فصلنامه روان شناسی و دین
سال چهارم شماره 2 (پیاپی 14، تابستان 1390)

The present paper aims at recognizing the prayer content and motives development among the Iranian youngsters and teenagers, using a transformological approach and a cross-sectional method. 157 school boys and girls, 6 to 17 years old, have been selected from Qom through cluster sampling. The research data have been gathered through clinical method and semi-structured solo interview and have been scored by five experts. Having calculated the validity coefficients of judge's grading through the interclass correlation method, and having analyzed the reliability through confirmatory factor analysis, the research data have been analyzed through one-way and multiple way variance analyses and frequency analysis. The research finding showed that with the increase in age, the content and motive levels of the prayer develop more. They also showed that the process of prayer content and motives development among youngsters has following stages: low-level material and personal prayers; limited social and material prayers, and moral-spiritual personal prayers; extended social prayers resulted from the belief in God; psychological, worldly, and idealistic prayers; spiritual, otherworldly and idealistic prayers.

The present paper aims at preparing the ground for quantification and measurement of Islamic life style. A questionnaire with 135 items based on a systematic study of Islamic texts and psychometrics was designed. The statistical population is a group of MA students of Isfahan University and Qom Seminary. 300 students were selected and stratified random sampling was used and the students answered two tests, one on "Islamic life style (researcher–made) and another on "religious orientation". The data were analyzed by using factor analysis, Cronbach's Alpha, and MANOVA methods. The results show that the test on Islamic life style has the reliability of "0.786". The results of factors analysis also show the appropriate validity and factor structure. Its concurrent validity with religious orientation test has been calculated by Pearson's coefficient (0.644). The research findings show that Islamic life style can be quantified and that the researcher–made test has the necessary psychometric characteristics.

The present paper aims at investigating the relationship between the afterlife scale and mental health. To do so, 259 students have been selected from Tehran University and the Seminary of Qom, and the afterlife scale and four-dimension scale of health measurement have been conducted. The data have been analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient test of significance, regression coefficient test). The research findings show that there is a positive and significant correlation between the total score of afterlife the hereafter scale and the total score of the health scale, and between the total score of afterlife scale and the sub-scale of the mental health. It seems that the idea of afterlife as the individual's religious orientation in accepting the afterlife and his attempt to make preparations for that life according to divine decrees, leads to consequences all in physical, mental, social, and spiritual dimensions in this world and provides the ground for more desirable functions of these dimensions.

The present paper aims at studying the origin of mental image of God. To do so, 342 students from Qom Islamic Azad University and the Seminary of Qom have been selected through stratified, random, probability sampling. They have answered a questionnaire on the mental image of God. The data gathered by this questionnaire and other data such as gender, age, education (university or seminary) and the kind of relationship with parents and other family members which have been gathered according to the statements of respondents themselves are analyzed by statistical indexes. The research findings show that the mental image of God correlates with aforementioned factors and the quality of this correlation indicates the multi-dimensionality of mental image of God and its origin, because the correlation between the mental image of God and all these factors is not the same; rather it varies according to the sub-scales of the mental image of God, because some of these factors, while having significant and positive correlation with one of the sub-scales of the mental image of God, has a negative or no significant correlation with other sub-scales.

The present research tries to investigate the relationship between in God, self-esteem and academic achievement. To do so, 305 female students form a high school in Yazd were selected randomly through a cluster sampling. They answered Cooper Smith's standard questionnaires on confidence (tawkul) and self-esteem. The student's total grade of the students was the index of their academic achievement. The research is a descriptive–correlative one. The data were analyzed by such statistical indexes as Pearson's correlation and ANOVA. The research findings show that there is a significant relationship between all components of self-esteem (domestic, social, academic and general) and confidence in God (p<0.01). There is also a positive significant relationship between the academic achievement and confidence in God (p<0.01), but no significant relationship between academic achievement and confidence in God was noticed. Furthermore, the results of ANOVA test show no significant difference between the average scores of confidence in God and self-esteem among the students who took part in different courses.

The present paper investigates the self-regulatory learning skills among three groups (those who know the Quran by heart, beginners, and those who don’t know the Quran by heart). The research method is carried out in the framework of survey design and a sample including 120 students (40 students who know the Quran by heart, 40 beginners, and 40 students who don’t know the Quran by heart) have been selected randomly and compared. These students were from three different educational levels (secondary school, high school, and university). Bofard's self-regulatory learning test has been used to measure the rate of learning skills of individuals in these three groups and data have been analyzed by variance analysis test and independent t-test. The research findings show that the rate of self-regulatory learning skills is significantly different between those who know the Quran by heart and those who dont, that is, those who know the Quran by heart have show better functions in self-regulatory learning skills in comparison with those who dont know the Quran by heart(p<0.05). However, there is no significant difference between age, education, and gender in the score of self-regulatory learning. Furthermore, these findings show that the skill of the Quran memorization improves other non-Quranic skills, as well.

The present paper tries to criticize and analyze the Viktor Frankl's standpoint on healthy personality. In defining the healthy person, he has first discussed man's two spiritual and transcendental capabilities, that is, "the ability to distance from the self" and" the ability to transcend the self"(self-transcendence), and then has expounded the indexes of the health as dependent on the extent of the realization of these capacities. According to this standpoint, the healthy man's characteristics are as follows: freedom and will, self-consciousness and responsibility, attitudinal value (creativity, love, and suffering), search for meaning (will to meaning), oneness and uniqueness, and responding to the call of the conscience. Having criticized and analyzed the above standpoint using a descriptive-analytical method, the researcher has compared it with the standpoint of the Quran and has concluded that these two standpoints are different regarding the definition, scope, and adjectives set for the "health" and the structure of a healthy person, and that instances such as inadequate attention to the origin and the end and inability to provide a comprehensive definition of such concepts as God, eternity, action, and conscience can be said to be the disadvantages of Frankl's theory.