Psychology, Development and Social Policy in India

This book examines how and where psychology can engage itself in the framing of social policies for national as well as human development in India. Although the role that psychological knowledge can play in informing social policy decisions has been discussed for a long time, psychologists by and large have had little role in framing policy decisions related to such important domains as education, health, social justice and social inclusion. Policy makers, not only in India, but more or less everywhere have focused on interventions at the macro level, which has led them to ignore the root causes of the problems lying at the micro level. However, with the more humanistic approaches now being followed by economists and other social scientists, the person in society is slowly taking centrestage. Micro-level variables like happiness, the wellbeing of individuals and the social relationships within which people define themselves are becoming important.

Therefore, this book discusses important psychological issues related to human development; particularly, health and education, social justice, social integration, environment and work organizations, besides focusing on some general issues relating to the logic of making social policies. It is a first-ever attempt in India to inform policy makers about how micro-variables can be a crucial factor to consider while framing social policies.

R. C. Tripathi (PhD, Michigan) is former Professor in Psychology, University of Allahabad, India and former Director, G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, India. He has been on the boards of many apex higher education bodies in India, including the University Grants Commission and the Indian Council of Social Science Research. Among his publications are Expanding Horizons of Mind Science/s (with P.N. Tandon and N. Srinivasan); Norm Violation and Intergroup Relations (with R. DeRidder); and Psychology in Human and Social Development (with J.W. Berry and R.C. Mishra). He is the Editor of Psychology and Developing Societies, an international journal published by SAGE.

Yoganand Sinha is Associate Professor in Psychology, University of Allahabad, India and has been involved in the development and teaching of programmes of the psychology of social change and national development; and also of Human Resource Development and Management. He is an HR consultant and serves on the boards of HR firms. An avid bird photographer, he has recently published a book on birds at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.