Journal of Research in Psychopathology
Volume:2 Issue: 3, Winter 2021

Generalized anxiety disorder is one of the most common anxiety disorders with high prevalence in community and clinical settings. The aim of this study was to compare perseverative thinking and self-differentiation in patients with generalized anxiety disorder and normal individuals. The research design was causal-comparative. The population included all patients and normal individuals going to Aramesh and Nedaye Shadi counseling centers at Urmia in three quarters in the year 2020, among whom, 60 individuals were selected by the convenience sampling method. One group contained 30 individuals with a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder and a group consisted of 30 normal individuals. The participants completed Ehring et al.'s perseverative thinking and Skowron and Friedlander’s self-differentiation questionnaires. Multivariate analysis of variance in SPSS-23 was used to analyze the data. The results showed that the mean scores of perseverative thinking in patients with generalized anxiety disorder was significantly higher and the mean scores of self-differentiation was significantly lower than the normal individuals. The results indicated the importance of perseverative thinking and self-differentiation among patients with generalized anxiety disorder.

Schizophrenia is one of the most common and severe psychiatric disorders that is characterized by abnormalities in perception, behavior, motivation, thinking and cognition. One of these cognitive defects is a defect in attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulatian (tDCS) on improving attention in women with chronic schizophrenia in Ardabil in 1395. In this experimental study (pre-test and post-test with control group), the statistical population included all women with chronic schizophrenia in Ardabil city, which 28 persons of them, were selected randomly selected who were in Rehabilitation centers of Ardebil and randomly divided into two experimental(n=14) and control groups (n=14). The members of both groups were individually subjected to a pretest test using Toulouse Pieron attention Test, then the intervention using tDCS on the test group for 10 consecutive days in 20 minutes with anode, FP2 and The cathode, shoulder was performed individually by the trained researcher. The post-test was performed on both experimental and control groups. To analyze the data, univariate covariance analysis was used. The results showed that tDCS increased the mean scores of attention (p <0.05) in subjects with chronic schizophrenia. Considering that tDCS has a significant effect on improving the attention of people with chronic schizophrenia, it can be concluded that tDCS can improve the attention of people with chronic schizophrenia.

Aging is associated with a decrease in various cognitive functions, including memory, and changes in memory function which are not uniform and vary depending on different aspects of memory. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of rehabilitation of cognitive-metacognitive strategies on visual memory and memory span in the elderly. The present research method was quasi-experimental pretest-posttest with a control group. The population included all the elderly who lived in the nursing home of Bukan from May to August 2019 (N = 120). Among these people, 30 elderly people (two groups of 15 people) were selected by convenience sampling according to the inclusion criteria and were placed by random assignment into two groups; experimental and control groups. Kim Karad and Wechsler’s memory span tests were performed on the groups in the pre-test. Then, the rehabilitation of cognitive-metacognitive strategies was performed and in the next stage, the post-test was performed again. The obtained data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance according to its assumptions. The results showed that after performing cognitive-metacognitive rehabilitation in the experimental group, the mean of straight and reverse components of the memory span test and short, medium, and tall components of the visual memory test increased significantly compared to the pretest (p < .001). The results showed that rehabilitation of cognitive-metacognitive strategies can improve visual memory and memory span, and using rehabilitation methods is suggested to improve cognitive functions and memory in the elderly.

Aggression is one of the major problems in schools. Family members, especially mothers play an important role in the development of aggressive behaviors in children. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on parental stress of mothers with aggressive children. This study was an experimental research and its design was pretest-posttest with a control group. All the female students studying at the primary schools of Namin city in the year of 2018 (N = 540) with their mothers were selected as the sample. Totally, 217 students as the initial sample were selected by multi-stage clustering sampling and the aggression questionnaire was administered to them by the teachers. Finally, considering the inclusion criteria, mothers of 40 aggressive students were selected as the sample and randomly assigned to one of the two groups (n=20 per group). The data were collected by Shahim's Relational Aggression Scale, and Abidin's parental stress questionnaire and analyzed by ANCOVA through using SPSS-20. The results revealed that mindfulness-based cognitive therapy was effective in decreasing the parental stress of mothers with aggressive children. Considering the effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy on parental stress, it can be concluded that through techniques such as paying attention to breathing and body and turning awareness here and now, mindfulness affects the cognitive system and information processing and reduces mental rumination and dysfunctional attitudes in people, and these changes can reduce parental stress.

Non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is one of the serious public concerns. There are several hypotheses and reasons for NSSI. The aim of this study was to investigate the differences between two groups of adolescents with NSSI and normal counterparts in executive functions, behavioral activation and behavioral inhibition system (BAS/BIS) and emotion regulation. In this cross-sectional causal-comparative study, 50 adolescents (girls and boys) having NSSI and 50 normal adolescents were compared. They performed Bart balloon computer tasks (to measure high-risk decision-making), Wisconsin cards (to measure cognitive flexibility), as well as Carver and White Behavioral Activation/Behavior Inhibition scale and filled Gratz and Roomer’s emotion dysregulation scale. Participants who reported NSSI, had higher scores on risky decision making, behavioral inhibition, emotion dysregulation, and lower scores on cognitive flexibility than participants without a history of NSSI. The results support that there is a significant difference between two groups of adolescents with NSSI and normal counterparts in executive functions, emotion regulation and BAS/BIS. The data can also be used to educate, prevent and treat adolescents with NSSI and to promote public health policies

The present study was aimed to compare the cognitive-emotional flexibility and death anxiety in individuals with and without traumatic experience. Employed methodology was causal-comparative method. Statistical population of this research, including all individuals with traumatic experience who had referred to psychiatric clinics and Ardabil Isar psychiatric hospital during first half of year 2020, was selected by purposeful sampling; and it included 20 individuals as well as another group of 20 ones as a control group who were selected by convenient method. Acceptance and Practice Questionnaire, Emotional Flexibility Questionnaire and Templar Death Anxiety Scale were employed in order to collecting data obtained data was analyzed through multivariate analysis of variance test by use of software SPSS 22. Obtained results demonstrated that mean scores of cognitive – emotional flexibility in individuals with traumatic experience were lower than control group while the mean scores of death anxiety of people with traumatic experience were higher than them (p <0.01). The results demonstrated the clearance of cognitive – emotional flexibility and death anxiety in individuals with traumatic experience.