Ashoka University is a private university located in Sonipat, Haryana, India, focusing on liberal arts and sciences. It was established in 2014.&nbsp;It is guided by an academic council of academics and scholars from around the world. The council sets the university&#39;s academic standard, advising on matters of curriculum, faculty hiring and research.&nbsp;

Ashoka University offers a full-time 3 (+ 1) year undergraduate programme. The University comprises of&nbsp;2500 plus students, with a mix of both national and international students.&nbsp; &nbsp;

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Ashoka University

One goal of clinical psychological science is to help people with problems that matter to them. However, little is known about which kinds of symptoms are viewed as most important, particularly among individuals in non-western settings. We examined the extent to which young adults in India rated individual symptoms of depression and anxiety as important, concerning, and undesirable. Participants were college students at Indian Universities (n = 283). They received a measure of depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and anxiety symptoms (Generalized Anxiety Disorder Screener-7). For each of the 16 symptoms, they provided three judgments relating to the extent to which they found the symptom important, harmful, and undesirable. These judgments were averaged to form a “subjective importance rating” (SIR) for each symptom. Anxiety symptoms were viewed as more important than depressive symptoms (d = 0.34), and nonsomatic symptoms were viewed as more important than somatic symptoms (d = 0.83). Females rated symptoms as more important than males (d = 0.32), and individuals with higher self-reported symptoms rated symptoms as more important. Sad mood, suicidal ideation, and controlling worries were rated as the most important symptoms, whereas concentration problems, appetite problems, and psychomotor problems were rated as the least important. Overall, some symptoms are viewed as more important and concerning than others. We discuss how this understanding can affect our conceptualization, assessment, and treatment of mental disorders around the world.&nbsp;

Department of Psychology

World University root node

Behavior Therapy

Which Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety Matter Most? An Investigation of Subjective Importance Ratings With College Students in India

The mental health of college students is increasingly viewed as an important public health priority. However, there has been little attention paid specifically to college students’ perspectives on factors that contribute to mental health challenges or on potential initiatives that could address them. Even less research has focused on students in low- and middle-income countries. In an effort to better understand how to improve mental health and wellness on college campuses, we administered an open-ended survey to 141 Indian college students (Mage = 19.47, 65% female). We asked the students to identify: (a) issues that contribute to mental health problems among college students, (b) potential initiatives or strategies that could be used to improve mental health and wellness, and (c) topics that students would like to learn about in a course about mental health and wellness. Applying thematic analysis, we identified academic stressors (e.g., pressure to succeed, competitiveness) and social stressors (e.g., lack of community, party culture and substance abuse) that students reported as contributors to mental health problems. Students also described mental health promotion strategies that could be implemented by faculty members (e.g., providing academic accommodations for students with mental health concerns), the student body (e.g., establishing peer counseling groups), and individual students (e.g., checking in with others). Finally, they identified topics that they would like to learn about in mental health and wellness courses (e.g., how to identify mental health concerns, how to support friends). By raising several potential targets for mental health and wellness interventions for Indian college students, our study illustrates how open-ended surveys can be a useful and feasible way to solicit input from stakeholders in low- and middle-income countries. Future research will be needed to assess the effectiveness and feasibility of mental health promotion strategies, including those proposed by students.

Improving Mental Health on College Campuses: Perspectives of Indian College Students

In the present study, we examined whether clients’ perceptions of similarity to their therapists in terms of the Big Five personality traits were associated with the real relationship and, indirectly through the real relationship, to treatment progress. Data collected through an online crowdsource platform from 212 adult clients in individual psychotherapy were analyzed using polynomial regression and response surface analysis. Results indicated that clients who perceived greater similarity to their therapists at higher (vs. lower) levels of Conscientiousness and Openness to Experience reported stronger real relationships, as did clients who perceived greater similarity at lower (vs. higher) levels of Neuroticism. Similarly, clients reported a stronger real relationship when they perceived their therapists as similarly high in Extraversion, but the real relationship decreased slightly when the similarity was perceived at higher (vs. moderate) levels of this trait. Perceived similarity at high and low levels of Agreeableness was also associated with stronger real relationships. There was no evidence of an indirect association between client-perceived similarity and treatment progress via the real relationship. However, clients who perceived greater similarity to their therapists at higher (vs. lower) levels of Openness to Experiences and Conscientiousness reported more progress in treatment. Implications for theory, research, and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)

APA PsycArticles

Do birds of a feather flock together? Clients’ perceived personality similarity, real relationship, and treatment progress.

Countertransference is an important aspect of the therapeutic relationship that exists in therapies of all theoretical orientations and depending on how it is managed, it can either help or hinder treatment. Management of countertransference has been measured almost exclusively with the Countertransference Factors Inventory (Van Wagoner, Gelso, Hayes, & Diemer, 1991) and its variations, all of which focus on 5 therapist qualities theorized to facilitate management: self-insight, conceptualizing ability, empathy, self-integration and anxiety management. Existing versions of the Countertransference Factors Inventory, however, possess certain psychometric limitations that appear to constrain how well they assess actual management of countertransference during a therapy session. We thus sought to develop a new measure that addressed these limitations and that captured the 5 therapist qualities as constituents (rather than correlates) of countertransference management that manifest in the treatment hour. The development and initial validation of the resulting 22-item Countertransference Management Scale (CMS) is described here. Exploratory factor analysis of ratings of 286 therapy supervisors of current supervisees indicated that the 5 constituents of countertransference management could be grouped into 2 correlated factors: "Understanding Self and Client" and "Self-Integration and Regulation." Evidence of convergent and criterion-related validity was supported by CMS total and subscale scores correlating as expected with measures of theoretically relevant constructs, namely, therapist countertransference behavior, theoretical framework, self-esteem, observing ego, empathic understanding and tolerance of anxiety. Results also supported the internal consistency of the CMS and its subscales. Research, clinical and training implications are discussed.