Development and standardization of Mysore Tridosha scale

Abstract

The authors have developed a personality scale to assess Tridoshas i.e. Vata, Pitta, and Kapha from psychological perspective in human beings. The Tridoshas are composed of the Pancha Mahabhutas, but one or the other Dosha is dominant singularly or in combination. There can never be a state when one or the other Pancha Mahabhutas and consequently the Tridoshas are absent totally. All five are essential to sustain life. Vata Dosha is composed of Akasa and Vayu Mahabhuta. Pitta Dosha is composed of Tejas or Agni and Ap Mahabhuta. Kapha Dosha is composed of Ap and Prithvi Mahabhuta. Although Tridosha is studied, understood, and applied in Ayurveda, the present authors have tried to validate the same from the domain of psychology. Since the authors are not from the domain of Ayurveda but of Psychology, there are some constructs that are not amenable for psychological testing which have been ignored. Only those constructs that can be used by psychologists to assess the psychological aspects of the Dosha Prakriti have been used to build items for the assessment of personality. In this process, the psychometric properties of the scale are established. The scale assesses the psychological manifestation of the Tridoshas, which was the basic objective. The standardization procedure involved in the development of the Mysore Psychological Tridosha Scale is herewith delineated.

Determinants of Prakriti, the Human Constitution Types of Indian Traditional Medicine and its Correlation with Contemporary Science

“…Recently, Shilpa et al . [ 19 ] developed systematic questionnaire for the manifestation of prakriti and reported it as satisfactory validity tool in predicting prakriti . However, this approach was limited to the psychological traits alone.…”

“…The quantitative approach to the qualitative assessment of prakriti for the practice of personalized medicine both by ayurvedic physician and contemporary science is essential and attempts are made based on the use of psychometric scaling; however, these lack the physiological and anatomical features in scaling different prakriti types . [ 19 ] In order to define traditional prakriti features and clinical phenotypes on the basis of current knowledge and to develop a uniformly acceptable tool, which will provide a quantitative element to the qualitative determination of prakriti , we have evaluated 3416 normal healthy volunteers using prakriti traits as per traditional texts as well as computer-aided prakriti description tool. We have described our attempt to correlate distribution of prakriti among population and also show a dominant prakriti association with body mass index (BMI).…”

Ayurvedic Doshas as Predictors of Sleep Quality

“…Participants were assessed once, in the middle of the yoga program. The participants completed 2 questionnaires – the Tridosha questionnaire [ 20 ] and the sleep rating questionnaire [ 21 ]. The questionnaires were administered to participants as a group.…”

“…The questionnaire has 60 questions or statements, which can be considered as 3 sections, each corresponding to the different doshas ( vata / pitta / kapha ). The questionnaire is an abbreviated version of the Mysore Tridosha Questionnaire [ 20 ], which has 157 questions. This version was selected because it was shorter and hence easier to administer to the large sample studied (n=995).…”

“…A higher score indicates the greater prevalence of a particular dosha in an individual’s constitution. Different aspects of reliability and of validity of the questionnaire were determined for use in an adult Indian population [ 20 , 22 ]. The questionnaire includes questions related to sleep.…”