GROUPS & LEADERSHIP

Group

Introduction

            The purpose of describing group process is to familiarize you through the processes in which individuals interact with each other when they came together.  The importance of a group is always felt whenever we are playing our role in our day to day social life.  We use the word group for various activities such as games, political party, team for performing a task, committee members to decide about a programme, membership of a royal group or member of the underprivileged group.  We are born as an individual and we become members of various groups in course of our socialization as adults.  For fulfillment of our job’s we do become members of groups. 

Characteristics of a group

Group is also identified as sharing common characteristics such as religious groups, caste groups, community groups of businessman, sportsman and so on.  Whenever there is scope for interaction among individual members they may be called a group.  In addition to this social psychologists also add additional features of a group which may be loyalty, belongingness, attractions trust among the members of a group.  How same person behaves differently when he is member of a group and when he is not the member of a group.  For example the same student behaves in a disciplined manner in a classroom or library and his behavior is quite different when he is in hostel, playground or cafeteria with his friends. Each member of a group influences the behavior of other members in a group.  There are marked differences in the performance of an individual if he is alone and when he is together with other individuals.  For example, same sportsman playing at village level when given chance to interact with an international level group may raise his standard to compete with the members of international group member’s performance level.  Leaders also play an important role affecting the behavior of its group members.  If leader of a group is that of positive attitude its group members will also like to perform to the best of their potential and it leaders are prejudiced the members may feel demotivated to work.  Sometimes group opinion is more effective to change the judgement of individuals because they think that my opinion conforms what most others think about an issue.  In many problem-solving situations it is found that individual find solutions to their problems by interacting different members of the group.  Even at times of grief the individual members feel relieved by sharing their emotional distress with other group members.  Thus through the process of communication and interaction new ideas emerge which ultimately become binding property of a group. 

Togetherness

The togetherness situation is different from group situation.  For example, when various individuals like the pensioners go to the bank or the treasury on the last day of the month to collect their pension, they are just in the together situation.  But they meet each other month after month they may gradually form into a group.  They may have interactions with each other which may lead to some kind of social norms and possibly also some kind of status relationship.  It may be possible that when a new man joins the other members may have a different attitude towards him and probably after a few meetings, the new man may be assimilated and may feel that he belongs to that group.  In course of repeated interaction over a time period among individuals with common motives or problems, togetherness situation become group situation.  The appearance of a group is marked by the formation of structure and a set of norms.  Thus a group include persons who share some norms and interrelated social roles.  It is also possible that when togetherness is seized with a task will lead to suggestions and counter-suggestions so that certain social norms will develop and also certain status differentiation and finally to some group actions.  Status also stabilises in a group in the course of interaction over a period of time.  Those members who contribute effectively towards the goals of the group emerge as frontrunners in the group.  Thus from a situation where there is no status difference gradually through the process of interaction the individual or individuals who are very active by their words and deeds assume the leadership status.  On the other hand those individual or individuals who are quiet participant in a group assume bottom position.  For example, if you join a school and if you participate actively in all the school activities the teachers and principal of your school would want your presence at every important function of the school.  And in due course of time you may be rewarded with a position of captain or student representative of your school.

            In text questions:

(i)                Why people join groups

(ii)             Describe important features of a group

(iii)           Describe important social groups in our context

(iv)            Does group affects our performance

(v)               Describe the similarities and differences between togetherness and the group.

Group Dynamics

            The behavior of a person influences the behavior of other persons in the group.  This process of influencing each other’s behavior pattern in a group is called group dynamics.  This process of group dynamics is affected by factors of individual personality, social situation and cultural tradition.

Cohesiveness

            At the time of external threat people have a tendency to fight unitedly to ward off the common threat.  During war times this feeling of togetherness soars because of common threat perceived by many others.  For example, when terrorists attacked Mumbai on 26/11/2008 the whole of Mumbai stood united forgetting their regional, linguistic and community differences.

Co-operation: A super-ordinate goal is one that necessitates cooperative efforts – a goal that overrides people’s differences from one another.  Suppose you are not on talking terms with your friends with your friends in college but it is being attacked by an outsider you would automatically come forward to safeguard him from the enemy forgetting your differences with him.  Initially if he is observed that effects of competition for power and position exists in a group.  Gradually this bitterness of intergroup rivalry increases with competition but finally if these warring groups are introduced with a superordinate goal they come together and become united.  For instance in villages if two communities have been fighting on many issues but in case of a flood however they may work unitedly to get rid of the menace.

Mob/Crowd

            This is certainly an important form of collectivity.  But it is different than a group because members of a crowd or mob may have dissimilar background and they somehow converge to a common situation for sometime.  Crowd’s behavior is largely guided by emotions, irrationality a diminished sense of irrationality and a sense of anonymity.  Mob behavior reflects the impact of suggestion, imitation and sympathy.  Mob behavior is due to operation of various factors some of which depend upon the characteristics of the situation and the behavior pattern of a particular collectivity presents at a point of time.  Sometimes members of a protesting people can be converted into aggressive group.  For instance when people are protesting over electricity cut in their area or police inaction in a case may turn suddenly violent to vent out their frustration in the form of blocking the road or indulging in violence.

Types of Mob

            Mob can be also of four types.  The first is “causal crowd” which is a lived loosely organised collectivity that may be motivated by the attraction of the moment.  The second is “conventionalized crowd” the activities of which are directed by conventional rules or expectations.  Examples include the collection of people in a religious festival, the spectators at a football match or a cricket match.  The third is the “action crowd” which is an aggressive crowd and acts towards a definite goal.  Finally there is the “expressive crowd” which has no clear defined goal.  It is a group of people that collect together to celebrate an event.

Conformity

            It is important to understand the concept of conformity while describing group processes.  Conformity is in fact getting affected by how others act and to change our own behavior by changing our belief influenced by others.  Conformity can be of two types.  Sometimes we conform to others without believing it.  This type of outward conformity is called compliance.  If our compliance is to an explicit command or acting in accord with a direct – it is called obedience.  The sincere inward conformity when we are genuinely convinced is called acceptance.  For instance millions suggest morning walk is useful for health and we start doing so.

Intext questions

(i)                What is the process of group dynamics?

(ii)             Describe cohesiveness, co-operation and conformity.

(iii)           How mob behavior is different from group behavior?

Is human life possible without a group?

            Can we satisfy our needs expectations, emotions, challenges, crises, accomplish goals without being members of a group.  The answer to these questions is simple no.  We cannot progress on our path of life if we are not members of certain groups.  Early in our childhood we need the support of a family, later on we move to schools where we get the support of various social, academic and professional groups to do better in our lives.  An individual becomes the member of various groups and it may be social, political, academic, religious, ethnic sports, music, linguistic, professional, cultural and economic to pursue and satisfy his or her expectation and goals.  It is almost impossible to think of a person who is not a member of a group of his or her choice.  If you are a social or political worker or even scholar you need a group to pursue your ideology with people at large.  We cannot grow in an isolated individualistic existence.

Difference of “us” and “them”

            This lesson will help you understand different aspects of group life.  Difference between “us” and “them” play the role of motivator and at times lead to faulty generalizations or stereotypes and prejudices towards the members of other groups.  It is important to note that mere collection of people is not enough.  People together standing on a bus station, railway platform or cricket stadium people not interacting with each other do not form a group.  Sometimes watching the cricket match some people may perceive themselves as “us” in contrast with “them” who root for the other team.  Thus group phenomena may emerge even during minimal interaction situations and social influence emerges strongly in interacting group situations.

            Group is defined as two or more people interacting and influencing one another group is also defined as two or more persons interacting with one another having common goal and a feeling that they belong to a particular group.  Besides this loyalty, trust among each other, and a definite structure are some of the important properties of a group.  The people in a group share common norm’s and value’s and their role’s are interrelated to each other.

Intext questions

(i)                Is human life possible without being members of groups

(ii)             Describe important differences of “us” and “them”

Group’s effect on performance

            The effect of a group on performance can be negative or positive.  There are some important concepts that can help us understand the effect of becoming member’s of groups.

Social Facilitation

            We are affected by the mere presence of another person? Mere presence means that people are not competing with each other and they are present as a passive audience or co-actors.  Does our normal activities of eating, playing are affected by mere presence of others? In our daily life we can notice such differences in our behavior.  If we are sitting at home and some guest suddenly arrives at our home we start arranging things in our house at proper places and we also become somewhat conscious of our dress and other things.  Several others examples in this direction conform to this view.  It is found that cyclict or Joggers in a park times are faster when racing or moving together than doing alone against the clock.  It has also been found that social arousal facilitates performance.

Crowding

            Crowding reflects the presence of many others and people do response to other’s presence.  Even a supportive audience effect’s our performance negatively on challenging tasks.  Having mom and dad at your first stage show likely won’t boost your performance.  The effect of other people increases with number.  Being in crowd also intensifies positive or negative emotional reaction.  It has been found that crowding hampered performance only on complex task, such as solving difficult anagrams.  Crowding enhances arousal, which facilitates the dominant responses.  Why are we aroused in the presence of others? Experiments’ suggest that arousal stems partly from evaluation apprehension and partly from distraction: A conflict between paying attention to others and concentrating on the task.

            Social loafting performance of a person is negatively affected in a group situation.  Social loafting is the tendency of the people in a group to exert less efforts towards a common goal.  When they are individually accountable contrary to common notion “in unity there is strength” group members are actually less motivated when reward is equally divided and the task is less challenging, appealing or involving.  But people in group loaf less when the task is appealing and member’s are identified with the group.

Intext questions

(i)                What do you mean by social facilitation?

(ii)             Why our behavior is affected by crowd?

(iii)           What is social loafting?

Doing in a group what we would not be doing alone: Social facilitation experiment’s show that people are aroused in a group.  Social loafting experiment’s show that responsibility, diffused responsibility and arousal is combined people loose restrains of their individual living.  Socially destructive acts of stone pelting, group vandalism, looting, torching trains or public transport vehicles may result.  These irrational or immoral behavior patterns are exhibited which is provoked by the power of a group.  In these type of situations people act apparently without their normal conscience.  What are the factor that creates such type of psychological state among group members?

Group size: The bigger the group size the more its members lose self-awareness and in an aroused state are more likely to commit mob atrocities of looting, burning or lynching.  An aroused mob enables its members to believe they will not be persecuted, they perceive the action as that of groups.

Group Polarization

            Group discussion produces enhancement of member’s pre-existing tendencies, a strengthening of member’s average tendency.  This is called group polarization.  Group polarization occurs because group discussion elicits a pooling of ideas most of which favor the dominant viewpoint.  Active participation in discussion produces more attitude change than does passive listening.  The more group members repeat an idea the more they rehearse and validate them.  In everyday life people associate mostly with others whose attitudes are similar to their own.  Overtime, initial differences among groups of college student’s become accentuated.  For example if student’s at a college are of two categories hostellers and day-scholars had has initial differences, the gap is likely to grow during college years.  This results partly from group member’s reinforcing shared inclinations.

            Also it is human nature to want to evaluate our opinions and abilities, something we can do so by comparing our view with others. 

Group think

            When do group influences hinder smart decisions:

            Blunders are lived by the tendency of decision making groups to suppress dissent in the interest of group harmony.  Group think takes place when an available cohesive group remain isolated from dissenting viewpoints presence of a directive leader who signals what decision he or she favors also contributes to it.  The group think phenomenon occurs due to illusion of invulnerability, unquestioned belief in the groups morality, rationalization and conformity pressure.

Intext questions

(i)                Why it is better to work in a group?

(ii)             Which factors influence our group work?

(iii)           What is the harmful effect of group polarization?

Groups are of various types.  One major categorization is of formal and informal groups.

Formal and Informal Groups

            Groups that are established for a specific purpose are called formal groups.  This type of group is usually formed to meet clearly defined goals.  The examples of formal groups include student projects groups, committees, boards or commissions.

Informal groups on the other hand form naturally out of interaction among individuals overtime.  It is important to understand that informal groups may emerge out of formal groups with members having similar ideas, values beliefs and social needs.  For instance xerox photocopiers, Indian National Congress, Rotary Club started as small informal groups but with time became formal groups.  Spontaneous interaction of likeminded people aimed towards achieving a common goal may give rise to the formation of informal groups.  Whenever certain people find difficulty in their way to achieve something which they may not achieve by being members of formal groups they are motivated to became members of informal groups.  Membership of any group depends on many things.  Some of the important factors include importance common motive, socio-economic background cultural aspiration poverty deprivation and job security.  Internal factor of attitude similarity and external factors of situation and leadership characteristics also play an important role in the formation of groups.  In Indian society caste of people is also important in deciding group membership.  Sometimes crises situation also leads to the formation of groups in which similar interest groups on the basis of their perceived threats join hands to face the situation.

(i)                Explain the differences between formal and informal groups

(ii)             What are factors that motivates us to become members of a group?

Group Development

            Newly formed groups have different behaviors than groups that have been together for sometime.  This is because a group progresses through a number of stages of development just as we progress from infancy into adulthood.  Groups posses through the following distinct stages: forming, storming, initial integration and performing stage.

Forming Stage

            When a group is formed, a number of issues are decided.  Before joining a group, people ask various questions.  Who can become a member? What are the roles once has to play as members? What the group can offer me? How can I contribute to the group? These are the uncertainties that comes to the mind of a person while becoming member of a group.  In the first stage the group defines its behavior for the members and finalise the goals of the group.

Storming Stage

            In this stage members feel comfortable to express their feelings.  Differences in attitude, needs and goal setting are widely noticed at this stage.  Internal and external demands create conflicts among the members.  If conflicts are ignored, members will develop bitterness and that may damage the groups ability to perform.

Initial Integration Stage

            The members in this stage develop an initial sense of closeness and belonging.  By this stage the rules are finalised the way group members will operate.  The members in this stage start co-operating to each other.

Performing Stage

            In this stage group start functioning as an effective unit.  By this stage group members learn well as to how to get along with each other.  The roles of members are decided and the leadership issues are settled by now.  The group start achieving its goals.  Most of the members at this stage are satisfied with the group.

Summary

            Two or more persons interacting for sometime having common goal constitute a group.  Group is a necessity to fulfill our individual needs and expectations.  Being together as a member of a group our behaviors are affected.  Positive and negative aspects of our behavior are affected by the mere presence of others.  Importance of group processes can be understood with the help of factors like competitiveness, cohesiveness and co-operation that lead to enhanced performance and productivity.  Group processes like social loafing, groupthink and destructive mob-behaviour may lead to negative outcomes.

            Group processes help to understand the unity and disunity effect of group behavior at village, caste and community levels.  Intergroup rivalry can be minimized by identifying and strengthening group-cohesiveness factors.  This concept can be used to minimise rival factors of animosity, bitterness and hate at the time of communal, racial and caste related conflicts.  At the organizational level also productivity can be immensely improved by strengthening the group diversity and its energy to a syncgistic level.

Terminal Questions

(1)              Define group

(2)              Describe various advantages of being a group member

(3)              Describe various disadvantages of a group

(4)              What is group dynamics?

(5)              Describe various features of mob-behavior

(6)              What is group conformity?

(7)              Describe various stages of group development

Answers

Ans. 1. Two or more persons interacting for sometime having common goal constitute a group.  There are various types of groups such as political, social and academic groups.

Ans. 2. People join groups to satisfy their individual needs and expectations.  Every job can’t be done individually and people join groups to get the support of others to do their job more happily.  By becoming the member of a group even difficult job’s became easier with the cooperation of other members.  The energy level and productivity of a person is improve by becoming members of a group.  They also get the trust of each other and loyalty of group members motivates them to do something to achieve group goals.

Ans. 3. Some of the effect of group on performance may be negative.  Social loafting is one such process in which some of the group members exert less effort when they are active in achieving a common goal.  In case of group polarization group members despite having different opinion may favor the dominant viewpoint.  Somewhat similar concept of groupthink also hinders innovative ideas in the interest of protecting group harmony.

Ans. 4. The process of influencing each other’s behavior pattern on a group is called group dynamics.  Cohesiveness, co-operation, status, identity, norms, role-playing are some of the factors that is a product of group dynamics.  Group dynamics tries to explain the role of individual, social and cultural factors in the operation of groups.  Group goals become unity factors for the group member’s performance.  Intergroup rivalry is also explained with the help of group dynamics factors.  How status, leadership and group identity affects the functioning of group members is also a part of group dynamics process.

Ans. 5. It is different from group and its members may have different background.  The behavior of a mob is largely guided by emotions and irrationality.  Mob behavior is also guided by situational factors.  Mob behavior may turn into aggressive results as well.

Ans. 6. Conformity is a process that describes how our behaviour and belief is influenced by others.  Conformity is of two types: outward conformity and inward conformity.  In outward conformity we simply act in accordance to others but not necessarily believing it.  Inward conformity means we genuinely act and believe what others suggest.

Ans. 7. A group passes through four distinct stages of development.  First stage is called forming stage is called forming stage in which group defines the behaviour for its members and decide about the goals of the group.  Second stage is called storming stage in which group members express their differences.  Third stage is called initial integration stage in which group members get close to each other.  Finally the fourth stage is called performing stage in which group start functioning as an effective unit.

Leadership

Introduction

            We often hear the expression “the youth of today are the leaders of tomorrow.” But the characteristics of ideal leader is difficult to define.  Leaders of various walk’s of our life are publicised every day.  The images of leader’s of sports, politics, cinema, business are brought to our notice through mass-media.  There are different type of success stories behind every successful leader and there is no single accepted quality of becoming successful leader.  The socio-cultural tradition, political and economic situation are some of the important determinants of leadership.  In our day to day life also we assume that success – whether in the family, business, school, country or the military is often attributed to the quality of leadership.  In today’s work environment, the melting away of national and geographical boundaries via computerisation and internet have created more need for global leadership.  The importance to lead in and adapt in diverse environment has become more important in today’s context.  Leadership has been defined over the years by psychologists, sociologists and political scientists.  Leadership is defined as ability to influence others to achieve certain goals.  A good leader can influence the behaviour, attitude and performance of its followers.  Different studies and theories of leadership have found following common features of leadership:

·                    Leadership is a process.

·                    Leadership deals with how to influence others by ideas.

·                    Leadership is part of group dynamics.

·                    Leadership is based on interdependence.

·                    Leadership is a system of mutual influence between leaders and followers.

Qualities of a Leader

            If Gandhi was an example of social leader, Bill Gates is an example of professional leader and Buddha, Christ Gurunanak are example’s of religious leaders.  Initiative and dominance are important factors of the leadership process.  Whether Hitler, Stalin, Nehru, Subhash Chandra Bose in all the cases leaders are heard and accepted by a sizeable number of the people.  The followers of such leaders involve communication and authority of such leaders is accepted by them.

            There is also a contradiction that qualities alone is not the criteria of good leadership.  If honesty, moralistic principles, hard-work, trust are the guiding factors of leadership then why people with dictatorial, aggressive and even in some cases people with anti-social antecedents become very popular in their socio-political constituency and it becomes difficult to question their authority in their respective area.  Again an unrealistic theory of leadership is taught in management schools that only literate and trained persons becomes leaders but in many cases people occupy enormous leadership position without having graduated from any formal training to become leaders.  Thus it is interesting to note that the qualities required to be a successful leader varies from place to place, culture to culture, and situation to situation.  There are leaders of specialized fields by their abilities of their field such as Sachin Tendulkar in cricket, Ratan Tata in business, Abinav Bindra in shooting but their popularity is mostly profession centric and beyond that they are not recognized as mass leaders.  Thus successful leadership of a particular field and the leadership of the mass social spectrum are different things.  The main psychological attributes of a leader are as follows:

·                    Goal-directed behaviour to his/her followers.

·                    Being aware of the abilities of their followers.

·                    Should have good communication skills both verbal and non-verbal

·                    Accepting personal responsibilities and setting examples.

·                    He should have the abilities to read the situation.

·                    He should be a good planner, visionary and trustworthy to his followers.

The characteristics mentioned above is not an exclusive list and some new behaviour traits may also be an important factor of leadership behaviour.

Theories of Leadership

            There are many theories of leadership and important among them are the following:

Born theory of leadership

            Early view of leadership theories describes that leader are born.  According to this theory certain people are born with the traits of leadership and they have inherent properties to become a leader.  There is something special about certain people that makes them great leaders.

Trait theory

            This approach attempts to predict which personal characteristics result in effective leadership.  For being a leader certain important traits are as follows:

·                    Belief in oneself (self-confidence) along with openness to the ideas of others.

·                    A passion for the job energy and drive that set an example for others.

·                    Love of people – acceptance of others.

·                    Maturity and responsibility.

·                    Desire to achieve goals.

Behaviour theory

            Most behavioural theories suggest that successful leaders exhibit two types of behaviour, task centered relations and employee-centered relations.  Task centered relations are those that relate to the quality and the quantity of work: employee-centered relations are based on meeting the personal needs of the staff.

Situational Theory: The impact of situational variables is important in effective leadership.  The effectiveness of a particular style of leadership behaviour depends on the situation.  As situation changes different style’s become appropriate.

Path-Goal Theory: Path-goal theory focuses on how leaders influence follower expectations.  According to it leader behaviour is acceptable when followers view it as a source of satisfaction or paying the way to future satisfaction.  The four styles of leadership identified by path-goal theory are as follows:

(i)        Directive style providing guidance to followers about what should be done and how to do it.

(ii)       Supportive style: The supportive leader is primarily concerned with establishing interpersonal relations with the followers.

(iii)     The participative style: This type of leader believes that follower participation improves the quality of decisions.

(iv)      Achievement oriented style: This leader sets challenging goals for followers.  Minimal supervision is required with this style of leadership.

Charismatic Leadership Theory: Chrismatic leadership focusses on the interpersonal transaction between leaders and followers.  Leaders are engaged in behaviours that maintain a quality interaction between themselves and followers.  The underlying characteristics of charismatic leaders are as follows:

·                    offer an unusual or far-out vision of reality.

·                    make sacrifices or take risks to further their vision.

·                    use unconventional methods to achieve their goals.

·                    communicate with supreme confidence.

Charismatic leadership transforms followers by creating changes in their goals, values, needs, belief and aspirations.  They accomplish this transformation by appealing to followers self.  Concepts namely their values and personal identity.

Summary

            The topic of leadership attracts many kinds of people.  But human’s are so complex that we have a number of theories describing leadership.  Born theory of leadership suggests that certain people are born to became leaders but this has view has become outdated.  According to trait theory there are certain characteristics physical, social and psychological that one needs to become a leader.  The situational theory prescribes that we should understand traits and behaviour not in isolation, but in the context of a situation.  Charismatic theory proposes a visionary approach and use of unconventional methods in achieving goals.  Leadership is one of the most talked about topic even in our day to day life and a better understanding of this topic will be of great use in our practical and professional life.

Questions

(i)                Describe leadership.

(ii)             Describe different theories of leadership.

(iii)           Describe psychological attributes of leadership.

(iv)            How would you go about demonstrating leadership if you were the new chief?

Ans. 1. Leadership is based on the ability to influence others to achieve goals.  Leadership has been defined from various perspectives.  Earlier view of leadership proposed the born theory of leadership.  But now this theory has become outdated.  Trait theory emphasises certain traits of an individual make him/her a leader.  Trait theory include social skills, intelligence, mature personality, responsibility and initiative as important characteristics of leadership.  Behaviour theory of leadership describes the what and how of a leader.  On the other hand, situational theory describes leadership on the basis of situation the leader becomes successful or not.

Ans. 2. There are many theories of leadership but important among them are as follows:

(a)               Great man or born theory of leadership

(b)              Trait theory of leadership

(c)              Behaviour theory of leadership

(d)              Situational theory of leadership

(e)              Charismatic theory of leadership

Ans. 3. Important psychological attributes of leadership are as follows:

(i)                good communicator

(ii)             high degree of self-confidence

(iii)           Optimist

(iv)            Good in decision making

(v)               Desire to achieve goal

(vi)            An ability to work well with others

Ans. 4. If I had the opportunity to be the new chief I will undertake my job in the following manner.

            First I would like to meet my follow followers and make them feel that I am very much part of your people.  All my decisions will be in consultation with my team members.  I will instill a sense of belongingness and responsibility to each member.  I will invite the ideas and my behaviour will be goal directed.  I will motivate my team members to perform as a te

NAOP Conference Dec. - 2010, Emerging Role of Psychological Skills for Medical Profession

In India there are about 315 medical colleges which are rendering training for medical practitioners across the country.  The practice of medicine is based on application of science for the improvement of human health.  Medical practice is an art which mandates empathy and compassion.  It requires much more than the coldness often associated with analytical minds.  Dealing with human lives can’t be an isolated act of scientific understanding rather it requires a combination of psychological attribute and sound scientific temperament.  Science and medicine can’t exist without any social and cultural context.  The psyche and culture interacts with the individual’s experience of illness and suffering.  The application of psychology can combine characteristics of empathy, self-reflection, emotional maturity, inter-personal skills along with scientific temperament can produce well-rounded and caring healers.  There can’t be a single good formula for what will make a good doctor.  Issues like stigma, social expectations, gender bias, the problems of the aged have a huge impact on seeking medical help and compliance with the treatments.  An understanding of patients choice and constant are of vital importance in the process of road to recovery.  The absence of communication and counselling training for doctors leads to a trend of single minded pursuit of cures for the diseases.  This fashionable focus on pathology and a belief that medicines alone can cure might bring immediate relief but developing an insight among the patient can lead to long-term solutions to our problems.  The life-style problems is also posing a major threat to our health and it can be improved through psychological reflections of our problems.  Therefore the role of psychology and begins from broader awareness of the problem and permeates to recovery of our medical problems with better use of psychological skills by our health care professionals.  The art of medicine can become more meaningful with a better understanding of psychological principles and not be surprised that it should comprise the compulsory training for doctors in medical profession.

            With the help of this presentation the necessity of psychological skills for medical profession would be highlighted to provide a comprehensive approach for well-being of individuals.

Role Expectations and Role Strain of the Elderly from the Perspective of Intergenerational Dynamics

Paper presented in 7^th International Congress on Geriatric Care

12^th to 14^th November 2010

Venue: India Islamic Cultural Centre, New Delhi

Roles are certain positions in a group that are governed by rules and expectations.  In a family parent have certain roles, siblings had other roles and grandparents have still other roles.  In everyday life a fascinating interplay occurs between us and the people around us.  Enactment of roles for three generations i.e. young adult, parents and grandparents involves different sets of behavior and expectations.  Some roles are ascribed.  Ascribed roles are not much under personal control (male, female, sibling, parent, and grandparent) of a person.  Achieved roles are voluntarily attained by special efforts, such as spouse, teacher, scientist or doctor.  Roles streamline daily interactions by allowing anticipating what others will do.  For example, when a person is acting as a doctor, grandparent, parent, and police officer we expect certain type of behaviors from them.  People experience role-conflict in which two or more roles make conflicting demands on them.  Intergenerational relationships are interactions between individuals of different cohorts or generations (Bengston, 1982).  Gillon in discussing multigenerational families define “generation” as “cohorts of thousands of people who will share similar but not identical experiences because they are born live and die within a common historical period.”  Social support conceptualized as structural, functional, appraisal and normative components of supportive relationships (Antonucci, 1990, Oxman & Hull, 1997) has been linked with the wellbeing of elderly.

            Strong intergenerational relations contribute to the development of positive attitudes towards old age and help in combating stereotypes that promotes ageism and developing a more realistic outlooks towards ones own ageing process (Chadha & Mongia, 1997).  Important and valuable unique experiences are transmitted across generations through interaction among them.  Emotional glue binds the family as a happier unit.

            Young adults are a crucial link for fulfillment of expectations of both the preceding generations of parents and grandparents (Langer, 1990).  Older adults who are involved in intergenerational activities feel happier than older adults who do not share their feelings (Carlson Seeman & Fried, 2000; Glass, 2003).  Few studies also suggest that increased cognitive and social activity through intergenerational programme may help improve health for an ageing population and improve educational learning for children (Rebok et al., 2004).

            Role expectations and fulfillment are reciprocally related and enacted between a grandparent and young adult and between a parent and young adult.  The extent of trust, interpersonal sharing and emotional sharing between young adult, parents and grandparents provides an indicator of the degree of presence or absence of role strain.  Contextual variables of urban life, migrant population joint family / nuclear family, value-system, life-style change due to globalization, religious activities, gender, changes in family as an institution results in behavioral manifestations of gap between expectations and fulfillments across three generations.  The well-being equilibrium of each generation is affected by this gap but major affect of this process is felt by the grandparents/elderly generation.  Gerontologists like Prof. N.K. Chadha and works by Prof. S.C. Dube, Prof. T. Saraswathi, Shalini Bharat Janak Pandey is occupies significance in Indian context but major research work portraying the impact of inter-generational relations in the elderly has been paid only peripheral attention.

            The expansion of cities like Delhi, Mumbai, and Calcutta came about with large number of people coming to cities in search of jobs, lack of opportunities, lack of infrastructure and law and order facilities in the rural areas.  The development of modern cities with its apparent advantages and attraction of cities had enormous impact not only on habits and modes of behavior but on patterns of thought and feeling.  As cities mushroomed in size for many it became an opportunity to maximize opportunities for economic and comfortable existence while others at the periphery continued to be marginalized in this race of in equal progress.  Health services, educational qualities, employment patterns, poor housing facilities, vote-bank politics and lack of government resources could not establish harmony among divergent cultures living together in a city.  Greater community cohesion essential to establish a common sense of identity could not be achieved.  Disadvantaged groups continued to live in alienation and resulted in further social exclusion.  Megacities offer expensive housing, high flow of production and finance but the concept of inter-community cohesion and ideal neighborhoods was at the receiving end in this process.  That is primarily the reason that a city like Mumbai which is financial capital of India also inhabits Asia’s largest slum at Dharavi.

            Many urban areas that have developed are over-crowded and under-resourced and existing resources are crumbling to meet the demands of sensitive social and health care.  It is no wonder that even in a city like Delhi many patients die due to vehicular congestion delays and doctors invest more time in commuting rather than attending and rendering quality attention to their patients.  This poses a double edged and contradictory picture of urbanization which on the one hand allows for certain opportunities but at the same time weakens the coherence of places, people, traditions and cultural networks.  Such centralized centre of economic growth has good place for productive competitive young work-force but it is also marginalizing the elders and underprivileged in an undefined fashion.  Everyone struggling to survive has less time to care for the elders and flexibility of our elders to move, interact and express their interests and concerns are compromised.  The American sociologist Talcott Parson’s (1960) argued that society needs to find roles for older consistent with advanced age.  Age-stratification theory looks at the role and influence of social structures, such as retirement policy, on the process of individual ageing and on the wider stratification of older people in society, one important aspect of age stratification theory is the concept of structural lag (Riley et al., 1994).  This provides an account of how structures do not keep pace with changes in the population and in individual’s lives.  Life course model considers ageing as a process from birth to death rather than a distinct stage.  This theory bridges micro and macro sociology in examining the relationships between psychological states social structures and social processes (Elder, 1974).

            Political economy perspective advocated by Estes et al. (2003) focuses on the role of economic and political systems as contributory factors of domination and marginalization of older people.  I do not intend to offer a comparison between families of today and families of the past.  There are lots of diversity across different societies in India from matrilineal, matrilineal joint family, nuclear family, neo-local (married couple moving into a dwelling away from both their families), live in relationships and so on.  But the core functions of a family has been structured around three central elements patriarchy, marriage and non-marriage in the regulation of sexual behavior and fertility and birth control measures in the production of demographic trends.  Despite many changes monogamy is still the most prevalent mode in India.  The orthodoxy of women as housewives, lack of education among girls and stereotype of women in natural domestic role have changed a lot and this has resulted in the development of plurality of norms in the family and society.  But the biggest challenge families are facing today is towards greater emphasis on nuclear and individual well-being concerns.  A higher rate of divorce, remarriage, teenager abortions and continuation of communication across generations has gone significantly down.  I appreciate equal opportunity for girls and boys becoming a cultural aspect of responsible parenting but getting disconnected to wisdom and maturity of our own grandparents can’t be an alibi of modern outlook.  We must try to recover a moral sense that does not breed antagonisms of interests across generations.  A return to the traditional family system seems to be a remote possibility because of lots of social changes but the value system that brings emotional communication in the family needs to be encouraged.  The development of science and matters of faith need not be contrary and a rationalist perspective can provide a coherent harmony across generations that transcend the debate of deepening modernity and traditions competing with each other.  Alienation of elders from day to day business to major aspects of decision-making has led to the rise of values which lacks humility and cohesion across generations.  The lack of interaction across three generations and various life style changes are also posing conflict of role expectations hence role strain to the older generation.  Young people growing up in an information age develop a growing sense of distance and constraint to share their feelings with the elder generation.  Continual discussion among grandparents, parents and grandchildren on issues of practical importance is on the decline.  It is pertinent to mention here the role of media in opinion making.  On average a teenager, is devoting much of time in watching television, doing internet which ultimately governs their attitude although they don’t admit it as part of attributional error.  Imitation is the direct mechanical reproduction of behavior.  Identification is a particular form of imitation in which copying a model generalized beyond specific acts, springs from wanting to be and trying to be like the model with respect to some broader quality (White, 1972, p. 252).

            The phenomenal growth of television channels, mobile telephony and internet has profound impact on our socio-cultural foundations.  More and more urban youth spent much of their leisure time with these technological gadgets have completely changed the cultural landscape.  While there is no sufficient data available linking the behavior pattern of teenagers and their dependence on technological gadgets but one can’t deny the changing shift of major time spent from traditional recreational activities to technocracy activities.  Young people are being more and more socialized away from parents, grandparents and the wife neighborhood.  Massive orchestration of communication through these technological gadgets involve transmission of information or ideas that might be right or wrong which discourage reflective thought and difficult to accommodate with our existing culture.  Belief in the miracle of market, the connection between wealth and happiness is hyped too much and concern about damages to our intergenerational well-being is excluded from the debate.  The corporate take over of public expression is so strong that alternative views are easily repudiated as conservative and less progressive.

            In a media dominated age meanings are created by flow of images and our world has become a sort of make-believe in which people are responding to media images rather than real persons or places.  The distinction between reality and scurrility gets blurred heavy outpourings of media images print, electronics and all of a sudden non-serious issues become a primary concern for all of us. 

            Recent IPL matches, commonwealth games gripped the mass-psyche and withdrawn our attention from the issues of real concern.  Our sense of self and sensitivity is in a state of transition and nightmare of seeing our machines taking control of our world we no longer have control for our social lives.  Trust within the family and outside family is lacking and uncertainties in relationships are on the ascendant.  The relationships founded on mutual respect, tolerance is lacking and everyday life is breaking free from the hold of tradition and custom without offering any good alternatives.  With the development of new technologies many obvious benefits come to us but many forms of manufactured risks such as enormous growth in vehicular traffic leading to pollution, genetically modified crops and its health consequences can’t be ignored.  If are simply concerns the transition from unmarried to married life several propositions have come into existence which does not offer any permanence in relationships.  Today many teenagers risk health problems, adopting relationships of living together without getting married, indulging in relationships that is based on temporary external attractions and likelihood of gaining external attractions and likelihood of gaining happiness and security has become more uncertain.  In a study of 200 samples of young generation of Delhi which analyzed the data from quantitative and qualitative methods several factors emerged as significant factors contributing the gap across inter-generational relationships.  This study by the researcher revealed factors of gender, interaction among family members, nuclear family/joint family dynamics as important contributing to the gap between expectations and fulfillment.  Other factors of religious habits, respect to elders, career pressure, economic pressure to perform, changes in the life-style lack of support from institutions of care-giving such as schools, government and many other factors were ascertained with the use of a questionnaire.  With the deliberations in this academic seminar academicians and researchers can throw light on new areas which can help us understand the dynamics of intergenerational relationship and its impact on elderly.

ADOLSCENT

Challenges and remedies from social – psychological & cultural perspective:

          Historians have described G Stanley Hall (1844 - 1924) as the father of scientific study of adolescence. According to Hall (1904) adolescence is the period from 12 to 23 years of age and it is characterized by considerable upheaval. The storm and stress view is Hall concept that adolescence is a turbulent time charged with conflict and mood swings. Anthropologist Margaret Mead (1928) studied adolescent’s on the south sea island of Samoa. She concluded that the basic nature of adolescence is not biological but rather socio- cultural. In cultures that provide a smooth, gradual to transition from childhood to adulthood which is the way adolescence is handled is Samoa , she found little storm & stress associated with the period. According to G. Stanley Hall inventions view adolescence is a socio historical creation. School work and economics are important dimensions of inventions view of adolescence. (Elder 1975, Fasick 1994, Lapsley Enright & Serlin 1985). Stereotype is a generalization that reflects our impressions and beliefs about a broad category of people. Stereotype of adolescent are plentiful “They want a job but do not want to work.” “Adolescent’s today do not have the moral fiber of my generation. Adult’s perception of adolescent’s emerge from a culmination of personal experience and media portrayals neither of which produces a genuine picture of adolescent’s development process. Each adolescent’s development occurs against a cultural backdrop of context that includes family, peers, school, religions and social traditions, region and its cultural & ethnic legacies. The cultural context for Delhi adolescent and a Gorakhpur adolescent will be certainly different. Adolescents in certain conservative area are not allowed to interact with other sex even at school level. Not accepting the parent’s choice of a marital partner for them is also regards as an act of immorality and less trustworthy to their parents in many parts of the country. Similarly majority of adolescents in low income group category do not have the exposure to latest technological advancement’s and other academic facilities. But in course setting for a Job from a small place to big metropolitan cities they are stigmatized for not speaking very good English and many metropolitan traits. The nation of morality, respect to the elders, freedom for pursuing certain careers and engaging in variance leisure act are different for male & female adolescents. There are far more restriction on male & female adolescents on sexual and irrational activity of male and female adolescents in different cast, region and cultural setting. 

       The nation of morality, respect to the elders, freedom for pursuing certain careers and engaging in various leisure act & female adolescents. There are far more restriction on male & female adolescent on sexual and interactional activity of male and female adolescent and cultural settings.

                Self – Esteem of an person refers to global self evaluation self concept to domain specific evaluation. An adolescents self – esteem might indicate a perfection about whether he or she are intelligent, attractive and realistic perception of one’s worth and one’s successes and accomplishments. Physical appearance is an especially powerful contributor to self – esteem in adolescence (Harter 2006). School performance and self – esteem are only moderately correlated and these correlation do not suggest that high self – esteem produces better school performance ( Brau Meisters & other 2003).

                  Social context such as the family, friends, school contribute to the development of an adolescents self – esteem (Duesk & McIntyre 2003) . in an investigation of self – esteem and parent child relationship a measure of self – esteem was administrated to boys and the boys and their mother were interviewed about family relationship (Copper Smith 1967).

Based on these assessments, their following parenting attribute were associated with boy’s high self – esteem.

·        Expression of affection

·        Concern about the boy’s problems

·        Harmony in the home

·        Participation in joint family activities

·        Available to give complete organized help when the boys needed it

·        Setting clear & fair rules

·        Abiding by the rules

·        Allowing the boy’s freedom within well prescribed limits.

                      In our practical day to day life also if parents allow liberal atmosphere at home then the adolescents share their true felling to them. But if a parent does not find time to share the feeling of an adolescents they try and experiment with friends which many situations parent consider the genuine expression of their child as humiliating and threatening conduct to their own ego’s and the static world view. But in reality the dynamics of change keep ushering myiads of change that adolescent face at a particular point of time but mostly parents experience great difficulty in adopting to those sensitive experiences of their adolescents. According to the great theories Erik Erikson adolescents Clamor for solution to question of identity. Identity is a self portrait that is composed of many pieces includes work identity, political identity, religions identity, relationship identity, achievement identity, interest identity intellectual identity and body image undeveloped and undeveloped societies the identity is perceived merely on singular track of intellectual and economic achievement while ignoring other important and diverse aspect of identity. Had it not been the case how we would have seen wizards like A.R, Rahman, Sachin ,Sania or the likes of him/her. Although we do appreciate such legends of their respective fields but we mostly want this happen i.e. becoming musician or players to the child of other not of our own.

    Eriksion was especially sensitive to the role of culture in identity. Throughout the world, he noted ethnic minority groups have struggled to maintain their cultural identities while blending in with dominant culture. A somewhat similar phenomenon can be observed in places like Mumbai and Delhi where a massive migration from purvanchal has taken place and majority of them are guided by their indigenous cultural identity and protecting a separate or inclusive identity within the large culture. Parents are influential figures in an adolescents search for identity. Democratic parents who encourage adolescents in the decision making are considered better than the autocratic parents. Joint family system and permissive family environments are helpful in encourage enabling behaviors. Cultural and ethnic identity also allows the formation of attitudes and feelings related to that membership. In recent years researchers have focused on big five factors of personality – openness to experiences, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism (Emotional Stability). If we create an acronym from these trait words, we get the words OCEAN. In one study, adolescents who were characterized by openness, conscientiousness and emotional stability were less likely to have a pattern of school absences (  Lorensbury & others 2004) many of ours not aware of their gender – biased attitudes. These attitudes are deeply entrenched in and supported by the genera; cultural. Same – sex education and Co-ed education research finding are not conclusive and there may be broad deviations in the outcome. Message carried out by the media (print electronics and advertisement) are extremely stereotype in their portrayal of the sexes. Men are portrayed as more powerful than women an many TV show. The extreme level social & religious bias at the parental level can be easily witnessed in most of the households despite a mild change in attitude. the adolescent female right from childhood is reared to be more compliant and passive where as  dominant ,aggressive and acting. Observation imitation, rewards and punishment are the mechanisms by which gender identity develops. Gender typing emerges as individuals gradually develop gender appropriate and gender inappropriate in their culture.   

                      Gender stereotype are broad categories that reflect our impression and beliefs that is loaded with over simplifications. So many charges at social, technological and cultural level are easily ignored and it is very easy for us to classify them two distinct categories of males & females.

                  It is far more important to think of traits and contexts rather than gender identity alone. So many rituals and many traditions also reinforce such discriminatory behavior patterns. Adolescents in general also are victimized verbally if they do not fit in the unidirectional expectation of their parents. During creative years of personality building parents spends less of quality time but do not forget to compare in discriminatory fashion their achievements in school or sports. Control over adolescents girls social relationships especially romantic at times taken to very dangerous consequences of physical beating and even honor killing are not a rare phenomena. Strong discouragement of accepting teenager’s romantic relationship and ask them to wait till they are married also compel the adolescents to adopt practices that has widespread mismatch with the expectation of parents. Regardless of social prescriptions & proscription the rate of urban adolescent abortion is increasing at an alarming pace. The dramatic increase in HIV/AIDS cases among adolescents is happing because of lack of proper sex education to our adolescents. Ignoring physiological and biological needs in the name of religious & cultural moralizing does not matches with the reality of needs being faced by adolescents. Authoritarian, neglectful and indulgent parenting needs to be sensitized and adolescents be given more autonomy, mutual respect, balanced communication and attunement to each others needs. It also a big mistake by some of the non working mothers that they fail to motivate their adolescents progress by not allowing them to participate in outwards activities some behavior patterns like pressurizing their child to study more and more at the time of examination and not paying attention to proper time management. Setting unrealistic goals without considering the ability of their children also poses a negative self – worth to the adolescents. Minimizing social comparison induces self – worth among the adolescent. It is also important to note that in many cultures some small events of non – performance of their adolescents invite strong prejudiced mark of failure. We have a tendency to compare our children only with the best one percent successful adolescents and instead of exploring solutions for their future success we easily tart blaming the adolescent for their incompetence in all other fields. A little more open cultural, social, generational and technological changes understanding is necessary for improving the lot of our adolescents and exploring solutions to their problems based on contextual and individual considerations of adolescents will be more appreciate on part of condominiums researchers and members of civil society. It will be more important to perceive their problems in a wholistic perspective.  

Cognition in the age of virtual reality – From cultural contextual & developmental perspective:-

Microsoft cofounder Bill gates told his audience at the 2004 electronics shows that convergence, the erasure of distinction among media does not happen until you have everything in a digital from that the consumer can easily use on all the different devices. What  becomes of the distinction between newspapers, magazines, radio and television when all can be accessed anywhere, anytime on a single handed device and when each medium can combine graphics, video, printed text, sound, music and interactive to satisfy our entertainment and information needs?

                               We are in the midst of a revolution in communication that is transformating social orders and cultural order around the world and in our country. For many of, the consequences of this revolution have been both pleasant and benign. Powerful tool of mass media invades our privacy, shapes our views of the social world and whether it enriches our thinking and creativity or it further alienates us from gaining a holistic perspective need Careful analysis by the academia of different disciplines and psychology in particular which claims to be critical nourishes and preserver of our behavioral repertoire. Certainly people can apply idiosyncratic interpretation to the context of media before them, and they can choose to direct however much attention they wish to the screen. They can choose to actively seek meaning from media content or they can choose to passively decode it. But their control and involvement can’t directly alter the message being transmitted. Political leaders across the world exploit and manipulate the power of new media technology to alter public attitudes and beliefs.

                                    Lazarsfeld (1941) argued that it was not enough to merely speculate about the influence of media on society. It was not enough to assume that political propaganda is powerful- hard evidence was needed to prove the existence of such effects. Lazasfeld’s most famous efforts the “voter studies” actually began as an attempt to demonstrate the media’s power. During 1950’s limited effects notions about media gained acceptance within academia (Campbell- 1960 Deutschmann & Danielson 1960). This theory views society as a number of interlocking pluralistic groups led by opinion leaders who rely on media for information about politics and the social world.

                                   In a controversial essay, Bernard Berelson, who worked closely with paul lazarsfeld, declared the field of mass communication research to be dead (Berelson 1959). Ironically he wrote his essay just before the field of media research underwent explosive growth. Neo- Marxist left – wing social theorist believe that media enable dominant social elites to maintain their power – media provide the elite with a convenient, subtle yet highly effective means of promoting worldviews favorable to their interest.

                                      When we are use media to serve certain purposes gain information manage moods and seek excitement it is called “meaning making perspective” ability to induce desired experience. But at the same time we are caught in a process that brings unanticipated and unwanted consequences. For example if you are to catch a train and you get a message about its running behind the schedule it saves your time and energy but even if you are praying suddenly an hyper active caller call’s many a times to your mobile and the land line number it appears horrible  interference in your private space.

                                    Social – psychological and cultural research must be carried out a number of levels from macroscopic to the microscopic. How far socially constructive and creative behavior patterns are finding it difficult to survive as a means of our enriched intellectual and cultural existence. Most of the significant and interesting forms of human traditions are on the verge of extinction such as story telling, deep relationship sharing folks the gap of success & failure, classical music, interpersonal discussion, tolerance and countless other habits that brought more satisfaction for a quality living. We do not want to be guided by elders explaining us our behaviors. We say we think critically and media has the least role in deciding my preferences. Ironically we are also convinced that other people are much more likely to be influenced by media (the third person effect – Tewksbury, Moy and weis 2004). Scientists physical or social deal in theory. Theories are stories about how and why events occurs: - scientific theories begin with the assumption that the universe, including the social universe created by acting human begins, reveals certain basic fundamental properties and process that explain the ebb and flow of event’s in specific processes. (Turner 1988 P.I.).

                                       As communication theorist Katherine Miller explained “Different school of thought will define theory in different ways depending on the needs of the theorist and beliefs about the social world and the nature of knowledge’’ (2002 p.i.g).

                                         Scholars have identified four major categories of communication. Theory – post positivist, hermeneutic theory, critical theory and normative theory and they share a common and increased understanding of social and communicative life but they also differ in their goals, their ontology- their view of nature of reality their epistemology – their view of how knowledge is created and expanded and their axiology – their view role of values in research & theory building.

                                                 Thus definition of social science in mass – communication theory is so ambivalent that it requires more merging to a super ordinate goal of better explaining and analyzing behavioral perspective. The goals of post – positive theory are explanation, prediction and control. Its ontology accepts that the world even social world exists apart from our perception of it; human behavior is sufficiently predictable to be studied systematically. They might believe and explain which commercials will be more effective to control behavior of targeted citizens. Hermeneutic theory is “the study of understanding, especially by interpreting action and text (Little John – 1996p. 208). But in a given social context how people interpret their own lot is called social hermeneutics. Ethnographer Michael Moerman (1992 p.23) explained social hermeneutic theory tries to explain how event’s “in the alien world make sense to the alien’s how their way of life coheres and has meaning and value for the people who live it.”

                                                    Any product of social interaction – a movie the president or Prime Minister Address to its citizen’s a love letter, can be a source of understanding. The ontology of social hermeneutic theory says that there is no truly measurable social reality. Instead reality can’t be understood except through a consideration of the mental & social processes that are continually constructing that reality (Katherine Miller 2002 p. 52) personal and professional values are a lens through which social phenomena are observed. Critical theory starts from the assumption that the social world is deeply flawed and in need of transformation. Most critical theories are concerned with the conflict of interest in society and the way communication perpetuates domination of one group over another. What is real, what is knowable in the social world is the product of the interaction between structure (the social world’s rules norms & beliefs) and agency how human behave and interact in that world. Reality then to critical theory is constantly being shaped and reshaped by the dialectic (the two structures agency).critical theories see media as an essential tool employed by corporate elites to constrain how people views their social world and to limit their agency in it.

                                           

                                    A normative media theory explains how a media system should operate in order to conform to or realize a set of ideal social values. Its ontology argues that what is known is situational or knowable only for the specific social system in which that system exits. Its epistemology is based on comparative analysis- we can only judge (and therefore understand) the worth of a given media system in comparison to the ideal espoused in which it operates. Its axiology by definition is value laden. Mass society theory made several basic assumptions that media are a malignant force which has a power to reach out and influence the minds of average people. Once people’s minds are influenced by media it can bring sort- term and  long term consequences. Average people are vulnerable to media because they have been cut off and isolated from traditional social institution, debasing higher forms of culture and a bringing a general decline in the individual & social well – being.

                                        Among the originators of mass society notion was a German sociologist Ferdinand Tonnies. He proposed a simple dichotomy – gemeinschaft or folk community and gesellchaft a modern industrial society. Gemeinschaft “consisted of a dense network of personal relationship based heavily on kinship and the contact that occurs in a small closed village. Norms were largely unwritten and individuals were bound to mutual interdependence that touched all aspects of life (Fukuyama – 1999 p. 57). In addition a collective has the character of a gemeinschaft insofar as its members think of the group as a gift of nature created by a super natured will (Martindate – 1960 p. 86).

                                       In contrast the gesellschaft represent the frame work of laws and other formal regulation that characterized large, urban industrial societies. Social relationships were more formalized & impersonal: - individual did not depend on one another for support and were therefore much less morally obligated to one – another (Fukuyama 1999 p.p. 57-58).

                                     French sociologist Emile Durkheim offered a theory with the same dichotomy but with a fundamentally diffrent interpretation of modern social order. In Durkheim’s conception people are bound to one another through consensus and traditional social role like the parts of a great engine – mechanical solidarity. In Durkheim’s theory people are like specialized cells of a body rather than like cogs of machine. He compared modern social orders to animals rather than to machines. He used the term organic solidarity to refer to the social ties that bind modern social order together. Remember that he has used the metaphor of folk cultures not modern society. Durkheim’s praise for organic solidarity has been echoed in the many theories that have extolled the virtues of new media and new technology. Proponent’s of new media usually argue that communication technology will permit the formation of important new social  bends. Frequent allusions to an internet fueled “electronic democracy” in which the people can directly communicate with their leaders. There will be “electronic town halls” where the people will be able to decide what they want government to do for them. Durkheim in hi book suicide (1951) documented rising suicide rates in those countries where tradition religions and social institutions had lost their preeminence. In his later work, Durkheim showed growing concern for the declining strength of common morality. (Ritzer 1983 p. 99) .people is no longer bound by traditional values in which greed’s are replacing our needs and passion our replacing our compassion. In the name of globalization moral virtue included is on the sale, fantasy replacing the real and everyone wants an objective world of him self or herself. We are mostly unwilling to accept the peaceful co-existence of others. It is far easier to take refuge in surrogates, which neither inhibits, us or our cravings.

                                            Moral and emotional knowledge is being replaced with pop culture that provides easy going forms of social cohesion. We have been easily replacing the harmonic, rhythmic texture of classical music and aesthetics with a grammarless murmur of repetitious noise. There is a rising gap across the generations and the young generation has spontaneously acquired a culture which has increased the gap ever before between a teacher and the taught. Our traditional, social, political and cultural institutions are facing a threat to their status quo and phenomenal rapid diffusion of interest and worldwide web is facilitating the formation of multinational alliances that is challenging the existing elites as well. The rapid technological challenges effected massive media industry mergers. According to journalist and media critic Ben Bagdikian (2004), the numbers of corporations controlling most of the country’s news papers magazines, radio and television stations, book publishers and movies studio’s have shrunk from fifty, when he wrote the first edition of his classic The media monopoly to five today. This concentration of owner ship of media industries led him to comment as follows:-

                                             Left to their own devices a small number of the most powerful firms have taken control printed and broadcast news and entertainment. They have their own style of control not by official edict or state terror but uniform economic social goal. They have their own way of narrowing political and cultural diversity not by promulgating official dogma, but by quietly emphasizing ideas and information congenial to their profits & political dereferences. Although they have a disproportionate private influence over the political authorities and over public today. (1992 p. p 239 -240).Bagdikian, a strong proponent of media freedom is not mass theorist. Mass mediated propaganda is spread throughout the world which deeply affects our politics and culture. Propaganda freely uses lies and deception to persuade. Propaganda has also been classified as black, white and gray (Snowball 1999). Black propaganda involves deliberate and strategic transmission of lies. White propaganda involves intentional suppression of potentially harmful information and ideas and promotion of ideas that distract attention from problematic events. Gray propaganda involves transmission of ideas that may be true or false. Propaganda then and now live in an either/or good/evil world. Even concept’s like truth consent and justice are manufactured through engineering consent of people a term coined by father of modern public relation Edward L. Bernays by mastering techniques of persuasion & communication. Harald Laswell’s propaganda theory (1934) referred to the concept of master or collective symbols associated with strong emotions and   possess the power to stimulate beneficial large scale mass action if they are used wisely. It is no wonder our eating habits, reading habits, recreational habits and even interpersonal sharing are becoming subject to manipulation by propagandists. The discrepancies that exist in our head is ever widening. Pictures of outside world are being projected that India is growing in terms of overall economic indicators but the well being of an average man on the street is so pathetic that Supreme Court has to intervene to provide shelter to the people in the national capital and what to talk of other remote areas. Average man are becoming prisoners of this dilema of benevolent technocracy and economic liberalization on one hand and conducting a balance in managing everyday friction of their livelihood. Even a person whose monthly income is not more that five to six thousand rupees the parent and his family is expending one thousand rupees to meet their mobile expenses. Ideas are floated that every average person is rational to judge good ideas from bad is nothing but crucifying and glossing harsh realities. Media market place is a bit more complicated than the market place for refrigerators or tooth paste. Its ideas are traded freely among people it is not necessary best ideas will prevail. The meaning of individual messages can vary tremendously from one person to the next. If people lack discriminating ability it is very likely bad messages distributed freely are accepted and in the end message producer earns a profit. With the increase in mobile and internet density there was a mushrooming growth of cyber cafes and how far these are adding to the creativity of our youth is potential case of critical analysis. Safety, security. Inter – community sharing and social emotional well being is degrading.

                                      Social responsibility should not be something that is discussed in the classroom or academic debates but how far it unites cultural & social well being must correspond to the reality of the day. Whether dramatization more in the investigation of truth and portrayals of public good is generating barriers to freedom or enhancing our diverse ethos. A movement of sort is needed to steer mass – media towards reinvigorating public life which does not satisfies the appetite of a selective few and exclude the common ordinary citizens. Social cognitive theory assumes that observer can acquire symbolic representation of behaviors and mass – media provide information on which they base subsequent behavior.

                                     Writing in 1994 Bandura summed the accumulated knowledge of social cognitive theory to conclude that television viewers “acquire lasting attitude, emotional reactions and behavioral proclivities towards person’s places or things that have been associated with modeled emotional experience. W. James Potter (1997) identified Reward/Punishment, consequences motive, realism, humor, identification and arousal as encouraging factor of acquisition of mass – media behavior through modeling. Development perspective assumes that children undergo extensive and varied cognitive growth between birth and adulthood that is extremely rich complex and multifaceted. Logically, older children will read television differently than will younger children. This developmental perspective seeks to describe and explain the nature of the communicative differences between four year older six years’ olds & adults. Research indicates that although even children as young as seven can tell the difference between commercial and other televised content, they might not understand the commercial selling intent and that much advertising especially premium advertising cos that promise a gift or toy with purchase can cause conflict between parent and children.

                                                 A process called spiral of silence needs special attention of the researchers. Because of people’s fear of isolation or separation from those around them, they tend to keep their attitudes to themselves when they think they are in minority. If various viewpoints about agenda items are ignored, marginalized or trivialized by media reports, then people feel reluctant to talk about them. It is noteworthy to highlight and explore the possibilities where intra – personal, interpersonal inter group identities grow in terms of confidence harmonious co-existence creative climate of collective and pluralistic living. We should engage ourselves in research and discussion that may result in participated without fear of exclusion and infuse elements of social, cultural & cognitive inclusion of all. This is an attempt to uncover the all encompassing cover that is how virtual reality is affecting us and it needs more the attention of psychologists from an interdisciplinary approach.   

Migration from a psycho – social and cultural perspective in the context of global economic slowdown

Paper Presented in National Seminar Shyamlal College Univ. of Delhi on 5^th of Feb 2010                

 India’s history has been one of great invasions and migration, with much circulation of population from one place to another. Rural to urban migration in India and abroad and migration in the past two decades had been phenomenal. The global economic liberalization, visa rules, work – permits and major incentives in information technology sector and lack of opportunities in India are some of the contributory factors to this rapid pace of migration. Demographic characteristics of different states of India have changed dramatically in past two decades or so and intensity may vary depending on the opportunities but most of them have undergone this process and it is a process that is still on. New discovering in the field of computer’s and IT profession, huge urbanization processes in the Arab world improved mode of transportation and communication networks have been the major factors of migration. This process of migration in some situation was either due to push factors of social discrimination, starvation lack of Information, and lack of infrastructural facilities or due to pull factors of better place for learning, employment motivation to affiliate with the powerful nations and citizens to derive more material benefits and perceived better living conditions. Access to city life is considered a mark of social prestige and upward social mobility, rural scholars, artists; artisan’s, sports person, women and even unskilled workers aspire to move to cities. Role of Industrial work force increased with advancement in Industries and better employment opportunities. Migration is not only to big cities but also to medium and small cities. The process of migration is not only masculine in character but a large number of women have also moved out of their geographical and cultural place of origins. It is indeed difficult to propose that great dominance of village life in India is either an exaggerated compulsion or a conscious choice. Even deficient amount of statistics is perpetuated to maintain this pluralistic and diversified existence of India.

                                The purpose and objective of this paper is to highlight the issue of migration more in Indian context less in International context and the consequences of psycho – social and cultural manifestations in context of global economic slowdown.

First I would like to highlight the cultural object. The process by which cultural elements are borrowed from another society and incorporated into the culture of the recipient group is called diffusion. Diffusion is extremely common Linton an anthropologist has set its impact at the rate of 90 percent. That is not more than 10 percent of traits of most advanced cultures can be attributed to each society’s own unaided efforts. The far reaching effects of diffusion can be understood with the help of an example of a Mumbaikar conservative Hindu citizen. This man awakens in the bed built on a pattern which has been originated in sandalwood furniture of karnatka, his bed covers made from cotton of Gujrat. Silk kurta and pajamas spun and woven by muslim artisan’s from Lucknow, and washes with soap Mysore sandal originated in south India. Before going out for a breakfast he glances through glass window for which materials and manpower used are from Bihar and UP his knife is of steel made in Muradabad and main entry of his house is decorated with Madhubani paintings. The newspaper through which he forms much of his opinions is The Hindu and N. Ram is its Editor or chief Moderator of the views published in it. For his sports entertainment he glues to the television set Samsung (Made in Korea) and in the one – day match against Pakistan Tendulkar is out on Zero and M.S. Dhoni hits a century. His feeling of Mumbaikar gets frustrated and he wants to watch a movie in which actor is Amitabh Bacchan and music composer is A.R. Rahman. As he encounter these dosages of alien culture as a conservative citizen he goes to the temple to be considered a hundred percent Mumbaikar Lord Rama Temple who was also born in Ayodhya.

                                            History is full of examples where new inventions have spread farther and farther depending upon its utility. Diffusion takes place either with direct contact or through intermediaries. The invention of paper is attributed to the Chinese Ts’ailun in A.D. 105. First it was imported from other countries and now every place has become its local manufacturer. In stimulus diffusion knowledge of trait belonging to another culture stimulates the invention of local equivalent. Whole range of western music industry borrows heavily from Indian Classical music. The practice of Yoga, Aahram’s and spiritual enters are far more equipped in western countries than it is in India. While there is a temptation among the scholars to view the dynamics of diffusion similar to a stone sending concentric ripple over still water, this would be an oversimplification of the paradoxical nature of diffusion actually works. Element of material culture such as mechanical processes and Instruments, traits of sports and good health, academic produce are easily selected or rejected on its utility factor. But a real difficulty lies in the transfer of social values and social structure that has long term psychological implications. The practices of drinking wine, playing cards failed to diffuse into Muslim cultures. The basic region behind this is lack of utility of such behavior patterns. Marriages other than its own caste, drinking by women in large numbers could not become a social reality India however selective harmonizing traits of dining discrimination of upper castes with lower castes changed in the urban living conditions and spread of education. When a group or society is in contact with a more powerful society the weaker group is often obliged to acquire cultural elements from the dominant group. This process of extensive borrowing in the context of super – ordinate subordinate relation between societies is usually called acculturation. In contrast to diffusion which involves the voluntary borrowing of culture elements, acculturation or the wholesale borrowing of culture traits comes about as a result of some sort of external pressure. The loss of prestige of established authority is perceived by the host community in case of massive migration population coming in to their place. They also consider a threat to their economic and culture freedom. Social tension is generated through state of mind in which an actor finds uneasy in his environment, apprehensive of future event, worried for the fulfillment of needs restless of assumed resource space occupying by the migrants and uncertain in life because of increase in competition over resources.     

                                     Tension and conflict are both inclusive and exclusive state where one influences the other. Tensions may be both an index as well as aftermath of conflict. The justification and rationalization regarding the functional value of tension depend on ideology, placement and position of the beneficiaries or the losers in a given social order. Tension may also depict a state of misperception conditioned by various personal and situational factors – the roots of which may be in a variety of factors such as prejudice/ stereotype/ discrimination and changing social realities. Stereotype about groups (Us & them) concern the beliefs and expectations that we have concerning what members of those groups are like. Stereotypes can include more than just traits, physical appearance, activity preferences and likely behaviors are common components of stereotype (Biernat & Thmpson 2002). The tendency to perceive  persons belonging to groups other than one’s own as all alike known as out group homogeneity effect ( Linville etal 1989). “They are all the same” or are they? Some illusory correlation can also be formed that does not exist in reality. As an attitude prejudice is reflected in the negative feeling or emotions experienced on the part of prejudice person.

                                        Prejudice originates when members of certain groups perceive material or symbolic threat to their self – esteem. People want to see their own group positively (Tajfel & Turner 1986). According to realistic conflict theory (Bobo - 1983) prejudice develops out of the struggle over land, jobs, adequate in policy making bodies and other desirable outcomes. When such experiencing competition escalates both sides begin to experience hostility and come to view each other in increasingly negative terms. They may label each other as “enemies” view their own group as morally superior and draw the boundaries between themselves and their opponents more firmly and under extreme conditions they may come to see as opposing groups as not even human (Bar. Tal 2003).

                                           The direction of these tensions in moderated or exaggerated by people in power and the Mass – Media. These processes not only determine the direction of social tensions but also influence the mode of their manifestation. The psychological modes of expressing social tensions are signs, gestures, mistrust, apathy aversion, fear, arrogance non co-operation sabotage and at times physical attack. A culturally rich person exercises considerable restraint tolerance and understanding in interacting with other. Since the process of migration has assumed a sizable pace and they also want legitimacy, respectability and it is also motivated by the local leaders vote – bank politics. Those parties or leaders who help them in their settlement process do not forget to perpetuate this us and them divide to strengthen their vote – bank. Interesting aspect of this evaluation is to highlight that social tensions are not always dysfunctional and it has a positive side too that may lead to introspections, invention, creation of idea and cultural synthesis.

                                         These factors of discrimination can be reduced on learning not to hate. One crucial factor to reduce inter group prejudice is the experience of working together. Increased contact between people from different groups can lead to growing recognition of similarities between them. Even in case of interdependence between groups of us and them can favor group equality conceptions. It is noteworthy to understand that had migration been a major problem it would have got strong support of the host society as a whole. But reality suggests that these factors of us and them divide are well orchestrated by of greed, vote – bank politics and other factors. Once these factors of divide is sown its seed the manifestations are not in the hands of those who are its originators and its spreads to the common mass who become victims of such negative prejudice manifestations. No need to mention the creative appetite of media flash with breaking news of such trivial comments. Which acts as reinforcer? The process of global economic slowdown has also resulted in the loss of job inside and outside India. But its impact on Indian scene has not been as severe as it was in case of other western countries. The behavior pattern of an average Indian to save major part of their earning and it has been a great relief in this time of crises. Some of our cultural traits to adjust in two extremes of misery and luxury with equal ease have also been a major factor of relief. We have a behavior pattern of co-existence of the both hardship and easy going life attitudes at the same time. The final contention of this paper is to mention the fact that migration as such is not a problematic phenomenon and if proper mechanisms are in place that of governance most important and other traits of diversity in unity takes the center stage it can be an enriching process. Economic slowdown has also to do a lot with the attitudinal propositions which we can withstand with our values of need based and not greed based consumption pattern. It we are guided by our indigenous value system not copying the behavior pattern or life styles of western countries I strongly believe even impact of such crises will be negligible. What is more needed is selective adaptation of reasoned behavior and qualities and what is not at all needed is the rejection of priorities preferences based on unrealistic prescription of others. Both at a societal and Interpersonal level there is a need to harmonize our values to extend our feeling of togetherness and well being.

Antisocial, Unsocial and Prosocial Effects of Media Content – A Critical Understanding from Psychosocial and Cultural Perspective

Paper Presented at CPDHE Refresher Course in Psychology

6^th December 2010

      The impact of viewing television, motionpictures and internet is one of the newer area that has drawn the attention of policy-makers, sociologists, psychologists and even the common man of our society.  Underlying psychological principles of learning, motivation, perception, values, ethics and group processes are experiencing spontaneous changes with a pace that has not happened in the past.  Media as an industry has a different perspective and priority and academic researchers are hardly aware of the agenda setting objective of media.  Social cognition theory suggests that repetitive and redundant portrayals of trivialized social reality does leads to new intrapersonal and interpersonal topics of importance.  Desensitization accounts for people who are heavily exposed antisocial acts and become less conscious about the consequences.  Drawing upon the concepts of cognitive new associationism, priming effect analysis suggests that elements of thought or feeling or memories are parts of a network connected by associative pathways.  Thus for some time after a concept is activated there is an increased probability that it and other associated parts of the network will come to mind again thus creating the priming effect.  There are many antecedent variables such as media structure, media technology, social circumstances, psychological variables, needs, values and beliefs that all related to gratification pattern of the audience.  Media content can spin social reality in terms of your eating behaviors, educational preferences, dress, recreational preferences by cultivating of perceptions of new social reality.  Reality shows, different T.V. serials highlight the selective aspect and focus it to be the topics of reality.  Learning from media environment results in perception of real social environment.  T.V. viewing of programmes of paranormal activities such as palm-reading, vastu, previous life experiences, astrology, tele-kinesis does help in creating a belief in paranormal experiences.  Valentine day celebrations, new year parties, excessive use of internet chatting, frequent SMS messaging for any trivial communication and message exchanges an each festivities such as Diwali, Dusshehra, Raksha-bandhan, Independence day, Republic day, Father’s Day, Daughter’s day, are slowly and gradually becoming a ritual part of our behavior.  A new pattern of cognitive framing is taking place consciously and unconsciously among heavy viewers and heavy users and consuming much of their time.  The generation gap is also increasing in disproportionate manner because of cultivation of a new social reality.  It will erroneous to assign the same degree of impact without taking into consideration the demographic and cultural context variables.  Psychological dependence on internet causes person’s to onlineaholics who ignore family, work and friends as they devote most of the time to surfing net.

            Through this paper an attempt will be made to understand various psycho-social and cultural variables affecting prosocial aspect of behavior-affilation, well-being and antisocial and unsocial aspect of behavior.  Of being violent, selfish lack to concern with family and society.