Psychiatric Social Work articles list

Factor structure of schizotypal personality in india

Introduction: Schizotypal personality represents genetic underpinning of schizophrenia spectrum disorders; hence, it provides conceptual models for understanding psychosis as well as a scheme for high-risk group identification. The study of structure of schizotypal personality is largely confined to western societies, whereas its assessment in varied socio-cultural groups is highly required. Aim: To study the factor structure of schizotypal personality in an Indian population. Materials and Methods: A sample of 492 college students (age, Mean= 21.3, SD= 2.61) filled the Hindi translated version of 74- items Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) technique was used to test the fitness (consonance of the modeled relationships, among latent and observed variables, in the sampled population) of different schizotypal personality models, that is, two-, three-, four-, bi-, and uni-factor models. The best-fit model was also studied for Measurement Invariance (MI) across gender groups. Results: Three, four, and bi-factor models adequately fitted the data. Whereas, four-factor model was the best good-fit model. It also showed partially strong MI across gender groups. The internal consistency of total SPQ was 0.90 and of subscales ranged from 0.62 to 0.78. Men scored higher on several schizotypal facets but lower on social anxiety as compared to women. Conclusion: The factor structure of schizotypal personality in India is similar to that reported elsewhere in the world. Thus, the present study supports the generalisation of schizotypal personality construct to the Indian people.

Sanjay Kumar

A comparative study of social and economic aspect of migration

India is a country of immense diversity. It is home to people of many different racial, languages, ethnic, religious, and national backgrounds. Groups of people in India differ from each other not only in physical or demographic characteristics but also in distinctive patterns of behavior and these patterns are determined by social and cultural factors like language, region, religion, and caste. Apart from behaviour, economic development, level of education and political culture of the people in various social segments differ from region to region. More you can say that economy and cultures have been enriched by the contributions of migrants from round the globe. In an increasingly globalised world, migratory movements is continuously shaping the countries all over the world. Some countries like India and Ireland, which set the example of economic development and social integration, have the positive impact of the migration by globalisation and some countries like USA, which recently witness racism, xenophobia and discrimination have the negative impact on the migrants. It does not mean India do not face fragmentation and USA do not have cohesion. USA have many stories which show successful integration process, that facilitated the lives of immigrant communities, but being a developed country it still suffers from cultural alienation. In these countries, borders are built within borders to create cultural divides that do not allow people to integrate. Recently, this problem has become more prominent due to the rise of terrorism, clash of cultures in the world, leading to the glorification of stereotypes. People are becoming less accepting towards anyone who does not belong to their region. Migration does not stop after people move from one place to another place. The main question start after that ‘now what’ they will do. That is why this topic needs to be discussed thoroughly in order to find better solutions. This paper will begin with an analysis of different approaches to Migration, discuss the target groups for integration policies, provide indicators of the current situation of migrants and proceed to an analysis of integration tools: legislation, social policies and participatory processes. It will focus not only on the impact of migration but also on social integration, mix culture like indo-western culture in a comparative basis.

Ekta Meena

A comparative study of social and economic aspect of migration

India is a country of immense diversity. It is home to people of many different racial, languages, ethnic, religious, and national backgrounds. Groups of people in India differ from each other not only in physical or demographic characteristics but also in distinctive patterns of behavior and these patterns are determined by social and cultural factors like language, region, religion, and caste. Apart from behaviour, economic development, level of education and political culture of the people in various social segments differ from region to region. More you can say that economy and cultures have been enriched by the contributions of migrants from round the globe. In an increasingly globalised world, migratory movements is continuously shaping the countries all over the world. Some countries like India and Ireland, which set the example of economic development and social integration, have the positive impact of the migration by globalisation and some countries like USA, which recently witness racism, xenophobia and discrimination have the negative impact on the migrants. It does not mean India do not face fragmentation and USA do not have cohesion. USA have many stories which show successful integration process, that facilitated the lives of immigrant communities, but being a developed country it still suffers from cultural alienation. In these countries, borders are built within borders to create cultural divides that do not allow people to integrate. Recently, this problem has become more prominent due to the rise of terrorism, clash of cultures in the world, leading to the glorification of stereotypes. People are becoming less accepting towards anyone who does not belong to their region. Migration does not stop after people move from one place to another place. The main question start after that ‘now what’ they will do. That is why this topic needs to be discussed thoroughly in order to find better solutions. This paper will begin with an analysis of different approaches to Migration, discuss the target groups for integration policies, provide indicators of the current situation of migrants and proceed to an analysis of integration tools: legislation, social policies and participatory processes. It will focus not only on the impact of migration but also on social integration, mix culture like indo-western culture in a comparative basis.

Ekta Meena

Study of temperature variation in human peripheral region during wound healing process due to plastic surgery

In this paper, investigations are made to analyze the human body temperature during wound healing process due to surgery. Wound is considered after the skin graft. Skin graft is a technique used in plastic surgery. Skin is the first line of defense between the human and environment, it is very susceptible to damage. Internal body or core temperature (Tb) is one of the clinical vital signs along with pulse and respiratory rates. Any disturbance in body temperature will drive complexities in wound healing process. These studies are important in the mechanism of establishing the limits of thermal regulation of human body during the healing process in different situations and conditions. The Finite element method is used to analyze tissues temperature for normal tissues (donor site) and abnormal tissues (tissues after surgery). Appropriate boundary conditions have been framed. Numerical results are obtained using Crank Nicolson Method.

Manisha Jain

Mapping the bisexual experience of a keralite woman: glimpses into india

India is not known as a country to be in for a bisexual person. Homosexual acts even within wedlock are a punishable offence in India. Legal battles over provisions in the Indian Penal Code which criminalizes any sexual act “against the order of nature” are rife. Even though Kerala has been hailed as a paradox inside India (mainly due to its human development parameters), the social, cultural and legal environment in the state is hostile to individuals who question hetero-normativity. Non-judgemental and unbiased scientific therapy or counselling are seldom available to sexual minorities. This paper is an attempt to map the experiences of a female who is openly bisexual, and is living in Kerala. An ethnographic interview was conducted where the experiences of the participant are explored, from the relationship dynamics as seen by her, to sexual experiences and difficulties in relationships. A reference is also made to the personal and social support systems that are in place for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender (LGBT) community in Kerala and their role in initiating discourses regarding the topic. A few pointers for future studies in the topic, especially within the context of Kerala are also put forward.

Dr. Chinchu C

Metapuf: a challenge response pair generator

Physically unclonable function (PUF) is a hardware security module preferred for hardware feature based random number and secret key generation. Security of a cryptographic system relies on the quality of the challenge-response pair, it is necessary that the key generation mechanism must unpredictable and its response should constant under different operating condition. Metastable state in CMOS latch is undesirable since it response becomes unpredictable, this feature used in this work to generate a unique response. A feedback mechanism is developed which forces the latch into the metastable region; after metastable state, latch settle to high or state depends on circuit internal condition and noise which cannot be predicted. Obtained inter hamming variation for 8 PUF is 51% and average intra hamming distance is 99.76% with supply voltage variation and 96.22% with temperature variation.

Abhishek Kumar

Intersection of caste and gender based subjugation

One of the unique features of Indian society is prevalence of caste system which was originated thousands of years back to demarcate the people engaged in different occupation or jobs. Initially it was not much rigid but gradually people belonging to upper castes for their own selfish means to maintain their monopoly made this arrangement hereditary and started treating people of lower castes disgracefully. For preservation of this system, people started controlling their women to prevent inter-caste marriages and the concept of endogamy came up. This robbed away many types of freedom from women. For women belonging to lower castes, this situation is worse as they are doubly subjugated on the basis on caste as well as gender. Men belonging to their own caste treat them as secondary beings. This paper throws light on this intersection. How intersection of these two kinds of inequalities place them at the lowest position in Indian society. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar rises as their leader who all his life worked for empowerment of downtrodden section of society. He argues that education is the primary tool for evading these differences among people. He further emphasizes to adopt the concept of exogamy to break the backbone of Indian caste system and to immediately leave a religion or culture which legitimizes such system of inequality among people of the same land.

Swati sharma

Intersection of caste and gender based subjugation

One of the unique features of Indian society is prevalence of caste system which was originated thousands of years back to demarcate the people engaged in different occupation or jobs. Initially it was not much rigid but gradually people belonging to upper castes for their own selfish means to maintain their monopoly made this arrangement hereditary and started treating people of lower castes disgracefully. For preservation of this system, people started controlling their women to prevent inter-caste marriages and the concept of endogamy came up. This robbed away many types of freedom from women. For women belonging to lower castes, this situation is worse as they are doubly subjugated on the basis on caste as well as gender. Men belonging to their own caste treat them as secondary beings. This paper throws light on this intersection. How intersection of these two kinds of inequalities place them at the lowest position in Indian society. Dr. B.R. Ambedkar rises as their leader who all his life worked for empowerment of downtrodden section of society. He argues that education is the primary tool for evading these differences among people. He further emphasizes to adopt the concept of exogamy to break the backbone of Indian caste system and to immediately leave a religion or culture which legitimizes such system of inequality among people of the same land.

Swati sharma

A screening of obsessive compulsive disorder in pharmacy students

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder that causes repeated unwanted thoughts or sensations, or do something over and over again. It is affecting all ages in the world. It is unusual for symptoms to begin after the age of 35 and half of people develop problems before 20. This making university students a target of OCD. This study investigates the prevalence of symptoms of OCD and identifies possible risk factors among pharmacy students of University of Tripoli, Libya. 80 pharmacy students registered in the final academic year 2019/2020 were enrolled in this study. All the participants were females ranging of 22 to 24 years old of a same environmental background. This study is based on a validated questionnaire for screening of OCD as mentioned by the American Psychiatric Association without modification. A total of 63 students have returned the questionnaire (response rate, 78.8%). The study shows that OCD symptom is relatively common among pharmacy students. The most common symptoms are losing something of importance (71%) and checking things over and over or repeat actions many times to be sure they are done properly (63%). Among OCD symptoms, the most common associated trigger factors were stress and phobia which representing 62% of the participated students. This study indicates that pharmacy students are at risk of being susceptible to getting OCD. OCD affects academic performance and quality of student life, therefore, a psychological and health services for university students should be implanted.

Mediterranean Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Relevance of mahatma gandhi’s philosophy to social work profession: a review

This article presents the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy toward the Social Work Profession in India. It is a review article prepared with secondary data available in books and journal articles. Mahatma Gandhi was a prominent leader of the Indian independence movement in British-ruled India. His principles viz. Non-violence, Satyagraha, Swadesi, Sarvodaya and Democratic leadership led Indians to strive to bring independence to India. He had launched the freedom struggle movements viz. Dandi Salt March, Quit India and Non-Cooperation Movement for Independence. Gandhi found a few disparities in India and developed a concept called constructive programme with the points of conflicts between different religious groups, castes, untouchability, fear arising out of ignorance, economic disparities, decaying condition of our villages, the plight of Adivasis, Kisans and the labourers, and the position of women, etc. Gandhiji motivated his followers, and freedom fighters to work on the said disparities. These constructive programme points are very relevant to the social work profession and nowadays many social workers are working on these programmes. This article presents how Gandhian principles like Nonviolence, Satyagraha, Swadesi, and Sarvodaya are relevant to the social work profession. Gandhiji Principles such as seeking truth through service to the poor and needy, individual self-development and self-reliance, nonviolence social action and material simplicity are very related to the code of ethics of professional social workers. The study suggested that professional social workers should practice the principles of Mahatma Gandhi in their interventions. The associations of professional social workers should adopt the Gandhiji principles and include them in the social work curriculum

Vijaya Abraham

Investigating students’ attitudes toward poverty and impoverished persons - a case study: ho chi minh city open university, data of vietnam

Efforts to understand the causes of poverty, how poverty is perceived have become important in the fight to mitigate poverty. In Vietnam, studies on the attitudes of poverty in specific populations, such as Vietnamese students, are rare. Thus, this dataset reports the results collected from 180 social work students and non-social work students of Ho Chi Minh City Open University through attitudes toward poverty and poor people in Vietnam. The Attitude toward Poverty Short Form 21-item scale, developed by Yun & Weaver, was used for the data collection. The survey results showed that when looking for causes of poverty, social work students and non-social work students put the most emphasis on structural factors of poverty. However, social work students, compared with non-social work students, consider personal deficiency and stigma more important. In future, this dataset can serve as a reference source for comparative studies on student’ attitudes toward poverty and impoverished persons and for social work education

Le Minh Tien

Dr gedam kamalakar cv

Dr. G. Kamalakar, Pursuing Post-Doctoral Fellow ICSSR, Research Assistant, ICSSR Major Research Project, Department of History, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Open University. with a Ph.D in Political Science. He is awarded Doctorate by the Osmania University, Hyderabad, for the thesis on “WTO and GATS: Implication for the Indian Higher Education”. He is the recipient of RGNF Fellowship from the UGC and Pre-Doctoral Fellowship from OUCIP. He worked as a guest faculty at City College, Hyderabad and as a Counselor at Ambedkar Open University. He has written 3 books and edited 4 books and also published research articles in 17 UGC care list Journals. He also reviewed 11 Books and published them in UGC care list journals and sage publications. He received 7 awards including Amazing Grace Award, Pride India Award, Dr.B.R. Ambedkar Excellency Award, International Research Excellence Award, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Life Time Achievement National Award, National best Teacher Award and Vidya Bharati Award. He presented research papers in more than 24 International, National Conferences and seminars. He has published thematic research papers in 13 National and 30 International Level Peer Reviewed / Refereed Research Journals He is also the Assistant Editor to an International journal and a Member of Editorial board & Reviewer for National and International journals published from 20 countries like USA, Turkey, Syria, UK, Pakistan, China etc. and has membership in 4 various associations.

Dr Gedam Kamalakar