Psychological Capital (PsyCap) refers to an individual's positive and developmental state, which includes high self-efficacy, optimism, hope and re-silence. Psycap emphasizes applying positive psychological concepts in the workplaces, education, sports, public service, etc. The idea of Psycap mainly focuses on job satisfaction, educational satisfaction and ultimately the life satisfaction itself. PsyCap is also positively related to physical and healthy well-being. In every country, the output of youth determines the development of the country and its people. Educational, psychological and sociological well-being is the indication of harmonious development. In India, 34% of the population is youth. In this paper, the researchers analyze youth's problems in the present scenario and how to rebuild youth's psychological well-being. Researchers identified psychological capital of Indian Youth as the prime variate for reinventing India in this 21st century. People with high psychological capital will result in a country which will result to a sustained ever-growing society.
Human resource is the greatest asset of any nation. A nation, if it could not correctly utilize its human resources, the growth will be stagnant. A country whose 50% population under the category of youth and hence if it is not appropriately nourished, this demographic dividend will end as a demographic disaster [1]. Therefore the intellectual discourses on the issues and the psychological well-being of our country be taken care in a more serious way. Such an attempt is made here with the expectancy that the derivatives from the theoretical speculations and practical derivativeness shall contribute to the policy formulation and implementation. India is the largest country in South Asia, with a population exceeding 1 billion people. In India, around 600 million people are under the age of 25 and about 70% of the population is under the age of 40. Approximately 40% of the Indian population is classified as a youth, defined as someone between the ages of 13 and 35. The period from puberty to middle age is traditionally referred to as youth. This generation constitute the defining qualities of youth as defined by several agencies. The United Nations has defined youth as being between the ages of 15 and 24. Initially (in 2003), the National Youth Policy defined youth as those aged 13 to 35. However, the National Youth Policy of 2014 changed it, defining 'youth' as people aged 15 to 29. India has a relative advantage at present over other countries regarding the distribution of youth population. According to India's Census 2011, youth (15-24 years) account for one-fifth (19.1%) of the country's overall population. By 2020, India's young population is predicted to account for 34.33 percent of the overall population. In terms of youth population distribution, India currently has a comparative edge over other countries. When compared to other Asian countries, India has a significant advantage in terms of youthful people. Youth are the most important segment of the population because they are energetic, vibrant, innovative and dynamic. Youth are the most precious human resource for supporting economic, cultural and political development because they have strong passion, motivation and willpower [2]. The young population determines a country's ability and growth potential. The quantity of a country's youth population, as well as how it should be utilised, determines its ability and growth potential. In their communities, youth are the creative digital innovators and they participate as engaged citizens. Because of advances in knowledge and technology, young people's life expectations and experiences in the twenty-first century differ dramatically from those in the preceding century. So the psychological, as well as sociological well-being of youth ensured the growth of the country. Approximately 87 percent of young women and men in developing countries have limited and uneven access to resources, healthcare, education, training, employment and economic, social and political prospects.
According to world population, as we know that India is the country leads in the second position in its population strength. In India, youth initiate a significant role in the population pyramid. Young population of India is most valuable resource and most pressing challenges. The younger population takes a unique advantage in the demographic structure of Indian population. This opportunity is losing because without proper investment in human capital development. At the same time, today’s world is more dynamic and uncertain than ever before. There is a rapid and concurrent economic, demographic, social and technological shifts were undergone in India, so that it must ensure the inclusive growth and be shared in all sections of society. Without proper participation of youth in the economic productivity no nation is completely developed in all aspects. It's a challenge for India, like any other country, to nurture and polish its child to make it a productive, effective and beneficial part of the country. But due to the rapid increase in their country's population, it has become a severe problem for the country [3].
Problems of Youth in the Present Scenario
Problems are a sign of hope for innovation and a brighter future. The rate of change in the globe is astounding. However, the rate of adaptation is rather slow. People seemed to be afraid of letting go of conventional and traditional labour techniques, from the schooling system to the way the market operates. The youngster is the one that grinds the most in this tug of war between conventional and modern approaches. Today's youth is led by a digital immigrant who is a digital native [4].
Indian youth have a huge difficulty in the form of unemployment. Over 30% of Indian youth are unemployed and do not have access to school or training. With the organised sector saturated, finding a satisfying work has become difficult. People in India lock positions for financial stability due to the competitive atmosphere. They just see businesses as a source of revenue.
Another common but underappreciated ailment among teenagers is depression. According to studies on depression in youth, more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression. And the majority of them were unaware that they were suffering due to a lack of mental health awareness. This figure is rising solely as a result of the failure to take critical efforts to create a joyful and stress-free workplace. Depression exacerbates the person's sorrow and has an impact on his or her personal life [5].
Exploitation is another major issue that young people confront while starting a new job. Companies take advantage of the young brain by handing over the labour and providing fewer incentives, resulting in a less engaged employee. Exploitation transforms an emotional trip into a voyage of carrying a heavy load. For freshmen, a lack of motivation to enter a profession is a major issue. As a result, the mentally unfit youngsters are making improvement.
PsyCap: Conceptual Framework
Psychological capital is the individual's positive and developmental stage characterized by high self-efficacy, optimism, hope and resilience. Positive psychological capital is a notion that comes from postmodern good psychology and refers to the strength and positive characteristics of human behaviour. Positive psychological principles are emphasised in Psycap's workplaces and other fields, such as education, sports and public service. The idea of Psycap mainly emphasis on job and life satisfaction. Psycap is also positively related to physical and healthy well-being [6].
Components of Psycap
Every individual is a HERO and positive psychology reveals the individual's psychological capital in four dimensions: HERO (H- Hope, E- Efficacy, R- Resilience and O-Optimism).
Hope
Hope is a personality trait directly linked to physiological and psychological well-being (Du, Bernardo and Yeung). Hope is a cognitive process that leads to positive emotions in an individual. Hope is preserving towards goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to plans to succeed. Hopeful thoughts reflect on one's movement in the right pathway to attain the desired goals. Developing hope in an individual is enriching them with goal setting and motivation. The hope thought can be measured and analyzed by using State Hope Scale. To nurture hope:
It goes through one's abilities, skills and strength
Manage emotions and develop coping skills
Take positive action towards the goal
Generate self-trust
Efficacy (Self-Efficacy)
Self-efficacy means having the confidence to make an effort to solve problems or challenges. If the efficacy expectancy is high, the work will be more complicated and the probability of success also high. Self-efficacy measured by a standardized tool named The General Self-Efficacy Scale (GSE). Self-efficacy improved through:
Focussing on past success
Copying other people's lives in which they overcome the obstacles in similar situations
Create a favorable situation for success
A negative experience reframed
Resilience
Resilience (Fred Luthens, Reivich and Shatte) is the ability to bounce back from hardship and develop stronger as a result of overcoming hardship. Everyone faces adverse conditions in life; by improving three capacities, one can develop resilience. They are:
Face realities and accepting the conditions
Find the meaning of ideas
Improvise ideas in a new way to reach a goal
Surround with positive people who give happiness and inspiration
Optimism
Optimism refers to having an optimistic assumption about one's ability to succeed now and in the future. Optimists believe that in the future, nice things will happen to them. Accepting the past, enjoying the present and seeing the future as an opportunity are all part of developing optimism.
Ways to become optimistic:
Reduce anxiety
Break down fears
The company with people who make feel good
All four components are the basis of the positive psychological capital of an individual. Psycap as a concept is more than the sum of its parts. The psychological capital of people determines a successful life. Psychological well-being is the primary element of any successful individual.
PsyCap: Learning from Literature
Prof. Roshni James and Dr. A.M. Suresh conducted a study on "Psychological Capital (Psycap) among Students- A Study exploring the relationship with carrier choices". The report delves into the history of PsyCap, as well as its distinctiveness, aspects and empirical study among students from two separate courses. It has been theorised and verified by inferential statistics that aspiring entrepreneurs have a significantly higher PsyCap score overall, particularly in terms of confidence. For subjective well-being 19 cross-national datasets (Dolan et al.) are studied and all the potential influencers of well-being are identified by them. The seven broad categories identified by them are: income, personal characteristics, social characteristics, leisure time activities, attitudes and beliefs, relationships and socio-economic and political environment. They identified that the most dominant character reflected in the well-being of an individual. The overall well-being is influenced by the impact of both objective as well as subjective variables in these broad categories. According to Culbertson et al. found that PsyCap related with hedonic and eudaimonic well-being. They found that Psychological Capital was the core element in positive psychology field and for a better well-being in the workplace is to improve the psychological capital of employees in that organization. The PsyCap can be improved through micro-interventions and internet based intervention (Luthans et al.). This is the starting point of well-being interventions in organizations [7].
PsyCap as a Transformative Education Model
Irrespective of the geographic and, demographic variations, on analysis it can be seen that there exist a commonality among the youth issues. Then the pertinent question arises is how to tackle this. Here evolves the relevance of education as a transformative tool. Obviously a revisit in to the present practice of education is highly imperative.
The current learner-centred curriculum followed by the country never focused on promoting the student's psychological well-being. In education, the psychological capital of a child could be reflected in the theoretical discussion only. There is no proper implementation and practices to culture-positive psychological capital among children. Reasonable educational practices may mould individuals with a high degree of Hope, Resilience, optimism and Self-efficacy, which may lead to a well flourished happiness in the earth for human beings. In this 21st century, also children learn things in stressful ways and go through painful situations. The tension-oriented school life is a very crucial reason for a psychologically unsatisfied generation in the country. There are many theoretical backups discovered for moulding psychologically well-adjusted individuals. But nothing can be transacted effectively. In every stage of education, there is a need for PsyCap to foster pedagogical innovations. But today, even though in our higher education also no such effective transaction is happening. That creates psychologically poor-adjusted individuals in modern society. And this malfunction reflects in the community, too, in the form of less satisfied psychologically unhealthy people. Because of the lack of such positive psychological awareness, young brains have functioned as dynamic motor engines. This unsatisfied vibrant life creates a lot of issues in the globalized world.
PsyCap: A Reinventing on Indian Youth
Everyone is busy today, including youth also. The challenges faced by youth are in education or employment, there are highly important to address. A proper response to youth issues needs the involvement of youth themselves in decision-making and political leadership. The transition to education, youth clash with the education system that is relevant to the needs of young people and the needs of constantly changing realities in the world. Teaching should equip people with the skills they need today- whether critical thinking or soft skills, the ability to have the curiosity and resilience required in the global economy and the transition to the labor market.
Young people are the fuel, the engine and the beneficiaries for achieving and realizing sustainable development goals. So the work organized and focussed by youth unleashing the potential of young people. Understanding and having hope in youth's power is another essential thing to uplift the youth in the communities and societies. Today's youth want freedom and independence. They need guidance to reach their unrealized goals. At the same time, they want to learn from their experiments.
For reinventing India, re-structuring of youth in the psychological aspect is essential nowadays. For the healthy well-being of the child, proper education through formal as well as non-formal is compulsory. The healthy well-being of an individual being a part of society and is not psychological capital. Psychological capital indicates the nutritional well-being of an individual as well as social well-being. Positive psychology encouraged one's happiness, well-being and positive attitude towards life. Improve the psychological capital of an individual will leads to a stress-free and mentally healthy life of youth.
Education is the sharpened weapon for re-structuring the positive psychological capital in young people. Positive thinking, feeling and action are the symptoms of a healthy nation [8].
The youth demography of India is real asset of the country if it is properly nourished taking the inputs from the global experiences and contextualising the same to fit in to the local conditions and demands. Such an educational endeavour should seriously consider PsyCap as the most influencing wave bringing about proactive changes in the local and global scenario. In the knowledge driven economic system where India has to become the leading power not in muscle but in manpower, knowledge and technology, we must develop a culture of self-sufficiency among our youth; no doubt the prime catalyst towards this March for Atma Nirbhar Bharath will be Psychological Capital-PsyCap. The only essential system must undergo for a thorough rejuvenation process, a kind of reconstruction where the material used to be PsyCap of Indian youth. Youth is the prime indicator of any developing country. A psychological well-being youth can uphold the country to a prominent position. Developing countries, where the youth population is more, investing more in youth education, health and protection of youth laws. Because we can firmly say, today's youth are tomorrow's nation builders. Youths appear to be capable of dealing with a wide range of concerns and obstacles.
They have a beneficial influence on the young people around them. They have the ability to teach kids about the positive aspects of life. Those who are harming their future are more likely to listen to their peers. They will instil in them the value of being a good human being. The youth play a critical part in a country's growth. The youth plays a crucial role in the development of a nation. Because they are highly influencing for the future generation, young people can solve problems efficiently and accurately. To lead a country, each one should have to create an identity for themselves and it is not an easy task; there should be equal support from the family, community, government and other youth. When the people of a nation lead a peaceful life and have a good living style, the country becomes top rated.
“The Impact of Demography on Psychological Capital: An Empirical Study in India.” MIJBR-MITS International Journal of Business Research, vol. 4, no. 2, July–December 2017, e-ISSN: 2394-4161, p-ISSN: 2349-17017. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326177055_/link/5b3c9d80a6fdcc8506ef2b8e/download
Kun, A., and Gadanecz, P. “Workplace Happiness, Well-being and Their Relationship with Psychological Capital: A Study of Hungarian Teachers.” Current Psychology, 2019. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00550-0. Retrieved March 2021.
Sicinski, A. “How to Nurture Hope When Life Starts Getting Really Tough.” 2019. Retrieved from https://blog.iqmatrix. com/nurturing-hope. Accessed March 2021.
“Role of Youth in Shaping India’s Future.” Medium, 2020. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@pradeepkumar panda/role-of-youth-in-shaping-indias-future-2301290 bceed. Accessed January 2020.
“What Young Indians Really Want from Life.” World Economic Forum, 2018. Retrieved from https://www. weforum.org/agenda/2018/10/here-s-what-young-indian s-really-want-from-life/. Accessed December 2019.
“Positive Psychology.” 2020. Retrieved from https://positive psychology.com. Accessed January 2020.
“7 Ways to Increase Optimism and Reduce Anxiety Every Day.” Healthline, https://www.healthline.com/health-news /reduce-anxiety-by-practicing-optimism-can-help#5.-State -a-positive-intention-every-day.