Communicable disease control in South Asia

This chapter describes a humanitarian work psychology (HWP) project grounded in the research methods of industrial and organizational psychology, aimed at combating disease in a remote, rural community of individuals in South Asia. It begins with a discussion of the communicable disease epidemic, the history and need for control programs in South Asia with a special focus on India. The chapter describes a study that was undertaken to fill in the gap in practice and research, and to uncover person-related mechanisms of disease transmission in order to understand aspects of human behavior that contribute to the spread of this communicable disease. It discusses how these findings could be merged with current disease control practices. It is important to emphasize that humanitarian work psychologists engaging in field research efforts such as the one described here must do so in a way that respects local cultural and sub-cultural norms, and appropriately accounts for them in their methodology and interpretation of findings.