Indian Journal of Positive Psychology

Pages:119-123
Dolly Jose and Padmakumari. P. (Department of Psychology, Christ University, Bangalore, Karnataka)

Psychotherapy is a clinical tool which deals with problems while character strength development therapy is a pedagogical tool which deals with the mystery of the person. The goal of character strength development therapy is to help the person to internalise the 24 character strengths defined by Seligman and Peterson (2004). The techniques used in character strength development therapy are attentive listening, clarification, confrontation, interpretation and working through. In character strength development therapy the process includes that recreate a situation whereby the person can reread the life experiences, reinterpret it and 'working through' the new insights. In the initial phase, an assessment, which helps both client and therapist to prepare a frame work for character strength development therapy, has to be done. The goal of middle phase is to provide deep insight and understanding on their strength use, help them to realise the unrealised strengths and maximise it, and thus moderate the use of learned inappropriate behaviours as well as learn to handle cautiously the weaknesses. The present paper provides a conceptual frame work for character strength development therapy.

Pages:127-130
Aroonmalini Boruah (Centre for Studies in Behavioral Science (Applied Psychology), Dibrugarh University, Dibrugarh, Assam)

This paper is a view to understand how positive peer pressure can be instrumental towards promoting healthy social and emotional developments in adolescents, define the extent to which positive peer pressure is associated with healthy behaviour and emotional well-being and identifying different ways by which positive behaviour is encouraged by peer pressure. Peers play a very important role in the overall social and emotional development of children and adolescents. Peer pressure is a very common phenomenon that most of us are familiar with. Peer pressure often appears to be negative, but not necessarily. When one's peer influences an individual to think and act in ways that changes an individual's thoughts, actions and lifestyle for better, it is called positive peer pressure. There is a huge pool of research on the negative influences of peer pressure; however, the extent of literature on positive peer pressure is quite limited even though it has potential for positive development. Research paper published between January 2000 to December 2015 has been taken from Jstor & Google scholar and 12 relevant articles were selected for review. The present study throws light at the fact that peer pressure can exert positive influences in the development of individuals, especially during adolescence when peer acceptance becomes an integral goal of their lives Hence, by paying equal attention to the positive aspects of peer pressure in addition to the negative aspects we will able to explain how positive peer pressure can be influential in their overall social and emotional development.

Pages:135-137
Susan Thomas (St. Johns Research Institute, St. Johns National, Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, Karnataka) Shobini L. Rao (Department of Clinical Psychology, National Institute of Mental, Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, Karnataka)

Science and spirituality have been viewed as two different entities, completely different from each other. However with the advent of new technologies, cognitive neuroscientists have been trying to understand meditation and consciousness. The most prominent techniques used include neuropsychological assessment, electro encephalography and functional magnetic resonance imaging. Research has been encouraging in terms of being able to observe brain changes using a pre-post method or observational method. Scientists and meditators should come together and have a common language to be able to define the concepts in a mutually acceptable way and have techniques that are acceptable to both groups to study meditation and consciousness.

Pages:141-143
Liyaqat Bashir and Hilal Bashir (Department of Education, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab )

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between educational aspiration of the secondary school students with parental encouragement and to find out the difference in educational aspiration and parental encouragement of secondary school students on the basis of gender. This study was conducted on a sample of 400 students studying in secondary schools of Kashmir division. Level of Educational Aspiration test standardized by Yashmin Ghani Khan(2011) and Parental Encouragement scale standardized by R.R. Sharma (2010) was administered to collect the data. In order to find out the difference ineducational aspiration and parental encouragement of the secondary school students on the basis of gender, t- test was used and to find out the relationship between educational aspiration of secondary school students with parental encouragement, Pearson's coefficient of correlation was used. The result shows that there exists no significant difference between male and female secondary school students in their educational aspiration and parental encouragement. Further the results indicate that there exists a positive significant relationship between educational aspiration of secondary school students with parental encouragement.

Pages:147-151
Semra Aksoy (Department of Educational Administration and Supervision, Gaziantep University, Turkey) HabibÖzgan (Department of Education and Social Sciences Gaziantep University, Turkey)

The field of education, which is one of the most important areas of our developing country, needs to be developed and renewed both technologically and organizational side. Scientists, from all over the world, have become pioneers in the field of education with their new, developing and renewing knowledge. One of the famous scientists, Luthanshas come up with an idea named 'Psychological Capital'.This subject has become one of the most important subjects that have been searched for more than thirteen years in the education world. As it is known, the most important component in education is teacher and one of the factors that influence the teachers' guality of work is their psychological capital. Psychological capital indicates that if a man's psychology is directed in a positive way he can manage lots of things and when he acrosses with a difficulty, he can handle it easily. The aim of this research is to develop a scale that measures the psychological capitals of the teachers and to demonstrate their psychological capital perceptions. This research is a descriptive research. The sample of the research is constituted by surveying 315 teachers.The samples were chosen randomly. In order to develop the scale exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis was done. In consequence of this research the perception psychological capital of the teachers were specified. After that the results were argued within the frame of related subject. In the education year of 2013-2014, ın the city of Gaziantep the total 315 teachers from public schools were sampled for the study. In order to develop the scale, firstly related literature was scanned and an item pool was constituted. Then a draft form consisting 58 items was formed. After having taken experts' view and having made required arrangements, the draft form was applied preliminarily. Following to that, the analysis of reliability and validity was done and the items whose item total statistics value is below 0.50 were excluded. So 25 items were left for the scale. As a result of validity analysis, for the explanatory factor analysis, the scale's KMO value is .093,3, Barlett test is .00 (p<.01) and the total explained variance is %53.3. The subscales of the scale are determined as hopeness, optimism, psychological stability. These subscales are found to be consistent with the literature. As a result of confirmatory factor analysis, model's fit index obtained via DFA was examined and Chi-square value (x2=913.92, N= 308, sd=354, p=0.00) is observed to be significant. Fit index values are; RMSEA; 0.074, SRMR; 0.13, GFI; 0.81, AGFI; 0.77, CFI; 0.96, IFI; 0.94, NFI; 0.094; x2/df = 2.56. These values show that the scale is a good model. For the realibility of the scale of whose internal consistency was analyzed, Cronbach Alpha value is estimated to be 0.93. When analyzed as subscales, whole subscales values were above .70. As a result, a reliable and valid scale with 3 subscales consisting total 25 items has been obtained

Pages:159-165
Suma Raju (JSS Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru, Karnataka) Nuggehalli Puttaveeraiah Nataraja (Director, JSS, Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysuru, Karnataka)

Bilingual and multilingual language acquisition may affect language and cognitive skills of children. Present study investigated the executive loaded working memory skills in Kannada-English bilingual children. The study compared verbal and visuo-spatial working memory skills between mono and bilinguals of two different age groups. A total of 120 monolingual and 120 bilingual children participated in the study. Results of the study found that bilinguals perform better than monolinguals on two different working memory tasks considered in both age groups.

Pages:172-175
Ranjan Pattnaik, Rabindra Kumar Pradhan and Lalatendu Kesari Jena (Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur)

Security personnel associated with risk taking jobs are prone to anxiety and stress that far outweighs employees in other job sectors. Earlier studies show that anxiety and other stress related emotions often affect the performance of security persons. Keeping this in mind, the present study was designed to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence and anxiety of security personnel. Data were collected from 104 security personnel randomly selected from a nationally reputed academic institute located in Eastern India. Test of emotional intelligence and anxiety were used for data collection. The study reported a statistically significant and inverse-relationship between emotional intelligence and anxiety. The study proposes some of the possible coping strategies for security personnel while dealing with anxiety. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed along with its scope for future research.

Pages:181-186
Fareeda Shaheen (Department of Psychology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh)

Purpose of the present investigation was to study the spirituality and social support in relation to depression among adolescents. The sample comprised of 150 (75 male & 75 female) undergraduate students of Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh. Spirituality Scale (Biswas & Biswas, 2006) was used for measuring spirituality, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS) (Zimet, Dahlem, Zimet, & Farley, 1988) was used for measuring social support and Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition (BDI-II, 1996) was used for measuring depression of students. Pearson Product-Moment Correlation and t-test were used for analyzing the data by SPSS 16 software. Result showed that there was significant negative correlation between spirituality and depression. Result also revealed that there was significant negative correlation between social support and depression. When gender differences was conducted on same sample, it was found that female students scored significantly higher on spirituality in comparison to male students. Further, it was also found that female students scored significantly higher on two dimensions of social support (i.e., significant others support and family support) in comparison to male students. While male students scored significantly higher on one dimension of social support (i.e. friends support) in comparison to female students. Results also showed that female students scored significantly higher on global social support in comparison to male students. Further it was also found that male students scored significantly higher on depression as compared to female students.

Pages:192-195
Seema Garg (Desh Bhagat University, Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab) Agya Jit Singh (Former Head (Retd.) Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala)

The main purpose of the study was to find out the gender, location and type of school differences on self efficacy of high school students. For measuring self efficacy of the students self confidence Inventory devised by Rekha Agnihotri was administrated to 400 high school students. The results of the study show that Males and females do not differ on self-confidence where as the students of the rural school and urban schools as well as Govt. and private school have significant differences. Urban school and private school students have higher level of self-confidence as compared to their counterparts.

Pages:201-205
Monica Sharma and Divyanshi Garg (Department of Psychology, IIS University, Jaipur, Rajasthan)

Positive psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the processes which contributes to the optimal functioning of the individuals, therefore leading to a happier and a content life. The discipline of psychology has always focused on the illnesses and how to fix them. The sphere of positive psychology, thus, needs to explore the domain of optimal human functioning and welfare. The future of positive psychology needs to delineate the conditions which may lead to the eminence of the quality and stability of life for various groups and individuals. College is a transition for a student from their comfort zones to the more competitive world. The need to prove their excellence can trigger deterioration in the attributes affecting their overall subjective perception of their life. Positive psychology emphasizing on the students' efforts, achievements and strengths in the classroom can aid their performance in the best possible way. As guided by positive psychology, this study utilizes a correlation research designs to explore the relationship between Personal Growth and Curiosity, Gratitude, Hope. Participants were 100 College Girls who completed a questionnaire package that included Personal Growth Initiative Scale (PGIS) (Robitschek, 1998), Gratitude Questionnaire (McCullough,Emmons &Tsang, 2002), Adult Hope Scale (AHS) (Snyder et al., 1991) and Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II (CET-II) (T.B. Kashdan et al., 2004).