In Psychology

Human Potentials/Intelligence/Giftedness

1) ‘Ankur’ baseline assessment of ‘anganwadis’

Through the project ‘Ankur’, United Way of Mumbai (UWM) provides support towards the infrastructural development of Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) to make them more children friendly. This support includes the provision of early learning material and trained educational facilitators. Therefore UWM wanted to carry out a baseline assessment of these anganwadis to add more value to project ‘Ankur’.UWM collaborated with Jnana Prabodhini’s Institute of Psychology (JPIP) for this baseline assessment in 16 Anganwadi Centers (AWC) from Aurangabad. The plan was made to assess the status of development of children; Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) of

Anganwadi Workers (AWs); and exploring perceptions of parents.The total sample included 1058 number of children, 16 Anganwadi workers and 160 parents from 16 anganwadi centers.

A set of three tools, one each for each of the target groups, was prepared for this assessment.

1. प्रमासं – बालक विकास चाचणी or JPIP child development test
2. प्रमासं – अंगणवाडी सेविका प्रश्नावली or JPIP Anganwadi Workers Questionnaire, a rating scale for parents’
3. प्रमासं – पालकांचा अंगणवाडी विषयक दृष्टीकोन मापणी or JPIP Parents’Approach towards Anganwadi Center

Results showed that moderate levels of development were reached by most of the children in age groups 0-6 years with respect to physical, functional, cognitive, social, emotional, and language areas of development. The percentage of students showing low development was less than 10 in all areas except language. It was really praiseworthy. In the case of language development, it rose upto 20%. The percentage of children with high levels of development was around 20% in almost all areas and all groups with few exceptions. Therefore an effort to increase the percentage of children with high levels of development in all areas will be a welcome step. A well-coordinated action plan for raising the percentage of children in a higher level of development would be the real application of these project findings. Anganwadi workers appeared to have an appropriate attitude as their scores reached Good or Excellent grades only, which is really a notable finding. All the anganwadi workers had at least average or good knowledge and only a few had excellent knowledge. There is definite room for improving practices of anganwadi workers since the number of anganwadi workers having ood and excellent grades in this aspect are meager or missing. Maintaining various records, supplementary food distribution, home visits as well as refining habits of cleanliness among Anganwadi children were noticed as quite up to the mark. However, interventions for children’s intellectual, emotional, social, language, motor, creativity development need a long way to go. Intervention programs for anganwadi workers were strongly recommended,which led to awesome outcomes (Patwardhan, et al, 2010, 2016). Training programs for the usage of assignments, charts, question-answer sessions, good observation, and presentations in anganwadi may be planned. In a nutshell, the working hours of the anganwadi workers may be lessened by improving the quality of their services. Parents across all anganwadi centers (AWCs) reported that they have frequent interactions with anganwadi workers (AWs) and expressed satisfaction about their performance. Perceptions of parents towards 16 AWCs along with four points; objective information about AWCs, parents’ awareness about AWC’s functioning, their expectations about AWC and opinions about AWs were quite satisfactory. In general, perceptions were positive. Parents were very particular in sharing about many aspects of AWCs like infrastructure, food, facilities in a constructive manner. AWs were well recognized. Parents put forth ample specific suggestions to improve AWCs and AWs, which need careful consideration.

Principal Investigators – Dr. Sucharita Gadre, Dr. Sujala Watve, Duration – 6 Months

Dr. Pranita Jagtap, Dr. Anagha Lavalekar Funded by – United Way of

Research Assistants – Sai Mule, Jayashree Nangare Mumbai

2) Effect of Comprehensive Child Development Program (CCDP) on cognitive and inter-personal responses among middle-aged children: A gender-based study

Middle childhood is an important developmental phase which contributes to the foundations of cognitive and interpersonal abilities that will lead to productive and fulfilling adult life. This study explores the role of gender in the effect of an intervention program among children between ages 7-12 years. A total of 1107 children (574 boys and 533 girls) from Pune participated in the Comprehensive Child Development Program (during 2012-15) which comprised of seven-day intervention (duration of 35 clock hours). This intervention was based on Guilford’s SOI model and assessment was done using Behavior Observations and Rating Checklist. ANOVA was used for statistical investigation. Results indicated the positive effects of CCDP program in enhancing the cognitive and interpersonal responses among children.Ages 7 through 11 years comprise of middle childhood. Like early childhood, this is also a very important phase in a child’s life. This phase includes years during elementary education, where children start forming their peer circle in school, away from home. They also enjoy much more physical activities with peers through play and robust activities as compared to the previous developmental phases. Because of improved motor development, boys and girls in middle childhood can engage in a wide range of motor activities. These are also the years of primary socialization, where children learn essential social and moral norms. From a psychological perspective, around age 7 to11 a child is in the stage of concrete operations. As Piaget states, children are less egocentric at this age than before and develop abilities like logical reasoning, spatial thinking, understanding of causality, categorization,inductive and deductive reasoning, conservation, and working with numbers. Apart from these facets, development is also observed in the child’s working memory, reaction time,

processing speed, selective attention, and concentration as well. Healthy development in middle childhood forms an essential foundation for their future. That is why it is important to invest special efforts in this age group so that it helps in maximizing their future well-being.

Principal Investigator – Sujata Honap Duration – 1 year

Research Assistant – Veena Shepal Advisor – Mrunal Paranjape

Quality Of Life

3) Mental Health Assessment Screening Tool (MHAST)

The concept of mental health has become extremely relevant in recent decades. Rapid urbanization has brought deleterious consequences for mental health. Individuals are constantly surrounded by daily hassles and stressors. These are known to affect cognition and emotional mental health status negatively and escalate stress, pain, anxiety, unhealthy thoughts and emotions, burnout, anger, and other negative emotions. This further leads to unhealthy deviant behavior. This grey area of deviant behavior that lies between mental health and mental ill-health is likely to go unnoticed until some grave clinical symptoms arise. Though many tools are available to measure positive aspects of mental health as well as a clinical diagnosis of mental disorders, they are meant to tap healthy behavior or symptomatic behavior respectively. These tools can be best applied only by experts and trained professionals. It is well established that a large percentage of the population will fall in between the two ends, that is, serene positive mental health and serious psychobiological dysfunction.Today this percentage is growing at an alarming pace. Therefore, a tool to tap this grey area in-between these two ends is very much required, so that, work in the field of mental hygiene can be done. Such a tool is more likely to help in early identification of deteriorating mental health as well as in planning therapeutic measures at many workplaces.

The present tool is prepared for timely identification of mental health conditions suggesting maladaptive coping patterns reflected in emotion, thoughts, and behavior. The main aim of this test is to make individuals understand their mental health problems and provide them with all the necessary help. This tool will help individuals to identify the extent and severity of their mental health problems. It is intended for use for the age group of 18- 60 years. It is easy to administer and easy to understand. This will help to find out the present cognitive and emotional mental health status of adults working in any profession. Ten Domains were finalized to tap the grey area in between these two ends of the continuum. Seven domains assessing the negative side of mental health are depression, anxiety, and social withdrawal, the preoccupation of thoughts, mood, obsessive-compulsive tendencies, and personality problems. Whereas life satisfaction, productivity, and autonomy are the three domains assessing the positive side of mental health.

Many existing tools available for measurement of positive mental health as well as clinical diagnostic tools were reviewed. Based on this review 250 items were listed for ten above mentioned domains. The listed items were rated by five experts for content validity as well as aspect validity. Based on agreement among five experts 101 items were selected for the first draft. First, try out form was prepared. There were 101 items and 10 scales in this tool. This form was tried out on a sample of 200 adults in the age range of 18 to 60 from 2 criterion groups (100 from normal population + 100 who were seeking help from psychiatrists or counselors).Item analysis was done and based on the discrimination index taking two criterion groups 51 items were retained. Items from two scales showing low discriminating power were excluded/dropped from the test. Therefore, out of ten scales, only 8 scales (6 negative and 2 positive) are retained in the final version. The final version was standardized on a sample of 440 (238 from Normal population and 202 from Vulnerable population). The age range was 18 to 60+ years. For Normal population, 12 employment categories like IT professionals, private sector employees, government employees, etc. along with housewives and students were covered. On the other hand, the vulnerable population included individuals who were taking help for their mental health problems from Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and counselors. Six trained field investigators worked for about 6 months for data collection and data entry of this standardization sample. The total sample size for data collection was 440 (238 from normal Population + 202 from a vulnerable population). This data was analyzed statistically to find out validity, reliability, and norms. Three research assistants worked for 2 years and handled various responsibilities at every stage of tool development. Validity– Criterion validity, as well as concurrent validity of the tool, was established. Data from two criterion groups vulnerable and normal were compared for criterion validity. Three standardized questionnaires Life Satisfaction Scale, Quality of life scale and Family Culture Inventory were used for concurrent validity.The reliability of the test was calculated by using split half method and was found to be very high at 0.9.The test norms are provided in the form of four grades. Grades for negative domains are no signs, mild, moderate and severe. Grades for positive domains are low, moderate, high and very high.The final tool is a simple self- report inventory. It contains 51 items. An individual has to simply report how many times he /she experiences the stated behaviour and what is the intensity of that experience. The results captured are organized under eight domains including six unhealthy domains and two healthy domains. For the test separate report for psychologists and clients can be prepared. An individualized detailed computerized report is given to the client.

Principal Investigator – Dr. Sucharita Gadre Duration – 3 years

Research Assistant – Kalyani Ghodke, Manasi Kulkarni, Jayashree Nangare

Advisor – Dr. Sujala Watve

Motivation

4) Effect of Achievement Motivation Program: A Study of Socioeconomically Underprivileged Youth

This study investigated the effectiveness of achievement motivation training in increasing the level of achievement motivation of Youth. The youth participated in this study came from a deprived socioeconomic background. Scores on the SES scale indicated that 55.25% of youth belong to the lower middle class and 43.75% of youth belong to the lower class. The achievement motivation training program included modules on the concept of personality development, self-awareness, importance and types of motivation, goal setting, planning for achievement, thoughts, and emotions to achieve excellence, emotional management and motivating youth for achievements. Achievement motivation training conducted as a major part of the leadership development program by Jnana Prabodhini’s leadership development cell. The 25 college students from first and second-year, both male (19) and female (6) participated in this training. The total duration of the training program was 32 hours. Sessions were conducted twice a week for four months. A combination of various methods and techniques used were group discussion, checklists, worksheets, role play, watching the film, lectures, individual, pair and group task, etc. All these methods were useful to make the sessions interactive and to reach training content effectively. The single group pretest-posttest design was used in this study. The standardized projective test developed by Deo and Mohan (1986) was used to measure Achievement Motivation. The test consisted of five pictures and the students were asked to see a picture carefully for 30 seconds and write a story within four minutes with the help of four questions given in the test. A story was to be scored for Achievement imagery and subcategories. The total score for a story is the sum of

scores given for all categories and the total achievement motivation score is the sum of scores for all five stories. Level of Aspiration test developed by Bhargava and Shah (1996),a paper-pencil performance test was used to measure the level of aspiration. To assess the economic, educational and social status of the family of youth, a scale developed by Dubey and Nigam (2005) was used. Test of achievement motivation and level of aspiration were administered before and after training. Sixteen youth out of 25 solved both pre and post-test and they considered for data analysis. Effect of the achievement motivation training was tested using the non-parametric test-Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results indicate, posttest scores on achievement motivation is significantly higher than pre-test scores (z = -3.02, p = .003, r = -.53) with large effect size. For level of aspiration, significant increased is seen in scores of aspiration (z = -2.20, p = .03, r = -.39) with medium effect size. Further content analysis of stories showed an increase in frequencies on subcategories of achievement motivation they are -Achievement imagery, need for achievement, instrumental activity, positive anticipatory goal states, nurturant press (nurturing environment), and positive affective states.(This study conducted in collaboration with Leadership Development Cell, Jnana Prabodhini)

Principal Investigator – Dr. Pranita Jagtap Duration – 1 year

PUBLICATIONS

Research Articles

In Psychology

1) Lavalekar, A., Pande, K. (2019). A Study of Psychological Well-being and Work-life Balance of Female Nurses. Indian Journal of Nursing Sciences, Vol. 4(1), 9-14.

2) Lavalekar, A., Phalnikar, P., Pande, K. (2018). A Comparative Study of Quality of Life and Life Satisfaction of the CISF, ITBP and State Police Personnel. The International Journal of Indian Psychology, 6(2), 99-112, ISSN 2348-5396 (e), ISSN 2349-3429 (p).

3) Lavalekar, A., Phalnikar, P., Pande, K. (2018). Pain in the Uniform (exploring the quality of life and life satisfaction among lady officers from CISF and ITBP and police). The Indian Police Journal, Vol. 65(3), 1-10, ISSN 0537-2429.

4) Salve, S., Lavalekar, A. (2018). Effect of Gratitude Intervention on Emotional Intelligence in Adolescents. Indian Journal of Psychology and Education, Vol. 8(2), 147-150,ISSN 0537-2429.

5) Watve, S. & Watve, A. (2018). Naturalistic Intelligence (NI): Nature and Nurture.Journal of Ecological Society, Vol. 30-31, 24-34.

6) Patwardhan, V. (2018). How is assertive personality? Manokalp, 1(1), 34-36.

7) Patwardhan, V. (2018). Why and how assertive personality is built? Manokalp, 1(2),6-9.