 Today, we are going to begin with our second unit, where we would be talking about the dimensions of subjective adjustment. The first module was basically, trying to tell all of us that what is the basic process of adjustment, how do we define something as important as normality and today, we are going to talk about the basic ingredients that are used to define the whole construct of adjustment. So, if you come forward with a set of response, a set of behavior and then, if somebody else has to evaluate you, how adjusted you are or the spheres in which you might be having trouble in terms of adjustment, then what are those basic criterias. Now, one of the important thing is that adjustment is always considered to be multidimensional. So, you will have many dimensions of adjustment, but then, right now we would see that there are certain traits or there are certain processes that are considered as important variables that defines adjustment. And it is basically the interplay, the interaction between these variables that become the primary source of describing the level of adjustment of any individual. In psychology, you can assume of a variable, when you try to quantify it in two forms. We are referring primarily to the fact that there are several interacting variables when it comes to defining the construct of adjustment. Now, one possibility of defining a variable is that it starts from a theoretical 0, as you would usually imagine and then, it goes to some maximum point. This could be one way of looking at it. The second way of looking at it could be that fine, you have a 0 value somewhere, the neutral point, the 0 point in the center and then, you have equal spread of this course in the negative and the positive directions. So, when you think of variable, usually, we think of the spread of score in this fashion 0 to some maximum point or theoretical 0 or a neutral point to equal dispersion in the negative and the positive direction. But actually, when you look at special constructs, which are of importance to psychology, then you realize that there could be difficulty in terms of adopting the first definition of a variable. Say for example, take IQ or intelligence quotient for example, or the most popular construct being researched and discussed nowadays, IQ, emotional quotient. Now, if you think of a theoretical 0 and imagine somebody having 0 IQ. Now, this might sound that theoretically, there could be a possibility like this, but in practice, you never come across an individual with 0 IQ. A person could have problem in terms of no emotion regulation, in terms of no emotion imbalances, but then, you cannot think of somebody with 0 emotion. Similarly, you could have one type of personality, I could have some other type of personality, third person could have other type of personality traits, but then, you cannot assume of a 0 personality, means absence of a psychological trait cannot be thought of. Let me take another example, say the whole concept of mental retardation, the whole issue of intellectual disability has to do with the IQ level of the person concerned. I am sure you must be aware of this fact that, whenever one has to find out the level of intellectual deficit in individuals who suffer from this. The primary source of information is their level of IQ, which is measured using one or the other psychological tool. And then, you say that standard score usually of this very age group is this much. So, say for example, if you are evaluating the IQ of a 10 year old child, you say that average 10 year old child usually their IQ ranges between this to this score and this very individual has scored far less than what is expected of students in this range and hence, he or she is suffering from intellectual disability. Now, there also you have certain categorization, mild, moderate, severe, profound. These are the four categories in the case of mental retardation. But even there, you do not say that you have 0 intelligence or you have negative intelligence or say I say that, I am introvert, you are an extrovert. But then, these are bipolar type of divisions that somebody could be at one end, one could be introvert, at the other end, somebody could be extrovert and there could be a possibility that in between, one becomes ambivert, you have little characteristics of introversion and little characteristics of extroversion. But you cannot say that you have no personality at all, zero personality. So, theoretical zero has always been concerned in case of psychological variables and in certain cases, you would realize that although when we think in terms of dispersion, deviation from the normality, we do think in terms of some neutral point and then spread in both the directions. But at times, you would find even this needs to be rethought. So, these are our six dimensions of subjective adjustment that we would be focusing in this very module, selective awareness, tolerance, autonomy, impulse control and behavioral control, self-realization and personal integration. So, these six basic parameters that would be used to define how adjusted you are or your overall capability to fit into the larger social realm is defined by these six characteristics. Now, what we would do is one by one, we would go into the details of it. You remember in the beginning, I told you that what we would do is that we will try to stretch all these characteristics. So, each of these dimensions, we will stretch it to see that what could be the maximum possible spread of these characteristics. So, we will see the extremes of it, both ends and then try to explore that what is more acceptable being on the extremes or being towards only one side or being only at then closer to the neutral point, this is what we would be doing. Now, each dimension of this is subjective adjustment, the six of them that we have seen can be described in multidimensional terms. So, you can talk of only personal integration, you could talk of only impulse and behavior control, you could talk only of selective awareness. So, one way of looking at it initially could be that you look at each of these dimensions and your approach becomes unidimensional, but the moment you talk of adjustment, this would mean that find there is an interplay between all six of them. Now, imagine all six of them having variable level and each of them interacting with each other with their level of variation and that interplay makes the whole process of adjustment as multidimensional. So, just to make it visually appealing, so you have your first dimension, selective awareness, tolerance, autonomy, personal integration, behavior and impulse control and self-realization. But then these are only when you look at it with respect to their individual dimensions. But then when you think in terms of overall adjustment, you realize that this is how you have to strike that balance, there is a tight rope on which you have to walk because situation will always give you certain limitations, situation will always demand you certain things from you and you have to strike a balance between what you are capable of, what the situation demands from you, what your limitations are and accordingly come forward with a behavior. That behavior will always be guided by these six basic parameters and based on how closely you fit and how capable you are in terms of striking that balance on a tight rope, one declares that fine, you have been well adjusted in the situation too. So, we first come to selective awareness. What I will do here is that we first come, we will come to the process of selection, we will come to the process of awareness, we will plug them together, talk about selective awareness, take a couple of examples and examples might look weird little bit, but we would take small examples to something which is of grave concern and we will try to understand this dimension. Now, selection is a process wherein a human being selects one object or one individual or one scenario over the other options. On what ground you make selection is your choice, but selection would always mean choosing one at the cost of others. Awareness would be again your conscious attempt to observe something and to be aware of that. Again it is your choice, whether you want to focus on that, you do not want to focus on that, that is primarily your prerogative. When you look at the world around us, analyze your own behavior, behavior of others, you realize that we do show certain degree of selectivity for every, every, everything in life. You choose one food over the other, so although you may say that I like 10 different type of vegetables, if you have to rate them in terms of preference. One would always supersede the remaining. So, somebody might say that I like say capsicum, I like mushroom, I like paneer, I like many such things, but then mushroom gets priority over rest of the things. Similarly, if you are asked about certain type of dresses, you will say that yes, this is also fine, that is also fine, even that is also good, but then your preference would be for one particular type of others. When you are talked about your friends, you say he is also my good friend, I mean that person is also very good friend of mine. She also happens to be a good friend of mine, but then if you have to choose their best friend, you will realize that only one person would succeed getting that rank. This shows that we always have this tendency of making selection in our life. In terms of adjustment, what we do is that we show the tendency to get more and more familiar and involved with certain aspects of the involvement or we completely try to ignore them. So, there is a larger option that is available to you and then you choose to focus on one at the cost of others. One typical example could be that when I am looking at you, I at one point in time look at one person at the cost of the remaining. Now, this is a pure conscious process. I know in which direction I am moving my head, I know whom I am looking at, but then it keeps on shifting, but at one point of time it is only one at the cost of the remaining. Either I do that or I have the other possibility of exclusively looking in this direction and completely ignoring all of you. That also could be another possibility. Now, the extreme into this sense would be that you choose only one individual and start focusing on him or her for this entire duration of 50 minutes. So, say for example, I choose him, I would not do that. But say I choose him and then I keep on talking about selective awareness to him only and I do not look at anybody else. I am sure all of you would find it very absurd. You would get distracted, you would not feel attentive towards what is being shared with you. But if I keep on shifting my eye gaze in different directions, then there is some degree of dynamics that you might like. I would not say you would like, but you might like. Imagine another extreme of it when I start, I turn in this direction and I do not look at any one of you for the full duration of 50 minutes and I am sure what you are going to do. I would not name what you would do, but there would be full range of things. So, this is what it means when it comes to selective awareness that when you either try to know very, very specifically you select an object in the environment and focus only and only on that versus the situation when you completely try to ignore the presence of a particular stimulus in the environment. Now, what could be the possibilities? One, you selectively process all relevant information. So, selectively processing of relevant information would be what was the topic that was being deliberated today in the class. What was the text that was written on the PPT slide? Is it really worth noting down or is it too generic and anyone can think of it and write it when it comes to quizzes and exams. So, if you decided out of the four statements made over here, one it is good to note it down remaining three I can ignore. What you do is that you selectively process the relevant information. Take another example, you are little keen to understand that how the instructor analyzes these things and what are the examples that are being quoted. So, you are primarily interested only in that. So, there could be a possibility that you look at the slide and say that it is too generic and nothing is specific I need not noted down, but yes there are interesting examples. So, let me jot down some key components of those examples so that I can also reproduce some socially relevant very culturally significant type of examples in my quizzes and exams or when I talk to others on issues like this. Third possibility could be I saw that you were putting on the same jacket till the first module, second module you have changed it. So, it is not the content, but besides content you are being aware of some other things also that is how you make selection. Now, different people will have different know selection strategies. At times you realize that you know situation forces you to attend one thing over the other. Imagine a situation you come to the class and I tell you or somebody tells you that sometime back know I saw a black cobra entering this room, but it has we were it has not gone out and we were not able to look at where it is. I am sure none of you is going to look at me focus at me or look at the screen all of you would keep looking down where the cobra is am I correct. The queue that has been given to you has certain degree of embedded danger. The danger that you perceive in this information makes you selectively know search for all relevant queues that has to do with the object of fear and hence you would keep on keep on looking downwards you would keep on searching where the cobra is because there is a thread perception absurd to compare, but let me do that say you have been by and large skipping all know lectures there was a surprise quiz you did not know and then you missed that also thought of giving one or the other reason, but did not succeed having a compensatory quiz. Then you realize that you have missed two quizzes you realize that you are not comfortable with many of these constructs that has been talked about in the class and now the mid sem exam comes and then day and night you keep on keep on know reading the books asking others for notes looking at it so that you could compensate for all that you have lost during know half way of the semester. In those two days you think of nothing else except the content the deliberations and what could be the expected questions now you are compromising with the rest of the available stuff in the environment and focusing only on this because you know that you might have to pay a price for poor performance in the exams because of certain things that you have done these are know basically the dynamics of selective awareness. There are interesting processes in that one is that when you choose something and then you attenuate means you excessively focus on that the other possibility is of negative adaptation where attenuation or cessation of response to a stimulus that one finds to be non-significant that takes place know means you consider that something in the environment is not at all significant for you and therefore you do not focus your attention on that at all you cease to focus your attention on that or there could be a possibility that you have been overexposed to something and that has led to certain degree of desensitization in you and therefore you do not care for stuff like this one example could be that a familiar side that you do not process because you have been in this type of a situation for long now say for example somebody coming to IIT campus and says oh such a lush green campus beautiful and remember your first day when you came to the campus you also might have thought like that but because you have been sharing this environment for long therefore you never think of it again. So, that is basically negative adaptation before I come to the examples I would not go into the details of it but it has to do with one of the concepts in psychophysics where we talk of 3 tiers of continuum 3 tiers of scales physical continuum psychological continuum and judgmental continuum physical continuum is basically the scale on which you measure presence absence or intense presence of any stimulus psychological continuum is that even though things are physically present or not present or intense presence of the stimulus is there psychologically how do you appreciate it how do you appraise it and judgmental continuum is find that something is physically available or not available or available to the highest possible extent psychologically you think in a different way about it but how do you react to it interestingly you would find that physical psychological and judgmental continuum usually you would not find know that if you draw dots of physical presence of the object psychological appreciation of the stimulus and the response that has been given you will always find dispersion here and there they usually do not fall on the same point. I am taking one example of a mosquito the reason being I am trying to choose examples which are too relevant to you know so that you can very easily related with it. Now, think of presence of a mosquito you are walking on your BTP a mosquito comes starts moving here and there around you that is the physical presence of the mosquito psychologically say there could be a situation that find you get irritated there could be a situation that you know simply do not pay attention to it there could be a situation where it distracts you but you again get distracted again refocus on your BTP work that is your psychological continuum. So, although physical presence of the mosquito is very much there psychologically you are processing it differently. So, what judgment do you take recollect your experiences of mosquito now coming around you and then you are working on your BTP and you simply say all you do is that you do not want even to get distracted in terms of focusing where you are looking at. So, you simply know you find the mosquito here and you wave your hands so that the mosquito is ripple to the other direction one type of a judgment second type of you know decision that you take is that fine I will blow it off to say third could be fourth could be that fine I leave my work I change the mosquito first. So, as I one single individual at different points in time can react in any of these ways now think of a collection of individual. So, there would be a huge huge range of response to it something as small as mosquito take another example which has certain consequences say somebody gets engaged in some argument with you possibility one possibility could be that fine I do not look at it do not listen to it I do not pay attention to it at all completely I try to ignore it the extreme of it second you get extremely agitated, but still it is verbal exchange another extreme of it when you get involved in physical assault and the extreme of it that stab the individual and the visual has six knives. So, imagine how angry one becomes. So, right from say complete ignorance to complete extreme form of behaviors that could be a possibility certain aspects which could be much more socially appreciated something which is psychologically considered to be appropriate something that is also considered to be legally appropriate no legal their legal acceptance is there, but in terms of if you look at these four variations and of course there would be thousands and thousands of variation intermediate variations. Some of them do not know fall in the jurisdiction of the law of the land. So, if you get engaged into that fine the law does not know interfere there, but some of them invites punitive measures. So, the court of law can punish you and for the extreme of it could be life sentence the worst form of punitive measured at the law of the land can provide to you deliberately I am showing this visual to you I am sure all of you must have seen this. This was one of the photographs that was published in the newspaper during this post Godra communal riot in Gujarat later on this became very very popular photograph and now if you type Gujarat riots Godra riot and make a search Google search in images this would be one of the most common image which will appear, but I very clearly remember one example and I thought I will share that with you. The days when this riot was taking place in one of the English delies this was published as a front page image. So, front page of the newspaper top centre this image was published we saw it and I think all those who saw it this visual is so intense that they all got emotionally aroused. So, later in the day at around 9 30 or 10 when many of our colleagues when we met we did talk about it and everybody felt extremely bad about the whole episode. Since then the first exposure of this visual till now when I today when I am sharing this with you believe me I do not have any emotional feeling when I am describing this as an example to you. One reason I have over used this as an example other that you know this image I have seen for long or I have seen much more intense image compared to this and therefore it does not invoke that sense of emotion in me. Another similar example this was when we had tsunami waves hitting Nagapatinam and other areas in southern India. Again an interesting example one of my colleague met me in the afternoon and then he told me that I am really disturbed today and he did really appear to be very disturbed and when I asked him that what happened and he said that you know in the morning his schedule was that he would get ready for the office his meanwhile his son will also get ready for his school the father will first drop the child in the school and then come to his office this was his morning schedule everyday. So, father was getting ready the son was also getting ready and meanwhile the son came to the drawing room where that day's newspaper was put there and once again the cover page had this leading photograph of dead bodies floating in the water some cars floating in the water all the debris of the tsunami that was the visual I guess from Nagapatinam and the son suddenly screamed and the moment the son screamed both the parents they rushed they thought something has happened. So, they both rushed to the child and when he saw his child he described to me that the son was simply know he had closed his eyes and was pointing towards the newspaper that you see this it was so disturbing for the child my colleague was disturbed because he said that morning while having the cup of tea I also went through the newspaper I also saw that visual but that visual did not do anything to me his question was that have I become very insensitive and his son makes him realize that that is the degree of selective awareness in our daily life something that some people will tend to ignore some people will try to over react to it and this is how we all try to adjust in the given situation. The recent episode in Delhi which led to all these huge approach the boy who was there along with the girl there in this episode later on admitted that he was by the side of the road for 2 hours asking for help and many people they crossed by they did know try to stop for a while and then they went off they did not extend their helping hands. Now, somebody who does not look at you somebody who looks at you slows down the vehicle and goes somebody know who stops the vehicle only looks at you nothing else and somebody else who stops provide helping hand to you informs the police and does all this. So, different people will know do things differently now adjustment does not only mean termination of real reaction to certain stimuli it also involves intensification of response to some other stimuli same situation where 1 percent decides not to know show anger the other percent decides to show verbal anger the third percent decides to know even apply 1 or 2 punches. And the other person who decides to get engaged in a long term aggressive reaction and perhaps does not forget the whole episode for longer period in the life. So, either you completely try to avoid responding to it or you know keep on keep on intensifying the response usually in the case of aggressive retaliation. There is an intensification of the response that you gradually see I am sure you must have seen know different types of protests their visuals initially you begin with know slogans and you do not realize when these slogans finally get converted into breaking up properties destruction of the things that are available in the environment. So, this is complete intensification of the response now individuals adaptability to differentially respond to stimuli that are available in the environment is the core when it comes to adjustment that you have anger within you, but on one occasion you try not to know react in the other occasion you decide to react in a milder way third occasion you tend to know intensely show your aggression and this is how you try to adapt according to the environmental demand. And you remember we had talked about this process once again that the whole of psychology revolves around three important concepts or constructs cognitive, cognitive and affective. Therefore, events selective awareness applies to the affective domain or the emotional processes and the ideational domain that is the thought process. And besides of course, we have been talking about the sensory motor processes know. So, even in terms of emotions even in terms of thoughts you might be very selective in terms of where to invest your emotion, where to show intense emotion, where to completely withdraw from expressing your feelings, where to get into arguments where not to even think of the issue at all. So, this is how selective awareness works what could be the extremes in cases of human reactions when it comes to selective awareness. One extreme possibility is that you are a rigid person who has limited stimulus bound awareness. We will discuss this thing that you are completely you know brittle in your approach extremely rigid and you limit yourself only to what the immediate stimulus demanded from you that is it. You do not think of any other thing that could be one extreme of it. The other extreme of it is that you do not live in the world of reality you are basically dominated by fantasies and emotions. So, you have a fantasy and emotion dominated awareness you fantasize and get emotionally involved with your fantasies and you are aware of your fantasies rather than the reality. So, these are the extreme possibility and of course, if you try to know come to the center point it would be you have a complete reality oriented awareness. Majority of us would fall somewhere close to reality oriented awareness. But some of us you know might shift either towards the other direction of rigidity or the extreme direction towards fantasy and emotion dominated reactions. Let us take couple of examples to you know explain these extreme possibilities. You know that on I think two days or perhaps only one day I did say that those of you who come early should take this side of the seat therefore, you know you have more and more chairs available on this side. But still if you are you know too willing to sit on the other side and if you are late use the other gate. Today I saw for the first day somebody using the other gate. So, you heard the instruction and then you thought that you know it is really difficult because the proceedings are being recorded. So, it is good not to interfere in between somebody else who still decided to know cut across and take the seat in the other direction. Somebody who comes up to this point suddenly recollects oh the recording is going on. So, you change your seat. Somebody who still does not cut across, but comes right up to this point and then turns and takes the second seat in the second row. Difference of responses and these are interesting examples of how you selectively become aware of your involvement. This is not an offense to anyone of you who have reacted in one way or the other. Just I thought this is the immediate example that I can quote here. You must have come across several presentations here and there, several lectures. People who would know right in the beginning before entering the hall where the lecture is scheduled. People who will switch off their mobile phone. People who would know some other people who would try to put it on the silent mode. And some who will take pride in you know attending it in the general profile. And if you know the call comes, he will simply disconnect it. And the fourth set, who would take out the mobile and say another set will say hello, abhi, I right now cannot talk to you. I am sure you must have come across all these types of people. Or say presentation is going on and if you have to go out of the room. How do you go? Many people you will realize that they will ensure that they do not cross the projection area. Because it distract others. Some who would very you know bend down and then quickly cross through. Somebody who would speed up and somebody who will very nicely walk. So, that you have the shadow dance on the screen. This is what human beings are. Come to this is of course, you are the way you sensory motor processes we are talking about. Think of ideational issues. Somebody convinces you that your life is for a given cause. And while fighting for the cause if you die, that is the greatest heroic act that you can do in life. You are convinced. And then you become so rigid in your approach that you do not even think of revisiting this issue at all. Think of suicide bombers. Somebody transplants this idea to you that if you do this you are fighting a novel cause. What happens to your body is not important. Whether the cause has been finally achieved or not that is what matters. And hence you should take pride in doing whatever you do. Of course, now LTT is wiped out from Sri Lanka. But at one point in time they had the strongest squad of suicide bombers with them. Irrespective of whatever has taken place at the geopolitical level Iraq till date experiences those car bomb explosions. Even I think 2, 3 days back also there was a news. Several serial car bomb blasts in Iraq. These are examples when you show that you are very rigid in your approach. You will do what you are convinced about irrespective of whatever changes has taken place in the social reality. In your environment and you are limited only to certain type of stimulus and nothing else. We will take more examples to show the full range of what happens to human beings and what are the variations. The popular piece of art in Afghanistan, the Bamiyan Buddha. One set of people taking pride in the fact that we have mountain carving and piece of a sculpture which is unique and we have it in Afghanistan in Bamiyan that is the area where it was. Another set of people who took pride in firing from the guns, the field guns to turn that piece of art into rubbles and you take pride in saying that fine are my faith, my belief is against this type of representation of your faith and hence no Buddha can remain in this country. You take pride in turning it into rubbles. Somebody takes pride in collecting these rubbles and keeping it, selling it in the market or keeping it in the drawing room. This small piece of stone was a part of Bamiyan Buddha at one point in time. Another set of people who says that if people can return the rubbles back to us we can reconstruct the Bamiyan Buddha. You have different types of ideologies, different type of emotional attachments to concern and accordingly people react to it. But then you find that there could be a possibility of extreme rigidity in terms of your approach. So, either I react this way and I will do only the way I love. I think this way and I will keep thinking irrespective of whatever arguments you give the way I have thought of it or I feel for a cause and I would keep feeling for it as strongly as I feel today irrespective of the changes that has taken place in the contemporary environment that is one end of it. The other end of it is again very interesting know. When you live in the world of fantasy I do not know how many of you have seen this episodes of this serial. There was a serial long back telecasted in our country called Mungeri Lalke Haseen Sapne. There was a character there is a lead character in that serial. Whenever he used to interact with the environment he would take some queue and start fantasizing and in his fantasy he would achieve the maximum that he could. Fantasy would once again come when we come to our third module when we would be talking about the adjustment processes and there we would be talking about defense mechanisms and during our deliberations on the ego defense mechanism once again we will take how day dreaming and fantasy play an important role there. But here we are talking about fantasy that over dominates your awareness. So, you sit like this and instead of say focusing on what is being deliberated you start visualizing something else and it is really pleasurable know to fantasize. You emotionally get involved in that whole content of fantasy the whole dynamics of fantasy you enjoy that you know. But that also helps you get completely detached from whatever the contemporary need of the environment was. So, every time what you will attain is an imaginary achievement something that might satisfy you know at least for that point of time. But others would consider you to be a completely dumb individual who cannot perform at all and you yourself consider to be very happy because you have achieved it. Now, consider that type of a mismatch when the world thinks that you are a non-doer and you think I can attain anything give me a situation I can visualize it. So, these know two could be extreme possibilities let me take a real life example for this emotion dominated awareness. There is a village I am told in Himachal Pradesh which is primarily know it has houses of the prominent artists of this country small village. So, they have one of their houses there they do not stay there for long, but sometimes they come. This was shared with me by one of the artists who has a heart there. So, he told me that this is the situation. In some other context I was just looking at his paintings and he had know sketched a cow which had multiple limbs. So, I did tell him that see usually what we see is cow with four limbs and at times you have know one extra limb, but that cow is know worshipped like anything in certain regions of this country we have taken this example of multiple limbs in human beings also, but same is the case of cows know they are celebrated like anything the best life know a cow can have is with an extra limb. Now, I asked him that why do you need to do that and I did also share with him that there is a very interesting example it is used in psychology of limping elephant. I do not know if you have seen this in introductory psychology course those of you who have credited this course perhaps you might have seen this. There is an example where the upper part of the elephant remains what how it is and the in the lower side you have the option of either selecting one as a feet and other one as a background or you can reverse it. So, basically it is an example of a reversible figure and interestingly if you keep switching between two of the lower limbs you would realize as if the elephant is doing like this. Therefore, it is called dancing elephant or limping elephant. So, I asked him that if you would have drawn a cow like that I would have a still understood, but your cow is not even limping it is not even dancing it is not even it enjoys that social celebration and then he says the cow of your choice could have four legs the cow of my choice can be anything. So, that is know when your fantasy your feelings know is more and more dependent although it is a creative outcome, but then your awareness is more driven by that, but if you take the two extremes you would realize that the more and more closure you are to the median point perhaps acceptance in the society will be much more free. So, I do not always fantasize about things I am not a rigid person, but I am a person who has certain feelings who has certain thoughts who does certain things, but is open to criticism, but is open to new ideas and I will see how much of it can be accommodated with the given framework in which I lead my life that would be better indicator of adjustment and because it happens to be a dynamic process that helps you later on also with respect to the dimension of selective awareness fine tomorrow we will continue with the other dimension.