Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 1084-1088
Asha Rani (STI Counselor, General Hospital Rohtak, Haryana)
Promila Batra (Department of Psychology, M.D. University, Rohtak, Haryana)

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) due to Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a viral disease that reduces the ability of a subject to defend the body against foreign substances. Many psychiatric and psychological syndromes accompanying HIV/AIDS may vary from one to another stage and every patient has to cope with both the disease and the accompanying stresses. This makes the patients doubly burdened, necessitating the positive coping and management among the HIV and AIDS patients. There are studies indicating that different coping strategies may influence the patients differently in managing the disease and mental health of the patients. It is important to study the differences in the ways of coping being adopted by these patients before designing interventions to train these patients about positive ways of coping. Gender is one of the important factors affecting how these coping strategies are mobilized. Therefore, the present study aimed to assess gender difference in adopting emotion and problem focused ways of coping by the HIV and AIDS patients. The investigation was carried out in Haryana on 500 patients suffering from this disease in age group of 25-50 years with mean age 37.5 years. An equal number of males and females, i.e., 250 male (HIV positive: 125 & AIDS: 125) and 250 female (HIV positive: 125 & AIDS: 125) patients were selected. The selected subjects were tested using the ways of coping questionnaire suggested by Folkman and Lazarus (1988). Frequency wise and amount/extent wise analysis was done. The Chi-square, means, SD's and 't' values were computed to interpret the data. The use of emotion-focused ways was more prevalent amongst both the male and female patients of HIV and AIDS. Simultaneously, the ways of coping were adopted by both males and females suffering from HIV or AIDS.

Pages: 1095-1099
Rajesh Kumar and Hardeep Lal Joshi (Department of Psychology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra, Haryana)

The present study was designed to find out the relationship between parenting stress and problem behavior in children with intellectual disability among fathers of children with intellectual disability. Parenting Stress Index (Abidin, 1995) and Behavioral Assessment Scale for Indian Children With Mental Retardation (Peshawaria & Venkatesan, 1992) Part-B were completed by 225 fathers of children with intellectual disability. The mean age of father was 38.4 years and the mean age of children was 10.5 years. All the children selected are having IQ below 70. Problem behaviors show significant positive correlation with child domain of stress and parent domain of stress. This is clear indication that problem behaviors in children produce stress among fathers who are actively involved in care giving role.

Pages: 1105-1108
Prajeesh P. (Department of Applied Psychology, Pondicherry University, Pondicherry )
Vijayalakshmi (Consultant Psychologist, Kindle Psychology Centre, Manjery, Kerala)

Human pregnancy and delivery are normal physiological phenomena as in the case of all other mammals. However, in all cultures it is treated as a complex process. Most of the rituals and traditions of maternity care are for the wellbeing of the mother and child. Nevertheless, some traditional rituals are unscientific. They may cause psychological and physiological problems leading to obesity or may even cause obesity in children. Unfortunately, the educated people also tend to follow these rituals. The present study explores the traditional beliefs of maternal care, which causes psychological and physiological problems and how they lead to obesity. A purposive sample of 12 young obese mothers was interviewed. Using Smith's phenomenological method the theme was established through coding, categorizing and labeling. From 55 significant statements, 3 themes emerged. Traditional beliefs that develop obesity are (a) Lowering physical exercise by restricting household activities and hobbies (b) Depressive symptoms due to detachment from spouse (c) Unhealthy food habits such as consuming more confectionaries, ghee and fast food.

Pages: 1114-1117
Anjana Bhattacharjee and Rebeka Debbarma (Department of Psychology, Tripura University, Tripura, Andhra Pradesh)

The present paper examined the pattern of personality of the male and female convicts of the Central Prison of Tripura. Further the paper was intended to explore the pattern of personality among the convict and the non-convict population. The sample was consisted of 63 convicts (male and female) and all of them selected purposively from the central prison of Tripura. The non convicts (N= 50) were also selected purposively from Agartala and its suburban areas. Neo Five Factor Personality Inventory was used for data collection. Data analyses revealed significant difference between male and female convicts in the two dimensions of personality like neuroticism and agreeableness. However, they did not differ significantly in the dimension of extraversion, openness to experience and conscientiousness. Further, the result revealed significant difference between the convicts and non convicts in all the dimensions of personality.

Pages: 1122-1125
G. Sarvani (Department of Psychology, Dr. L.B College of Education, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Prades)

The present study is to find out the organizational care and support of sheltered street children. The sample consist 444 respondents. 176 are from government shelters, and 268 are from non government shelters. For this purpose Organizational care and support developed by researcher were used. The data obtained were analyzed through t- test to know the mean difference between the government and non government groups. Government sheltered street children have more health problems, more organizational facilities and less social support than non government sheltered street children.

Pages: 1135-1137
Pooja Mahour and Meha Jain (Department of Psychiatry, King Georgs Medical University, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh)

Tension type headache (TTH) and Migraine is the most common type of primary headache. Psychological difficulties and stress are widely demonstrated as a contributing factor in such headaches. It was also evident in studies that having different personality traits individuals respond differently to stressful situations. In this view the present study was aimed to review the personality and psychiatric co morbidity in patients of TTH and Migraine. The related literature was searched on Pubmed, Proquest, PsychINFO and Google for all the available studies associated with TTH, Migraine, Personality type and Psychiatric co morbidities. The search was restricted to 10 year old studies i.e. in between 2003-2013. Certain personality traits and psychiatric co morbidities affect the persons with TTH and Migraine.

Pages: 1142-1144
Jaspal Singh (Department of Psychology, Punjabi University, Patiala)

The present study is a review of the key concepts regarding the nature of handedness and the phenomenon of brain lateralization in relation to creativity. A number of articles have been overviewed and the critical concepts such as handedness and its theoretical bases; the nature and functions of lateralization; and the relationship between these two concepts with creativity have been shed light on for a better understanding. Finally, the general differences between the left handed and right handed creativity have been drawn into consideration.