DMIT is Unscientific says Indian Psychiatric Society
- DMIT is an Ill Founded Practice, cautions IPS.
- Schools, Parents & Students should stay away from it, warns IPS.
- DMIT is not useful for Intelligence Testing or predicting future behaviour says IPS.
The full form of DMIT is ‘Dermatoglyphics Multiple Intelligence Test’. It claims to find an association between Fingerprint Patterns and Brain Lobes. The DMIT practitioners wrongly claim that it helps in understanding a unique inborn potential and personality. Based on the fingerprint ‘Career Counseling’ is provided by many Private Centres across the country.
The idea of finding suitable Careers for an individual using Fingerprints sounds strange to you? Well, Scientific Community across the world would agree. We hope it was that simple to find Best Fit Careers. Dr. Prashant who is a practicing super specialist at a highly reputed Hospital in Jaipur expressed his disbelief when he found such websites claiming to help her daughter determine suitable careers based on her Fingerprints. He said, “This is a clear case of playing with emotions & fears of Students & Parents. Student is in a spot when deciding career and these Centres claim quick resolution using such marketing gimmicks. When it looks as easy as giving Fingerprints many would fall for it. This is so wrong & should be stopped.”
The Apex Body on such issues, Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS) recently issued an advisory to Parents and Schools warning them against using Dermatoglyphics multiple intelligence test (DMIT) to determine the intelligence quotient (IQ) of children. It denounced the test as being unscientific.
Taking cognisance of the innumerable DMIT centre that have mushroomed across the country, including Jaipur, the society dissed the claim made by DMIT practitioners that the system could be used to activate the midbrain and predict future behaviour. “IPS denounces DMIT as it is not based on any scientific evidence. DMIT is not useful for intelligence testing, brain lobe function testing or predicting future behaviour,” the statement issued by the society stressed.
IPS President Dr Mrugesh Vaishnav told Times of India, “As we received received a number of complaints from our member-psychiatrist over the years about DMIT, we decided to check for any scientific basis.” Five hundred psychiatrists from across the country, mainly from Mumbai and Lucknow, have complained about the test. IPS looked at the available data and after a lot of deliberations, realised there is nothing scientific about the DMIT claims,” he said. Read Article here.
The Telegraph posted: The Indian Psychiatric Society urged “parents and schools to stay away from such ill-founded practices”. The statement comes against the backdrop of what some psychiatrists say is an exploitative market for DMIT assessments, which claim to assess children’s inborn traits and are promoted through schools, including pre-nursery playschools. Read Article here.
Dr Sagar Mundada in an article in Pune Mirror: “Underscoring the lack of scientific basis for the test, he observed, “It’s being run by quacks and they are charging at will. There is no rationale behind the test.” Read Article here.
From the Hindu: Calling it “medical palmistry”, doctors in India have questioned the effectiveness of Dermatoglyphics Multiple Intelligence Test (DMIT), a popular test used on school children as a “scientific” study of fingerprints patterns and human brain lobes to determine the “intrinsic potential in a child”. Read Article here.
What is IPS?
The Indian Psychiatric Society, the national organisation of psychiatrists in India, was founded on 7th January 1947 during the Indian Science Congress meeting held in New Delhi. It is the official body of Psychiatrists in India and is pioneer in developing practices of Psychiatry in India.
How Fingerprints are formed?
Fingerprints are formed when a child is in mother’s womb during 10 to 18 weeks. Factors such as the fetus’s location in the womb, the density of the mother’s amniotic fluid, the skin of the fetus touching the inside of the amniotic sac and the level of activity of the foetus inside the mother’s womb creates pressure marks on the skin of the fingers of the baby called as “Friction Ridges”. These ridges are fingerprints. Isn’t it funny that some Centres will determine if one should become Marketer, Engineer, Space Scientist or Politician based on these parameters.
What should Students & Parents do for ‘Career Counseling’?
The standard & most trusted option for Scientific Career Assessment was always ‘Psychometric Test’. Any discerning parent and student sincerely looking for assessment of ‘Interest, Personality or Aptitude’ should choose Psychometric Tests. These tests are time tested, trusted by Governments & Organisations across the globe. Just one word of caution: Choose a test which is properly validated & highly reliable.
Another thing that is very crucial to understand is that it is the Counselor that drives the process through his perception, knowledge, awareness & communication skills. Anyone choosing Counseling should do proper research about profile of Counselor. Get to know about Counselor behind The Career Quest.
Psychometric Tests offered by ‘The Career Quest’ are validated and tested for thousands of students. Reach out to us to know more.
Its a great sharing . Very useful information and explained well ! Lot of People aren’t aware of this and get confused between career and DMIT . Likewise I also have a blog with which can actual value to your insights . Thanks for the useful information again.
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