Fourth International Symposium on Cognition, Stress and Mental Health
14 - 16 December, 2009
Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Banaras Hindu University , Varanasi
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About Conference
The burgeoning prevalence of mental and physical health problems in the present era of globalization and rapid technological development has posed enormous threat to our sustenance. It is a challenge for not only health professionals but also for psychologists as a growing body of research evidence indicate that stress and concomitant psychosocial factors such as health compromising life-style, lack of social support, pathogenic emotion regulation strategies etc are the chief contributors to the development of physical and mental health problems. Recent advance in the field of health psychology suggest that the cognition occupies a hyphenated position between stress and health problems. To this end bulk of empirical studies have shown that the pathogenic cognitive evaluation strategies and cognitive schema lie underneath the onset of stress and various types of health related issues. Thus, the study of cognition in relation to stress and health is likely to help in developing insight into their underlying complex interactive mechanisms.
Contemporary, researches in the areas of cognition, stress, and health have witnessed a sea change in human lives by providing psychological support towards leading a happy and contended life, However, there are a number of challenges that the squarely need to be addressed including the problem of effectively and adequately integrating the developments in the fields of cognitive science, stress, and health. Besides this , the rich indigenous Indian perspective on cognition, stress and health rooted in the classical and ancient Indian literature such as the Vedas, the Upnishadas, and the yoga ties largely unknown to the psychologists and researchers of various parts of the world . There is a need to share these indigenous Indian psychological views on cognition, stress, and health with researchers of other part of the world in order to properly integrate the Indian and Western perspectives for the development of effective models for understanding the mechanisms and processes underlying stress and health problems and to provide effective intervention strategies.
Keeping these objectives in mind the Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, is going to hold a three days “IV International Symposium on Cognition, Stress, and Mental Health” with the objective to integrate the Indian and Western models of cognition, stress, and health. The symposium will not only bring together the Indian and Western researchers to share and exchange their experiences, skills and research findings but it would also aim at integrating the findings in the area of cognitive science with that of stress and mental health in order to develop newer and more effective models of stress and mental health.