Humility: An Emerging Construct in Moral Psychology

The virtue of humility is lauded by most authorities but opinions of what it is, what it includes and what it does not are multifarious. Religious and philosophical traditions in India stress its role in emancipating the ego and providing an understanding for one’s perspective as contrasted against the magnanimity of the Almighty, the Supernatural or the Universe. Most academicians within the scientific psychological realm also look upon humility as a virtue. Accredited as a powerful tool for personal, social and organisational well-being, humility, as a moral construct, deserves a thorough and detailed exploration to reveal what it entails, what its corollaries are and how it can be measured. It is particularly useful in Indian context, as indigenous traditions have always emphasised humility. However, such efforts have remained relatively neglected till recent years. Of course, a few researchers with emphasis on moral and positive psychology have probed and prodded this concept to lay bare its comprising elements and to build tools to measure it. These attempts have been discussed here. Information was culled from surveying the scientific literature of the past four decades from psychological and philosophical journals and handbooks. Its overlap with Indian concept of humility has been discussed, and the unresolved questions about its nuances are put forward for future research endeavour.     

Born lucky? The relationship between feeling lucky and month of birth

Research suggests that season of birth is associated with several psychiatric and neurological disorders, and also with adult monoamine neurotransmitter turnover. Personality traits are modulated in part by neurotransmitters; and population studies show season of birth variations in adult personality traits such as novelty seeking. Also, neurotransmitters are involved in suicidal behavior; and studies have found season of birth associations with suicide methods. The present general population survey was conducted via the Internet, and involved 29,584 self-selected participants (51.6% women) from 67 countries. For those born in the UK (75.6%), we investigated the relationship between season of birth, the participant’s belief in being a lucky person, and personality attributes related to this belief. In both genders and in all age groups, birth during the summer half-year was associated with significantly higher belief in being lucky, as compared to birth during the winter half-year, with a maximum around birth in May and a minimum around birth in November. Women scored significantly higher on listening to intuition and employing techniques to improve intuition, in perseverence, believing in positive long-term outcomes, and chatting to strangers. Men scored significantly higher on feeling lucky, not worrying or dwelling on failures, and expecting good things in life.     

Prior distributions on symmetric groups

Fully and partially ranked data arise in a variety of contexts. From a Bayesian perspective, attention has focused on distance-based models; in particular, the Mallows model and extensions thereof. In this paper, a class of prior distributions, the Binary Tree, is developed on the symmetric group. The attractive features of the class are: it provides a closed-form solution to the posterior distribution; and a simple way to interpret the parameters of the prior distribution. The advantages of the proposed method are illustrated by comparing it to metric-based models using data analyzed by other researchers in this context.This revised article was published online in August 2005 with the PDF paginated correctly.     

Marital Quality and Gender Role Stereotype

The study explored the relation of marital quality with gender role stereotype. A cohort of 350 couples aged 30–50 years were assessed for marital quality, gender role identity and gender role attitude. Results revealed a preference for traditional pattern, as masculinity for men and femininity for women were associated with better marital quality. Modern gender role attitude was significantly associated with marital quality in case of non-working women, but not with other categories. The results have been discussed in the context of cultural notions of gender.     

Personality Factors,Attachment Styles and Coping Strategies in Couples with Good and Poor Marital Quality

Marital quality in connection to its demographical and psychological correlates has been studied extensively in the West. In India also, it has been given considerable attention, but adequate exploration of relevant psychological variables is still wanting. The present study was conceptualized in this context to explore differences in the Personality factors, Attachment styles and Coping strategies in couples with good and poor marital quality. Data were collected from 90 couples for initial screening. Finally 20 couples with good marital quality and 20 couples with poor marital quality were selected based on scores of Marital Quality Scale. The tools used for screening were Marital Quality Scale and General Health Questionnaire-28. Other tools consisted of Neo Five Factor Inventory, Attachment style Questionnaire, and Coping Check list. Analysis revealed that the husbands with poor marital quality had higher neuroticism, less extraversion, less secure attachment style, less problem focused coping and acceptance, and greater denial than those with good marital quality. Wives with poor marital quality differed significantly from the wives with good marital quality in terms of less religious coping, acceptance and social support. The findings of the study may be utilized for advising maritally distressed couples by enhancing their coping resources and utilizing attachment potentials for furtherance of quality of married life.     

Cognitive functioning,personality variables and academic achievement of hemophilic and normal children: A comparative study

The present study was conceptualized in the context of the psychosocial needs of Hemophilic children and adolescents of Kolkata. Twenty four Hemophilic children and adolescents were compared with a matched group of normal controls to find out any specific difference in terms of visuomotor gestalt functioning, intellectual level, academic achievement and personality dimensions. Academic achievement was assessed by averaging the results of the last three consecutive school examinations. Intellectual functioning was assessed by Progressive Matrices by Raven, and personality dimensions were assessed by Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Chi square tests and ANOVA were conducted to determine whether the Hemophilic children differed significantly from the normal controls across age levels. Findings revealed that there was little difference between the two groups in terms of intellectual level, and most dimensions of personality, although the Hemophilics fared worse than normals in neuropsychological, social and academic aspects. Implication for intervention is discussed.     

The influence of gender stereotype on projection of aggression in the rosenzweig picture frustration study

The present study analyzes the aggressive responses of children to pictorially presented frustrating situations in the Rosenzweig Picture Frustration Study in terms of the sex of the subjects and the sex of the figures. The sample consists of 22 male and 22 female children matched with each other in terms of a number of variables. The results reveal no effect of sex of the child on aggressive responses; however, the sex of the frustrated figure depicted in the pictures significantly affects type and direction of aggression in both male and female subjects. The findings are discussed in terms of gender stereotype.