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• Experts discuss relevance of psychology in the Pakistani diasporas

LAHORE - The first International Conference on Developmental Psychology has begun at the Government College University under the auspices GCU Psychology Department and Dr Ajmal Psychological Society. The two-day international conference brought together psychologists from Germany, USA and across Pakistan at one platform to deliberate on various aspects of human behaviour and growth. GCU Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman chaired the opening session of the conference that features five academic sessions, drama festival and poster competition wherein 109 selected research papers would be presented.

Addressing the opening ceremony, world-renowned psychologist and GCU Psychology Department Chairperson Prof Dr Asir Ajmal said the problems of regional identity, ethnic conflict, bad governance, injustice, gender-violence, intolerance and corruption could not be solved through science and technology and original, indigenous and inter-disciplinary research was needed in the areas of social sciences to make Pakistan a peaceful and prospers state.

He said the success of a conference was often mistakenly gauged by number of research papers presented in it and overall participation. However, he stressed that quality of research papers should be given more weight. “GCU judges the quality of research by its ability to bolster claims, illuminate understanding, and add credibility to speech,” he added.

In his inaugural address the VC said intolerance, egotistic attitudes and greed were destroying the social fabric of the society and the situation was worsening day-by-day. “I consider psychologists as reformers of the society and it is their responsibility to give ideas and policies through indigenous research to form and maintain a healthy society,” he added. The VC directed the organising committee to publish the recommendations of this conference, so that they could be widely circulated and used for common good. He also termed the conference an opportunity for young scholars to interact with well known psychologists and learn from their knowledge and experiences.

Later, on the first day researchers addressed highly critical issues of students and children psychology and presented papers on the topics including “Who is Almighty Allah? Prevailing concept among children of Pakistan”, “Emotional intelligence as determinant of achievement in secondary school children”, “Psychology distress and life satisfaction in parents of children with intellectual disability”, “Good news for mothers who tell stories: children vocabulary and mother’s storytelling”, “Difference in cognitive dissonance among male and female adolescents while watching satellite television” and “Cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression: relationship with symptoms of depression, anxiety stress in university student”.

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