فصلنامه مطالعات روانشناسی بالینی
پیاپی 6 (بهار 1391)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral stress management in reducing the anxiety, depression and stress of women with breast cancer. This study is experimental with a pretest-posttest control group design. The study population was limited to women with breast cancer who had referred to Mostafa-Khomeyni Hospital from among which 18 patients were selected and randomly assigned between two groups: experimental group (n=9) and control group (n=9). The independent variable was cognitive-behavioral stress management which was administrated in 10 weekly sessions on the experimental group while there was no psychological treatment for the control group. The research instrument was DASS-21 and HADS. The data was analyzed using covariance analysis and based on 16 patients experience surveys. Cognitive–behavioral stress management led to reduction in the anxiety, depression and stress in DASS-21 and HADS variables among patients of the experimental group (with the anxiety and depression (P<0/01) and stress (P<0/05)). Cognitive–behavioral stress management for women with breast cancer may also be used as a supplement method enhancing standard oncological treatment.

Therapeutic Community Approach (TC) knows the problem to exist within the person not in drugs. This approach also considers addiction as a disease that encompasses the whole personality of the addict; therefore, the problem that should be targeted is the addict not the drug. The main goal of treatment is to make changes in the attitudes, behavior, values and thoughts of the patient, to make them consistent with a healthy lifestyle and to reinforce their clean time. Therapeutic community is a treatment protocol developed based on concepts and treatments relating to social learning, and issues of cognitivism, behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, humanism, and psychoanalysis; it can, therefore, create multi-dimensional changes in the drug abuser. In TC, recovery requires rehabilitation, relearning or re-establishment of abilities to make possible a positive life aimed at achievement of physical and emotional health.While the number of patients admitted to TC may vary between 30 and 2000, clinical experience has shown that the number of 40-80 patients in the TC may have the best efficiency. Community in TC comprises the four basic components of social context, social expectations, social assessment and social feedback. TC period for patients consists of the five phases of orientation, treatment, pre-reentry, reentry and follow-up. Data analysis has shown TC to be an approach that helps people with problems of substance abuse and comorbid psychological disorders. Meanwhile, the results demonstrated the effectiveness of TC on mental symptoms including depression, paranoid thoughts, morbid symptoms, obsession-compulsion, aggressive crimes, criminal behavior, physical complaint, problem in social relationship, and anxiety disorder. As a result, therapeutic community interventions can be helpful for people with drug abuse and comorbid psychological disorders.

In this study we examine the effect of relaxation training on anxiety reduction and on working memory capacity (WMC). In an experimental study the students of a secondary school in Tehran were selected using random cluster sampling. Through an anxiety test based on the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale (1970), 40 girl students were divided into two test and control groups by random assignment. In the pre-test, students responded to questionnaire of working memory capacity (Daneman & Carpenter, 1980). The tests were organized in group form. In the next stage of research, the test group received 12 one-hour session training (3 sessions per week), and were offered relaxation techniques, as well as deep breathing and muscle relaxation, while no training was provided for the control group. Upon completion of the sessions in the post-test stage, both test and control groups were tested again with Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale and questionnaires of working memory capacity (Daneman & carpenter, 1980). The statistical methodology was based on multivariate analysis of covariance. The results of this study suggest that relaxation training increases the working memory capacity and its components, i.e. storage and processing, by way of decreasing anxiety. Therefore, relaxation training is a useful strategy for reduction of anxiety and promotion of working memory capacity.

The main purpose of this study was to examine psychometric properties of a short version of the Self-Regulation Inventory (SRI-S) including reliability, validity, and exploratory factor analysis of the SRI-S in Iranian students. Six hundred and seventy six Iranian volunteers (294 males, 382 females) from universities in Iran were included in this study. All participants were asked to complete the SRI-S (Marques, Ibanez, Ruiperez, Moya, & Ortet, 2005), the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire-Revised Short Scale (EPQ-RS; Eysenck, Eysenck, & Barrett, 1985), and the Mental Health Inventory (MHI-28; Besharat, 2009). The results of exploratory factor analysis supported a single general factor of self-regulation and a five factor structure including Positive Actions, Controllability, Expression of Feelings and Needs, Assertiveness, and Well-Being Seeking. The convergent and discriminant validity of the SRI-S were supported by an expected pattern of correlations between the scale and the measures of personality and mental health. All correlation coefficients between the mean scores on the SRI-S and scores of the extraversion, neuroticism, psychological well-being, and psychological distress were statistically significant. Coefficient alpha estimates of internal reliability were between. 90 and. 97 for the SRI-S subscales. Test-retest reliability of the SRI-S was also calculated at the range of. 71-.86. All correlations were statistically significant. It was concluded that the SRI-S can be considered as a reliable and valid scale to measure self-regulation in Iranian samples.

This paper aims to study the effectiveness of Logotherapy and Gestalt therapy in diagnostic symptom improvement of clients referring to pre-marital counseling who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ninety students out of all referring to the counseling center of Kurdistan University in Sanandaj were selected through random sampling method. Obsessive students were diagnosed by applying Obsessive Belief Questionnaire (OBQ-44) and DSM IV-TR. Ninety subjects were randomly assigned into three groups (30 subjects in each Group). Accordingly, three groups were organized as Logotherapy, Gestalt therapy and control groups. The Obsessive Belief Questionnaire-44 was employed both before and after interventions for measuring obsessive characteristics of subjects. The results showed that Gestalt therapy was similar to Logotherapy in reducing obsessive-compulsive symptoms of students. Also, both Gestalt therapy and Logotherapy were influential in reducing mental symptoms in the follow-up stage.

There is considerable individual variation in the levels of pain-related disability among people with chronic pain. Pain self-efficacy and fear of movement have been proposed to explain individual differences in the level of pain-related disability. This study aims to investigate whether pain self-efficacy and fear of movement mediate the relationship between pain intensity and disability in patients with chronic pain. In a cross-sectional design, 195 chronic pain patients completed measures for pain intensity, disability, pain self-efficacy and fear of movement. The mean age (SD) of the sample was 45.6 years (12) and 73% of the sample reported their main pain sites as low back and legs. Regression analyses were used to test the mediational hypothesis. The first regression analysis indicated that pain self-efficacy beliefs partially mediated the effects of pain intensity on disability. The results of the Sobel test confirmed this mediational effect (Z = 3.40, p < 0.001). The second regression analysis indicated that fear of movement partially mediated the effect of pain intensity on disability. The results of the Sobel test confirmed this mediational effect (Z = 4.43, p< 0.001). Pain self-efficacy and fear of movement are important in terms of understanding the relationship between pain and disability. The clinical implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.

Since medical treatment is used in social phobia disorder, group training of stress management and cognitive group therapy is used for the purpose of reducing students’ social phobia. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of group training of stress management and group cognitive therapy in reducing students’ social phobia. As a quasi –experimental study, this study has been conducted to compare the effectiveness of group training on stress management and cognitive group therapy concerning university student's social phobia. The research community in this study was the boy students of accounting in Islamic Azad University of Hamadan. A sample including 45 people were selected from the research community and were put randomly in three groups of group training of stress management, cognitive group therapy and control group. The data gathering tools in this study was Watson & Fred stress and avoidance questionnaire. Stress and avoidance questionnaire was used for the pretest and posttest; group training of stress management and cognitive group therapy held ten 1.5-hour sessions per week, with control group receiving no therapy. For the descriptive analysis of data, statistical indicators like mean, standard deviation and in deductive statistic, covariance analysis were used. The result of ANCOVA showed that after adjusting for pretest there was a significant difference between the three group means (F(1,41)=18/139, p<0.0005). Also the investigation of the adjusted means suggested that group training of stress management is more effective than cognitive group therapy; symptoms of the two experimental groups showed a greater reduction in post-test in comparison with those of the control group. The research results showed that group training of stress management and group cognitive therapy are both effective in reducing students’ social phobia.