Homepage of Ajit K. Dalal
Ajit K Dalal is Professor of Psychology at the University of Allahabad. He has obtained his doctoral degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and has published in the areas of causal attribution, health beliefs and indigenous psychology. He received the Fulbright Senior Fellowship and worked at University of California, Los Angeles, and at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is also a recipient of the UGC Career Award, Rockefeller Foundation Award, and ICSSR Senior Fellowship. He was a visiting faculty at many places, including Queen’s University, Canada, National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, New Delhi, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Calcutta University, Kolkata. He has published research articles and book chapters, in addition to books, including Attribution Theory and Research, New Directions in Indian Psychology (vol.1), Social Dimensions of Health and Handbook of Indian Psychology. Presently, he is editor of the journal ‘Psychology and Developing Societies’ published by Sage India.
ajit can be reached at ajitkdalal@gmail.com |
Indian Psychology related articles
This chapter explores the characteristic features of traditional healing practices and attempts to decipher the ways in which they work. The purpose is to draw parallels between folk practices and modern psychotherapies and identify learning opportunities from ancient wisdom.
This chapter traces the history of psychology in India and discusses how it can be enriched by drawing from the classical Indian texts.
The chapter discusses the biography of an eminent Indian yogi and a poet, Sri Aurobindo. It also throws light on his creative genius as evident in his writings, particularly in his classic work, Savitri.
This article makes an effort to conceptualize and situate the emerging field of Indian psychology (IP) in the disciplinary matrix. The meaning, scope, critical features and misconceptions about IP have been articulated.
The nature of self-construal was qualitatively explored among healthy and chronically sick women. The narrative analysis of their life scripts focused on the role of health and life circumstances in shaping their self-construal. It was found that most of these women construed their selves in terms of their role relationships.
Disability attitudes are the major barriers in improving life conditions of physically challenged in developing countries. In this article, some social interventions aimed at changing the disability attitudes of rural people in India are discussed.
The chapter argues that it is a major challenge for the Government, bureaucrats, activists and social scientists to prepare viable community development programmes. The psycho-social barriers to community participation have been discussed and ways are suggested to facilitate it.
This paper tries to offer an overview of the salient developments in the area of health psychology by critically examining the concepts and research evidence. The key aspects of Ayurveda and the contemporary health scenario in the Indian context is presented. A comprehensive model of health consisting of three components, i.e., restoration, maintenance and promotion is presented.
This paper critically reviews the current status of primary health care services in India. The paper argues that traditional health services which have existed for thousands of years and have wide acceptance and application throughout India need to be rejuvenated and integrated within the existing health care programmes.
The chapter deals with growth and expansion of social psychology in India. It illuminates how western social psychology went through the process of indigenization in India.
This paper examines the relationship between cultural beliefs about illness and psychological adjustment to a chronic disease. It argues for an integrated health care system combining the strengths of traditional healing and biomedical practices.
This paper attempts to study psychological adjustment of hospital patients seeking treatment for tuberculosis using the attributional theoretical approach. They examined patients' perceptions of their disease, its causes and the factors which may be responsible for recovery. The findings highlighted the importance of cultural factors in shaping patients' perception of the causes and recovery. They revealed the extent to which metaphysical concerns shape the construction of illness in India, and also explain why patients seek alternative healing systems.