Developments in psychology

PSYCHOLOGY IN INDIA REVISITED -- Developments in the Discipline, Volume 1 (Physiological Foundations and Human Cognition): Janak Pandey -- Editor; Sage Publications India Pvt. Ltd., M-32, Market, Greater Kailash Part I, New Delhi-110048. Rs. 375 (clothbound), Rs. 195 (paperback).

THIS IS the first of the three volumes of the fourth survey of research in psychology programme by the Indian Council of Social Science Research.

The first survey (1971) reviewed psychology in India branch-wise, the second (1980-81) adopted a thematic and cross-disciplinary approach and the third (1988) was more focussed on select problems of theoretical and methodological import.

This fourth survey aims at identifying major trends in each thematic area. A distinct feature of this survey is the advice to the contributors to cover the development of indigenous concepts, methods, theories and cross-cultural research.

The first one by Mewa Singh on "Animal behaviour'' has organised the content into four major areas experimental analysis of behaviour, ethological and sociobiological research, social behaviour of non-human primates and applied animal behaviour.

The thrust of the experimental studies has been towards identifying, conceptualising and formulating general principles regarding the proximate causes of behaviour.

The next chapter "Physiological foundations of behaviour'' by Manas K. Mandal is at once well balanced, well organised and presented with a commendable awareness of the inherent limitations of the selection and organisation.

The primary choice of focus of the author has been on psychologist working with physiological variables though the work of physiologists has been utilised to establish the link among these streams of research in understanding the physiological foundations of behaviour.

The studies have been grouped under four headings -- neurophysiology of behaviour; neuropsychology; neurochemistry and psychopharmacology. The next chapter by Ramesh C. Mishra is a review of attentional, perceptual, learning and memory processes. He has chosen the perspective of experimental psychology.

One shift of emphasis discerned during the period under review is towards organismic, and sociocultural variables like caste, class ethnicity, culture, schooling and locale of residence. The author explains how attention is closely linked to perception and how these in turn are related to learning and memory. The discussion of the role of these variables from a developmental perspective is appropriate. Jagannath P. Das and Komilla Thapa have reviewed studies pertaining to Intelligence and cognitive processes.

The review proper is preceded by a quick and commendable survey of the concept of intelligence in the west, and in the Indian tradition and culture covering the Sankhya Yoga, the Bhagavad Gita and Sri Aurobindo's contemporary interpretation.

The authors have done well to emphasise the normative dimension of discrimination -- Viveka -- as integral to the Indian conception of intelligence. There is a brief survey of intelligence testing in India.

The review is organised around four headings: the information processing approach, multiple intelligence, the triarchic theory of intelligence, neuropsychological views and PASS theory -- a synthesis of various views that defines intelligence as a cognitive process comprising planning, attention-arousal, and simultaneous and successive information processing.

The last chapter on "Language behaviour and processes'' begins with an appropriate framework consisting of culture, language and language use for understanding and scaffolding the researches to be reviewed.

The author, Ajit K. Mohanty's endeavour is to examine the extent to which psycholinguistic research in India has been responsive to the need for an indigenous framework based on culture and context-specific generalisations.

The studies are organised under language acquisition and processing, major trends in acquisition research, reading and text processing and bilingualism in a multicultural society.

The volume is a unique sourcebook for the areas covered. The low proportion of studies adopting indigenous concepts, methods and theories and cross-cultural thrust -- despite the advice to the contributors to cover them -- is due not to the contributors but to the failure of researchers to adopt them.

This in turn is due to the colonial legacy in our higher education system, which makes for continuous neglect of Indian psychology in our undergraduate and post-graduate courses, even after half a century of independence.

D. RAJA GANESAN

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