Jayanti Basu

Abstract: The virtue of humility is lauded by most authorities but opinions of what it is, what it includes and what it does not are multifarious. Religious and philosophical traditions in India stress its role in emancipating the ego and providing an understanding for one’s perspective as contrasted against the magnanimity of the Almighty, the Supernatural or the Universe. Most academicians within the scientific psychological realm also look upon humility as a virtue. Accredited as a powerful tool for personal, social and organisational well-being, humility, as a moral construct, deserves a thorough and detailed exploration to reveal what it entails, what its corollaries are and how it can be measured. It is particularly useful in Indian context, as indigenous traditions have always emphasised humility. However, such efforts have remained relatively neglected till recent years. Of course, a few researchers with emphasis on moral and positive psychology have probed and prodded this concept to lay bare its comprising elements and to build tools to measure it. These attempts have been discussed here. Information was culled from surveying the scientific literature of the past four decades from psychological and philosophical journals and handbooks. Its overlap with Indian concept of humility has been discussed, and the unresolved questions about its nuances are put forward for future research endeavour.

Abstract: The study explored the relation of marital quality with gender role stereotype. A cohort of 350 couples aged 30–50 years were assessed for marital quality, gender role identity and gender role attitude. Results revealed a preference for traditional pattern, as masculinity for men and femininity for women were associated with better marital quality. Modern gender role attitude was significantly associated with marital quality in case of non-working women, but not with other categories. The results have been discussed in the context of cultural notions of gender.

Abstract: Intelligence testing was one of the earliest interests of psychologists in India. Adaptation of Western intelligence tests has been a focus of psychologists in the first half of the last century. Indigenous development of intelligence tests has been attempted, but diversity of language and culture, complexity of school systems, and infrastructural inadequacies have emerged as major hindrances to such development. Intelligence tests are presently used to identify disability, assess eligibility for welfare, and account for gaps in potentiality and performance in school, rehabilitation, and guidance. Attention to the upper stratum of intelligence and identification of the gifted is relatively neglected. Tests commonly used for direct intelligence assessment, and in relation to developmental problems, specific learning disability, and autism spectrum disorder, have been briefly discussed. Future efforts should be directed toward developing intelligence tests suitable for Indian culture using an information pr...

Abstract: Marital quality in connection to its demographical and psychological correlates has been studied extensively in the West. In India also, it has been given considerable attention, but adequate exploration of relevant psychological variables is still wanting. The present study was conceptualized in this context to explore differences in the Personality factors, Attachment styles and Coping strategies in couples with good and poor marital quality. Data were collected from 90 couples for initial screening. Finally 20 couples with good marital quality and 20 couples with poor marital quality were selected based on scores of Marital Quality Scale. The tools used for screening were Marital Quality Scale and General Health Questionnaire-28. Other tools consisted of Neo Five Factor Inventory, Attachment style Questionnaire, and Coping Check list. Analysis revealed that the husbands with poor marital quality had higher neuroticism, less extraversion, less secure attachment style, less problem focused coping and acceptance, and greater denial than those with good marital quality. Wives with poor marital quality differed significantly from the wives with good marital quality in terms of less religious coping, acceptance and social support. The findings of the study may be utilized for advising maritally distressed couples by enhancing their coping resources and utilizing attachment potentials for furtherance of quality of married life.

Abstract: Background: Parkinsonism is known to be associated with clinically significant impairments on an array of cognitive deficits. The degree of impairment is dependent not only on the course of the disease, but also on other bio-social factors. The objective of the present study was to examine the cognitive dysfunction in non-demented idiopathic Parkinson's disease (IPD) in relation to age, stage of disease, and educational level in a sample in Kolkata, India. Materials and Methods: The sample consisted of 51 (42 males, 9 females) right-handed patients suffering from non-demented IPD, of age between 40 and 82 years. Data were collected during on-phase medication by using the Kolkata Cognitive Screening Battery. Data were analyzed using means, standard deviations, and multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA). Results and Conclusion: The patients with IPD were impaired in comparison to the available normative data in almost all aspects of cognitive functioning and higher order mental processes. With increasing age, the patients showed greater impairment in delayed memory and recognition task. Patients of more severe stage showed greater impairment in MMSE, delayed recall, and information. Those with lower education had more impaired visuoconstructional ability, information, comprehension, similarities, and arithmetic.

Abstract: Preface (1999) Preface (1990) 1. Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire I. 'Women' as the Subject of Feminism II. The Compulsory Order of Sex/Gender/Desire III. Gender: The Circular Ruins of Contemporary Debate IV. Theorizing the Binary, the Unitary and Beyond V. Identity, Sex and the Metaphysics of Substance VI. Language, Power and the Strategies of Displacement 2. Prohibition, Psychoanalysis, and the Production of the Heterosexual Matrix I. Structuralism's Critical Exchange II. Lacan, Riviere, and the Strategies of Masquerade III. Freud and the Melancholia of Gender IV. Gender Complexity and the Limits of Identification V. Reformulating Prohibition as Power 3. Subversive Bodily Acts I. The Body Politics of Julia Kristeva II. Foucault, Herculine, and the Politics of Sexual Discontinuity III. Monique Wittig - Bodily Disintegration and Fictive Sex IV. Bodily Inscriptions, Performative Subversions Conclusion - From Parody to Politics

Abstract: Coren and Porac (1976) reported that objects looked larger in the right eye of right-eye dominant subjects and in the left eye of left-eye dominant subjects. This paper attempts to repeat that finding. Two circles of same or different size were presented haploscopically in a binocular three-field tachistoscope, to right or left visual half-field and to the upper or lower visual field, one to the right eye and one to the left. A total of 43 subjects reported which of the two circles was the larger, each subject carrying out 120 trials of the experiment. Overall subjects reported that the stimulus to the left eye was significantly larger than that presented to the right eye. There was no association with eye dominance, and therefore the Coren and Porac finding could not be repeated. There was however a very significant association with handedness, left-handed subjects tending to report that the stimulus in the right eye looked larger, and right-handed subjects reporting that the stimulus in the left eye looked larger.

Abstract: Using evolutionary psychology as a theoretical framework, it is argued that conspicuous consumption serves as a means by which men communicate their social status to prospective mates. Accordingly, men’s endocrinological responses, particularly their testosterone levels, are responsive to fluctuations in their status as triggered by acts of conspicuous consumption. Study 1 reports that men’s testosterone levels increased and decreased partially (directionally), after driving an expensive sports car and an old family sedan, respectively. Additionally, the location of the drive, either a busy downtown area or a semi-deserted highway, partially moderated this response. Study 2 demonstrates that when men’s social status was threatened by the wealth displays of a male confederate in the presence of a female moderator, their testosterone levels increased. This is suggestive of an evolved mechanism for responding to intra-sexual challenges. Collectively, these constitute the first set of studies to measure hormonal outcomes in consumer behavior.

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