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India is a multicultural society which is inhabited by a diverse population with multitudes of castes and religions, languages, cultures, and racial groups. Ethnic identities in India are apprehensive of being assimilated into the dominant culture leading to the dilution of their cultural heritage. Hence, there is an increase in horizontal solidarity that makes the in-group members more resistant to acknowledge and accept out-group members. The present study follows a convergent parallel mixed method design to examine the impact of ethnic prejudice towards diverse linguistic groups amongst male and female young adults. A sample of 30 participants (m =15, f =15) between the age range of 18 and 25 years, Bengalee, and residing in Kolkata, were selected. Participants responded to a survey using the social distance scale. Then, a semi-structured interview was conducted. Chi-Square test was carried out to test the association between ethnic prejudice towards linguistic groups and the desire to engage in a proximal interpersonal relationship. Additionally, Phi-Coefficient assessed the strength of the association. Further, thematic analysis was carried out to analyse qualitative data. Results indicate a significant association between ethnic prejudice and proximal interpersonal relationships. The Punjabi linguistic group was most favourably appraised followed by Assamese, Marathi, Odia, and Telugu. However, the Bhojpuri linguistic group was least favourably appraised. The qualitative findings revealed the decision to accept or reject ethnic groups in proximal interpersonal relationship was dependent on perceived beauty, perceived traits and perceived similarity of the ethnic groups. The preconceived notions of beauty, trait and similarity that the participants hold for the ethnic groups moderate their evaluation of each group member in determining their level of engagement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reality television show has become a dominating social phenomenon. It transforms regular people into celebrities. Particularly, reality shows of child performers, focusing on singing are enjoying a wide spectatorship. Many participants face immense pressure during the time of filming affecting their psychological well being. The aim of the present study is to explore I) the temperament and character profile; and II) direction of aggression and reaction to frustrating situations of two groups, namely, junior reality television show performer group and control group children. To reach the objectives, both male and female children between 7 to 13 years of age have been chosen and matched on relevant variables. The tools used for this purpose were Rosenzweig picture frustration study (RPFS) andjumor temperament and character inventory (JTCI). Data were evaluated using independent sample t- test and Pearson correlation of coefficient. Results indicate that the, junior reality television show performer group has higher novelty seeking, higher intropunitiveness and lower ego defence than control group children. High novelty seeking of the RSG performers may direct them to take part in the reality television shows and low ego defence helps them to learn and accept the daily struggle which they are likely to face before every performance on reality show. Correlation between the scores on RPFS and JTCI reveals that the reality show performers' obstacle dominance (RPFS) is positively correlated to their reward dependence score and persistence (JTCI) score. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study aims to probe into the status of the big five personality factors in the OCD probands and their first degree relatives (FDR) viz a viz community controls and also look into the association of the big five factors with symptom severity and obsessive personality traits. Fifty dyads of probands and FDR and community controls matched on the basis of age, sex and education were assessed on NEO Five Factor Inventory, Yale Brown Obsession Compulsion Scale, Beck Depression Inventory and Leyton Obsessional Inventory to fulfill the aims of the study. The findings reveal higher neuroticism and lower extroversion and conscientiousness in the OCD group as compared to controls, endorsement of greater conscientiousness among the FDR as compared to the case-probands, with Agreeableness and Conscientiousness emerging as predictors associated with obsessive symptoms among OCD probands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reality television show has become a dominating social phenomenon. It transforms regular people into celebrities. In India as well as in Kolkata reality shows of child performers, focusing on singing is enjoying a wide spectatorship. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the self-image profile (SIP) and personality in the two groups, namely, reality television show performer (Group I) and control group children (Group II). To reach the objective both male and female children between 7 and 11 years of age have been chosen and matched on relevant variables. The tools used for this purpose were SIP for children, Butler (2001) and junior temperament and character inventory, Cloninger et al. (1992; 1994). Data were evaluated using independent sample t-test and Pearson correlation of coefficient. Results indicate that the reality television show performers have high novelty seeking and self-directedness. The study further reveals a lower self-esteem among reality television show performers than non-reality television show performers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work concerns the investigation of executive functions in patients with focal brain lesion. In order to identify the underlying substrates for executive functions, 54 patients with focal cortical (n=30), subcortical (n=13) and cerebellar damage (n=10) (M=9; F=1) in the age range of 24-65 years with a minimum of Class V education have been investigated. The patients were admitted to the Department of Neuromedicine of Bangur Institute of Neurology, Calcutta. Each patient with focal lesion was matched with a healthy normal subject controlling for age and education. The socio-economic background was also taken into consideration. Controls were selected from the families of other patients admitted to the institution and also from individuals who volunteered to act as controls. Here too, rigid criteria have been followed to select the normals. Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) were administered to screen out the neurological and psychiatric abnormalities in selection of normal control and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) was administered to find out the executive function, in terms of set-shifting ability. Since standard anatomical groupings can obscure more specific brain-behavior relations, group-comparison design does not always allow determination of the effective lesion responsible for a particular deficit (Godefroy et al., 1998). The Classification and Regression Tree (CART) analysis has been used to determine the brain-behavior relationships. The result reveals that the frontal lobes are essential determinants of set-shifting capacity. However, for optimal execution of set-shifting function, the frontal lobes require participation of other cortical, subcortical and cerebellar regions. The result has been discussed in the light of the existing theories and research reports.

Background: Recent brain imaging and electrophysiological studies have consistently shown dysfunction of the fronto-striatal thalamic pathways in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)., Aim: To study the relationship of neuropsychological disposition with the executive functions and cognitive style in patients with OCD., Methods: Twenty OCD patients (14 males, 6 females) and 20 normal control subjects, matched for all relevant variables including age, sex and education, were studied. Neuropsychological disposition was assessed on the Adult Neuropsychological Questionnaire (ANQ), the executive functions were assessed through Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and the cognitive style was assessed by employing the Embedded Figure Test (EFT)., Results: Subcortical-cerebellar-spinal domain of ANQ was found to be associated with cognitive style and executive functions., Conclusion: The impairment of executive functions and poor activation of specific neurological circuitry in OCD patients affirms the neurobiological basis of the disorder.