POPULATION PSYCHOLOGY

Definition:
Population psychology is very recently developing field. Population is made up of people and
psychology is the study of people. Demography is the science that studies population with facts and figures.
Psychology is the science that studies behaviour of the people. Psychological study of the population can be
interdisciplinary study and psychology can contribute distinctively to the broader field of population studies.
Since psychology is interested in human behavioural problems, the problem human kind is facing today is
increased population. The increase of population is disproportionate with the decrease of population or in
other words. fertility rate is rapidly increasing and it has not been matched with death rate. There is great
degree of imbalance between birth-rate and death rate. Fawcelt (1970) states that more than 80 percent of the
growth has taken place in developing nations.
It is a subfield of psychology that studies the relationships between the characteristics and dynamics of
human populations and the attitudes and behavior of individuals and groups. Representing an interface
between psychology and demography, population psychology is particularly concerned with family planning
and fertility regulation (i.e., reproductive behavior), high population density, and public policy development.
Population psychology is the intersection of psychology and demography, focusing on issues
including family composition and structure, migration, urbanization, mortality, population instruction,
reproductive behavior, dense population, and public policy formulation. The field of population psychology
extends to the formulation of comprehensive theoretical and methodological frameworks for the analysis of
populations.

Characteristics of Population Study:

Population may be defined in various ways. Generally, population refers to the aggregate of the people in a
specified place or area or country in a specified time. The term 'population" is used referring to all the
persons inhabiting a country, city, or other specified place or it may refer to the number of such inhabitants.
It may also refer to all the people of a particular race, or class in a specific area. Ecologically population may
be referring to a group of individuals of the same species inhabiting in a given area.
But every population named, described and analysed is the aggregate and it is subjected to the demographic
processes of fertility, mortality and migration. This means, the named population may have high fertility and
enlarge the aggregate and also there may be deaths, and also a part of the population may migrate to some
other place or country for various reasons. Therefore, a population is a living organism and also a changing
organism. In this way it becomes the subject matter for demography and it is a product of demographic
processes. The demographics processes are sometimes influenced by the nature and characteristics of the
population. The characteristics of population study include;

• Demography and Sociology: Generally, population researchers and the general public often identify
their studies of population with cities, towns, states, regions and countries. Some of them are politically
and geographically defined areas. Politically defined areas are not related to the natural groupings of
population. Political boundary lines go through socio-economics boundaries. Demography has
adequately defined areas which include the natural socio-economic groupings. From the sociological
point of view most of the aggregates demographically cannot be called groups. Group, according to
sociologists, is referring to collection of human beings who will be having observable communication
among them and the group is socially structured.
 A group is defined in several ways, psychologically, sociologically and demographically.
Whatever manner it is defined the important element in the definition should be that there must be
more than two persons in it and should have the same type of interest and way of life. A group may be
defined as two or more persons who interact with one another, share common goals, are interdependent
and recognize the existence of these relationships between them.

• Focus on Groups: Population psychology primarily examines the behavior, attitudes, and mental
processes of groups of people rather than focusing solely on individual-level phenomena.

• Group Dynamics: studying how individual interact within group, including processes such as
conformity, leadership and cooperation.

• Social Influence: Investigating how social norms, peer pressure, social identities, and group
membership influence individual behavior and attitudes within populations.

• Public policy implications: Informing public policy and social interventions based on empirical
research findings to address psychological issues and improve the overall wellbeing of populations.

• Cultural Perspectives: Population psychology recognizes the diversity of cultural practices, beliefs,
and values and their impact on psychological processes and behaviors within populations.

• Analysis of demographic processes: It study the demographics processes such as fertility, mortality
and migration and how these factors shape the composition and dynamics of population over time.

• Interdisciplinary Perspective: Population psychology adopts an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on

insights from demography, sociology, psychology, and other fields to understand the complexities of
population dynamics.

Nature and scope of population psychology:

The major elements of population study fall under three main categories. They are the size of the population,
the composition of the population and the distribution of population. These three major elements are the
central parts of the population study.

1. Size of the Population:

This refers to the number of people live in a given population group at a given time. It is only counting
the heads. The procedure called census. In any population group the procedure of getting the correct
number is difficult unless the place, person, and time are defined changes may take place in the size of
the group and the changes may also affect the size. We come to know how many people are living in a
given place at a given time. Then we come to know whether the number is larger than the specified or
smaller than it was at some time earlier. Information of these types are concerned with changes in
population. These types of information are required for many organizations, such as, industries,
hospitals, school managements, college administrators, social scientists, demographers, and political
leaders.

2. Composition of the population:

Composition is the second major element in the population study. Composition generally, refers to the
act of putting together or making up by combining parts or ingredients. That is, putting up the elements
 having the same characteristics into a category. Applying this definition of composition to population
study, composition refers to all measurable characteristics of the people who are included in a given
particular population. Every population may be composed of certain specific component. One group may
have larger proportion of persons with a specific characteristic. Another group may have smaller
proportion of persons with the specific characteristic. Further the composition of one population group
may differ in a number of ways from the composition of another population group. Therefore,
researchers who study population problems must select mainly two or three major characteristics which
should be of demographic processes. These characteristics should be related to the specific aspects of the
community. In this way the most relevant characteristics to the study are, age and sex (and also other
relevant characteristics, such as, religion, education, occupation, nationality and urban-rural so on).

3. Distribution of Population
This is the third major element of population. This is referring to how people are spread over the area of
the large area like the continent in a small area like city or town. It may say that how the people are
distributed in various places and in the distribution what the changes may take place? The continent is a
very large area and the city or town is a small area. In between the two extremes of the spaces the
continent and the small area, are the town, the large regions, countries, states, metropolitan big cities,
small cities, and the rural forms.
According to Thompson and Lewis (1965) the population of the world may be put into three categories
on the basis of demographic requirements or on the basis of urbanization and industrialization. The
demographic enquiry is that how much of the world population lives in the countries under the category
of advanced urban industrialization? How much of the world population lives under the category of new
urban industrialization and how much of the world population lives under the category of pre-urban
industrialization.

National Population Policy of India:

India has the second-largest population in the world. It is estimated that approximately two-thirds of the
people of the world people are living in developing countries and one-third of the people of the world
population are willing to control their birth rates. These people can keep their numbers within limits of their
ability to maintain balance between the population and production. But the problems in the developing
countries are not realized in the real sense. Unlike Japan and other European countries, India is a nation of
multiple of races, religions, cultures, languages, and communities and there are many diversity of views
politically, socially, economically and communally.
More than eighty per cent of the people are illiterates and poor, live under the poverty line. Any
national problem to be communicated to the people of the nation and make them to understand is a very
difficult. The illiterate poor people in India mostly work in the fields or in daily wages. They do not eat
nutritious food nor have any recreation. Therefore, they find the procreation as a means of spending the time
happily. They do not bother about pregnancy or number of children they are producing.
The first census of India was taken in 1872 during the time of the British rule. It was done with the
view to get correct picture of Indian population growth and composition of population. Then the birth rates
and death rates were registered regularly by a Government department.
In 1947 the Government of India had decided to promote family planning and birth control
programmes as a part of integrated plan of modernizing the Indian economy. The family planning and birth
control movement in India became more progressively organized and the Family Planning Association of
India was started in 1949. The Association convened the first All India Conference of Family Planning in
1951.
 The National Population Policy was announced on 16 April 1976. It was completely at variance with
the earlier population policy of the government. In the past, the importance of development and education
had been recognized for restricting the rate of population growth, though the government’s own programme
was confined singularly to family planning. Until the declaration of the population policy in 1976, family
planning was entirely voluntary; the government’s role was restricted to motivating the people to accept the
family planning and to providing clinical facilities and other services to its acceptors. The government
however, gave up this approach in 1976.
 In India the government has not relied on economic and social measures to control the size of
population.
 Its entire reliance is on family planning programme.
 Pravin Visaria, a noted Indian demographer has pertinently argued, but for family planning
programme, the rate of growth of India’s population could have risen sharply as has happened in
several countries of Africa.
 In the earlier phase of economic planning, the government felt the need for family planning
programme only after the publication of 1961 census results which showed a higher rate of
population growth than anticipated.
 The government in the earlier phase pursued an ad hoc policy under which first it pursued
clinical approach, then extension approach and finally the cafeteria approach.
 Since this policy did not show impressive results the government decided to pursue a bold
national population policy in 1976.
 Under this bold policy, the government pursued questionable measures particularly involving
government departments and motivating citizens to adopt responsible reproductive behaviour.
 In an authoritarian political system, the corrupt administrative machinery misused its powers
during the emergency that was proclaimed by the government.
 The use of coercive methods discredited the entire family planning programme and the
experiment of the government to pursue these called bold measures for lowering down the birth
rate in a relatively short ended in a fiasco.
 Restricting population growth was one of the main objectives of the Eighth plan.
 Under the Eighth plan for population control there was stress on decentralized planning and
implementation.
The National Population Policy (NPP), 2000 is the central government's second population policy. The NPP
states its immediate objective as addressing the unmet needs for contraception, healthcare infrastructure, and
health personnel, and providing integrated service delivery for basic reproductive and child healthcare. The
immediate objective is to meet needs of contraception, health, infrastructure, health personnel and to provide
integrated service for basic reproductive and child health care. The medium-term objective is to lower down
the total fertility rates to the replacement level by 2010. The long-term objective is to achieve a stable
population by 2045.
In this broad framework the National Population Policy, 2000 aims at the
following:
1. Reduce maternal morality ratio to below 100 per one lakh live births.
2. Reduce infant mortality rate to below 30 per one thousand live births.
3. Achieve universal immunization of children against all vaccine preventable diseases.
4. Achieve universal access to information/counselling and services for fertility regularization and
contraception with a wide basket of choices.
5. Promote delayed marriage for girls, not earlier than age 18 and preferably after 20 years of age.
6. Prevent and control communicable diseases.
7. Promote the small family norm to achieve replacement levels of total fertility rates.
 8. Bring about convergence in implementation of related social sector programmes to make family
welfare a people centered programme.

Psychological Analysis of India’s Family Planning Programs:

In the past few years, there has been significant increase of interest and activities in the family
planning programs sponsored by governments of various countries. Then the programme has gone rapidly
into the public domain with increasing awareness of the socioeconomic involvement of population growth
with birth control programme. It was very sensitive matter for the people for the nation. As a part of public
health service some psychologists have involved themselves in the family planning programmes. Berelson
(1969) has given the course of events in the development of a public family planning programme in the
United States. In some countries the family planning programme originates in medical field. Then some
experts review the population situation and make recommendation which then call for the adoption of a
family planning policy. Then it is considered as the responsibility of the ministry of health and declared as
one of the programmes of maternal and child care services and health centres.
When India attained its independence in 1947 the matter was taken into consideration. Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru on becoming the Prime Minister of India expressed his anxiety of the population problem.
These were the grounds for the origin of India's population policy and the formation of family planning
programmes. We need not go into the demographic data and information to deal with the family planning
programme. But we cannot also deny that the demographic data have provided the source of information for
evolving population policy for India and to formulate the family planning programme. But the Government
of India was giving continued support for the Demographic Research ever since the First Five Year Plan
from 1951. In 1966 a separate Department of Family Planning was started in the Ministry of Health.
The significant development in the field of demographic research and in population policy was the
incorporation of Dr. S. Chandrasekhar in 1967 as the Minister of Health and Family Planning of the
Government of India. Dr. Chandrasekhar has been constantly and very enthusiastically advocating for a
national population policy and for starting a family planning programme for more than twenty years since
1947. Dr. Chandrasekhar (1942, 1943a, 1943) was vigorously expressing his deep concern over India's
population growth rate, his concern was as a scholar, as demographer and as the citizen of India.
Of the number of steps Dr. Chandrasekhar has taken at various levels, a few of them received special
attention and importance. The first of which may be stated as the mass communication programme. The
second has been the 'cafeteria' or self-service approach about the contraceptive methods and the third has
been roping or fastening into the Family Planning Programming the groups and organizations which were
apathetic and hostile to family planning. These efforts were implemented with all seriousness and
enthusiasm. In spreading out the message of the Family Planning to the tot of the country the services of
every means of art and remote places of science of mass media and advertisement techniques were used.
The symbol of the programme was designed, the design of inverted triangle. This is made known
everywhere in the symbol of Family Planning (1970). The acceptance of the family planning was considered
as the socio-economic instrument for maintaining the welfare and happiness of the people.
METHODS OF FAMILY PLANNING;
Generally, family planning may be defined as the process controlling of the number of children in a family
and of the increased intervals between two children by the use of contraceptive method. Mainly, family
planning refers limiting of the number of children by a couple. The limiting children in the family also
means reducing the size of the family or maintaining a small family size. Small Family Size can be
maintained in various ways. Several methods adopted for this. There are certain artificial methods used to
prevent pregnancy or conception. This is generally called contraceptive method. This method is useful for
controlling births.
Contraceptive Method-
Psychological studies of certain specific methods have been mainly concerned with contraception,
sterilization and abortion as the part of large research programme on population psychology. Contraception
is a method used to prevent conception or pregnancy by artificial means. It is referring to tending to prevent
impregnation or pregnancy. It is medically approved and found to be no harmful.
Contraceptive methods are offered free of charge on voluntary basis. It is recognized that the method
of contraception used by most of the people are having low birth rates. The two new developments in
contraceptive methods are, one is the pill or oral contraception and the other is 'intra uterine coil spring
device.
The pill is given for women. The pill prevents pregnancy by keeping the ovum from getting maturity
Therefore there cannot be any impregnation. If the pill is taken for twenty days continuously there is
tremendous effect. The pill should be started taking for a few days, say, 4 or 5 days after menstruation and
should be continued for few days, 4 or 5 days, before the menstruation.
There is also pill for men. This pill is taken by men once in a month. The pill is very effective in men. It
makes the sperm incapable of fertilizing the female cells, the ovum. Pohlman (1969) has reviewed studies on
psychological aspects of all methods of birth control. Many studies according to him were focussed on
resistance to contraception. This was very much useful, became attention was directed on individual
perception, attitudes and motivations.
Many of the psychological studies on contraception were made by psychoanalysts. They were mainly
interested in the sexual symbolic results of the use of the contraceptives and the unconscious motivation for
child bearing and its avoidance. Freud (1893, 1894, 1898), in some of his early writings on neurones, had
stated that coitus interruption was a significant factor in the development of neurasthenia and anxiety
neurosis and also stated that the use of condom was not a method of fulfilling the needs. He states that by
harmful means of controlling conception, society is doomed and fall victim to incurable neuroses.