Informatics Publishing Limited

Kavita Koradia , Medha Sharma , Darshan Narang

Abstract

The world is going through a demographic transition. During the last few decades, there has been a tremendous increase in the population of elderly persons. The reasons are multi factors: socio-economic progress, healthier life style, better environmental conditions, increased availability of high quality medical care, wide range of life saving drugs, new-surgical techniques and immunization programs have drastically reduced mortality rate and thus , increased life expectancy ( Bhandari , 1999). In such a scenario ,corporate hubs are started looking for these people as the future workforce. The ultimate goal of promoting longevity should be to improve quality of life, personal effectiveness and happiness Thus, the present study was planned with the aim to asses the level of happiness and personal effectiveness of personality typeA/B aging adults. The purposive sample comprised of 120 aging adults (60-70 years) who retired from government jobs. Equal number of male and female aging adults, having personality type A and B, belonging to middle SES were included in the sample. SES scale developed by Bhardwaj (2001) ,ABBPS developed by Dhar and Jain (1983) to measure personality type A and B, Personal effectiveness inventory developed by Pareek (2001) and Happiness scale by responses of the subjects. Percentages, mean scores, S.D. and‘t’ test were computed to analyze the data. Findings of the study revealed that personality type A males ( joint and nuclear families) and personality type B males (Joint families) were found to be high on self disclosure. Majority of females had low self disclosure irrespective of their personality type and family setup. Type A / B females (Joint and Nuclear families) and type B males were found to be more open to feedback. Majority of personality type A / B aging adults had low perceptiveness. Majority of females were found to be task obsessed irrespective of their personality type and family set up. Significant differences were found in openness to feed back among type B females and males living in nuclear and joint families. A significant gender difference was found in level of happiness of male and female aging adults living in nuclear and joint families. Both personality type A and B males were found happier in joint families whereas the reverse was true in case of females with personality A and B.

Full Text

   

Sarika Khandelwal ¹, Kavita Koradia ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Home Science, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur, Rajasthan, IN

Abstract

Literature on meditation suggests multi fold benefits on personality. Yet, very few researches explored meditation in its traditional context utilising both empirical and anecdotal evidence to get insights about the way it impacts the practitioners and their subjective experiences. The study aims to explore the impact of a Buddhist Mediation retreat on Depression, Stress, Anxiety and Affect regulation of participants and their qualitative outcomes. One hundred subjects were studied through convenience sampling who participated in a ten day meditational retreat for the first time at Tushita Meditation Centre. Further, qualitative analysis was conducted on ten participants who exhibited significant changes on their quantitative measures to understand their motivation, deeper perspectives and experiences of the retreat. The retreat was found to be effective in reducing the severity of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms significantly and also in regulation of emotions (all p >0.001). The qualitative analysis yielded overarching themes - (a) Self development, Distress and imbalance regulation; (b) Self exploration, Insightful values and Physical challenge; (c) internalizing Impermanence and attaining Equanimity. The findings revealed a complex and dynamic set of interdependent outcomes and processes, which are reinforced by Buddhist teachings and ethical practices. It also provides a detailed understanding on the impact of meditation retreat interventions which can be of strategic research benefit for studying as a model system to understand the transforming effects and in realizing the holistic effect of meditation training at an individual level. It also highlights the need to recontextualize traditional philosophies into modern meditation practices.

Keywords

Meditation Retreat, Psychological Impact, Subjective Impact.

Full Text