Ajit K. Dalal

Psychological Recovery of Accident Victims with Temporary and Permanent Disability

Abstract The main objective of this study was to examine the role of causal beliefs in the psychological recovery of temporarily and permanently disabled accident victims. Patients (N = 41) from a government hospital and private nursing homes in Allahabad city, India, were interviewed one week and three weeks after the accident. The doctors report of their recovery was also obtained each time. The permanently disabled patients were found less motivated to search for the causes of the tragic went. When asked to make attribution, permanently disabled attributed the accident more to external factors than those who were temporarily disabled. Chance and Gods will were the cause more frequently mentioned. Attributions to Karma and Gods will were significantly correlated with psychological recovery. The sense of personal control was not found to be a good index of psychological recovery. Number of compliints made by the patients and their depressive symptoms, as observed by the doctors, negatively correlated ...

Social interventions to moderate discriminatory attitudes: the case of the physically challenged in India.

Abstract Disability attitudes are major barriers in improving life conditions of physically challenged people in developing countries. Studies have shown that people, in general, harbour negative and paternalistic attitudes towards persons with disabilities. Myths, legends, scriptures and folklores are all part of the cultural belief system that shape such attitudes. The physically challenged frequently suffer more due to societal prejudices than due to their disabling physical conditions. The social and physical environment in which these physically challenged live is often designed without much consideration of their special needs. In this article, some social interventions aimed at changing disability attitudes of rural people in India are discussed. As part of a community-based rehabilitation programme, the main thrust of these interventions was to shift attention of local communities from disabilities to abilities of the physically challenged. The efficacy of these social interventions is discussed.

Role of causal and recovery beliefs in the psychological adjustment to a chronic disease

Abstract The main objective of this study was to establish linkages of beliefs about the factors responsible for the disease (causal beliefs) and for recovery from the disease (recovery beliefs) with perceived control and psychological adjustment to a chronic disease. Seventy hospitalized male, Hindu, chest tuberculosis patients were interviewed. The mean ratings on causal factors (Gods will and Karma) and on recovery factors (doctor and God) were found to be high. In general, attribution to external causes (others carelessness and family conditions) and beliefs in cosmic recovery factors (God and fate) had negative correlations with the psychological adjustment. Again, perceived control over the disease was linked with better adjustment. A cultural difference hypothesis was proposed to explain coping with a chronic disease.

Cultural Beliefs and Family Care of the Children with Disability

This study investigates cultural beliefs about physical disability prevalent in a rural community in India. An equal number of respondents (n = 32 each) of Allahabad district were drawn from families having a child with a disability and those having no member with a disability. Interviews were conducted to study disability related attitudes, perceptions and practices. The results reveal that the families with disabled children expressed fatalistic attitudes and external dependence, that is, expected external agencies to cater to their rehabilitation needs. The implications of these findings for developing rehabilitation programmes in rural areas are discussed.

AN INTEGRATION THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF EXPECTED JOB ATTRACTIVENESS AND SATISFACTION

Two experiments were performed to study job evaluation processes, using methods of information integration theory. Prospective job seekers rated hypothetical job descriptions according to (a) how much they would like to accept the job, and (b) how satisfied they would feel with the job of that kind. Job descriptions were constructed from a Context x Content factorial design, with 0.0, 0.5, and 1.0 proportion of good items as levels of the two stimulus factors. Graphic plots of the Context x Content effect on liking and expected satisfaction ratings showed a near-parallelism, though a small nonadditive component was also present. Critical tests on both the group and individual subject data eliminated the adding rule and the multiplying rule, and supported the averaging rule. The averaging model was able to account for both the additive and nonadditive patterns in judgments of expected job attractiveness and satisfaction. Practical implications of the averaging of job factors for employee satisfaction were discussed.

Causal Attributions of Ex-Criminal Tribal and Urban Children in India

Summary Attribution of responsibility to social events by children of ex-criminal tribes and nontribal urban children of Allahabad City, India was studied. Sixty children were equally distributed for three age levels and two levels of ethnicity. All children read six hypothetical events which were either socially desirable or undesirable and attributed causality for those events either to person or to situation. A 2 × 3 × 2, Ethnicity × Age × Social events, analysis of variance was performed on person attribution scores. The main effect of ethnicity was not significant, but its interactions with age and social events were significant. In general, ex-criminal tribal children attributed causality to person for undesirable events and to situation for desirable events. No such differences were found in the case of urban children. These findings were examined in the light of differences in early socialization and school environment.

Disability–Poverty Nexus: Psycho-Social Impediments to Participatory Development

The article examines the close nexus between disability and poverty that renders the disabled people the poorest among the poor. It discusses psycho-social and environmental impediments which prevent active participation of the poor with disability in developmental programmes. In this context, the article particularly focuses on social exclusion which nourishes on negative attitudes, prejudices, stigma and discrimination, together with inaccessible physical environment. The poor with disabilities have remained passive targets and recipients, not stakeholders and participants, and as a result they hardly benefit from health, educational and employment schemes and are caught in a vicious downward spiral. It is argued that dealing with psycho-social and physical barriers is an important prerequisite for active participation of the poor with disabilities in the developmental programmes.

An Attributional Study of High and Low Need Achievers in India

Abstract Causal attributions for repeated success and failure by individuals differing in their achievement needs were examined. Undergraduate students (N=48) of Allahabad University, Allahabad, India were selected as high and low need achievers by administering the Indian adaptation of the Edward Personality Preference Schedule. The students were given anagram tasks on which they either succeeded or failed in all three trials. High need achievers showed an increased tendency, in comparison to low need achievers, to attribute success to their own efforts and to attribute failure to both lack of effort and task difficulty. As predicted by Weiners theory, affective responses correlated with internal causes and expectations with stable causes. These linkages were, however, stronger in the case of high need achievers under the failure condition.

Integrating Traditional Services within Primary Health Care

This article critically reviews the current status of primary health care services in India. It was observed that medical services have primarily relied on Western medicine, and are incompatible with prevailing health beliefs and practices. The failure of Western medicine and, as a consequence, that of primary health care, calls for developing some culturally compatible health care models for India. The traditional health services that have existed for thousands of years and have wide acceptance and application throughout India need to be rejuvenated and integrated within the existing health care programmes. The possibilities of such hybrid services are explored in this article to improve the quality of health and well-being of the masses.

WHEN THE HELP IS DENIED: A STUDY OF ATTRIBUTION‐LINKED AFFECTIVE REACTIONS

Abstract Two experiments were conducted to examine attribution-affect linkages in situations where help is denied. In experiment 1, two helping scenarios, in social and in academic context, were presented. The causal explanations given for not helping were manipulated to see their effect on affective reactions of the person who was denied help. These explanations covered all eight combinations of locus (internal-external), controllability (controllable-uncontrollable), and stability (stable-unstable) dimensions. For each explanation, undergraduate students of Allahabad University (N = 75) predicted affective reactions, assuming themselves to be the person denied help. Findings confirmed that attribution-affect linkages were stable and systematic. Furthermore, controllability dimension accounted for most of the linkages. Experiment 2 (N = 45) tested the reversibility of the attribution-affect linkages. In that, affective reactions were manipulated and subjects inferred the communicated explanations for not...