Indian Psychology in Prospect

Responding to the comments on the paper “Positive Psychology and Indian Psychology in Need of Mutual Reinforcement”, the present paper provides further clarification to the meaning, substance and relevance of Indian psychology, the points of confluence and the sources of variance between it and positive psychology. It emphasizes that Indian psychology is psychology in the making that has enormous implications for broadening the scope of psychology. It goes on to suggest that humans are not mere biologically driven machines, but they are also consciousness manifesting beings. As such they need to be studied not only at the neurophysiological level but also from the perspective of consciousness as such. This opens up new doors to discover numerous hidden human potentials and how they may be harnessed for common good and individual happiness. To illustrate this, general contours of applied Indian psychology are drawn and their implications to health and wellness are outlined. This enables one to see the substantive areas for possible collaborative efforts by those working in the areas of positive psychology and Indian psychology.     

Positive Psychology and Indian Psychology In Need of Mutual Reinforcement

The current practices of positive psychology are woven into the behavioural fabric in the form of numerous strategies/practices without much theoretical foundation. Positive psychology moved from repair to reconstruction, from the negative side of human nature to its positive aspect. Indian psychology is relevant as it has the necessary meta-theoretical framework to sustain the goals of positive psychology. It proposes that mind may be controlled by deconstructing the ego and cultivating altruism by practicing selfless work, total absorption of the mind by devotion or meditation. When the ego is deconstructed, ignorance is removed and the person regains her inherent freedom and moves towards perfection. This position allows going beyond hedonistic pleasures to define happiness and combining material prosperity with moral sensitivity. To this end this paper brings out the points of contact between positive psychology and Indian psychology and argues for new initiatives.     

Positive Psychology and Indian Psychology: Birds of the Same Feather

Positive psychology and Indian psychology share similar concerns regarding human life. But Indian psychology has more to offer towards our understanding of happiness and well-being than what Positive psychology can at this point of time, because of latter’s paradigmatic limitations. This commentary draws attention to certain shortcomings of the target article: (a) in presenting the contemporary Positive psychology perspective; (b) in conceptualizing IP with reference to its epistemological position; (c) and in equating certain concepts from PP and IP and their implications.     

超越传统：动态进化心理学研究进展

立足于基本适应目标与决策原则的功能分析,致力于心理过程多维度的动态考察,动态进化心理学在坚持适应主义原则基础上,将基因与经验、环境同时纳入心理发展解释框架,更为彻底地贯彻了有机体与环境交互作用观,在一定程度上克服了传统进化心理学的局限。但由于忽略社会实践的作用,它所展示的更多的是生物学意义上的人的发展图景,对心理过程的动态分析亦难以挣脱形而上学的桎梏。     

Knowledge in Society as an Empirical Base for Indian Psychology

Indian society has enormous complexity and diversity of religion and culture. The Indian Psychology will be truly enriched if it explores and integrates these experiences at the individual and group levels. In addition there is perhaps something to learn from the Positive Psychology as to how to best utilize the knowledge in Indian society for the sake of humanity.     

Indigenization of Psychology: Empirical Assessment of Progress in Indian Research

The development of an indigenous psychology has generally been documented by examples of indigenous constructs and conceptual analyses of their emergence. In contrast, the present article proposes an empirical approach. Indigenization is conceived as a gradual process that may be operationalized, and measured by content analysis of journal articles as the discipline develops and changes. Measures are proposed to assess the extent to which the concepts, problems, hypotheses, methods, and tests: (a) emanate from, (b) adequately represent, and (c) reflect back upon, the cultural context in which behaviour is observed. Application of these to 355 empirical and 31 theoretical articles from Indian journals and 39 foreign empirical articles published by Indian psychologists, indicates some slight movement toward an indigenous discipline, and some interesting relationships that assist in understanding its development. Factors contributing to indigenization and the utility of the empirical approach are discussed.     

从三衣到曲贵形制衍变的意涵

公元7世纪,印度佛教传入西藏,印度佛教的僧侣服饰"三衣"[1]也随之进入西藏,受西藏本土宗教与高寒气候环境的影响,三衣在藏地本土化过程中形成了独特的"曲贵"[2]形制,这也应验了佛祖释迦牟尼所言:"传播佛法要适应当时当地的情况。"[3]曲贵在质地与服用要求上保留了印度法衣的特质,但在形制与穿着方式上进行了自身语义的表述。     

Some Aspects of Empathy in the Process of Psychotherapy: Learning from Indian Tradition

This article focuses on some practices in Indian tradition as interventions for enhancing empathy among aspiring psychotherapists. In this venture, author after briefly looking into the evolution of pro-social behavior, it defines basic nature of bond formation between therapist and client, and then summarizes findings of studies on Eastern meditational practices in the context of empathy. Since there is not much convincing evidence that meditational practices enhanced empathy in psychotherapists, the suggestion is to explore other processes in the Indian tradition. Intuition (pratibha) and holistic learning (vyutpatti) are among those processes, respectively, for journeys into the inner world and interventions at community level. They are pragmatic ways to sensitize the aspiring psychotherapists.     

Combining Indian and Western Spiritual Psychology: Applications to Health and Social Renewal

We introduce the topic of Indian/US collaboration in studying religion and spirituality (R/S), providing both historical and philosophical context. A fully in-depth and comprehensive study of R/S will require taking into account three potential types and sources of knowledge: (1) theoretically and intellectually oriented knowledge as exemplified by William James; (2) empirically oriented knowledge as exemplified by Gordon Allport; and (3) experience- and realization-derived knowledge based on reports from eminent spiritual figures. We sketch the distinct but mutually informative challenges of clinical and epistemic integration. We suggest several topics for future collaboration, arguing that the most comprehensive study of R/S will require combining the western attention to empirical knowledge with the Indian psychology movement’s attention to realization-derived knowledge. Suggested topics include processes of learning from spiritual exemplars and teachers; health effects from engagement in Hindu or other Indian religious practice; psychological and health effects of specific spiritual practices; the importance and influence of the focus used in meditation; the effects of japam, Ramnam, or similar repeated short prayers; how diverse spiritual practices affect mindfulness; and the nature and means of fostering skills for living in a religiously plural society.     

Faith Maturity and Mental Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study of Indian American Followers of a Guru Tradition

Journal of Religion and Health - This article is based on a longitudinal study of Indian Americans devoted to a guru tradition, aiming to explore how faith contributes to their mental well-being....     

The Papago Psychology Service: A community mental health program on an American Indian reservation

A community psychology service run by the Papago Indian tribe and staffed largely by Papago Indians who have been trained as mental health workers is described. This service is unique among mental health services for Indians in that the tribe has complete control of the funds for the service and sets its own policies. It was developed for a rather traditional Indian group, and the culture, the traditions, and the wishes of the Papago community were respected. Consultation with medicine men was built into the program from the start, and adaptation of mental health techniques to fit the culture is stressed. Before this clinic was established, few mental health resources were directly available to the reservation. Similar to other Indian tribes, the Papagos are economically disadvantaged, with an unemployment rate of over 50%, low educational attainment, and very high rates of alcoholism, suicide, and vehicular accidents. The topics covered are the tribe's view of health programs for its people, the present Papago community and traditional means of treatment, traditional psychotherapy adapted to Papago culture, the indigenous Papago mental health worker, and the non-Indian professional consultant.     

Psychology is not primarily Empirical Science: A Comparison of Cultures in the Lexical Hypothesis Tradition as a Failure of Introspection

A large part of psychology has become an empirical science that assumes that there might exist one set of research methods suitable for psychological research in all human cultures. Research questions, methods, and theories formulated from one cultural perspective are not thoroughly introspectively examined when being used in another cultural environment. This leads to research that answers questions that are not meaningful in such environments. Research coming from the lexical hypothesis tradition is given as an example. The original research in English language decided that the lexicon was enough to represent language structures for the purpose of examining how language reflects personality; however, some languages might use specific grammatical structures to reflect personality, so the lexicon is not enough to adequately represent these languages. Despite this, researchers still follow the research method developed for the English language. The Czech and Korean languages are examples of this approach. A solution to this problem is the thorough use of introspection during the formulation of research questions.     

The Psychology of Referencing in Psychology Journal Articles

ABSTRACT— Citation statistics can affect major professional decisions, but little is known about how important a particular reference is to the citing document. We asked 49 psychologists to rate the importance of every reference in their own empirical paper and to indicate the primary citation reason. References cited for conceptual ideas or to justify methods and data analyses were regarded as more important than references cited for general background, limitations, or future research. The location, frequency, and length of a citation predicted its importance, but such relationships were weaker for self-citations. We make suggestions about referencing for authors, editors, and bibliographic database designers.     

表演心理学:一种新的研究取向

表演心理学是20世纪70年代在美国兴起的新的心理学研究思潮。表演心理学在对主流心理学挑战的基础上提出了发展式表演的理论,该理论致力于唤起人们对生活中表演维度的注意,并试图通过发展式表演来改进人类生存环境、提高人类的生活质量。当前关于表演心理学的研究主要集中在社会治疗、教育改革与社会变革等方面。作为一种新的研究取向,表演心理学还有其不完善之处,但其发展式表演的理论及其应用正被更多的人所接受。