Indian Journal of Positive Psychology

Pages:169-173
Nancy George and Lucilla O. Bance (Department of Clinical Psychology, Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Any traumatic experience can leave a devastating and lasting impact on one's life. And this is more true with childhood sexual abuse (CSA), if the trauma goes unattended. It will negatively affect the physical, psychological, social, and spiritual behavior of the victim in the daily life. But there is also another side to this trauma. It can cause positive changes or post traumatic growth (PTG) and this research focuses on this aspect. Among the many different factors that contribute to PTG, coping strategies play a predominant role to play. Realizing the need to enhance effective coping strategies for PTG, the researchers have developed a Growth Focused Intervention Program (GFIP). The GFIP is based on the integrated concepts of Cognitive Model, Adaptive Information Processing Theory, and the Theory of Meaning. The program was evaluated by seven experts from the field of mental health and a feasibility test was conducted among eight female young adult victims of CSA, having low level of coping capacities and less post traumatic growth. The program yielded good results in the participants, having an increased level of coping strategies and more enhanced post traumatic growth.

Pages:178-181
Sally Davis and Joy R. Tungol (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Losing a loved one is one of the most agonizing and distressful faces of one's life. Although loss is a universal experience, there are a number of adolescents in Kerala India who think that it is increasingly harder to adapt to the loss of a parent. The purpose of this study is to develop an intervention, Transactional Model of Acceptance Art Therapy (TAAT) for parentally bereaved female adolescents who are having psychological distress. The results of the pilot study displayed a significantly lower level of psychological distress among the participants. It is assumed that the proposed intervention may help the bereaved adolescents to explore the traumatic experiences focussing on the positive aspects of life.

Pages:192-200
V. Neethu Lal and C. Jayan (Department of Psychology, University of Calicut, Calicut, Kerala)

Mindfulness has been conceptualized as “bringing one's complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis” and as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally. Mindfulness has become a focus of research interest in the health sciences. However there is a gap in the literature on a comprehensive review which studies different correlates of dispositional mindfulness. This article review 31studies on correlates of dispositional mindfulness. On the basis of selected articles three broad categories of discussion have been conducted such as the role of dispositional mindfulness as a protective factor in the development of different psychopathological conditions, dispositional mindfulness as a correlate of different psychological functions and finally dispositional mindfulness and it's biological correlates. Different facets of dispositional mindfulness along with possible mechanisms also been discussed.

Pages:206-210
Nidhi Marothiya, Sarita Saini, and DeepikaVig (Department of Human Development and Family Studies, College of Community Science, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab)

Cases related to child abuse and exploitations of child rights are major public concerns nowadays. Despite having plenty of implementation for the welfare of children in India the condition of children is still worse. The school is a major social institution responsible for socializing the child and teachers are in unique position to safeguard children due to their daily contact with children. The study was initiated to identify the awareness level of teachers regarding Child Rights and Protection in Ludhiana district of Punjab. Total 120 teachers from primary section of schools were selected as a sample of the study. A self-structured 'Child Rights and Protection' Checklist was used to collect the requisite data. Analysis of results revealed that majority of teachers were quite aware about the basic child rights as per the Indian Constitution but the awareness regarding UNCRC (1989); POCSO Act (2012); and JJ Act (2015) was found to be very poor among teachers. Further, the locale-wise differences among teachers regarding basic child rights revealed that urban teachers were significantly better aware than rural teachers but, no significant differences were observed with regards to (UNCRC, 1989) as well as the (JJ Act, 2015). However, contrasting to the other finding of this study it was found that rural teachers were significantly more knowledgeable than their urban counterparts regarding some of the provisions under the (POCSO Act, 2012). The correlation analysis of awareness level of teachers with their socio-personal characteristics revealed a statistically non-significant relationship between the variables.

Pages:215-224
Dwarka Pershad, Neha Jain, and Parul Gupta (Department of Psychiatry, Maharishi Markandeshwar Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Mullana, Ambala, Haryana)

There was a felt need for developing easy, affordable, accessible and transparent method of non-pharmaceutical nature for academic, personality, adjustment and emotional problems arising out of modernization and taking a gigantic shape day by day causing wastage of manpower. Hundreds of universities and institutes were producing a force of large number of councillors to meet the challenges. The methods taught to these prospective counsellors were from Western books based on dynamic model, to promote self (a western-self). A newer behaviour modification technique based on 'we-self' (family- self) configured with narcissistic tendency of the parents was developed to match with our cultural heritage. It included rescheduling of a number of routine activities of the client by the therapist, to be carried out by the subject while parents assuming the role of co-therapist in the process. It required history taking of activity client had been performing, availability of parental time at home and constellation of family. In this process subject is allotted certain activities to be carried by him to discipline his wondering mind and parents interacts with subject with smiling face, without showing anger or anguish in non-critical and non-argumentative mode with subject as a co-therapist. This process, promotes the acceptance of each other, perpetuating family-self thus improvement with practice was assured to come. Empirically this method of treatment had been found better than any other conventional methods with acceptance by the authoritarian figure of the family.

Pages:230-234
Rupal Hooda, Sudesh Gandhi, and Manju Mehta (Department of Family Resource Management, COHS, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana)

Ageing is a universal process and it does not occur at a uniform age or rate. Due to longer life expectancy and decline in fertility rate, proportion of people above 60 years of age is growing much faster than any other age bracket in most of the countries. A study was conducted on 100 elderly people of Hisar district of Haryana state those were living independently. It was reported that half of the respondents (51.0%) were in age group of 70-80 year and 38.0 percent of respondents were secondary pass followed by graduate and post graduate (32.0%). Most of them were (99.0%) from general caste, married (74.0%) followed by widow and widower (13.0% each). Data revealed from Activity profile of elderly (IADL scale) showed that nearly three fifth of the respondents (59.0%) were in the high category of the IADL scale followed by medium category (40.0%) and low category (1.0%).

Pages:244-251
S.K. Sahanowas (Department of Education, Narayangarh Govt. College, Rathipur, West Bengal)
Santoshi Halder (Department of Education, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal)

Resilience is important for undergraduate students. Students' families primarily protect them from adversity and provide social supports which in turn help in promoting resilience. However there is a lack of study about the effect of self-perceived family functioning on psychological resilience from Indian cultural perspective which was proposed in the present research. Psychological resilience and self-perceived family functioning were measured on 490 1st year undergraduates students (age 18 to 21; M=18.97, SD= .83) employing Connor-Devidson resilience scale (2003) and Family Assessment Device (FAD), by Epstein, Baldwin, and Bishop (1983). Regression prediction reported that self-perceived family functioning in terms of problem solving and roles significantly predicted the resilience with 10.8% variance. Others factors, i.e., communication, affective responsiveness, affective involvement, behaviour control, even general family functioning were not found to be significant to predict resilience. The study will be helpful to understand resilience of a particular population of 1st year undergraduate students with respect to their family functioning.

Pages:256-259
Sorayya Asiri Sorkhehei and Aminallah Fazel (Department of Psychology, Arsanjan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Arsanjan, Iran)

The purpose of this study was to predict occupational burnout for coping strategies and personality traits in the principals and vice presidents of district 5 of Tehran. The statistical population of this study consisted of all principals and directors of district 5 of Tehran city in 1996. In this research, 100 people were selected by multistage cluster sampling according to the framework of statistical society. A questionnaire was used to collect data. The questionnaire consisted of 5 person factors, a burnout questionnaire, and coping strategies questionnaire. Validity of the questionnaires was verified using content validity and reliability through Cronbach's alpha. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation and multivariate regression were used to analyze the data. The results showed that, one of the components of coping strategies, the component of acceptance of responsibility, can be positive and exhaust-avoidance component of burnout can predict job burnout negatively. Meanwhile, acceptance of liability has been more powerful. 2- From the components of personality traits, extroversion and conscientiousness can predict job burnout negatively; conscientiousness has been a stronger predictor.

Pages:267-271
Rekha Johny Neelankavil and Rosalito De Guzman (The Graduate School, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, Philippines)

Alcohol addiction is a family ailment that strains the family to that extreme point of family break up and affects negatively the growth of family life. It also affects negatively psychological and physical health. It destabilizes family income, oneness among the family members and the family dynamics. Women are worried and affected by their partner's drinking. The negative effect of alcohol destroys the wives of alcoholics, as it to the alcohol addicts. Various stressful experiences due to partner's alcoholism are reflected in the form of psychological problems especially the depressive symptoms among wives of alcoholics. The negative emotional state and thought patterns force them to perceive the life experience as more stressful. This makes a marked effect on their physical, psychological, marital and social life. Recognizing the need to help the wives of alcoholics who have the perceived stress and depressive symptoms, the researcher developed Cognitive based Acceptance Program (CAP) integrating Transactional Cognitive appraisal theory, Stress buffering model and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) model. The program was evaluated by six inter-disciplinary experts. After words, a feasibility test was conducted with ten wives of alcoholics who have high perceived stress and moderate depressive symptoms. The intervention was positively accepted by the wives of alcoholics and the results of the pilot study revealed a significant decrease in perceived stress and depressive symptoms among the participants.

Pages:278-283
Shailendra Kumar Mishra (Provincial Civil Servant in India, Founder of Mission Chetna, New York)

Hitherto, psychologist have achieved many success in the treatment of various mental diseases by using psychological principles of ''counter conditioning'' and ''desensitization''. This research indicates a new process of removing the inability of physically disabled people through the use of the principles of counter conditioning and systematic desensitization. In fact, due to physical disability, lack of sense organ or body part, low-cognitive map of ability i.e. in form of ''cognitive inability'' is conditioned with every challenges or opportunity or task coming in way of their life day to day. This is due to the fact that people with disabilities often receive negative remarks by the society related to their body and ability which leads to the development of low self-esteem as suggested by Bandura and Woods (1989) i.e., their low perceived self-belief lowered their perceived self-efficiency, hence , low cognitive map of their ability (World Health Organization). From the rating of the research questionnaire put before 60 sample of disabled people from same social , economic background, there was found a low cognitive map of ability in them. On the other hand, when the same questionnaire are rated on 60 sample of physically normal people from the same social & economic background, the said cognitive inability was found negligible in them. But when we have done skill training of that group of disabled persons gradually and systematically, their low cognitive map of ability has been desensitized with new challenges, opportunities of their lives and then a '' cognitive map of ability '' is counter conditioned in place of low cognitive map or inability as results are seen. Actually the gap between the level of ''apparent ability'' and ''real ability'' of disabled person, which is more than that, can be filled by a process of systematic and gradual skill training as many psychologists like Compton and Logan (1991) has found in their studies that with practicing any skill response time of a stimuli will become quick. This is actually ''cognitive inability illusions'' developed as conditioned response against new challenges, tasks or opportunities in way of his life. Learning of new skill reciprocally inhibit to CR (conditioned response) in form of ''cognitive map of inability'' and this, in turn, change the cognitive map of inability in to self-confidence in his ability, i.e., cognitive map of ability as conditioned response are counter conditioned. We have also measured the ''apparent ability'' and ''real ability'' of persons with disabilities in form of self-estimation of ability in order of increasing level of challenges or tasks gradually given to them, before and after gradual skill trainings. The most important aspect of this study along with its educational, social and policy making importance, is that we can eradicate ''inability illusions'' or change cognitive map of inability of disabled people by facilitating a systematic and gradual skill training programme to them according to their interest and hence achieve their potential ability in behaviour.