PSYCHOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT

Unlike other social sciences, psychology has for long remained outside the orbit of social change and national development. Because of the very nature of socio-economic development that is taking place in the Third World countries, psychology has a distinct role. Temporal compression and cacophonic nature of changes have caused conditions of instability that have brought to the fore many socio-psychological problems requiring immediate attention. The role of psychology in this context and the factors underlying the limited impact it has made so far have been discussed. Some robust findings in psychology that have obvious implications for policy formulation and action programme are outlined.     

Predicting personality disorder traits with the Defense Style Questionnaire in a normal sample.

This research examined the efficacy of the 40-item Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40), measuring mature, neurotic and immature defense styles, to predict DSM-III-R personality disorders. The Coolidge Axis II Inventory, the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II, and the MMPI personality disorder scales were used to measure 11 personality disorders in a nonclinical sample. The results show that most personality disorders are positively associated with the highly maladaptive immature defense style, and negatively associated with the mature defense style. Multiple regression analyses reveal that the combined variance accounted for by the defense styles range from 12% to 42% on the CATI, 3% to 42% on the MCMI-II, and 2% to 32% on the MMPI-PD. However, specific personality disorders cannot be predicted with the defense styles on any measure.     

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of the Brief Symptom Inventory

A cross-cultural study of the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) was conducted with a sample of university students from India and Canada. The results indicated much higher rates of symptom reporting in the Indian sample. Canadian students also had higher reported symptom scales when compared to a similar size USA sample. A small sample of older respondents was also compared with a British sample. Examination of the structure of the BSI scale was investigated using a multidimensional scaling analysis. The Indian data had a somatization—paranoid ideation dimension and a psychoticism—interpersonal sensitivity dimension. With the Canadian sample, there was a hostility—phobic anxiety dimension along with a somatization—paranoid ideation dimension.     

Vision following extended congenital blindness

Animal studies suggest that early visual deprivation can cause permanent functional blindness. However, few human data on this issue exist. Given enough time for recovery, can a person gain visual skills after several years of congenital blindness? In India, we recently had an unusual opportunity to work with an individual whose case history sheds light on this question. S.R.D. was born blind, and remained so until age 12. She then underwent surgery for the removal of dense congenital cataracts. We evaluated her performance on an extensive battery of visual tasks 20 years after surgery. We found that although S.R.D.'s acuity is compromised, she is proficient on mid- and high-level visual tasks. These results suggest that the human brain retains an impressive capacity for visual learning well into late childhood. They have implications for current conceptions of cortical plasticity and provide an argument for treating congenital blindness even in older children.     

The effect of one experience upon the recall of another

An exploratory experiment was made to show how one experience may exert an influence upon the recall of another, and how both may lose their separate identities in memory, to become merged into what Bartlett has described as an active organization of related experiences. The original material was a story, and the experience interpolated between it and its recall was a picture which illustrated part of it, in some respects correctly, in others incorrectly. Some subjects were asked to recall the story, others the picture, after from one to four weeks, or in a few cases a year.

The picture was viewed under the influence of the attitudes induced by the story. These determined its selection from a number of other unrelated pictures, to be perceived as a related experience. In consequence only few details gained attention, and these were interpreted in terms of the attitudes induced by the story, in some cases contrary to the meaning given to them by the rest of the picture. Other details without significance in the theme of the story were neglected. In its turn, seeing the picture favoured the recall of some aspects of the theme of the story, details not reinforced by the picture tending to be left out in recall. Many picture details intruded into the reproductions of the story. This tendency was progressive, and at the end of a year picture and story details were not separated. Especially, the picture brought about changes in the points of emphasis in the story.     

Cultural contributions to constructing locus-of-control attributions

Locus of control attribution patterns have been demonstrated to predict a variety of behavioral and adaptational characteristics in a number of societies. As a consequence, questions concerning the comparability of those attributions across cultures have been of interest to social and personality theorists as well as to their more action-oriented colleagues. In the present study, the processes used by Indian college students to form those attributions have been studied and compared with those used by a similar sample in the United States. A structure-factor approach was used, because it allowed for a comparison of attribution patterns within and between cultures as well as the drawing of inferences about locus-of-control attributions that are theoretically and practically important. Results supported the utility of such an approach, identified culturally syntonic patterns in both samples, and also identified cross-cultural similarities and differences in locus-of-control attributions.     

THREE TYPES OF FAMILY STRUCTURE AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFERENTIATION: A STUDY AMONG THE JAUNSAR-BAWAR SOCIETY*

The study examines the influence of family structure and family experiences on psychological differentiation in children. Three types of families, viz., monogamous, polyandrous and polygynandrous were selected from the polyandrous society of Jaunsar-Bawar in the Cis-Himalayan region of India. 175 boys and girls of age groups 7-9 and 13-15 years, belonging to the three types of families, were administered the Story-Pictorial EFT, Indo-African EFT and BD tests. Family experiences of the child were assessed through ratings and interview. A 2×3×2 ANOVA performed on differentiation scores revealed significant age and sex effects. Family effect was not statistically significant. But the data suggested a strong trend in the expected direction. The findings have been discussed in terms of the characteristic family patterns of Jaunsar-Bawar and acculturation factors.     

Examining the Relationship Between Personality and Work Values Across Career Stages

The study examines the strength of association between personality and work values, and their variations across career stages of exploration, establishment, and maintenance. The results showed that the executives in exploration stage were lower on needs of altruism and economic returns as compared to executives from establishment and maintenance stages, but higher on neuroticism and conscientiousness dimensions of personality. Neuroticism negatively predicted creativity and aesthetics; and conscientiousness negatively predicted management. Security was positively predicted by extraversion, but negatively predicted by openness. However, the variance explained was very weak, indicating that these constructs could be independent or unrelated. The implications have been discussed in the study.