Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 227-229
Ashima Soni (Department of Psychology, Panjab University, Chandigarh)

Organizational commitment has been extensively attracting the attention of organizational behavior researchers in the recent years. In the context of organizations, commitment is normally understood as different ways to commit oneself to an organization of which one is a member. Commitment is also considered as willingness to exert high levels of efforts on behalf of the organization and have a definite belief in, and acceptance of, the values and goals of the organization. The present study examined organizational commitment of employees in relation to intelligence, self esteem and locus of control. A sample of 50 employees was randomly drawn from a government bank in Chandigarh, India. The sample consisted of persons working at different levels of hierarchy within the organization, with the senior most respondent being a regional manager. The tools comprised of Organizational Commitment Questionnaire developed by Mowday, Steers and Porter (1982), Jalota's General Mental Ability Test (1964), Self Esteem Inventory by Coopersmith (1981) and Rotter's Locus of Control Scale (1966).The results, analyzed using product moment correlation revealed that there was a significant and positive relationship between organizational commitment and intelligence of bank employees. In other words, higher the intelligence more was the individual's identification and involvement with the organization. However, no significant differences were reported with regards to self esteem and locus of control scale .Implications are related to the latest research findings on the plasticity of human intelligence in adulthood and thereby the need to provide continual enriching and stimulating training programs for employees in order to reinforce their productivity and commitment levels.

Pages: 234-236
Nanika Singh (Reiki Grandmaster, Mohali, Punjab)

In today's fast paced world, on the one hand children are being constantly bombarded with new and dynamic opportunities and on the other hand they are being subjugated and victimized by high risk factors such as poverty, drug abuse, sexual activity, disrupted home environment, being left alone at home for hours, which are posing serious questions as to whether, how much and to what degree will children be able to remain resilient students. Researches document that educational resilience can be promoted by establishing protective factors both in their home and school environment. This can be done through School- Family- Community Partnership Programs and Educational Enrichment Programs, contributing towards their holistic growth and development. This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of the same.

Pages: 269-272
Kassim Kimo Kebelo (Adama University, Ethiopia, Africa)

Risk is the uncertain degree to which one might be exposed to an undesirable consequence. Associated with risk are several paradoxes. It is part of human nature to be attracted to risk. At the same time, there is evidence that human beings try to avoid risk in many situations. Some individuals take more risk than others. Risk perception and taking are affected by the way choices are framed. Individuals may be risk seeking in some situations and risk averse in others. Individuals may feel more pain from losses than from equivalent gains. Hence, the study was aimed to examine the cultural differences of risk perception and risk taking behaviors between Indian and Ethiopian students. The main objective of the study was to explore the risk behaviors among students from Indian and Ethiopian nationalities. The risk-taking scale of the 30-item version of the revised DOSPERT Scale was used, consisting five domains of life, viz., ethical, financial, health/safety, social, and recreational risks. Subjects of the study were drawn randomly from research scholars and post graduate students who have been pursuing their study at Andhra University, India. The samples of the study consist of 32 (41%) subjects from Indian culture and 46 (59%) subjects from Ethiopian culture. The obtained data from the samples were analyzed using univariate to examine the effects of personal factors, viz., age and level of education, on risk behavior dimensions for two nationalities. Hence, mean scores on health, social, financial and recreation risk taking tend to increase with age for India nationality while decreases as age increases for Ethiopian nationality. However, the effects of personal factors on financial, recreational and social risk perception behaviors did not reach at statistical significant levels for Ethiopian and Indian nationality

Pages: 277-283
Sibnath Deb (Department of Applied Psychology Pondicherry University, Pondicherry)
Chirasree Mitra and Bishakha Majumdar (Department of Applied Psychology University of Calcutta, Kolkata)
Jiandong Sun (School of Public Health University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia)

The broad objective of the '12 Day Induction Training for antiretroviral therapy and community care centre (ART/CCC) Counsellors' was to impart knowledge and skills among ART/CCC counsellors with special reference to adherence, the medical aspects of intervention and the role of CCC and to study the impact of the training. The training programme was designed following the training schedule suggested by National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO). A group of 15 ART/CCC Counsellors from the North East States of India participated in the training. Out of the 15 participant counsellors, 10 were females while 5 were males. The training methods included interactive classroom lectures, group activities, role play and field visit. The resource persons for the training programme were the Master Trainers as well as qualified and experienced professionals. For evaluation of the training programme, pre-test and post-test design was followed and data were collected before and after the training using a Pre and Post Training Knowledge Questionnaire. A comparative analysis of pre and post training data demonstrates a clear trend of overall significant knowledge increase and skill development in all the 30 parameters, with small variations (p<0.01). Average score of the participant counsellors in the pre-training assessment was 19.0 while in the post-training assessment it was 38.5. The difference was found to be statistically significant at the 0.05 level. However, out of 21 knowledge areas there was no significant knowledge gain in about half of the areas while there was significant skill development in seven areas out of nine. Scores of pre and post training knowledge questionnaire were categorized into three grades i.e., 'Grade A' (score range: 41 60); 'Grade B' (score range: 21 40) and 'Grade C' (score range: '0 20'. Analysis of the pre training data demonstrates that out of the 15 counsellors, 9 and 6 were in 'Grade-C' and 'Grade-B' respectively. After attending the 12 day training, 7 counsellors had been promoted to 'Grade A' while 8 were found to be in 'Grade-B'. The feedback about the various aspects of the training clearly indicates that the training was highly beneficial and useful. In fine, it might be stated that the 12 day induction training for ART/CCC counsellors using the NACO modules benefitted the target audience to gain more knowledge, skill and confidence in delivering professional services to the beneficiary.

Pages: 290-295
N. V. V. S. Narayana (Department of Psychology and Parapsychology, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh)

Health consciousness (HC) is the tendency to focus attention on one's health, where individual lives with more health conscious have better quality of life. People are giving importance to maintain good health for better life style. The present study was aimed to examine the influence of personal correlates among exercise and non-exercise performing groups on health consciousness. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the extent of Health Consciousness present in the members of exercise performing groups. Health Consciousness Scale (Narayana , 2009) was adopted to measure health consciousness for this study. The sample was drawn from the North costal Andhra Pradesh. The data were collected randomly from the general population (Adults). The total sample of the study is 242 population (male=153 and female= 89). The obtained data from the sample were analyzed using the statistical techniques to examine the influence of Age, Gender, education and BMI on Health Consciousness Dimensions. The results indicated that exercise practicing individuals have more health conscious than non- exercise practicing individuals. The practice of regular exercise will increase energy levels, physical fitness and health conditions, decreased anxiety levels and likes to live in stress free atmosphere. The exercise group is maintaining good social relations, taking nutritious food, having regular health checkups and they feel responsibility for their health conditions.

Pages: 299-306
Sandhya Ojha (Department of Psychology, S A K P G College, Parmanandpur, Varanasi)

The present study aimed at studying parent and peer attachment and psychological well-being of rural and urban adolescents (age range: 16-20) of Varanasi District. The sample comprised of 200 adolescents, 100 rural and 100 urban of both sex (boys and girls). For the purpose of data collection Inventory of parent and peer attachment (IPPA) developed by Armsden and Greenberg (1987) and scale of psychological well-being constructed by Ryff (1989) were used. Result reveals that locale play an Important role in parent and peer attachment and psychological well-being. COM and ALdimension of peer attachment was found to be significant among rural and urban adolescents whereas all dimension of parental attachment viz COM, TR, and over all parental attachment were found to be significant in rural and urban adolescents except AL dimension of parental attachment. Further research is required to determine whether parenting and the quality of parent peer relationship play a role in determining how other factor such as peer influences and family environment contribute to determining adolescents psychological well being.

Pages: 312-315
Ruchi Kakkar and Aradhana Shukla (Department of Psychology, Kumaun University Campus, Almora, Uttaranchal)

The present study was aimed at exploring the impact of marriage time and employment level of women on experiential verbal aggression in developmental perspective. It was contended that (i) variation in the marriage time would be influenced by the verbal aggression. (ii) variation in the age would cause difference in verbal aggression (iii) variation in employment level would cause differentials in verbal aggression. Two hundred forty women participants arranging between 30-55 years and they were arranged requirements of 3 way factorial design with four levels of marriage time, three levels of age and two levels of employment. 10 participants in each cell. This scale was constructed by Shukla and Kakkar and it deals with 26 five items reveling self appraisal of verbal aggression towards the spouse. Split half reliability of the test is .64 test retest reliability is .59. Obtained data analyzed by three way analysis of variance and interpreted in terms of marriage time, age and employment and it was found that (i) the effect of marriage time was not significant (ii) increased in the age caused decrease in the magnitude of verbal aggression (iii) verbal aggression was higher among employed participants than unemployed participants

Pages: 318-321
Mohammad Ayoob (Department of Psychology, Government Degree College, Baramulla, Jammu and Kashmir)

This study examined the impact of demographic characteristics on acculturative stress in 219 (52.10% male; 47.90% female) Kashmiri college students who migrate Bhopal, Central India for receiving education. Measures used were Social, Attitudinal, Familial and Environmental Scale and Demographic Questionnaire. Results of simple linear regression analysis showed that acculturation experience, gender, friendship pattern, mother's education and previous experience of studying outside Kashmir were found significant predictors of acculturative stress for students. Implications for reducing the effect of acculturative stressamong Kashmiri college students are discussed.

Pages: 326-329
Vijendra Kumar S.K., Usha Srinath and Hank Nunn (Athma Shakti Vidyalaya, Bangalore)

The present article describes the structure and process of intimacy within the therapeutic relationship in Athma Shakti Vidyalaya (ASV), a therapeutic community for persons suffering from chronic mental illness. The community uses Reparenting model of psychotherapy (Schiff, 1969, 1970 &1975) and Transactional Analysis (Berne, 1961&1966) within the therapeutic community principles (Haigh, 1999) and guidelines (Keenan & Paget, 2007). The community emphasizes the clients' need for intimacy and attachment with therapist is required and can be maintained in a healthy way for over coming their psychological problems as well as enhance the personality and well-being (Kumar & Ravi, 2007; Srinath & Kumar, 2007). However, it is important to note that the above process needs to take place in a structured environment, which is conducive and facilitate the therapeutic outcome in a favorable manner. Therapeutic communities, due to their structure and democratic principles, this can be facilitated, maintained and achieved.

Pages: 334-337
Ruby Charak, Samia Kohli, Eisha Gohil and Jaitte Vaid (Department of Psychology, University of Jammu, Jammu)
Jagdish Thappaq (Department of Psychiatry Govt. Medical College, Jammu)
Pallavi Sachdeva (Center for Adult and Continuing Education University of Jammu, Jammu)

The stigma associated with mental illness leads to elevated distress and proves to be a hurdle in the path for treatment. The present study aims to assess the effect of gender and type of illness on perceived stigma and self esteem in people with mental illness. A purposive sample of 137 (53 females, 84 males) patients using cross sectional design was collected from Psychiatric Diseases Hospital and De-addiction Centre in Jammu City. The objective of the study was to assess whether there would be significant difference between female and male participants on the dimension of perceived stigma and self esteem; and whether there exists significant difference between people suffering psychotic disorders and those from neurotic disorders on the dimension of perceived stigma and self esteem. Two way Analysis of Variance was carried out. Results indicated significant effect of gender on perceived stigma but not on self esteem. Type of illness had a significant effect on perceived stigma but not on self esteem. Post Hoc test also revealed that the female participants perceived more stigma due to mental illness than males; and people with psychotic disorders perceived stigma more than people with neurotic disorders. While the stigma of having a mental illness can be demeaning in an unsupportive environment, it also reduces the chance of seeking treatment in an attempt to hide the presence of the illness in turn leading to worsening of symptoms. The need of the hour is to psycho-educate masses about mental illness and associated treatment procedures.