فصلنامه مطالعات روانشناسی بالینی
پیاپی 10 (بهار 1392)

This research aims to determine and compare the effectiveness of computer-assisted cognitive remediation (CACR) and psychostimulant drugs in improving the planning skill (as executive function) of children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The research design was pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with two experimental groups. 23 ADHD children were selected by convenience sampling and inclusion-exclusion criteria. Two groups were matched according to the severity of their disorders and randomly assigned to psychostimulant drug therapy (n=11) and CACR (n=12) groups. The research tools were Tower of London (TOL), Persian version of SNAP-IV scale, the short form of WISC-R, and child syndrome inventory (CSI-4). The data were analyzed by RM-MANOVA and Mixed design MANOVA. The CACR had effective and enduring variation on planning skills of ADHD. In comparison, CACR had an enduring but non-significant impact on enhancement of planning skills. Altogether, both treatments are effective at improving the planning skill (as executive function); therefore, CACR can be used as an alternative technique to treat children with ADHD.

The aim of the present study is to determine the dimensions of religious ontology in inner speech of religious couples with high marital adjustment. This was a qualitative study using semi-structured deep interview for 11 couples (11 wives and 11 husbands) with high marital adjustment. The couples were selected by purposeful sampling till data saturation was reached. Grounded theory was used to analyze the data obtained from interviews. Data analysis revealed that religious ontology helped religious couples consider their marital relationship as a holy bound established by God to reach certain goals. Religious ontology yielded positive marital consequences in three direct ways and in one indirect way. Direct ways of religious ontology in couples were belief in God’s presence and surveillance in marital life, observation of religious practices, and belief in God’s help in marital life. The indirect influence of the religious ontology for couples was following the practice and the style of marital life of holy prophet of Islam (PBUH) and the Fourteen Infallibles (AS). Through these processes, religious ontology leads to peace, satisfaction, faithfulness as well as financial and spiritual perfection. Findings also showed that religious ontology positively influences marital life and can be used to develop a model for improving marital satisfaction by changing the ontology styles of the couples.

The aim of this research is to study the effectiveness of cognitive–behavioral group therapy in reducing aggression symptoms in elementary school children. The research design was experimental pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with experimental group. The population consisted of all 7-12 year-old elementary school children (both male and female) of Shahroud in school year 2011-2012. Participants were randomly divided into two groups of 20. The treatment group received intervention for ten sessions a week. Data were collected by relational and overt aggression questionnaire. They were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance. Results showed that cognitive-behavioral group therapy reduced both verbal reactive and relational aggression in children but had no effect on physical aggression. While all components of aggression were not affected by the cognitive-behavioral group therapy, it could improve children's behaviors.

The effect of social competence training-based storytelling on social skills and behavioral problems of 8-10 year-old children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is investigated in this study. This research is a semi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and control group. 45 children who had received scores above the cut-point on oppositional defiant disorder subtest of Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) and whose problems were also confirmed by the Teacher Report Form (TRF) were selected. Then, Social Skills Rating System (Teacher Report Form) was administered to their teachers. A sum of 28 child with ODD who had received poor scores on social skills subtest of SSRS and whose behavioral problems were confirmed in behavioral problems subtest of SSRS was finally selected. Subjects were divided into control and experimental groups. The experimental group received social competence training-based storytelling for 15 sessions, each of which lasted 60 minutes. Upon the completion of the training, SSRS (Teacher Report Form) was administered as a post-test to both groups of teachers. The results were analyzed using Mann-Whitney U and indicated that teachers in the experimental group reported a significant increase in total score of social skills (p>0/001) and significant decrease in behavioral problems scores (p>0/01) of children with oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) as compared to the control group.

In the present study, the effect of cognitive-behavioural therapy on pain severity and mental health of women with chronic low back pain has been investigated. The research method was experimental with pre-post, follow-up, and control group. The statistical society of this study was consisted of all women outpatients with chronic low back pain who referred to Tehran’s clinical institutions during winter 2011. 30 out of 88 women who had referred to four chronic-pain specialized clinics and physiotherapy centres of Tehran and whose chronic low back pain was confirmed by chronic-pain questionnaire were randomly selected to represent the sample. The subjects were assigned to one of the experimental or control groups, randomly. In pre-post, both groups of experimental and control replied to mental health questionnaire and pain intensity scale of multifaceted questionnaire. The experimental group was treated in 11 sessions of 70 minutes cognitive-behavioural therapy. In contrast, the control group was not subjected to any treatment. Furthermore, both groups were subjected to fallow-up test. The result of MANCOVA method indicated that cognitive-behavioural therapy significantly reduced pain and increased mental health of patients with chronic low back pain compared to control group (p<0.001). These results were also observed during follow-up period.

The aim of this study is to quantitatively combine the theses about the individual and family factors influencing conduct disorder. For this purpose, meta-analysis was used as a statistical technique to identify, collect, combine, and summarize the research findings related to the role of effective factors on conduct disorder. The population of research included studies that had been done in Iran about effective factors of conduct disorder in children and adolescents, and the sample included all theses done in this field at the universities of Tehran (20 theses). The mean effect size (r) in individual factors was 0.33 in fixed effects model and 0.37 in random effects model while the mean effect size (r) in family factors was 0.05 in fixed effects model and 0.04 in random effects model. According to Cohen's criteria, the effect size of individual factors and family factors were below the average and low, respectively. But, in the investigation of separative effect size of factors, variables social skills, life skills, guilt feel, being a working child, academic achievement, internal-external attributions, planning-organizing ability, attention to class, mental state of parents, their marital satisfaction, their substance abuse and self-esteem were high and significant due to Cohen's standards. Because of the significance of Q statistic which resulted from the heterogeneity of studies, sex, measuring instruments, sampling method, and age variables were entered into the analysis as confounding variables. Z-test of the studies related to individual factors showed that the effect size was significant for all intervening variables. In contrast, z-test of the studies on family factors showed it to be significant only for variables of sex and measuring instruments. Due to the high mean of effect size in variables listed above, researchers and clinicians should consider the importance of these factors in evaluation and treatment of behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. They should also take note of the role of modulators listed above in their future studies.

This study seeks to determine the effect of clay therapy on the aggression of 7-12 years-old school children. For this purpose, 35 aggressive elementary school children of Tehran were selected according to the aggression scale of CBCL test. Then, they were randomly divided into control (n=14) and experimental groups (n=21). The experimental group went under clay therapy while control group received no treatment. The two groups were evaluated immediately after the treatment session and two months later. Data were analyzed based on the repeated analysis of variance (between-within the mixed group). The F parameter showed that clay therapy is able to reduce the aggression of the experimental group in comparison to the control group. These results were also observed during follow-up period.