“Do You See and Hear More? A Study on Telugu Perception Verbs”

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - Verbs of perception describe the actual perception of some entity and it is emphasized by earlier researchers that lexicon in languages is...     

Placing age differences in the context of the Orissa supercyclone: Who experiences psychological distress?

The present study examines the influence of age on anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress of the supercyclone-affected people in Orissa. The data were collected in structured interview sessions 3 months after the disaster struck. Of the 130 interviewees, 65 persons were severely exposed and the rest were mildly exposed to the supercyclone. When the effects of exposure, caste, and gender were controlled, linear effects of age on psychological distress were found to be significant, whereas quadratic effects of age on psychological distress were non-significant. With increasing age, survivors experienced more anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress. The elderly people were the most vulnerable.     

Interactive effects of item content and ethnic group membership on performance on the McCarthy scales

The study investigated cultural bias in the 46 verbal items of the McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities (MSCA). The verbal items of the MSCA were administered to 59 Anglo and 59 Mexican-American subjects matched for age and sex. The responses of two groups of subjects on these items were analyzed by log-linear technique using the likelihood ratio chi-square statistic. The analysis of the data revealed that the majority of the verbal items of the MSCA are free from cultural bias. Only three items of the MSCA V-scale reflected systematic cultural bias. Two of these items are from the Word Knowledge II Subtest and the third one is from the Opposite Analogies Subtest. Suggestions for the use of the MSCA with children from minority cultures are made.     

Is Ultimate Attribution Error Universal? Inter-group Attribution for Success and Failure among University Students in Delhi

Research on inter-group attribution and ultimate attribution error has mostly focused on religious and ethnic groups. However, in view of the distinct nature of Indian social structure, this study examined inter-group attributions in caste context. The study was conducted with university students belonging to two caste groups. A total of 95 students participated in the study: 51 from General Caste category and 44 from Scheduled Caste category. Hypothetical situations were used to record attributions made for the success and failure of both in-group and out-group along the dimensions of locus of causality, stability, and controllability. Results indicated that General Caste category participants showed no inter-group attribution bias. Moreover, Scheduled Caste category participants showed a pattern of in-group derogation. These results are explained in terms of role of education and ideology in influencing the inter-group attribution process, suggesting that ultimate attribution error is not universal.

     

Does Proximity Matter in Promoting Interfaith Dialogue?

This paper explores the role of physical proximity of places of worship in facilitating interfaith dialogue. The research focuses on a religious cluster within the Greater Toronto Area, which emerged due to incremental zoning changes over time. Using key informant interviews as the method and Allport’s contact hypothesis as the guiding theoretical framework, it explores the effects of proximity and contact (interaction or encounters) on intergroup relations. The findings suggest that physical proximity is not a strong factor in facilitating interfaith dialogue initiatives. However, proximity does seem to have an effect in creating a space for interactions and encounters to occur, which can lead to attitudinal shifts concerning the religious “other.”     

Reversible phase transition in vanadium oxide films sputtered on metal substrates

Vanadium oxide films, deposited on aluminium (Al), titanium (Ti) and tantalum (Ta) metal substrates by pulsed RF magnetron sputtering at a working pressure of 1.5 x10^?2 mbar at room temperature are found to display mixed crystalline vanadium oxide phases viz., VO₂, V₂O₃, V₂O₅. The films have been characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and their thermo-optical and electrical properties have been investigated. Studies of the deposited films by DSC have revealed a reversible-phase transition found in the temperature range of 45–49 °C.     

Twice Migrants in Canada: Who Are They and How Do They Perform Economically?

Immigrants known as “twice migrants” are those who arrive in Canada via an intermediate country, that is, not directly from their country of birth. With a focus on large contemporary immigrant groups in Canada—South Asians, Chinese and Filipinos in particular—this study develops socio-economic profiles of twice migrants and assesses their economic performance in comparison to that of direct migrants. The study uses custom tables of multiple national level datasets as well as qualitative interviews with a selected group of twice-migrant families to arrive at its findings. The results show that relative to direct migrants, twice migrants were older, more likely to speak a Canadian official language, slightly more educated and more skilled. These human capital characteristics did not however fully translate into economic success. Political and economic situations both in the country of birth and the country of last place of residence affect the flow of twice migration. Lack of job opportunities in Canada forced many twice migrant families to split between two countries.     

Assessing Agreement between the K10 and MHI-5 Measures of Psychological Wellbeing

Responses to the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale (K10) and the Mental Health Index-5 (MHI-5) mental health subscale of the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form (SF-36) survey cover broadly similar constructs. The aim of this paper is to use the equipercentile method to produce a concordance between K10 and MHI-5 across the whole score distribution. Comparisons were made using survey data from the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women’s Health (ALSWH) and the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey, which used both the K10 and the MHI-5 measures at the same time for the same participants. Agreement was assessed with Bland-Altman plots. The differences between MHI-5 scores and transformed K10 scores were assessed with paired t-tests. For the ALSWH data there is good agreement between MHI-5 scores and scores equated from the K10. The mean of the differences is −0.15 with standard deviation 10.8. Using the ALSWH transformation on the HILDA data for different age groups and genders, the mean differences ranged from 0.43 to 3.38 with corresponding standard deviations of 11.1 to 9.9. The concordance table was very similar to one obtained by the more complicated item response theory method. The results suggest that longitudinal surveys of the same respondents that previously used MHI-5 could adopt the K10 (or vice versa) without loss of comparability.