Bhagavad Gita teachings and positive psychology: Efficacy for semi-urban Indian students of NCR

Abstract

This study looks at the Indian and Western positive approaches and compares their efficacy for students from semi urban schools in the National Capital Region, India. A need was felt for conducting the study due to the increasing discipline issues and diminishing moral values among the students in the area. A pre-post three-group quasi-experimental design was chosen and the students were tested for three positive constructs as variables, namely, Hope, Optimism, and Resilience. A sample size of 630 of the age group 13 to 16 year old students was divided into three groups of 210 students each. Group 1 was the control group that received the regular course of study followed by schools in the area. Group 2 was given an intervention based on Indian scriptures, mainly the Bhagavad Gita and Group 3 was given an intervention based on western Positive psychology. Results indicated that the increase in scores for all three variables for the Indian intervention was statistically significant (ANOVA F-Ratio = 61.11[Hope], 33.71[Optimism], 36.83[Resilience] at p