Indian Journal of Positive Psychology

Pages:169-172
Komal Chandiramani (Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

Trauma is one of the most significant and unavoidable outcomes of a violent conflict. One such trauma in a conflict zone that may have multiple impacts on the mental, social and emotional functioning of the individual is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is an abuse of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Following a trauma such as sexual assault, an individual is confronted with extreme stress that requires coping with a new, unexpected, and unfamiliar situation. Positive psychological changes like resilience and spirituality help the rape victim to redefine self. So, the objective of the present study was to compare sexually abused victims and non abused individuals on the measures of resilience with its subtypes, spirituality and to examine their relationship. It was hypothesized that there would be a significant relation among the measures of resilient with its subtypes and spirituality among female trauma victims with sexual assault and non-abused individuals. The sample consisted of 60 adult females out of which 30 were sexually abused and rest 30 did not report any incident of sexual abuse. The Spirituality and Resilience Assessment Packet by Kass (2000) was administered on both the groups and a two group design was incorporated to meet the objectives. The results revealed significant difference between the two groups indicating that the mean scores of sexually abused group were higher as compared to non abused group. Also significant correlations were found between the various types of resilience and spirituality indicating difference between means for both the groups. Hence, it can be concluded that an increase in these factors were associated with increases in self-reported positive life changes over time. Further research on related topics, based on the findings of the present and other studies, will undoubtedly advance our understanding of the positive psychological changes following sexual abuse.

Pages:178-182
Suvashisa Rana, Meera Padhy, Ruth Angiel Padiri, Durgesh Nandinee and Kallavarappu Vincent (Centre for Health Psychology, University of Hyderabad, Central University, Gachibowli, Hyderabad)

This theoretical paper highlights how story plays a multi-faceted positive role on the developmental process of the child. Listening, reading and writing stories foster child's perception, memory, thinking, language, intelligence, feeling and emotion. Piaget and Kolhberg have used story to find out the aspects of moral development. Through stories the child also learns to communicate effectively and strengthens interpersonal relationships. By listening and reading stories about great personalities, the child involves in role-taking behavior where he/she puts him/herself into another person's (role-model) position and imagines how that person thinks, feels and behaves. Stories are also used for therapeutic purposes for all age groups. Widely accepted projective tests, like Children's Apperception Test, Thematic Apperception Test, analyse an individual's personality through stories. There are many indigenous examples, where we find the relevance of story and parables in shaping the behavior of the child and the overall development of personality. Story, as an aid to positive child development, has a wide implication for the physical, psychological, social, moral and spiritual development, not only during childhood, but also its ripple-effect could be observed during later phases of life.

Pages:187-191
Divya Raina (Pacific University, Udaipur, Rajasthan) Geeta Balodi (M.K.P(P.G) College, Dehradun, Uttarakhand)

Since the 1970's, meditation and other stress-reduction techniques have been studied as possible treatments for depression and anxiety. One such practice, yoga, has received less attention in the medical literature, though it has become increasingly popular in recent decades. Yoga in today's time has been recognized as the best possible approach towards stress reduction and as personality enhancement technique. Today the medical sciences too have recognized its importance and recommend the same in as practices for healthy lifestyle. The present study was conducted on 100 school going girls of Dehradun state of Uttarakhand, India, between the age group of 16-17yrs. Pre and Post-test were conducted on the students using an adjustment inventory and battery of stress scales measuring areas like academic, institutional, self- concept etc. After the pre testing conditions students were exposed to a well-designed three months yoga training sessions for stress reduction employing relaxation techniques and exercises after which the post-test was conducted. The study revealed mean adjustment levels going high in the categories of excellent and good on the scale after the training, while also moving from high stress to low stress in various stress areas as measured. Thus the study reveals the crippling effect of the increasing everyday stress which can easily be eradicated from our lives through simple and inexpensive approach of moving towards yoga.

Pages:196-198
Anjana S. Chauhan and Gandharva R. Joshi (Department of Psychology, Saurashtra University, Rajkot, Gujrat)

In the present study an attempt has been made to study the effect of Gender, Educational stream and type of family of college students on their self disclosure. In order to pursue above objective Virendra Sinha's Self-Disclosure Inventory was used to collect data. The sample considered of 150 (75 male/75 female) College students selected from various colleges. 25 students were those who have Arts Stream 25 students were those who have commerce stream and 25 students were those who have science stream. Data were analyzed by 2X3 ANOVA, L.S.D. and t- test. Findings of the study revealed that there is no significant difference between self disclosure of male and female students. However there is significant difference found between educational stream on self disclosure of students as well as type of family and self disclosure of college students.

Pages:209-212
Shaheena Parveen and M. Shafiq (Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi)

In the last few decades, researchers have reiterated the importance of emotional intelligence as an imperative predictor of success at the academic, interpersonal, professional, and organizational levels. The scrutiny of this relationship has also been extended to the outcomes in domains of counseling and psychotherapy. However, further research must be conducted to accumulate evidence for such a relationship and decipher the mechanisms underlying it. Like self-awareness, emotional intelligence of a counselor or a psychotherapist has been regarded as an important dimension for a successful counseling process. Numerous empirical studies conducted in the West have examined the role of emotional intelligence in predicting the outcomes of counseling and psychotherapy in different settings. It has been found, for example, that emotional intelligence factors successfully predict counseling self-efficacy of both counseling students and practicing counselors. The objective of the present paper is to provide a review of the theoretical perspectives and empirical studies, which have been carried out worldwide, outlaying the importance of emotional intelligence in the fields of counseling and psychotherapy. In addition, the need for carrying out such studies in the Indian context along with their implications has also been discussed.

Pages:231-235
Maryam Talebi (Family Institute, Shahid Beheshti, University, G.C., Tehran, Iran) Hasan Rezai (Psychology, Instructor in Payam Noor University, Iran) Ahmad Aramoun (Educational Psychology, Allameh Tabatabai University) Afsaneh Darabi (Clinical Psychology, Allameh Tabatabai University) Yaghub Gharloghi (Educational Science, Allameh Tabatabai University) Seyed Ahmad Hal Ataee (Master of Education, Allameh Tabatabai University)

The purpose of the current study was to analyze the relationship between happiness and personality type with perfectionism in Tehran university students. 400 students (200 boys, 200 girls) were selected by random sampling method. The subjects completed Oxford Happiness Questionnaire, NEO-FFI personality questionnaire and Ahwaz perfectionism scale. The data were analyzed using statistical indicators such as mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regression analysis. It was found that there exists a significant inverse relationship between student's happiness and perfectionism and also a positive significant relationship between neuroticism and perfectionism among all personality factors. Other personality factors including extroversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness were in a significant inverse relationship with perfectionism. It was concluded that, the more a student has perfectionism and ambitious expectations regardless of his or her abilities, the more anxiety and the less happiness he or she would have.

Pages:245-249
Roopa Mathur and Swati Sharma (Department of Psychology, The IIS University, Jaipur, Rajasthan)

College life is a transitional period which offers challenges and opportunities for cementing healthy lifestyle behaviour in students. The transition that young people make between school and university is for many an exciting, yet challenging time. These challenges may enhance or deteriorate their well-being depending on individual character strengths. The present study was designed on correlation pattern to appraise the contribution of positive concomitant factors, mindfulness and wisdom to the well-being of first year college students. Linear regression analysis was conducted to find contribution of these variables in predicting well-being. The sample of the study consisted of hundred first year students (male and female) of various faculties from different colleges. The scales used for assessment were General Well-Being Scale (Dupuy, 1978), Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (Brown, & Ryan, 2003) and 3-D Wisdom Scale (Ardelt, 2003). The results of correlation analysis showed that there exist a significant positive correlation of mindfulness (r = 0.445) and wisdom (r = 0.313) with well-being. Evaluation of regression analysis showed that reflective dimension of wisdom and mindfulness are good predictors of well-being. Further research is required for detailed and widespread investigation of practical implication of results of the study.

Pages:255-259
Himani Anand (Dayalbagh Educational Institute, (D.E.I), Agra, UP)

Consciousness is one's awareness of mental activities and processes going on in one's mind at any given moment, as well as one's awareness of objects and events in the external world. It includes awareness of sensations, perceptions, thoughts, feelings and memories. Meditation is a process of employing mental exercises to achieve a highly focused state of consciousness. It is a Vedic exercise which can be used as a powerful instrument to restrain sense organs, control autonomic nervous system and also to attain higher state of consciousness. Through meditation a person is expected to get mental peace. Electroencephalograph (EEG) and Galvanic skin Response (GSR) can be used as indicator of an alteration in an individual's state of consciousness. So the present researcher was interested in investigating the effect of meditation (Om Chanting) on EEG and GSR, an altered state of consciousness, under scientifically controlled conditions. This experimental research measures the effects of Meditation (Om Chanting) on EEG and GSR of female university students (graduates and post graduates). The sample consisted of 20 subjects in the age range of 18 to 24 years through purposive sampling technique. The daily practice time of Meditation session was 20 minutes for one month. Pre test- Post test data was recorded before and after intervention of Meditation session by using single group pre-post research design. Recordings of Electroencephalograph (EEG) and Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) were made on a computerized polygraph (Model Physiopac, PP 4, Medicaid Systems, Chandigarh, India) test. To test the significance of difference between means of pre test and post test scores of alpha EEG and between means of pre test and post test of GSR scores t test was applied. Results showed that mean score of alpha EEG for pretest is 10.41 and for posttest is 11.63. Similarly, for GSR mean score of pretest is 580.72 and for posttest is 700.78. Obtained t value for alpha EEG is 5.08 which is significant at .01 level and for GSR t value is 3.16 which is also significant at .01 level. The present study revealed a significant increase in Alpha EEG and GSR values as an effect of meditation which suggests the positive effect of psychophysiological relaxation. Increase in Alpha EEG and GSR values show the relaxation and decrease in stress level. It gives a stable and consistent measure of the involvement of the subjects. Alpha EEG and GSR also indicate the level of concentration during the practice of meditation. Today, meditation is a form of relaxation and a means of alleviating stress in our everyday lives.