PSYCHOLOGICAL PREPAREDNESS:A TEST BATTERY

Lokesh GuptaMobile No. 09466233006Email id: lokesh021085@gmail.com

Meaning of Psychological Preparedness

Preparedness is a cognitive level includes thinking about the traumatic event before it happen. The emotional level includes the extent to which people occupy themselves with the emotional aspects associated with the traumatic event. The instrumental level pertains to the practical decisions people must make to prepare themselves for the threatening event. (Mashiach, & Dekel, 2011)

Psychological Preparedness & Positive Psychology

Positive psychologists seek "to find and nurture genius and talent" and "to make normal life more fulfilling“, rather than merely treating mental illness. Positive psychology is primarily concerned with using the psychological theory, research and intervention techniques to understand the positive, adaptive, creative and emotionally fulfilling aspects of human behavior.

Being prepared” simply makes good sense and is sound advice across many life situations and circumstances. Our language attests to this accepted folk wisdom and Scout motto: ‘be ready’, ‘think ahead’, take care’, and ‘brace yourself’. Psychological Preparedness is working like as a preventive and psychological first aid to upcoming critical situation to person. It leads us the positive side of significant and stressful situation of our life like (Exam, Interview, Marriage, Journey, Jobs, Career shift etc.).

A Social-Cognitive model of preparedness by Douglas Paton defines the role of social and cognition aspects like awareness, motivation, perception, anxiety, expectancy, self-efficacy, intention, decision-making, adjustment, adoption, support system, resilience, social network etc

The role of psychology in motivating people to take action in preparing for emergency situation. Learning and utilizing skills such as stress inoculation, stress reduction and emotion management can enhance psychological preparedness. There has been less focus on individual psychological preparedness by psychologists so far.

Psychological Preparedness

Psychological preparedness can be enhanced through the acquisition of specific psychological knowledge and strategies, and through direct and vicarious experience with emergency situations and scenario. Procedure such as stress inoculation, emotion management and stress reduction can be successfully learned and utilized by those likely to experience an emergency or disaster event (e.g., Meichenbaum, 1996).

One prepares to prevent, protect, respond and recover and success in executing the results of that preparation is evidenced by the resilience demonstrated during recovery.

Esperanza, et.al (2008) proposed that cognitive biases such as unrealistic optimism, invulnerability and overconfidence may play a role in dealing with chronic natural disaster threats and their potential role in both physical and psychological preparedness.

Psychological Preparedness

Advantages of Being Psychological Prepared

I. When we are fully

psychologically

prepared.

A. We will feel more confident.

B. Successfully cope in an unexpected/new situation.

C. Can play a crucial role in improving our ability to carry out standard physical preparedness advice.

D. We can cope with stress and reduce the effect of post incident distress.

E. In a stressful situation we employ strategies for better management of those psychological responses while attending an emergency responsibility.

F. Psychological preparedness lead us to positive consequent of life situation.

Psychological Preparedness: A Test

Battery

Resilience Self-Efficacy

Unrealistic

Optimism

Time Perspectiv

eLability Mobility

I.Resilience:- The term ‘Resilience’ (e.g. Dunning, 1999) encapsulates a paradigm shift that accommodates the analysis and facilitation of growth. Ryff and Singer (2003) define resilience as a “maintenance, recovery, or improvement in mental of physical health following challenge”. Preparedness is the necessary foundation upon which an expanded continuum of emergency management must rest and that one of the results of the expanded continuum (and maybe the most significant one) is resilience.

II.Self-Efficacy:- It is an expectancy belief (expectation) how competently one will be able to enact a behavior in a particular situation. Bandura found that individual’s self efficacy plays a major role in how goals, task and challenges are approached.

III.Unrealistic Optimism:- People judge negative events as less likely to happen to themselves than to the average person, a behavior interpreted as showing that people have “unrealistic optimism” in their judgments of risk concerning future life events.

IV.Time perspective (Line & Circle Test): - Time is an inescapable reality of life. All behavior takes place in time and space. All persons, everywhere, are periodically towards the past, the present and the future (Doob, 1971). Lewin (1951) “the totality of the individual’s view of his psychological future and psychological past-existing at a given time”. Perception of time permits the individual to observe the changes as they are taking place.

I. Line Test:- To explore subjectivities in the perception of several fundamental temporal units of time like: the life time, the past, present and future.

II. Circle Test:- is a suitable instrument for measuring temporal perception, we could use to measure people’s perception of time - in the sense of their different emphasis on past, present and future.

V. Mobility: - Mobility has been described as the speed of transformation of nervous processes, i.e., time taken in change of ongoing process. The basic notion was that, the more mobile the nervous system, the faster the nervous process is initiated, develops, irradiates, concentrates and comes to an end.

VI.Lability: - Lability is a new property derived from mobility. Lability is a neo-Pavlovian property. It may be defined as the speed of arousal and termination of nervous processes, i.e. time taken in initiation and cessation of any activity.

Psychological Preparedness for What?

Life Events: - Psychological preparedness for short term and specific period like: An Exam, interview, short term journey, meeting etc.

Life Episodes: - Psychological preparedness for long term with a designated duration (for 10-15 days or more) like: Training program, a long journey, examination period, camps, workshop, planning for upcoming events etc. Usually, the person returns to normal course after the episode.

Life Stages: - Psychological preparedness for long period like: Permanent job, Marriage, Adulthood, Career shift, financial investment etc. It is usually marked by a transition to some stage.

If yes……..This test battery will take near about 30-45 minutes.Contact Me.Lokesh Gupta

Email id: Lokesh021085@gmail.com

If No……..Thanks to show Interest……

You are interest to known your Psychological Preparedness level

Thank You