Informatics Publishing Limited

Soma Pramanik ¹, Deepshikha Ray ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The 21st century has witnessed the rise of alternative voices regarding human dignity and worthwhile existence. Such advocacies of eudaimoma debate on issues of almost repugnant artificial prolongation of life over an autonomous and decorous existence; and also the contention of woman's identity as a tool of procreation versus her own will and self-direction. The present research has endeavoured to explore these apparently paradoxical issues which share a common underlying theme of human dignity and good living. Two 5 point scales for reviewing the attitude towards 'euthanasia' and 'abortion' were constructed following the initial directions of Thurstone and Chave (1929) and followed by relevant judgement by 11 experts. The sample consisted of 130 graduate, Hindu, urban/semi-urban individuals, aged between 21 to 40years; who were further categorized into two groups "Believers" and "Non-believers" based on the proposition of Bevacqua and Robinson-Kurpius (2008) that "it is not necessarily a particular religious affiliation that is of most importance, but instead any belief in a greater power might be the driving force behind a lower acceptance of one ending his or her life". The study reveals that non believers as well as women tend to have a more favourable attitude towards euthanasia as well as abortion. The results have been discussed keeping in mind that the contention of morality has contextual and feministic ramifications.

Keywords

Euthanasia, Abortion, Women.

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Prerona Ghosh ¹, Deepshikha Ray ¹, Sudeshna Das ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

The development of successful friendship is one of the important developmental milestones and is crucial for healthy adaptation. In the context of increasing social alienation in today's globalized world there is an emergent need to construct a reliable tool for assessing Quality of Friendship. Same-sex friendship is highly prevalent in the Indian society and is a significant contributor to an enhanced quality of life. Since, there is a dearth of a reliable tool for exploring friendship, the present study purported to construct a scale for assessing the Quality of Friendship. 370 healthy adult participants, of either sex, aged between 18-25 years were included in the study. The total sample was split into 3 sections - sample A(N=100), on which the Quality of Friendship Questionnaire (QFQ) was constructed; sample B (N=200), the data of which was utilized for reliability assessment and factor analysts; sample C (N=70) on which The Relationship Profile Test (Bornstein and Languirand, 2001) and The UCLA Loneliness Scale (Russell, 1996) was administered for the computation of convergent validity. Preliminary norms were developed based on the scores of Sample B and Sample C. Five factors emerged from Factor Analysts, namely -'Intimacy', 'Distress reaction', 'Negative behavior', 'Doubt' and 'Telling a He' and the final scale comprised of 87 items with a high reliability (Cronbach α=0.96). Further, a significant negative correlation between 'Quality of Friendship' and loneliness was obtained, along with a significant positive correlation between 'Quality of Friendship' and healthy dependence. Continued evaluation is needed to assess the utility of the QFQ for exploring 'Friendship' in the paradigm of positive psychology.

Keywords

Quality of Friendship, Relationship Profile, Same-Sex Friendship, Loneliness.

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Sudeshna Das ¹, Soma Pramanik ², Deepshikha Ray ², Mallika Banerjee ²

Affiliations
1 Tata Motors Hospital, Jamshedpur, IN
2 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

The study tries to explore the process of constructing meaning from the experience of being sexually abused in childhood. The focus of this study is to explore the dispositional characteristics to identify what helped them sustain the integrity of their sense of 'self' and 'existence' subsequent to intense sexual abuse that they had faced during their childhood. This study is part of a larger study in which the participants were selected through the use of a specially designed 'screening questionnaire' which sought information about the participants' life experiences and demographics in a subtle, non-invasive and non-threatening manner. The purpose of this study was to tap the unique and personal process of coping with a trauma of this stature. Three individuals participated in the present research and they shared their tribulations and unique process of coping with the researcher in an intensive interview that lasted for two hours and thirty minutes. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach was used to interpret the data. Significant themes that emerged after analysis were- the ability to focus one's psychic energy on alternative pursuits like career and academics, the capacity to obtain sustenance from relationships, the inner strength to free oneself from the vicious cycle of anger and vengeance and to look beyond; practising forgiveness and the ability to consider each experience as learning. Thus the common point in the process of meaning making is the ability of all these persons to make use of the positive repertoire of personality.

Keywords

Meaning, Sexual Abuse, Childhood.

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Sonia Agnes Mitra ¹, Deepshikha Ray ², Sudeshna Das ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, Calcutta University Kolkata, IN
2 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN
3 Department of Psychology, Practising Clinical Psychologist, AMRI Hospital, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

The aim of the present research was to examine the self perception with regard to body image of urban young adult females with a mean age of 21.99 years belonging to the upper-middle and middle-middle socio-economic status as measured by Kuppuswamy's socio economic status scale (2013). The participants did not have any history of any eating disorder or medical condition that poses any dietary restriction. The participants were assessed o socio Cultural Attitude towards Appperance Questionnaire (SATAQ-3; Thompson et al., 1995), The Body Satisfaction Scale (BSS) prepared by Slade et al. (1990), The Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ; Cooper et al., 1987) and the Rosenberg Self Esteem Scale (1965). The findings of the present study revealed that the participants did not endorse western stereotypes of body image and there was no significant association between their body image concerns and self perceptions.

Keywords

Body Image Satisfaction, Media Influence, Females.

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Sarah Hussain ¹, Deepshikha Ray ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

The study aimed to explore certain psychosocial variables, namely, self esteem, body image, obedience and piety in Indian Muslim male youths who underwent circumcision between the ages of 1 month to 3 years (early circumcision) and those between the ages of 8 to10 years (late circumcision). A sample of 90 participants (Early circumcised=50 and Late circumcised=40) belonging to the age range of 20 to 28 years with minimum qualification of pursuing under graduation were investigated on the above mentioned variables. The participants completed the following inventories for assessment- Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965); Body Image Concern Inventory (Littletona, Axsom, & Pury, 2005); The Religiosity and Spirituality Scale for Youth (Hernandez, 2011); Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (Altemeyer, 1981). The obtained data revealed that there is no significant difference between the two groups, that is, early circumcised and late circumcised Muslim males with regard to self esteem, body image concern, obedience and piety. The results were interpreted in terms of psychosocial and cultural constructs. The present study contributes by shading light upon the psychological impact of a traditional religious practice involving as sensitive an area as one's genitals. Along with the physiological impact of circumcision, a considerable deepening influence of it on the mental disposition is thought to exist. The results of the study are in stark contradiction to Western literature which highlights the detrimental psychological effects of circumcision. The results have been interpreted in terms of psycho-social and socio-cultural constructs.

Keywords

Circumcision, Self-Esteem, Body Image, Obedience, Piety, Muslims.

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Jayati Bhattacharyya ¹, Deepshikha Ray ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

The present study aims to assess the influence of locus of control and moral disengagement on the moral judgment of young adults. 80 males and 80 females of age group 21-25 years were assessed on the dimensions of locus of control and moral disengagement. It was found out how these factors predicted the moral judgments of the sample in two situations situation 1 where out-group is perpetrator of violent acts and situation 2 where out-group is victim of such acts. Results show positive relationship between moral disengagement and punitive moral judgement. Males, as a group, are more likely to endorse judgments on moral issues than that of females. Socially defined group boundaries as the in group out group dichotomy in the present study facilitates differential moral judgement for the two groups.

Keywords

Locus of Control, Moral Disengagement, Moral Judgement.

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Soma Pramanik ¹, Deepshikha Ray ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

A quick glance at the vast number of contemporary researches on happiness brings out terms like subjective wellbeing, satisfaction with life, contentment. Few researchers, in the current decade, however, have followed the qualitative paradigm, with the aim to “discover” the idea of and beliefs regarding happiness, as they occur in the society. The current research was a similar attempt, intended to extract the de-facto ideas that four contemporary young, urban, Bengali individuals, residing in Kolkata had regarding happiness. Sample constituted two males and two females; constructivist grounded theory was the method that was used. Analysis revealed conception of happiness to be intrinsic, which was expressed in terms of peace and contentment, and associated with compassion, forgiveness and “letting go”. Activities such as pursuing one's hobbies, participating in adventurous activities, focussing on one's goals and distraction were enumerated as ways and means that led to happiness. A harmonious relationship with individuals close to the participants was mentioned as a significant factor behind happiness.

Keywords

Happiness, Qualitative, Grounded Theory.

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Parama Gupta ¹, Chandrani Talukdar ¹, Sudeshna Das ², Deepshikha Ray ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN
2 Tata Motors Hospital, Jamshedpur, IN

Abstract

The present study attempts to explore the predictors of caregiver burden in parents of children with Autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The sample consisted of 20 parents (fathers=2; mothers=18) of individuals with ASD, with a mean age of the parents as 39.2 years (SD=8.01) and the age range of their children afflicted by ASD being 5 to 13 years. The predictors included 'Socio-Economic Status of the Caregivers'; assessed by "Socio-Economic Status Scale" by Kuppuswamy (1983); 'Age of Caregivers', 'Age of the Individual with ASD', 'Stigma of the Caregivers'; assessed on "Experience with Stigma Scale" by Werman and Schulman (2013); 'Functional status' of the individual with ASD was assessed by 'Katz Index of Activities of Daily Living' (Katz, 1983); and 'Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale' (Lawton & Brody, 1969). Care giver burden was assessed by the scale developed by Zarit et al. (1980). The results of Stepwise Multiple Regression Analysis revealed that 'Experience of Stigma' is the major predictor of'Caregiver Burden' and 63.5% of variations of score in 'Caregiver Burden' is explained by variations of score in 'Experience of Stigma'.

Keywords

Caregiver Burden, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Stigmatization.

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Jayati Bhattacharyya ¹, Deepshikha Ray ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Begal, IN
2 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The present study tries to investigate 'implicit moral reasoning' by using a priming paradigm wherein a prime can influence the categorization of a target word into two categories viz. 'morally wrong' or 'not morally wrong'. The participants comprised of healthy female young adults (age ranging from 18 to 25 years) with a minimum educational qualification of graduation in any discipline. The prime consisted of phrases (ranging from 5 to 9 words) denoting actions which are either a 'highly immoral activity' (e.g., 5 year old girl raped) or a 'highly moral activity' (e.g., girl jumps into river to save little brother). The target words had a 'non-moral' negative connotation (e.g., Distress, Illness). The prime and targets were presented with the help of a software designed for the purpose; the 'latency' of responding to the target and the 'frequency' of target being categorized into 'morally wrong' in each condition (i.e., variation of nature of prime) was measured. Statistical analysis revealed that target words (which are inherently unpleasant but without explicit moral connotation) are likely to be morally judged or categorised based on the nature of prime received by the participant (i.e., prime phrase denoting a moral activity or an immoral activity).

Keywords

Priming, Moral Judgement, Reasoning.

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Pramita Sengupta ¹, Jayati Bhattacharyya ², Deepshikha Ray ², Sudeshna Das ³, Reshmi Ghosh Palit ⁴

Affiliations
1 Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi Regional Institute of Mental Health, Tezpur, Assam, IN
2 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN
3 Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Tata Motors Hospital, Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, IN
4 Department of Psychology, Maharani Kasiswari College, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The present study aims to explore the cognitive basis of self-deception on the basis of the participants' performance on a deception task and its relation to other cognitive variables. A total of 130 healthy participants (58 males & 72 females) of the age range of 18-25 years having a minimum educational qualification of 'passed grade XII' were screened and selected for the study using General Health Questionnaire 28. By using an interview format, the researcher collected personally significant information from the participants to be used later in the deception task. An android based mobile application was prepared to generate and administer the deception task. The participants were also assessed on Stroop Task (www.onlinestrooptest.com), Eyesenck Personality Questionnaire (1975); Rotter's Locus of Control Scale (1954); Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale (1965); Generalized Self-Efficacy Scale (Schwarzer & Jerusalem, 1995). Statistical analysis revealed self-deception is related to personality and cognitive inhibition. The results were discussed in light of recent literature.

Keywords

Cognitive Inhibition, Deception, Stroop Task, Self-Deception.

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Saranya Banerjee ¹, Deepshikha Ray ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

Twin studies have mostly focused on the pattern of maladaptive behaviour manifested by the twins and their biological basis but the findings have remained controversial till date. The present case study explores the psychopathology in 14 year old twins of Indian origin. They were referred for psychometric assessment and psychotherapy for their conduct problems. The tools administered on them during psychometric assessment are Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children IV (WISC-IV), Rorschach Inkblot Test (RIBT) and Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Findings are discussed in terms of the personality processes and relationship quality of the twins.

Keywords

Twins, Psychopathology, Personality Processes, Relationship Quality.

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Parama Gupta ¹, Saheli Chatterjee ¹, Reshmi Palit ², Deepshikha Ray ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN
2 Department of Psychology, Maharani Kasiswari College, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The current research tries to unravel if primes which are not consciously perceivable can impact emotion categorization task. For this study, 101 healthy young adults (male = 38; female = 63) with mean age of males being 22.35 with an SD of 2 and that of females being 22.18 with an SD of 0.77 were made to perform a cognitive task where they had to categorize the emotion displayed by neutral faces after being primed by neutral and negative words, presented supraliminally or subliminally. A software SublimiX was used to generate subliminal stimuli and present the priming task. The neutral facial expressions were created using a software called FaceGen Modeller. General health Questionnaire (Goldberg, 1992) was administered to screen psychiatric morbidity in the participants. Results revealed an attention bias towards negative (unpleasant) stimuli.

Keywords

Prime, Subliminal, Supraliminal.

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Rupal Sorkhel ¹, Deepshikha Ray ¹, Jayati Bhattacharyya ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, W est Bengal, IN

Abstract

Morality has been a topic of avid interest among researchers with several attempts at defining it. The present research tries to study the relationship between social information processing attribution bias and moral judgment style in the Indian population by using the Social Information Processing-Attribution Bias Questionnaire (SIP-ABQ, Coccaro et al., 2009) and Moral Judgement Style Scale (Bhattacharyya & Ray, unpublished Ph.D. thesis, 2021). The sample consists of 206 young adults (aged between 19 to 33 years) out of which 100 are male and 106 are female. The results reveal that 'instrumental intent' significantly predicts 'moral judgment style' in both male and female participants while benign intent significantly predicts 'moral judgment style' only in female participants.

Keywords

moral judgement style, social information processing bias, instrumental intent

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Soumi Dey ¹, Arpita Mondal ¹, Abhradeep Sarkar ², Mouli Biswas ¹, Deepshikha Ray ³

Affiliations
1 Postgraduate Student, Department of Psychology University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN
2 Postgraduate Student, Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN
3 Associate Professor, Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, IN

Abstract

The current study tries to explore the effect of severity and duration of recovery from COVID-19 infection on visual memory scanning ability in 55 male and 65 female individuals with a mean age of 28.3 years (SD = 7.61). An android-based application (Psych Lab 101 version 2.1.2) was used to administer the Sternberg scanning test and visual memory scanning ability was indexed on the basis of accuracy and reaction time. The severity of the COVID- 19 infection was measured on the basis of a self-report measure “scale for subjective severity of COVID-19”. There were four groups of participants who were categorized on the basis of duration of recovery from COVID-19 infection, viz., “3 months”, “6 months” and “9 months” and one group “with no history of COVID-19 infection”. There was a significant statistical difference (p < 0.05) between the groups of subjects in terms of their reaction time (RT) in the memory task; the maximum response latency being shown by subjects who had most recently recovered from COVID-19. There was no significant difference between the four groups in terms of accuracy. The findings of the present study imply that COVID-19 infection creates mild deficits in cognitive functioning in recovered patients evidenced in terms of increased processing speed and the deficit is more in recently recovered patients.

Keywords

COVID-19, visual memory, cognitive deficits

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Soumi Dey ¹, Deepshikha Ray ²

Affiliations
1 Department of Psychology University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN
2 Department of Psychology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, West Bengal, IN

Abstract

The current research tries to explore the association between “sibling compatibility,” “recalled parental bonding in adulthood” and “adult attachment styles” in 60 male and 60 female individuals with a mean age of 37.45 years (SD =5.07) categorised into two groups in terms of the sex of their siblings, i.e., same sex opposite sex siblings. The constructs were measured using “Lifespan Relationship Scale “(Riggio, 2000). “The Parental Bonding Instrument” (Parker, Tupling, & Brown, 1979) and “Revised Adult Attachment Scale Close Relationship Version” (Collins, 1996) respectively. The findings of the present study highlight that compatibility in sibling relationships enhances the quality of recalled bonding with parents and attachment with close acquaintances and such a facilitatory process occurs independent of the sex of the participants. Also, female participants were found to report better sibling compatibility and there was an increased prevalence of “fearful style of attachment” among participants with opposite sex siblings.

Keywords

recalled parental bonding, sibling compatibility, adult attachment style, same sex siblings.

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