The first International Conference on Developmental Psychology has begun at the Government College University Lahore under the auspices of GCU Psychology Department and Dr Ajmal Psychological Society. The two-day international conference brought together psychologists from Germany, USA and across Pakistan at one platform to deliberate on various aspects of human behaviour and growth.
GCU Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Muhammad Khaleeq-ur-Rahman chaired the opening session of the conference that features five academic sessions, drama festival and poster competition wherein 109 selected research papers would be presented.
Addressing the opening ceremony, world renowned psychologist and GCU Psychology Department Chairperson Professor Dr Asir Ajmal said the problems of regional identity, ethnic conflict, bad governance, injustice, gender violence, intolerance and corruption couldn't be solved through science and technology - we also needed to have original, indigenous and inter-disciplinary research in the areas of social sciences to make Pakistan a peaceful and prospers state. He said that the success of a conference was often mistakenly gauged by number of research papers presented in it and overall participation. However, he stressed that quality of research papers should be given more weight.
In his inaugural address, Vice Chancellor Professor Dr Khaleeq-ur-Rahman said intolerance, egotistic attitudes and greed were destroying the social fabric of our society and the situation is worsening day-by-day. The VC directed the organising committee to publish the recommendations of this conference, so that they can be widely circulated and used for common good.