Indian Journal of Health and Wellbeing

Pages: 101-105
Ramesh Chander (Clinical Psychologist/Scientist (DRDO), 20 SSB, S. I. Lines, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh)

Mainstreaming, in education is a practice of teaching handicapped children in regular class rooms with non handicapped children to the fullest extent possible. Such children may have orthopedic, intellectual, emotional, or visual difficulties or handicaps associated with hearing or learning. The practice is also called inclusion. Mainstreaming has been of increasing interest since the late 1960s in response to researches showing that many handicapped students learned better in regular than in special classes. The aim of present study is to assess the attitudes toward mainstreaming in which the sample of the study consisted of 100 teachers (50 Special Education Teachers and 50 Regular Class Teachers) and 79 students (29 disabled and 50 normal students). Mainstreaming Attitude Scale (Likert- type) was used as a tool of data collection and ANOVA method was applied for analysis. The obtained results were discussed in view of existing literature and the study was concluded with recommendations for further research on the subject.

Pages: 109-112
Anwaar Mohyuddin and Iqra Rehman (Department of Anthropology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan)

This research entitled “Psychological and Physical Factors of Aging in Pakistan” was conducted in Bahria town, Rawalpindi Pakistan. The qualitative anthropological techniques were used for data collection. The main purpose of this research was to highlight and discuss the issues and problems of senior citizens in the context of psychological factors. This attempt has been made to explore the senior citizen anticipation from the government about their welfare. There is a major effect of modernization on the life of older people. This research has focused many important issues which have created the life of senior citizens difficult. The issues relate to the psychological factors. Issues like anxiety, loneliness and depression, etc.. Along with psychological issues, physical issues are attached and when the psychological issues increase the physical issues also increase.This research concludes that although there are many issues which are making the life of senior citizens problematic yet they are still living a satisfied life because they are not depending on children or on others. Senior citizens demand time from their children and grandchildren. The psychological problems have increased in old age somehow because of modernization.

Pages: 117-120
Kiran Yadav and Prerna Puri (Department of Psychology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan)
Rakesh Yadav (Consultant Psychiatrist, R. K. Yadav Memorial Mental Health & Deaddiction Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan)

To determine the prevalence of Temperamental and Behavioural problems in pre-school children and to assess the nature of these problems and their relationship with socio-demographic variables in the schools of Jaipur. A specially designed Performa including the Socio-Demographic data, Pre-School Behaviour Checklist (PBCL) by Richman & Graham (1971) and Temperament Scale of Developmental Psychopathology (DPCL) by Malvika Kapur, Uma H & Girimaje S. R. (1992). was sent to the parents of 300 children between the age group of 3 to 5 years from various schools of Jaipur These children were studying in LKG, UKG, Prep.. Data was analysed by both parametric and nonparametric statistics. Deviant behaviours of PBCL were reported in 68(36%) in children. High DPCL scores 65(34%) reported in children. Male children (73%) have more temperamental deviant behaviours as compared to deviant behaviours on PBCL (19%). Deviant behaviours on temperament scale of DPCL were also higher in children who were either first child 19(46%) or last child 44(41%) or only child 28(27%). (x2 =4.1405, p>0.5). Occupation of the mother was found to influence the development of deviant behaviours (71%) on both the scales. Pre-School children do suffer from a high prevalence of behaviour and temperament problems. The existing familial, social and cultural norms directly or indirectly influence the psychosocial development of the child. Thus, it is necessary to have a congenial family environment.

Pages: 125-128
Sushila Pareek, Nidhi Mathur and Kavita Mangnani (Department of Psychology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan)

Helping young people avoid and overcome emotional problems in the wake of violence is one of the most important challenges for psychologists and social scientists. Moreover, promoting healthy development is as important as preventing problems and serves the same end more effectively. Forgiveness has a crucial role in attaining health and overall development, as it is an important healing mechanism which helps an individual to cope with guilt, injustice, grief and loss; supports to reenergize hearts and rebuilds life because revenge from self or others is not the permanent answer. Forgiveness can be understood as a response, as a personality disposition, and as a characteristic of social units, at the level of the psychological functioning of a transgression recipient. Specifically, forgiveness as a response can be defined as a suite of transgression related motivational changes toward a transgressor in which revenge and avoidance related motivations subside, and motivations toward benevolence or goodwill increase or re-emerge. As a personality disposition, forgiveness reflects a trait-like tendency to forgive other across a variety of interpersonal transgressions. Review of literature indicates that Forgiveness has a lot of positive implications for health and wellbeing. Although Forgiveness has been fairly addressed in West, very little work has been done on Indian population. Therefore the present study aims at understanding the subjective and psychological wellbeing in relation to dispositional and motivational forgiveness among adolescents. Transgression Related Interpersonal Motivation Scale (TRIM_12) by Mc Cullough (1998), Heartland Forgiveness Scale by Thompson and Snyder (2003), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS-X) by Watson and Clark (1994), Satisfaction with Life Scale by Diener et al. (1985) and Psychological Well Being Scale by Ryff and Keyes (1995) were used. The sample consisted of 100 adolescents (50 males and 50 females) in the age range of 18-24 years. Correlational analyses were used to analyze the data. Results indicated positive correlations between the dimensions of Forgiveness and wellbeing.

Pages: 136-139
Kanu Priya and Gayatri Raina (Department of Psychology, Himachal Pradesh University, Summer Hill, Shimla, HP)

The present investigation was conducted to examine the effect of gender, family size and birth order on social adjustment of adolescents. Samples of 150 adolescents (75 males and 75 females) in the age range of 16-18 years, studying in 11th and 12th standard were selected from four English medium schools of Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh. Global Adjustment Scale developed by Psy-Com Services (1994) was used for measuring social adjustment among the selected sample of adolescent boys and girls. A 2*2*2 analysis of variance with unequal replicates was carried out to see the independent and interactive effect of gender, family size and birth order on social adjustment of adolescents. Results revealed that gender has established significant effect on social adjustment of adolescent with boys having significantly better social adjustment as compared to girls. Furthermore, findings also revealed that gender was involved in significant higher order interaction effect with birth order. Results clearly indicated that male later born students had better social adjustment as compared to male first born students. In, addition to this, the findings of present study also suggested that female first born students had better social adjustment as compared to female later born students. But the family size does not seem to play its significant role on social adjustment of adolescents in Himachal Pradesh.

Pages: 172-176
Alok Kumar (Department of Sociology, C.C.S.University, Meerut, U.P.)

This paper assesses the socio-economic profile of the women and explore the women's food habits, values and after effects. In this paper, the researcher investigated the phenomenon by using interview and observation technique at a village of Bulandshahr District, U.P. (India). The results revealed that majority of the women are Hindu who belonged to the early age group (25-45) and OBC castes, educated up to secondary and higher secondary level belonged to lower income group, were housewives, lived in middle size houses and in nuclear families, had light, ventilation, toilet and bathroom facility in their house. Majority of the women eat least and last, keep fast for religious and astrological purpose for the wellbeing of the family members. They rarely give their attention towards nutritional diet due to which they are suffering from the various health problems like malnutrition, stress, sleeplessness and other diseases. Efforts are needed to improve diet quality and education for rural women for their upliftment in the economic and health status.

Pages: 186-192
Ruby John and Sritha Sandon (Department of Psychology, Montfort College, Bangalore, Karnataka )

The current research study focuses on the effect of perceptual load and the nature of distractors between children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and children without Autism Spectrum Disorder. The purpose of the study is to measure the selective attention of children with ASD, further comparing children with ASD and children without ASD. Selective attention is measured on the basis of perceptual load and nature of distractors. The independent variables of the study are perceptual load, which is the number of distractors and also the nature of distractors (similar and dissimilar) and the dependent variable is the reaction time of the children during the task. The study has the following hypotheses: • Perceptual load and nature of distractors will influence selective attention of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. • There will be difference in selective attention as a function of perceptual load and nature of distractors in children with and without Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study was conducted on 15 children with ASD and 30 children without ASD, between the age group of 5 to 13 years, from the Urban Bangalore Population. The subjects were shown a set of stimulus cards that contained a target stimuli, accompanied with distractors. Depending upon the number of distractors the perceptual load of the card varied and depending on the similarity and dissimilarity of the distractors to the target stimulus, the nature of the distractors varied. The data was collected by noting the children's reaction time in identifying the target stimulus. The data was collected and analysed using 2 two way mixed and within subjects ANOVA. One was used to analyse the effect of perceptual load on selective attention within each group and between two groups. The other was used to analyse the effect of nature of distractor on selective attention within each group and between two groups. The results showed that there exists a significant difference in reaction time between group 1 (children with ASD) and group 2 (children without ASD) with regard to the nature of distractors and perceptual load. Thus accepting the first hypothesis. The ANOVA value for the main within subject's effect shows that the reaction time has differed significantly across the levels with regard to both perceptual load and nature of distractors thus accepting the second hypotheses. The implications of this research can be used to derive suitable intervention tools to enhance a child's perceptual capacity based on perceptual load and nature of distractors. This kind of tools that will enhance the child's attention can be used by teachers and also parents to help their children with disabilities to perform better from what they used to. This tool also acts as a material for play for the children, thus keeping them entertained while helping them with their attention.

Pages: 198-203
Dani Veena and Sana Alvi (Department of Psychology, Sarojini Naidu Government Girls P.G. College, Bhopal, M.P.)

Guided Imagery (GI) is an emerging alternative therapy to control anxiety. The technique involves purposefully and consciously inducing mental images in order to obtain the desired outcomes. The present study investigated the efficacy of GI intervention in the management of state and trait anxiety in an incidental and purposive sample of 8th class students. A pre-test post- test design with one control and one experimental group, matched in terms of intelligence scores and socio-economic status was adopted. After a pre-test assessment of trait and state anxiety levels of both the groups, GI intervention was administered on the experimental group while the control group continued their usual scholastic tasks. The Guided Imagery Intervention developed by the investigator consisted of 7 audio scripts of 15 minutes duration. Interim testing of state and trait anxiety levels was done after the first round and post testing after the second round of Guided Imagery Intervention. A follow up testing was done after a gap of one month. The data was analyzed by applying the 't' test, one way ANOVA, and Duncan's Multiple Range Test. The results proved the effectiveness of GI in lowering the state and trait anxiety.

Pages: 208-211
Mahuya Karmakar (Vice-Principal cum Professor, Woodlands College of Nursing, Kolkata)

The article addresses on the potentials of creative and arts-based approaches in enhancing social networks, support inclusive practice and enable user participation and its impact on quality of life in the context of dementia care The objectives of the discussion is to understand the concept of arts based therapy in the care setting for care of persons with dementia, to examine and analyze critically the studies on arts based therapy and to find the feasibility of practice of arts based therapy in the nursing domain (Palo-Bengtsson et al., 1998). The importance of person centered care; 'embodied selfhood' Kontos (2004, 2005) for obtaining both activity and therapeutic beneficial effects on persons with dementia through various forms of arts based therapy is noticed long back. Nystrom and Lauritzen (2005) discuss the importance of planning a well designed arts therapy for promoting expression of self through nonverbal communication. Besides this, the use of technologies by the care providers in delivering arts based therapy pay attention to those factors that are likely to contribute to positive wellbeing in people with dementia.

Pages: 216-219
Vatsla Mohan (Department of Psychology, Kurukshetra University, Kurukshetra)

The present study examined Das's Planning, Attention, Simultaneous and Successive Processing and deficits in Word Reading, Sentence Comprehension, Spelling and Reading Composite achievement among children with low mathematical ability. The study was conducted on a sample of 180 children (90-low mathematical ability, 90-normal mathematical ability) in the age range of 10 to 12 years drawn from 14 schools in Ambala and Kurukshetra districts of Haryana. Mathematical Ability Test was used to categorize sample into two groups. All participants were tested on Das's Cognitive Assessment System and Wide Range Achievement Test- fourth version. The data were analyzed for descriptive statistics, t-test and discriminant function analysis. The results revealed that LMA children scored significantly lower in all the four PASS cognitive processes (p< .001). They further showed serious deficits across all the areas of achievement but one. Compared with normal children, the low mathematical ability group was significantly deficient in Sentence Comprehension (p< .001), Spelling (p< .001) and Reading Composite (p< .003). However the deficiency in Word Reading was negligible, hence not significant. Multivariate analysis of data revealed that PASS cognitive processes and achievement differentiated LMA group significantly. Results of discriminant analysis further revealed that 75.6% of LMA children were successfully identified through their scores on PASS cognitive processes and achievement tests.

Pages: 225-228
Sunita Tundwal and Rakesh Kumar Behmani (Department of Applied Psychology, Guru Jambheshwar University of Science and Technology, Hisar, Haryana)

Stress has always been a part of human existence. In the context of stress, organisational stress has been of great concern to the management, employees, and other stake holders of the organisation. One widely investigated research focus with relatively less semantic confusion pertains to the study of the impact of role stressors in organisations. The current study examined with relationship of different organizational role stressors with a positive parameter referring to life satisfaction. 400 female police personnel completed Pareek's organizational role stress scale and Alam and Srivastava's life satisfaction scale. The correlational results revealed the relevance of perceived inter-role distance, role stagnation, role erosion, role overload, and self role distance in lowered life satisfaction.

Pages: 233-235
Suruchi Ahlawat and Ankita Budhiraja (Department of Psychology, M.D.U. Rohtak, Haryana)

Creativity is the ability to produce Novel and appropriate ideas, which act as very crucial elements of present human lifestyle. It helps to produce more and more innovative ideas. On the other hand, hope is also a very important element of life. It is a vital motivator of positive living. Psychologists operationally divide hope into two components, Pathways and Agency. Agency is related to one's capability to achieve goals, while Pathways consultant with the ability to generate alternative ways to achieve different goals. It was expected that a creative person would be found high on sense of hope. The present discussion aims to study relationship between creativity and hope. A purposive sample of 442 VIIth to IXth grade students of both genders, aged 12 to 15 years were selected from the Urban Area of Delhi. Result shows that there were Gender differences as well as interaction effect between creativity and hope. It was found that Creativity is closely related to hope. Findings of the present study can be applied on different School curriculum to raise the creativity level or level of hope amongst adolescents while they are facing different obstacles in their life.