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.     

Relationships between Depression and Executive Functioning in Adolescents: The Moderating Role of Unpredictable Home Environment

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Although researchers have explored the link between depression and executive functioning (EF), the influence of early-life environmental and relational...     

Maintaining faith in agency under immutable constraints: cognitive consequences of believing in negotiable fate

Negotiable fate refers to the idea that one can negotiate with fate for control, and that people can exercise personal agency within the limits that fate has determined. Research on negotiable fate has found greater prevalence of related beliefs in Southeast Asia, East Asia, and Eastern Europe than in Western Europe and English-speaking countries. The present research extends previous findings by exploring the cognitive consequences of the belief in negotiable fate. It was hypothesized that this belief enables individuals to maintain faith in the potency of their personal actions and to remain optimistic in their goal pursuits despite the immutable constraints. The belief in negotiable fate was predicted to (a) facilitate sense-making of surprising outcomes; (b) increase persistence in goal pursuits despite early unfavorable outcomes; and (c) increase risky choices when individuals have confidence in their luck. Using multiple methods (e.g., crosscultural comparisons, culture priming, experimental induction of fate beliefs), we found supporting evidence for our hypotheses in three studies. Furthermore, as expected, the cognitive effects of negotiable fate are observed only in cultural contexts where the fate belief is relatively prevalent. Implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the intersubjective approach to understanding the influence of culture on cognitive processes (e.g., Chiu, Gelfand, Yamagishi, Shteynberg, & Wan, 2010), the sociocultural foundations that foster the development of a belief in negotiable fate, and an alternative perspective for understanding the nature of agency in contexts where constraints are severe. Future research avenues are also discussed.     

Spillover of Negative Information on Brand Alliances

This research examines the conditions in which the effect of 1 partner's negative behavior in a marketing alliance is likely to spill over to the other. Alliances with both a supplier and a spokesperson were considered. Furthermore, we determined the impact of 2 types of negative attributes: incompetence and immorality. Negative spillover from the partner brand to the host brand occurred only when the host brand was viewed as equally culpable for the offense (i.e., the host was linked directly to the negative act). In addition, moral failures were more detrimental than competence failures in a spokesperson alliance, whereas the reverse was true in a supplier alliance.     

Family play,reading, and other stimulation and early childhood development in five low-and-middle-income countries

This paper used longitudinal data from five studies conducted in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Ethiopia, and Rwanda to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes (N = 4904; M_age = 51.5; 49% girls). Results from random-effects and more conservative child-fixed effects models indicate that across these studies, family stimulation, measured by caregivers’ engagement in nine activities (e.g., reading, playing, singing), predicted increments in children's early numeracy, literacy, social-emotional, motor, and executive function skills (standardized associations ranged from 0.05 to 0.11 SD). Study-specific models showed variability in the estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies. These findings indicate the need for additional research on culturally specific ways in which caregivers may support early development and highlight the importance of promoting family stimulation to catalyze positive developmental trajectories in global contexts.

Research Highlights

• Research on the links between family stimulation and early childhood development in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) is limited.
• We used longitudinal data from studies conducted in five LMICs to examine the links between family stimulation and early childhood development outcomes.
• Results suggest that family stimulation predicted increments in children's numeracy, literacy, social-emotional, motor, and executive function skills.
• We found variability in the observed estimates, with null associations in two out of the five studies, suggesting the need for additional research in LMICs.