Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH) is a premier institute of science and technology established in 2008. IITH has been consistently ranked in the&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/reports/" rel="noopener noreferrer">top 10 institutes</a>&nbsp;in India for Engineering&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nirfindia.org/2021/EngineeringRanking.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to NIRF</a>&nbsp;making it one of the most coveted schools for science and technology in the country.

IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/under-graduate/">undergraduate programs</a>&nbsp;in all the classical engineering disciplines, applied sciences, design, as well as several modern interdisciplinary areas. Students are given a flexibility to explore a broad set of areas, and potentially pursue a minor or double major in a discipline that is not their own. Students who wish to seek a deeper understanding of their own discipline are strongly encouraged to get involved in cutting-edge research with the help of a faculty to mentor them, and earn an Honors in their own field.

The very foundation of IIT Hyderabad is based on&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/">research and innovation</a>. The vibrant research culture is evident from the number of patents and publications that IITH produces consistently every year. IITH offers&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/programmes-offered/">graduate programs</a>&nbsp;at both a masters, and a doctoral level, in several diverse areas. There are separate programs for technology, design, science, and liberal arts. The&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/academics/post-graduate/">MTech program</a>&nbsp;is offered in various modes and durations to cater to the ever-growing need of postgraduate level professionals in the country.

IITH encourages and supports&nbsp;<a href="https://iic-iith.netlify.app/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">innovation and entrepreneurship</a>&nbsp;at every stage. The minor program in entrepreneurship is open to all students of IITH, and many of the courses are offered by industrialists who are entrepreneurs themselves. There are various&nbsp;<a href="https://iith.ac.in/research/centres-incubators/">innovation centers and incubators</a>&nbsp;that promote entrepreneurship and help mentor young innovators. IITH has been very successful in building tie-ups with leading academic institutions around the globe.

IITH enjoys a very special relationship with Japanese universities and industries that goes beyond academic and research collaborations. In fact, some of the iconic buildings in IITH campus will carry the signature of Japanese architecture.

IITH creates a unique holistic ecosystem for education that offers interactive learning, a very flexible academic structure, cutting-edge research, strong industry collaboration, and entrepreneurship. This is an environment which enables students and faculty to translate their dreams into realities.

IIT Hyderabad

Background: Research and practice in the area of mental health has been conventionally predominated by the deficit-based approach, which attempts to improve lives by fixing symptoms. However, the growing impact of the positive psychology movement in the last two decades has resulted in incorporation of the strength-based approach into mental health work. Purpose: The objective of this article is to (i) emphasize the efficacy of strength-based approach in the area of mental health (ii) identify shortcomings in the Indian Mental Health System (MHS) (iii) recognize micro-level initiatives in the MHS and (iv) provide recommendations for the future. Method: These objectives are accomplished via reflections obtained from an ethnographic research with participants reporting mental health symptoms. Additionally, opinions gathered from mental health professionals, and government and non-government organizations working in the area were also considered. Results: This work has shed light on the recent micro-level transformations in the system including contextualization of mental illness and treatment, valuing patient’s input in the treatment process, and the creation and effective functioning of mental health task-forces. Conclusion: This paper concludes with a four-point recommendation that can help to incorporate the strength-based approach in MHSs for better outcomes. © 2022 Taylor & Francis.

World University root node

Department of Liberal Arts

Journal of Evidence-Based Social Work (United States)

Strength-Based Approach in Indian Clinical Practice: Reflections from a Five-year Ethnographic Study

Individuals frequently confront various kinds of losses during their lifetime such as death of loved ones, financial losses, damage to health, among others. These challenges can have short-term or long-term impacts. Hence, adapting successfully to the impact of these challenges is an inevitable and sometimes an ongoing process in life. While some individuals display maladaptive behavior when faced with such adversities, others display resilience in adapting to them and eventually establish a state of well-being. This chapter presents four case studies of resilient individuals who have faced different challenges such as physical health, relationship loss, domestic violence, and child sexual abuse. There were two male and two female participants with a mean age of 32. The objective of the study was to explore resilience and well-being outcomes among individuals who have experienced adversity. A case study approach was considered suitable as it allows participants to report their subjective experiences, an opportunity that quantitative methods do not allow. Interviews were conducted using (McAdams, 1985) life story approach which covers factors ranging from childhood experiences to personality traits and peak experiences. The findings revealed that all participants eventually established a state of optimal functioning through resilience derived from internal and external protective factors. Major themes identified were negative experiences and emotions, positive emotions, benefit finding, presence of significant others, and pro-social behavior. Well-being was exhibited through positive consequences such as empathy, self-belief, and gratitude after facing hardship. The authors recommend using the case study approach in exploring resilience as individuals have unique coping mechanisms that are difficult to capture through quantitative measures. Additionally, case study approaches may be useful in understanding well-being outcomes in a variety of contexts which are otherwise difficult through preset questions. Finally, implications of the study and suggestions for future research have been proposed. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Taylor and Francis Pte Ltd. 2022.

Handbook of Health and Well-Being: Challenges, Strategies and Future Trends

Resilience and Well-Being: Case Studies of Four Individuals Who Have Undergone Adversities

Over the years, many researchers have studied outcomes of mental illness through deficit-based approaches such as vulnerability, suffering, and symptoms among individuals diagnosed with mental illness. Such an approach, though useful in the clinical area has failed to adequately explore positive adaptation among such individuals. The present study is a strength-based approach that aims to address this gap in literature by investigating how individuals despite the diagnosis of OCD, can display resilience and positive outcomes by leading a productive life. Resilience was explored by analyzing life experiences of two OCD patients who received Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) sessions. Resilience, challenges, and protective factors were examined using a semi-structured interview and Connor-Davidson’s Resilience Scale-10 after CBT sessions. Both participants displayed resilience through unique coping mechanisms derived from internal and external protective factors that helped them to overcome the symptoms of OCD and other challenges faced in day-to-day living. Resilience was exhibited through adaptation and improved life outcomes. Case study approaches may be useful in understanding unique resilience mechanisms in a variety of contexts, which are otherwise difficult to identify through large-scale surveys. Further, a discussion on future implications provides crucial insights for mental health professionals. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment

From symptomology to resilience: Case illustrations of recovery from OCD using CBT

This paper explores how religious beliefs influence meaning-making and prosocial action among community responders. Fourteen non-professional rescue and relief volunteers were interviewed post the 2018-19 floods in Kerala, India. The study adopts Braun and Clarke's Thematic Analysis with a critical realist approach. Several participants viewed the disaster as an act of God but simultaneously engaged in scientific sense-making; religious meaning-making offers a means of coming to terms, while rational causal attributions promote mitigation measures. Suffering was seen as a test of faith. Many volunteers experienced the disaster as a reminder that re-oriented them to piety and iterated human vulnerability. Although the disaster evoked a lack of control, they found meaning in the service of others and viewed their actions with humility and gratitude. Service was often both intrinsically meaningful and religiously motivated. The findings underscore the role of religious meaning-making in promoting prosocial action and community resilience post disasters. © 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Mental Health, Religion and Culture

Religious meaning-making and prosocial action among disaster response volunteers

In India, mental illness is generally perceived as a lifetime adversity with high vulnerability to problems such as social marginalization, health hazards, and economic deprivation. But anecdotal evidence has shown that many individuals struggling with mental illness have led outstanding lives of courage, dignity and have contributed to society in different ways. Yet scientific research has not focused adequately on such cases and instead has largely studied negative outcomes associated with mental illness. The objective of the present study was to explore positive outcomes through the subjective experiences of individuals diagnosed with mental illness. Interviews of participants (n = 48) were analyzed using thematic analysis. The imperative finding was that despite mental illness and cumulative risks, participants were able to bounce back to a functional level and in a few instances even excelled in specific areas they engaged in. The major implication of such strength-based studies is that it highlights positive outcomes that can assist in building a life of wellness thereby challenging the deficit-based approach that is more popularly followed in studying mental illness. These findings establish that the possibility of living well even after being diagnosed with a mental illness is not a fictional likelihood, rather an achievable reality. © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Living well with mental illness: Findings from India

This paper explores processes of resilience in young adults who have experienced abuse during childhood. To study individual processes contributing to resilience, a case study approach is adopted. Qualitative interviews were conducted with three participants: one female (aged 25) who experienced sexual abuse, one male (aged 18) and one female (aged 20) who reported emotional abuse. The inclusion criteria were: the presence of significant traumatic experience, assessed by the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and a significant score on the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. A thematic analysis guided by Braun and Clarke’s (2006) approach was conducted. The most prominent theme regarding factors that promote resilience was the meaning-making that the individuals engaged in. The themes were distilled to identify cognitive processes underlying meaning-making. Findings are interpreted in the light of existing literature. A major implication of the study is how meaning-making processes may inform therapeutic interventions for individuals struggling with experiences of abuse. © 2021, National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India.

Psychological Studies

Resilience Through Meaning-Making: Case Studies of Childhood Adversity

This paper discusses sources of risk and resilience within the family, among adults with a history of childhood adversity in India. While there is some indication that a dysfunctional family environment could pose significant risks, due to the common tendency of viewing the family as an unimpeachable system, general discussions criticizing the family environment are not very popular. This work is part of a larger investigation (N = 1040) on resilience and childhood adversity. These participants were screened for the presence of adversity in childhood and display of resilience in adulthood. 50 individuals (age 17–46) who met the criteria were interviewed and the interviews were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's (2006) thematic analysis guidelines. While 34% of the participants stated that protective factors such as supportive parent-child interactions and cohesion within the family contributed to resilience, 38% reported that family environment was the source of childhood abuse. Distancing oneself from the family of origin was reported as a major coping strategy that facilitated growth and recovery. This research acknowledges a wide range of risk factors within the family that leads to childhood abuse. In a culture that values family relationships immensely, the prospect that this sacred institution can cause harm to an individual is commonly dismissed, to ensure that the social foundation remains intact. More social and legal awareness and a better response system needs to be created to address gaps in research and practice. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Children and Youth Services Review

Family as a source of risk and resilience among adults with a history of childhood adversity

Research in the area of psychological resilience has gained much popularity since the birth of positive psychology movement in the late 1990s. This chapter attempts to summarize the progress of research conducted in the area. It begins by tracing the emergence of the concept with special focus on its development since the positive psychology movement. The concepts of vulnerability, risk and protective factors, as well as major theoretical frameworks proposed by resilience researchers in attempting to understand resilience, are discussed. Over the years, resilience researchers have faced several conceptual and methodological constraints in studying the phenomena. These issues have been highlighted in order to provide further clarification on the topic. An outline of recent researches in the area with an emphasis on the contributions made by Indian researchers is presented. Finally, applications of findings along with directions for future research have been discussed. © Springer (India) Pvt. Ltd., part of Springer Nature 2018.

Psychosocial Interventions for Health and Well-Being

Psychology of resilience

Positive health focuses on enhancing health along with curing illness to bring about well-being. Treatment for physical illness generally involves drug therapy, while the psycho-social aspects, specifically the positive psychology perspectives, are largely ignored; nevertheless, a growing number of investigations are now studying the effects of positive psychology interventions on health outcomes. The objective of this paper is to systematically review positive psychology interventions in chronic physical illness. A literature search through the databases of EBSCO, PubMed and PsycINFO, reference lists of significant papers and grey literature was conducted following four criteria set for this review. The number of studies selected finally that acceded to the criteria was 14. These studies were analysed by focusing on the study characteristics, kinds of intervention and outcomes of positive psychology interventions. Overall findings reveal that different intervention programmes have been devised by combining various exercises, writing is the most commonly used method for administration and positive psychology interventions are considered feasible and acceptable by patients, but findings about their usefulness are inconclusive. Suggestions for future research, clinical practice and application in communities have been provided which may be useful for clinicians, practitioners and caregivers. © 2017, National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India.

Fulltext

Positive Psychology Interventions for Chronic Physical Illnesses: A Systematic Review

For many years, the concept of gratitude was not considered worthy of investigation by psychologists since research goals were strongly dominated by the deficit-based approach and gratitude concepts were believed to be derived from common sense, and thus not warranting scientific query. This study, in attempting to understand gratitude themes, explores various events that elicit gratitude among engineering students in India. Thirty-two final year engineering students were introduced to gratitude research, administered gratitude exercises, and asked to provide feedback about the exercises. Nested questions, in the form of three-blessings and benefit finding exercises, were used to identify experiences of students leading to gratitude. Content analysis was applied to identify underlying themes and report them systematically. Four major themes and five minor themes were uncovered. Among these, positive emotions was the most prevalent theme and finance was the least encountered theme. Strategies to improve intervention studies, including restricting the area of investigation to one domain and making exercises interesting, have been suggested. Implications of the research within the socio-cultural context have been discussed with special reference to the complexities in separating the sense of duty and gratitude. Further research will provide us with more insights into the topic, specifically from an Indian socio-cultural perspective. © 2017 Taylor & Francis.

An exploration of gratitude themes and suggestions for future interventions

The aim of this case study is to explore the perception of the rural people for regular health check-ups. A survey was conducted in 500 households in a village in Telangana in March 2012 to get an overview about the inhabitants’ health and their willingness to go for regular check-ups. Since majority of the respondents reported not visiting doctors or hospitals regularly, the key determinants for avoidance of such health check-ups was examined. The objective was to discover factors that may be addressed in future when healthcare facilities would be made available to these villages. The major determinants for avoidance of regular health check-ups were estimated through a logit model. The health locus of control index was constructed using five questions related to attitude and perception on regular health check-up. The results indicate that demographic factors like gender and age, economic factors such as family income and family health expenditure, distance, cost of availing a doctor and health locus of control are the key determinants for avoiding regular health check-up in rural India. However, due to increasing awareness among the rural population over the years, majority of the respondents are willing to pay a minimal amount of money and ready to use the electronic device which can monitor their health. © 2017 Indian Institute of Health Management Research.

Journal of Health Management

Perception towards Regular Health Check-ups: A Case Study from a Selected Village in Telangana State in India

Positive psychology has often used both fictional and nonfictional examples to describe positive traits and outcomes. However, a film’s contribution to understanding of experiences has been rather underresearched in positive psychology literature. Although researchers in areas including journalism and film studies have conducted such investigations over the years, positive psychologists are yet to pursue this actively. This article is an attempt to explore positive psychology concepts displayed in the film Wadjda through thematic analysis. The film is about the life of an ordinary girl who displays positive outcomes under circumstances that might have overwhelmed others. This article focuses on the journey of the characters in the film and attempts to identify positive psychology features in the story. Although all characters portrayed in the film are shown to be undergoing some challenge, they are depicted as handling their life circumstances in a healthy manner. The story radiates positivity and fits Niemiec’s criteria of a positive psychology film. The article concludes by highlighting the need to conduct research on positive psychology films and its application in different areas. © 2016 Taylor & Francis.

A qualitative exploration of positive psychology concepts in the film Wadjda and implications for future research

The aim of this study is to summarize the developments in the field of positive psychology in India by focusing on research and applications. Since the emergence of the positive psychology movement in the West in 1998, researchers worldwide including India have been influenced by its strength-based approach. Over time, positive psychology in India has garnered an empirical base. This paper attempts to trace the development of the field within India. Various databases such as PsycINFO, Science Direct, PubMed, EBSCO and Shodhganga were searched along with the gray literature according to a set of criteria. Relevant researches were categorized under study characteristics, variables studied and assessment of positive psychology variables. Findings show that well-being is the most widely studied topic in positive psychology in India. Other topics including character strengths and posttraumatic growth also seem to be gaining popularity. Future directions on investigating topics that have not received adequate attention, making efforts to bridge the gap between Indian psychology and positive psychology, addressing cultural issues in positive psychology research, focusing on interdisciplinary and multi-method approach and finally making positive psychology available to the non-scientific community, have been provided. It is hoped that these efforts will enable us to build a positive psychology community. On the basis of this analysis, it may be derived that psychology research in India has started focusing on prevention along with cure. © 2016, National Academy of Psychology (NAOP) India.

Positive Psychology Progress in India: Accomplishments and Pathways Ahead

The last decade has witnessed considerable interest in pathological conditions stemming from misuse or overuse of technology, a condition commonly referred to as technopathology. Of the several complaints reported, phantom vibration or phantom ringing is one that has not yet been widely explored. The objective of conducting a systematic review is to provide an understanding of the phenomena and summarize the research conducted so far. Major databases were searched and articles that matched the inclusion criteria were selected for final analysis. According to findings obtained, phantom vibration or phantom ringing was commonly experienced by mobile phone users; however, few found it bothersome and hence took no steps to eliminate it. As of now, literature in the area is limited and many aspects of the phenomena such as its prevalence across populations, causal factors, consequences, and treatment plans are yet to be studied. Also, a clinical criterion for identification of the condition needs to be formulated. With increase in the number of individuals reporting mobile phone-related problem behavior, phantom vibration, or phantom ringing may be expected to become a cause of concern for mental health professionals within some years. Finally, the need for further research is emphasized while presenting directions for future investigations. © 2014 Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Asia-Pacific Psychiatry

Phantom vibration and phantom ringing among mobile phone users: A systematic review of literature

This investigation is an attempt to study resilience in adolescents preparing for Engineering/Medical Entrance Examinations. It is a part of another research investigation on resilience in which 200 adolescents (mean age=18.36) experiencing high academic adversity were chosen from a larger group of 566. This was done by selection of those adolescents who scored above Q3 on the Academic Adversity Scale, developed during the research work. In the present investigation, the resilience of these 200 adolescents was assessed through administration of the Mampane Resilience Scale. The sample was divided into high resilience (HR) and low resilience (LR) groups through a median split of the resilience scores. The academic performance of HR and LR groups as well as HR males and HR females was compared. Finally an attempt was made to find out if resilience scores could predict academic success; the criteria for success being selection to one's target institute for higher education. The results revealed that individuals reporting high resilience showed better academic performance as compared to those perceiving themselves to be low on resilience. Males scored higher on resilience and performed better in competitive examinations than females did. A major finding of this study was that the chances of HR adolescents being successful in competitive examinations was found to be 120% greater than that of LR adolescents. Future researches are required to understand better, the role of resilience in academic performance which in turn may help adolescents to navigate through important educational transitional points in their lives. © Journal of the Indian Academy of Applied Psychology.