PSYCHOLOGY

Achievements of Staff:
Dr. Radhika Mohan was awarded her PhD on 5th October, 2016

Salient Features:

• Offers a Post Graduation degree in Psychology
• Diverse Teaching methods adopted (Small group exercise, role plays, presentation)
• Remedial programme for academically weak students
• Application oriented projects encouraged
• Co-curricular activities organized (Personal Development sessions, study visits, seminars, quiz, film screening)
• Departmental Library
• Offers a self enhancement module for students opting the Additional Credit Programme
• Personal counselling services offered to our college student

• Method of teaching-learning
  • The curriculum is delivered using experiential methods of learning as much as possible, e.g., role-plays, student presentations, small group discussions, movie screenings, peer-to-peer learning etc. that helps students develop a better understanding of what they learn.
  • They are encouraged to do reference work; especially those who show a lot of promise and capability, making them go beyond the prescriptions of the syllabus.
  • With every batch of third year students, we have an e-group formed, which is then used for exchanging and sharing of information/ notes, information from web pages and presentations that are made.

BRIDGE COURSE:
A 5 day course on ‘Statistics for psychology’ was organised by the department from 13th July to 17th July, 2015 for a total of 25 hours. Prof. Aankeet Gokkalgandhi of the department conducted the course which was attended by 26 students from various colleges based in Mumbai. These were students who were aspiring to take up M.A. in Psychology and were keen to learn statistical reasoning as applied to research. The aim of this course was to bridge the gap between B.A. and M.A. in terms of knowledge of probability and statistics, and to foster research oriented thinking in the students.

Important Activities:
Year 2012-13:
29th September, 2012: A 2 hours talk on ‘Issues relating to emotional health and emotional support’ by Mr. Bankim Trivedi from SAMARITANS

22nd & 23rd November 2012: A course on “Neuroanatomy and Neuropsychology” was conducted by Ms. Shanti Shanker, Bangor University, UK for 16 hours through SKYPE.

Year 2013-14:
9th September, 2013: 2 hours lecture  on ‘Core Somatic Integration Therapy’ by Dr. Rajiv Naidu

Year 2014-15:
21st August 2014: A 3 Hours workshop on ‘Dance movement therapy’ was conducted by Ms. Natasha Aggarwal, a Freelance DMT trainer.

Year 2016-17:
29th June, 2016: A 3 hours duration talk on ‘Assessment in Mental Health’ by Dr. Vani Kulhalli, Clinical Psychiatrist

11th Aug, 2016: A 2 hours talk on “Rational Thinking” by Dr. Vivek Belhekar, a senior faculty member in the University Department of Applied Psychology, Kalina

24th September, 2016: A 1 hour talk on ‘Preparing TYBCom students for Sem V Industrial Psychology (PHBW) examination paper’ was given by Dr. Jayashree Giri, Ex-Committee member and moderator for PHBW paper

Year 2017-2018

4th July 2017 : Talk On ‘Behavioral economics’ by Dr.Vivek Belhekar,  Department of Applied Psychology, University of Mumbai   was held on 4th July 2017, Tuesday. It was attended by more than 40 students  from Psychology,Sociology, and BFM departments. The talk included  topics such as the Pareto Principle, Framing effect, Dictator Game, Ultimatum Game, Fairness and trust etc. It gave useful insights to the students and teachers alike.

8th July 2017: Workshop on Statistical software ‘R’

1st August 2017 : Go Green Activity: As part of the college pledge to Go Green, the department of psychology has taken an initiative to collect used Tetrapak Cartons and submit them for recycling to Sahakari Bhandar.

• Student development activity
  • Inter-class (FY, SY, and TY) activities are held to get students acquainted with each other so that they develop a sense of belongingness with the department.
  • Students are encouraged to participate in inter-collegiate competitions, attend seminars and workshops that are organized by different colleges from time to time.
  • In addition to attending such programs in other colleges, students are encouraged to organize such events in the department. This exercise allows them to hone up their organizing skills. Recently the department organized two inter-collegiate seminars, where students from different colleges could present research work done by them.
  • One study/field visit to Mental Hospital is undertaken for the third year students during the term. This helps them to understand the issues of institutionalization and mental health.
  • Remedial sessions are held with students who find it difficult to cope with the subject. In this aspect, at times peer-to-peer interactions learning methods are used.
  • Students are encouraged to present their own research papers under the guidance of the faculty in seminars and conferences.
  • Visit to NGOs to develop the sense of community service

Regular talks are held for the students by calling different experts from the field

Students Achievements for Psychology Dept

• A paper presented by students of MA Psychology Semester II- Sara Chavan, Suyash Karangutkar and Priya Kewalramani, titled “The Opinion Divide on Israel Palestine conflict- a qualitative analysis”, under the guidance of Aankeet Gokkalgandhi, won the first prize in a national level virtual research competition organised by BMN College of Home Science, Mumbai on 11th June 2021.
• Three students of MA Psychology part ii, Anuja Tilak, Kadambari Shahane and Shivani Chaware, won the first prize for the research paper titled “Exploring the relationship between perceived vulnerability to disease and indicators of conformity”, in the research conference named “Pandemic Turn” organized by Vaze College,Mulund. The paper was done under the guidance of Aankeet Gokkalgandhi.
• Shweta Nikalje (SYBA), Prerna Talreja (SYBA) & Godwin Ramrajkar (FYBA) bagged 2nd Prize for their paper presentation titled “To study the level of awareness and incidents of ‘Eve Teasing’ among college girls” at Trishool – Psychology Research Convention for Undergraduate Students on ‘Issue Related to Women’, held at Smt. P.N.Doshi Women’s College, Ghatkopar Mumbai on 26th February, 2014.
• Ms. Shweta Nikalje (TYBA) was among the top 10 Best Student in the academic year 2014-15.
• Shweta Manghnani (SYBA), Deepali Thakkar (SYBA) & Aasiya Almas (SYBA) bagged 3rd Prize for their paper presentation titled “An experimental study to understand the extent of bystander effect as a function of number of people present” at Trishool – Psychology Research Convention for Undergraduate Students on ‘Pro-social behavior’, held at Smt. P.N.Doshi Women’s College, Ghatkopar Mumbai on, 8th January, 2016.
• Saurabh Nigam (TYBA) won the 2nd Prize in Psych Sabha at PsycInsight 2016, an inter-collegiate psychology fest held at Jai Hind College, Mumbai on 22nd July, 2016.
• Ms. Gomathy Iyer (MA-II) & Ms Adishta Bharadwaj (SYBA),bagged the 1st and 2nd Prizes in Verbal & Ms. Payal Kalyandasani (TYBA) won 1st Position in Non-Verbal categories of the Event “Expressions” – The Ideal Victim held on 13th August, 2016 in VESASC College.organized by the WDC of the college.
• Vaibhav Bokade’s (TYBA) ACP research paper titled ‘CONFORMITY- The Effect of Other’s Judgments on an Individual’s Behavior won the 1st Prize in ACP poster presentation held on 9th July, 2016.
• Mr. Chinmaya and Miss Supriya from T.Y. B.A. (Psychology) won the First Prize at an intercollegiate seminar presentation on Carl Rogers at M.D. Shah Mahila college, Mumbai on 6th February 2010.
• One team from S.Y.B.A. (Psychology) won the First Prize at an intercollegiate seminar competition on “Stress and Adolescence” at P.N. Doshi college, Mumbai on 9th February 2010.

• Results
  • As far as the TY results are concerned, the department has consistently achieved a 100% passing percentage, with almost 50% of the students passing in first division.
  • Approximately 10% of them pursue higher studies at university level and some of them go for higher education at foreign universities.
  • Several of our past-years students’ are working in the fields of management, training and development, special education and teaching or have a private practice as a psychologist.

• Alumni talk

Ms. Veena Vaishy (Psychologist and Faculty at Auro UNiversity, Surat)-Alumni of our department

Subject:The art of tinkering thinking: Ways t transform stress into strength

Contact: aarohi.khar@ves.ac.in