Psychology

The Loneliness scale was developed with the objective of testing the level of loneliness of adolescents. For construction of the scale, literature on loneliness was surveyed and scanned. This scale is meant for Indian adolescents ranging between the age group of 14 to 18 years and studying in the classes IX to XII. Present loneliness scale is a 5-point self-rating scale. Every item is in the question form. Five response categories are provided for responding to every question. The scale has undergone all the steps of construction and standardization including initial and final try out and hence can be used to assess loneliness among adolescents.

Present study was conducted to develop and validate an indigenous inventory, for the measurement of cognitive and behavioral development in the adult learners, because at present no appropriate scale is available through which one can measures these learning domains in Pakistani cultural context, therefore scale was developed through standardized procedure. Such as, related literature was studied and various rationales were floated in the population of the study. Informal discussions were also held on the topic. On the basis of responses of students, the researcher generated about 90 items for the instrument. After item evaluation through experts’opinion the numbers of the items were reduced to 60and few changes and modifications were also made in proposed scale. A tool consisting of 60 items was administered on male (80), female (100) of higher secondary and degree level students for the empirical evaluation of each item. The researcher analyzed data with the help of SPSS 16.0 by using factor analysis, correlation, alpha coefficient and percentile analysis. After factor analysis 10 more items were deleted from the scale and only 50items were retained in finalized scale , furthermore, five basic dimensions emerged as the result of varimax rotation which were termed as subscales namely, Personal, social and academic factors (10 items), Cognitive maturity (14 items), Learning Distracters (11 Items), Proactive Behavior ( 8 Items) and Synergy (07 Items). For the establishment of norms percentile scores were calculated, the higher score on cognitive and behavioural development indicates higher level of cognitive and behavioural maturity. On the basis of its reliability and validity scale is considered reliable and valid tool for the measurement of cognitive development of the adult learners.

Behavioral problems have remained a critical problem among girls incarcerated in rehabilitation schools. The study adopted a quasi-experimental research design with the two rehabilitation schools being randomly assigned into either treatment or control group. Quantitative method was used to collect the data through the use of questionnaire and Achenbach youth self-report (YSR) (11-18 years). Baseline data was first collected in the two sites. The data was analyzed using SPSS version 21. T-test, Chi square, Anova as well as Ancova tests were carried. The prevalence rates for depression, anxiety disorder and conduct disorder were 66.7%, 70.5% and 55% respectively. In the experimental group the study shows statistically significance difference in mean differences scores at both post-treatment one and two (p<0.001). Therefore this is an indication that MST had an impact on post treatment one and two among juvenile delinquents in experimental as opposed to control groups. The results provide significant insights into effectiveness of MST on selected behavioral problems among Juvenile girls incarcerated in rehabilitation schools.

By the year 2020 depression would be the second major cause of disability-adjusted life years lost, as reported by the World Health Organization. Depression is a mental illness which causes persistent low mood, a sense of despair, and has multiple risk factors. Its prevalence in primary care varies between 15.3-22%, with global prevalence up to 13% and between 17-46% in Saudi Arabia. Despite several studies that have shown the benefit of early diagnosis and cost-savings of up to 80%, physicians in primary care setting continue to miss out on 30-50% of depressed patients in their practices. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted at Jazan region, Saudi Arabia aiming at estimating the point prevalence of depression among healthy adults, data was collected by using standardized of the PHQ-9 questionnaire. Collected data were analyzed using SPSS ver. 20. About 347 subject adults of age 20 up to 60 years old participated in this study, 49% were male and 51% were female, About 347 subject adults of age 20 up to 60 years old participated in this study, 49% were male and 51% were female, majority (70%) within the age group from 30 - 40 years old, 65 % were single and 62% were students. The study indicated that about only 15% of subjects had no symptoms of depression while 85% of subjects had symptoms of depression varies from minimal symptoms to moderate major depression, where 30% had Minimal symptoms, 27% had mild major depression and 28% had moderate major depression. 

Being a Christian and clinical psychologist our worldview must be determined by Scripture because all truth is Gods truth. Our understanding of mental illness and disorder should also be based upon a biblical worldview. Our therapeutic practice will utilize Scripture to heal our clients for the glory of God. Psychology, then, in the Christian framework, is not an independent activity that operates apart from God; it is dependent upon Gods mercy to illuminate human understanding on therapeutic intervention and research. Human spirituality is a source of great strength. Christians recognize that psychological observations illuminate our understanding of human cognition, emotionality and experience. The Bible gives some very specific instructions on how one might become more emotionally and spiritually healthy, psychology gives us insight into the emotional and mental dynamic of our experience and provides us with tools to enact the Bible?s instructions. This article will therefore focus on Deciphering the Discipline of Clinical Psychology through the Eyes of Faith.

For women of childbearing age, the major challenge is the risk of maternal death as a result of poor health during pregnancy and childbirth. This study explores socio-cultural factors and their implications on maternal health in rural communities in Nigeria using Owukpa community and Obollo-Eke community as study areas. The data were generated from a cross sectional survey of mothers aged 15-49years in both communities whether married or unmarried. A cluster random sampling procedure and non probability sampling were adopted to select 572 respondents for the study, out of this 560 constituted the questionnaire which was the major instrument for data collection, and 12 was based on in-depth interview guide. The result shows that most of the factors identified have serious implications for maternal health in the two communities though the degree at which the factors affect health varied. The factors include; education, poverty, nutrition, lack of basic social amenities, inadequate and inaccessible health care services, lack of family planning, low status of women, gender base violence, and paternity pattern. The study revealed that paternity pattern practised in the two communities differed, The result also shows that certain attitudes like; early marriage, delay in seeking service, sex preference and desire for many children, and sexual activities among the unmarried affect the health of women however with certain degree of variations among the two communities.

This study attempted to bring Critical Language Testing principles into practice by means of distributing the power, traditionally hold by teachers as the only source of knowledge, in a more unprejudiced way. The study took advantages of three features of fifteen CLT principles proposed by Shohamy (2001).Based on the first feature, which is encouraging an active, critical response from test-takers; learners could develop an assessment scale including five components which was used in the subsequent steps in their peer assessment. In line with the second principle, which is admitting to the limited knowledge of any tester and the need for multiple sources of knowledge, learners moved toward the leading edge taking the control of assessment process to some extent. Peer assessment as one criterion of democratic assessment was applied. The third principle exploited in the study was considering ‘interpretive’ approaches to assessment that allow for different meanings and interpretations rather than a single absolute truth. Students’ scores were reported by both quantitative and interpretive modes with some suggestive sentences. In this way learners’ voices are validated. After that and in line with “consequential validity” as one component of alternative assessment, it went through completing the process by bringing testees’ problematic areas into the teaching syllabus in a systematic way. With a qualitative study learners’ (the most critical figures of all assessment procedures) attitudes toward rejecting or retaining CLT principles were inquired. They, offering one caveat, which was the significance of teacher assessment to them, pronounced the method as a striking system.

The purpose of this study was to extend the existing body of knowledge on course stress related with university students. A conceptual framework which illustrates four dimensions of coursework stress including coursework worries, lack of skills to perform coursework, dis-likeness towards coursework and attitudinal problems in performing coursework was developed. The present research was a descriptive study which used an indigenous research instruments to measure the coursework stress in the context of university students. The study was carried out on a sample of 100 university students which explored the impact of demographic variables including gender, age, and discipline, employment of the students and level of education on determining the level of coursework stress. Result of the study revealed that the phenomenon of coursework stress does exist among the university students. Female students and younger students experience higher coursework stress, as compared to male and older students. The findings also indicated that different demographic variables contribute significantly in determining the level of coursework stress among M. Phil and PhD. students.

Previous studies emphasizing that psychological interventions and pharmacological medications may have a small effect on depressive symptoms in coronary artery patients, and no beneficial effects on reduction of inflammatory markers and mortality rates. Recently there is increasing interest in whether positive psychological states have predictive power over and above depressive symptoms for cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. The present study has intended to test and compare the correlation of plasma high sensitivity C-reactive protein and cortisol awakening response’s flexibility with positive psychological states and depression in 54 coronary artery patients. The results of this study indicated that the correlation between high sensitivity C-reactive protein and psychological states only for life satisfaction and subscale of hope "pathways in regard to goals" are significant. Moreover the correlations of cortisol awakening response’s flexibility with happiness, hope and depression were marginally significant. It is possible that directly building the positive psychological states may counteract negative symptoms and may also buffer against their negative biological outcomes.

The infant feeding decision is complex and involves the influence of psychological, social, and economic factors, and health care system. This study was examining a hypothesized model of relationship between social support, knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy in influencing breastfeeding practice. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional study which measuring all variables using questionnaires. All of the scales were translated into Indonesian language and the internal consistency reliability scores (Cronbach’s alpha) were found to be above 0.7 for all scales. A total of 173 nonworking mothers with babies between 0-6 months who joined the mother support group (MSG) program participated in this study. Hierarchical multiple regression test was used to assess the influence of social support, knowledge, attitude, and self-efficacy on breastfeeding. In order to test the hypothesized model of relationship between social support, knowledge, attitude, self-efficacy, and breastfeeding practice, structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for. Results: The results showed that only knowledge has significant influence on breastfeeding practice among the non working mothers (beta= .21, p= .01). Conclusions and implications: For nonworking mothers who joined MSG program, there was only knowledge that has significant influence on breastfeeding practice. MSG may be a suitable method to promote breastfeeding among Indonesian mothers.