Spriha Singh

Background

About Spriha Singh

My research interests include social and community psychology.(specifically emotions) I have worked on understanding hate as an emotion. While working on hate I tried to answer a few questions - what is the locus of hate, what are the mediums through which hate is internalised, who internalizes hate, how is existence drawn from the emotion of hate, what makes individuals base their identity on affiliation to hate groups and ways in which hate is expressed. I have worked on understanding Love through Myths. Using archetypal amplification, I analysed myths to understand love in various contexts. From ancient times humans have tried to intellectualise love, some have emphasised its inherent dynamic presence within the individual while others have deemed it as a mere construction. There has been consistent contention around love being a means to avoid the social pain of ostracism or its presence in the built-in desire to affiliate. Keeping the contradictions in mind, I explored the themes of self-transformation, queer desires, gender, and identity in the context of love. I have worked with Sangath Bhopal on a project titled AANAND. The study - a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of a positive psychology-based coaching intervention for community health workers to improve their delivery of treatment for depression in rural India. We started with the formative work of conducting a literature review, conducting strengths-based assessments and focus group discussion to gain a preliminary understanding of existing positive psychology interventions, factor structure of the strengths and the ways in which ASHAs negotiate work-stress and burnout respectively. All these findings were synthesised to develop an intervention blueprint. This blueprint was revised and reviewed and was piloted. The study as a whole aims to test the effectiveness of the positive psychology- based coaching intervention against routine supervision that ASHAs receive, its effect on motivation and burnout, its effect on implementation level outcomes and client level outcomes. I have briefly worked on aggression and loneliness as well.