Examining the initial usability,acceptability and feasibility of a digital mental health intervention for college students in India

Generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) is prevalent among college students in India; however, barriers like stigma, treatment accessibility and cost prevent engagement in treatment. Web- and mobile-based, or digital, mental health interventions have been proposed as a potential solution to increasing treatment access. With the ultimate goal of developing an engaging digital mental health intervention for university students in India, the current study sought to understand students' reactions to a culturally and digitally adapted evidence-based cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for GAD intervention. Specifically, through theatre testing and focus groups with a non-clinical sample of 15 college students in India, the present study examined initial usability, acceptability and feasibility of the “Mana Maali Digital Anxiety Program.” Secondary objectives comprised identifying students' perceived barriers to using the program and eliciting recommendations. Results indicated high usability, with the average usability rating ranking in the top 10% of general usability scores. Participants offered actionable changes to improve usability and perceived acceptability among peers struggling with mental health issues. Findings highlight the benefits of offering digital resources that circumvent barriers associated with accessing traditional services. Results build on existing evidence that digital interventions can be a viable means of delivering mental healthcare to large, defined populations.     

Spirituality and Religiosity and Its Role in Health and Diseases

Religiosity is a factor involved in the management of health and diseases/patient longevity. This review article uses comprehensive, evidence-based studies to evaluate the nature of religiosity that can be used in clinical studies, thus avoiding contradictory reports which arise from misinterpretation of religiosity. We conclude that religiosity is multidimensional in nature and ultimately associated with inherent protection against diseases and overall better quality of life. However, a number of untouched aspects of religiosity need to be investigated further before we can introduce religiosity in its fully functional form to the realm of health care.     

WHEN THE HELP IS DENIED: A STUDY OF ATTRIBUTION-LINKED AFFECTIVE REACTIONS

Two experiments were conducted to examine attribution-affect linkages in situations where help is denied. In experiment 1, two helping scenarios, in social and in academic context, were presented. The causal explanations given for not helping were manipulated to see their effect on affective reactions of the person who was denied help. These explanations covered all eight combinations of locus (internal-external), controllability (controllable-uncontrollable), and stability (stable-unstable) dimensions. For each explanation, undergraduate students of Allahabad University (N = 75) predicted affective reactions, assuming themselves to be the person denied help. Findings confirmed that attribution-affect linkages were stable and systematic. Furthermore, controllability dimension accounted for most of the linkages. Experiment 2 (N = 45) tested the reversibility of the attribution-affect linkages. In that, affective reactions were manipulated and subjects inferred the communicated explanations for not helping. The linkages reversible and consistent across two contexts were: sympathy-uncontrollable, anger-controllable, dislike-controllable/ stable. Other emotions had either context-specific linkages, or were attribution-independent.     

INTERPLAY OF VALUES IN THE FUNCTIONING OF INDIAN ORGANIZATIONS

Indian work organizations display a mixed set of values, characteristic of both western and non-western societies. A belief in Detachment is found to coexist with Materialistic Orientation, Collectivism with Individualism and Humanism with Power Orientation. To substantiate this, results from two studies on member integration, carried out in four public sector organizations (Prakash 1982) and a multinational organization (Katju 1986) are discussed. Personal values and organizational values in the two types of organizations were analysed. Factor analysis of these values in public sector organizations yielded factors based on indigenous as well as universal values. The value clusters in the case of the multinational organization were largely based on universal values. Member integration in the public sector organizations was found associated with certain background variables, such as the level of professional education, the family's exposure to work organizations, prior work experience, etc. Nurturance of subordinates by supervisors, organizational expectation of universalism and peer leadership enhanced member integration. In the multinational organization, the length of service and the level of professional education, among the background variables, and participation in decision making, support from the boss, team-work and control, among the organizational variables, were associated with member integration. It is argued that indigenous values, such as familism, need to be synthesized with the values of industrial democracy to make Indian organizations more effective.     

Subjective past, present, and future fit: effects on anxiety depression, and other indicators of well-being

Hypotheses were tested regarding the effects of subjective current, retrospected, and anticipated person-environment fit on affective and somatic strain and well-being. Two-hundred seven university students preparing for annual academic examinations at an Indian university completed self-administered questionnaires measuring parameters of the hypotheses. A distinction was made between cognitive (e.g., meeting demands for intelligence, good memory) and motivational (e.g., being able to muster the effort) fit. Cognitive poor fit had a greater effect on predicting high levels of strain across all time frames but did best in the past and current frames. Motivational poor fit had its greatest effect on strain when poor fit dealt with anticipated or current fit. These findings are discussed in terms of hypotheses, which suggest that the more subjectively uncontrollable a dimension of fit, the more salient it is in the past time frame, whereas the more subjectively controllable the dimension, the more salient it is in the future time frame.     

Effect of Reward Contingency on Intrinsic Motivation

The effects of type of task and type of reward contingency on intrinsic motivation for subsequent task performance were investigated. The sample consisted of 50 young Indian adults. The results showed a significantly greater amount of free choice time spent on a heuristic task rather than an algorithmic task. The verbal measures of intrinsic motivation yielded a significant effect of reward contingency with greater intrinsic motivation under performance-contingent reward, followed by task-contingent and no-reward conditions, respectively. The results support self-determination and competence processes as important mediators of intrinsic motivation.     

Resilience and Factors Contributing to Resilience Among the Offsprings of Parents with Schizophrenia

The study attempts to explore resilience and its correlates among the offsprings of parents with schizophrenia. A sample of 45 adults with one parent diagnosed with schizophrenia was selected using a purposive sampling. They were assessed using Socio-demographic data sheet, Connor Davidson Resilience Scale, The Coping Checklist, Assessment of Social Support, Six-Factor Self-Concept Scale and Internal- External Locus of Control Scale. The findings of the study show that majority of the offsprings reported medium (60 %) resilience, 24 % and 15 % reported high and low resilience respectively. High and medium resilient group had internal locus of control, engaged in coping mechanisms such as acceptance, religious coping, problem solving, and seeking social support; had positive self concept such as likeability, task accomplishment, giftedness and morality, more satisfaction with emotional support and less non utilization of support compared to low resilient group. The study highlights that majority of the offsprings were resilient and that the factors associated with resilience are presence of good support system, use of problem focused coping strategies and having positive self concept. The results endorse the importance of addressing the above said factors in interventions involving offsprings of parents with schizophrenia.     

Haptic concepts in the blind

We investigated and compared the acquisition of haptic concepts by the blind with the acquisition of haptic concepts by sighted controls. Each subject—blind, sighted but blindfolded, sighted and touching, and sighted only-initially classified eight objects into two categories using a study/test format, followed by a recognition/classification test involving old, new, and prototype forms. Each object varied along the dimensions of shape, size, and texture, with each dimension having five values. The categories were linearly separable in three dimensions, but no single dimension permitted 100% accurate classification. The results revealed that blind subjects learned the categories quickly and comparably with sighted controls. On the classification test, all groups performed equivalently, with the category prototype classified more accurately than the old or new stimuli. The blind subjects differed from the other subjects on the recognition test in two ways: They were least likely to false alarm to novel patterns that belonged to the category but most likely to false alarm to the category prototype, which they falsely called “old” 100% of the time. We discuss these results in terms of current views of categorization.