.883 X1 with a correlation coefficient ry1 of 0.948 and a coefficient of determination ry1² of 0.899, work motivation to teacher performance revealed regression coefficient of Y = 21 585 + 0.913X2 with a correlation coefficient ry2 of 0.941 and coefficient of determination ry2² of 0.886, organizational culture and teacher performance with the regression equation Y = 18.947 + 0.898 X3, with correlation coefficient ry3 of 0.946 and a coefficient of determination ry3² of 0.895. It's concluded that teacher's performance can be improved through attitude modification, work motivation and favorable organizational culture in schools.

Pages:580-583
Sudarshan R. Kottai (Department of Clinical Psychology, LGBR Institute of Mental Health (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India), Tezpur) Surendra Kumar Sia (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)580-583 Sudarshan R. Kottai (Department of Clinical Psychology, LGBR Institute of Mental Health (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India), Tezpur) Surendra Kumar Sia (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)

Police is the first step in the ladder of the criminal justice system who are responsible for upholding the human rights of each and every citizen. Hence, effective policing is imperative for the implementation of law and order and in building up of an institution of justice. Indian policing needs to undergo a sea change in order to redress the grievances of common people in more democratic and humane way without regard to their affiliations and selfish motives.A police officer to be genuine in his conduct should necessarily be a good human being. She/he should a person of ideas, vision and philosophy characterised by a sense of empathy and moral values. A Civilian police officer should be very patient in hearing the complaints of the public and should be able to put his/her into the psychological shoes of another and experience what the client is experiencing to execute positive action. At the same time he should maintain unconditional positive regard towards the perpetrators so that he could act as an instrument of change in the perpetrator in motivating himself towards progressive change. In every organisation the human element is the most pivotal part. For policing to be successful and result-oriented, first of all the personnel's personality features should match with what is demanded by the job rather than modernising it with most modern sophisticated investigative machineries. For this, psychometric testing to assess personality has to be included as part of police selection and training in the field of positive psychology, spirituality, empathy training,counselling skills also should be part of the continuous modernisation programme. The evergrowing science of psychology has to be utilised to make our police the best in the world for Swami Vivekananda said “Psychology is the science of the sciences.”

Pages:588-591
Rumeena Surjit Singh (Department of Psychology, Post Graduate Government College for Girls, Chandigarh)

Adolescence is a developmental period that is filled with many challenges. Early developmental theorists, particularly have defined the period of adolescence as one of identity versus role confusion, in which adolescents must determine who they are, combining their self-understanding and social roles into a coherent identity. However, today'sadolescents live amidst a society that is multi-complex, making the roles of adolescents very diffuse and confusing. This makes it imperative for parents and teachers to rightly assist in equipping children towards making them more efficacious and resilient for a better tomorrow. Taking this backdrop into consideration, the present paper attempts to highlight and discussthe role and contribution of Self-Efficacy and Resilience on adolescents.

Pages:11-16
Kalathananickal Paul Bijimol (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines )

Adolescence is the developmental period of transition from childhood to adulthood and involves biological, cognitive and socio-emotional changes. The reaction and stimulus adolescents receive from parents strongly influence the adolescents' behaviors. Aggression, rule breaking, and self-injurious behaviors are common among adolescents aged 12-16. Enhancing parent-adolescent relationship with secure attachment helps adolescents to reduce risky behaviors. This study is an attempt to develop and assess the effectiveness of Parent-Adolescent Relationship Enhancement Training (PARET) in reducing adolescent risk behaviors by enhancing parent-adolescent relationship between parents and adolescents in Kerala, India. The study was conducted in two phases. Phase1: the development of PARET, and Phase II: the assessment of the effectiveness of the PARET employing a true experimental research method. A total of 40 adolescents and their parents were randomly assigned to both control and experimental groups. The data analysis was done utilizing mean scores, independent sample t- test, paired sample statistics, and Cohen's d. The pre-test and post-test scores of the experimental group showed significant differences (p=0.000) at 0.05 levels and the scores of the control group and experimental groups showed significant differences (p=0.000) in all dependent variables in the post test. The result of the study reveals the effectiveness of the PARET as a significant influence in enhancing parent-adolescent relationship thereby reducing adolescent risk behaviors.

Pages:23-27
Aradhana Sharma (Department of Psychology, DAV College, Sector -10, Chandigarh)

The present study was carried out to examine the relationship of altruism with attachment security among youngsters. Altruism was measured by two methods, viz. a self report measure of altruism (Kool & Sen, 1987) and Peer ratings on altruism. The Kerns Security Scale (Kerns, 1996) was used as a measure of attachment security. The sample consisted of 350 students (175 males and 175 females) within the age group of 17-21 years drawn from various colleges in Chandigarh. The obtained data were subjected to statistical analyses and Product-Moment correlations were calculated between altruism and attachment scores. Multiple regression analyses were also carried out separately with both the measures of Altruism as dependent variables, and Attachment Security scores as the Independent variables. Overall results indicate a significant positive relation between altruism and attachment security.

Pages:33-36
Smruti Deshpande and Shobhana Abhyankar (Department of Psychology, Fergusson College, Pune, Maharashtra)

The present study was conducted to measure the Self Concept and the Emotional Competencies of adolescents who lived in boarding schools and those who lived at home. A sample of 243 adolescents, both male and female, with age ranging from 13 years to 16 years were given Saraswat's Self Concept Questionnaire and Sharma and Bharadwaj's Emotional Competencies test. The Independent-Samples t-test revealed significant differences on some dimensions of self concept and emotional competencies. Day students and boarders differed significantly on adequate depth of feeling (t=2.678, p<.01); former being higher than latter on this dimension of emotional competence. Male and female adolescents differed significantly on social concept (t=2.28, p<.05), educational self concept (t=2.28, p<.05), and also on adequate expression and control of emotions (t=2.10, p<.05), and ability to function with emotions (t=1.95, p<.05); boys scored higher than girls. The results are discussed in the light of recent findings and schooling methods.

Pages:41-45
Jwmwishree Boro and D. Dhanalakshmi (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)

The objective of this study was to examine the relationship among life stress, optimism and life satisfaction among adolescents. A sample of 145 high school students (78 male and 67 female) were randomly selected from the school for current study. The participants were given three standardized questionnaires to assess their levels of life stress, optimism and life satisfaction. The scales used for the current study were Students Stress Inventory by Gadzella, Revised Life Orientation Test by Scheier, Carver and Bridges, Multidimensional Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (MSLSS) by Scott Huebner. Pearson's correlational analysis and t-test were carried out to assess the relationship among life stress, optimism and life satisfaction, and to examine the gender differences. The study found significant positive correlation between optimism and life satisfaction and it also found that girls experienced higher level of life satisfaction when compared to boys and that boys experienced a high level of pressure, a dimension of life stress, when compared to girls. Some kind of counseling program can be designed to improve life satisfaction and reduce pressure among boys and as well as for their family

Pages:51-54
Kaehalee Ghorpade and Shobhana Abhyankar (Department of Psychology, Fergusson College, Pune, Maharashtra)

Obesity was recently deemed a disease by the American Medical Association. This chronic disease has established its roots in India and the incidence and prevalence of Obesity and its related diseases is at an all-time high. As per the Times of India Report in 2009, nearly 55 million of the Indian population is obese. Bariatric Surgery, evaluated as the best treatment option for morbid obesity is growing in popularity. Bariatric surgery involves an anatomical modification of the gastro-intestinal tracts; as a result the post-surgery treatment is chronic involving the patient to incorporate several behavioural modifications. The long-term follow-up makes adherence a vital issue in the bariatric patient population. The researchers sought to identify certain positive personality correlates of good treatment adherence in post-surgery bariatric patients. Thirty one patients scheduled for surgery at different times, were given a pre-operative test packet during which they were assessed on their levels of Perceived Competence for adhering to the treatment, Dispositional Optimism regarding a general expectancy of future outcomes, Internal Reasons of Motivation for choosing the treatment program, and Autonomous Self Regulation of Health Behaviours. At the 15 day follow up when the first diet change would be made, the patients were assessed for the level of treatment adherence as rated by the doctor. It was found that Perceived Competence was positively correlated with Treatment Adherence (r = 0.56, p < 0.01). However, Optimism (r = 0. 25, p > .05), Internal Reasons of Motivation for choosing the treatment (r = 0.12, p > .05), and Autonomous Regulation of health behaviour (r = 0.24, p > .05) showed an insignificant correlation with Treatment Adherence. Relative Autonomy Index (RAI) was calculated by subtracting controlled regulation from autonomous self-regulation. RAI was positively correlated with Treatment Adherence (r = 0.42 p < 0.05). This implies that autonomous regulation rather than controlled regulation is strongly implicated in post-surgery bariatric surgery treatment adherence. The results also show that being optimistic and having internal reasons for motivation are not implicated in adherence; perceived competence in one's ability to follow treatment and autonomous self-regulation of one's own health behaviours also needs to be cultivated in a chronic treatment regimen such as this. This gives us a guideline for pre and post-surgery psychological assessment and counselling of bariatric patients to increase adherence and in-turn reduce complications in order eventually to give desired results of the surgical treatment.

Pages:60-65
Sandhya Ghai, Monika Dutta and Aarti Garg (National Institute of Nursing Education, PGIMER, Chandigarh )

Stress in nursing is inherent. Continuous and prolonged exposure to stress among nursing students can affect their academic as well as clinical performance. Stress is hazardous as it results in impaired body functions. Nursing students as part of health care system needs to be in optimum state of health in all dimensions (physical, psychological, social, spiritual and economical) to provide high quality care to the patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perception level of stress and sources of stress among undergraduate nursing students. Coping behaviours of these students were also explored. The study was carried out in National Institute of Nursing Education, PGIMER, Chandigarh. Cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted in this study. Sample size consisted of 221 nursing students. Data were obtained using questionnaire method including Sociodemographic profile sheet, Perceived stress scale, stressor check list. Results revealed that no student was free from stress only the degrees of stress varied from individual to individual. Maximum students had low and moderate level of stress. Only 5 (2.3%) students had severe level of stress. Maximum mean stress score was for 2nd and 3rd year students of B.Sc. nursing (4 years) course. Main stressors in this study were clinical and academics related i.e. performing nursing procedures in front of teacher, increased classroom workload, fear of making mistakes in clinical area, poor performance in examination, fear of catching nosocomial infection. Few stressors were in other categories like personal problems, environmental issues and relationship issues. Positive as well as negative coping strategies were used by students to deal with the stressors. On the basis of sociodegraphic characteristics no significant difference was observed in the stress level.