maryam vatankhah

The Islamic Revolution of Iran established a religious government, which gave the clergy a special role and position. This role and position should align with the expectations of the people from this group. The significant social changes in the decades following the establishment of the Islamic Republic and the experience of the clergy's social role in these years may have changed the people’s expectations from this group. This study aims to understand the expectations of the people from the clergy, considering their function as a reference group in society. A qualitative approach using the Q-methodology was employed to categorize and analyze these expectations. In the first stage, 22 statements about the community’s expectations of the clergy were identified through 24 in-depth interviews with various social groups. Then, 40 Q-cards were sorted by the study participants on a spectrum from +3 to -3. Finally, using factor analysis of the Q-methodology, the community's expectations of the clergy were divided and analyzed into six categories: moral expectations, operational expectations, lifestyle-related expectations, promotional expectations, passive expectations, and managerial expectations.

The aim of this research is to understand how new media can intertwine the multifaceted dimensions and processes of religion and peace within (global) society in the current era. Additionally, it explores how religion can utilize new media to promote peace globally and converge various social and cultural groups.

This article employs existing theoretical and research capacities in religious studies and communication/media studies, utilizing a library-based method and an analytical approach. It seeks to answer research questions through a conceptual triangulation of three theories: "Meaning Mediation," "Geertz's Model; Religion as a Cultural System," and "Lederach's Peacebuilding Pyramid." 

New media can alter the meanings of concepts and, by enhancing knowledge and awareness, create platforms for constructive dialogues, mobilize civil actors, and showcase war victims to garner public support for conflict resolution. Religion, as a cultural resource, can also collaborate with new media to unite religious and secular actors around the theme of peace, overcoming media limitations such as filtering and the dissemination of fake news.

TV Religious programs must be attractive in terms of form and deep in terms of content in order to influence the formation and strengthening of the religious identity of their young audience. This article has been carried out with the aim of examining the aesthetic aspects of the visual components of TV religious programs and to know how they are used in these types of programs. In order to collect and analyze information, using the triangulation method, documentary methods, semiotics and case studies have been used. In this article, the semiotics method was used to understand the relationship between the six components of composition of images, stage and decor design, image background, color pattern, logo, and visual signs and lighting of religious elements in the programs "Samte Khoda" and "Soureh". The findings show that "Samte Khoda", as a religious program, has been more successful in the design of decor, color patterns, visual signs and lighting, and "Soureh" program - regardless of the presenter and guest's cover - only with images. The background has been shown to be religion-oriented, although in the composition of the image, in terms of technique and dynamics, it has been more successful than the "Samte Khoda" program. The results of the article can be used to create a local and unique model for the production of religious talk show programs.

Satellite networks are a sources of soft power and an important infrastructure for global communication. The expansion of communication and exchange of culture through satellite TVs imposed new values and, consequently, new behaviors; which could be a soft threat as it could gradually change the culture and identity of a nation. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate the effects of Sat. TVs on both individual and social aspects. The main question is: “what are the media threats of satellites TVs and how to countermeasure them accordingly?” To answer this question, two "surveys" with questionnaire technique and also "in-depth interview” method using “closed or guided interview" technique had been used. The statistical population in the survey was "all people over 18 years in Tehran who watch the satellite networks" and in the in-depth interview it was "specialists in communication and political sciences". It was found that out of a total 450 respondents, the most of the respondents believed in different threats of satellite TV, including "psychological, political, cultural, economic and military-security threats" and 33.3% evaluated the level of "satellite threat" as "moderate". Additionally, the most of them (43.1%) considered "improving media literacy" as the best countermeasure to satellite threats. The findings of the interview also confirmed that it is more appropriate to adopt diversity (ultra-active) and aggressive (active) strategies rather than passive strategies and maintaining the status quo strategies to deal with satellites.

This research aimed to compare the effectiveness of working memory training with competitive memory training on the psychological symptoms and cognitive functions of patients with major depression.

This study was performed on 60 patients with the major depressive disorder who were randomly divided into three groups: control, competitive memory training, and working memory training. The instruments used in this study included four computer tasks: asymmetry span, reading span, letter-number, dual n-back, three questionnaires: BECK Depression Inventory, Nolen -Hoeksema rumination Questionnaire, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Questionnaire, and the Wechsler intelligence Scale for Adult-Memory for Digit Span. Data were analyzed by using ANCOVA.

In all three experiments, performance during the training task significantly increased, but this performance gain did not transfer to the rumination. In working memory training group no positive effect of training on depression and self-esteem was found. But it did lead to improvements in the components of shifting, updating, and inhibition. Also, competitive memory training failed to improve cognitive functions in depressed individuals but led to improved depression and self-esteem. overall, results show that stand alone Working Memory training can not be effective on low self esteem and does not result in reduced rumination nor in reduced symptoms of major depression. Also, stand alone competitive memory training can not be effective on rumination, and cognitive functions in depressed maple Due to the different effectiveness of these two treatments and based on different therapeutic goals, one of these two treatments can be selected or used simultaneously with another treatment.

People with depression have impaired cognitive functions and psychological symptoms of depression. Depression is characterized by negative biases in different aspects of information processing that is related to vulnerability for the development, higher levels of depressive symptoms, maintenance and even recurrence of depression. Psychologists believe that memory is the foundation of cognitive psychology. Memory is one of the most important cognitive impairments in patients with depression, and its impairment exacerbates their inability to perform daily functions. autobiographical memory is part of the memory. Research has shown that there is a strong link between psychological symptoms and autobiographical memory bias. Depression can lead to impaired memory so that depressed individuals have difficulty retrieving specific memories. In other words, overgeneralization of autobiographical memory occurs. Considering the importance of this issue in the last two decades, extensive research has been done on the relationship between depression and memory, and memory-based depression treatments, which have sometimes yielded contradictory results. Despite these extensive pharmacological and psychological treatments for depression, there are limitations in comprehensiveness and efficacy of these treatments that leads to the need for more research on depression-related interventions. The present study is a systematic review article that has been collected through a complete study of 45 articles in the field of each of the interventions proposed during the article, history of memory and major depression. The aim of this study was to review autobiographical episodic memory-based training interventions for patients with depression to provide a sketch for more extensive research on each of these interventions. Overall, the studies conducted in this study indicated that episodic autobiographical- based memory training interventions have significant effects on the improvement and depressive symptoms in patients with depression.

Every emerging technology has some inevitable effects and consequences on the minds and behaviors of its users in addition to its hardware and software aspects. Understanding the consequences of every technology can highly contribute to minimizing its negative effects and using it properly for intellectual and mental promotion. Direct broadcast TV satellites are one of the modern technologies which influence various dimensions of the personal and social lives of their users. The present study has been conducted on the basis of the survey method and includes a sample of 450 subjects. Our findings suggest that most audience members of the satellite programs are aware of their psychological threats and they continue to watch them being cognizant of these threats. Although the rate of awareness among men and women, different age groups, and various educational levels varies, the overall outcome of the study indicates that people are cognizant of these threats and high level of media literacy and enhancement of audience analysis power are the strategies suggested by the respondents to deal with these threats.

Obesity has become one of the most important and the fastest growing health and nutritional problem, not only in developed but also in developing countries. White rice consumption causes an increase in postprandial blood glucose and could be a probable reason for obesity. This study was conducted to investigate the association between intake of white rice and central obesity in an Iranian population. In the present cross-sectional study, a total of 212 subjects were selected based on convenience non-random sampling procedure. Expert interviewers collected socio-demographic and dietary intake data by a face to face method. We failed to find any significant association between frequency of white rice consumption and body mass index or waist circumference, neither in crude model nor in adjusted models. Although there was no significant association between white rice intake and obesity factors in our study, more studies are necessary with larger population and better design.