مجله روانشناسی و روانپزشکی شناخت
سال هشتم شماره 3 (پیاپی 36، امرداد و شهریور 1400)

Cognitive therapy training reduces the negative thoughts of pregnant women and increases the likelihood adapting to normal delivery. 

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of mindfullness based cognitive therapy on the self-efficacy of pregnant women in adapting to with normal vaginal delivery.

This research was a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study with a control group. The statistical population includes all pregnant women reffering to Kamali Hospital and Karaj Health centers affiliated to the Alborz University of Medical Sciences from January 2020 to July 2020 and the sample includes 80 pregnant women who selected by purposeful sampling method. Both groups completed the CBSEI-Standard Birth self-efficacy questionnaire before and immediately after the intervention. Data analyzed with Covariance by SPSS-25.

The mean self-efficacy for delivery adjustment increased from 2.99 in the pre-test to 3.08 in the post-test in the control group and in the intervention group from 1.92 to 4.06. After the intervention, a statistically significant increase was observed in the mean score of self-efficacy in coping with normal delivery in pregnant women in the intervention group  (P<0.05) and the effect of the intervention was 0.379.

Cognitive therapy based Mindfulness training increased the self- efficacy of pregnant women in adapting to normal vaginal delivery.

Psychological well-being as a component of positive psychology is associated with a variety of personal and family factors in psychology such as self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength.

This study was aimed to investigate on prediction of psychological well-being based on self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength in students in Islamic Azad University in Qom city.

Its method was descriptive and type of correlation. The statistical community included all students in Islamic Azad University in Qom city in academic year of 2016-2017, that 350 students (195 male and 155 female) were chose by cluster sampling method. Gathering data tool included Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI), Alexithymia Scale, 4 factors of Catellchr('39')s Sixteen Factors Personality Inventory, and Ryff Psychological Well-being Questionnaire. Data analyzed by using of SPSS-26 software with Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariable regression analysis.

Findings showed that self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength could predict 25/38 variance of psychological well-being (P<0.001). Also there was direct correlation between psychological well-being with self-differentiation and ego strength, and was negative correlation with Alexithymia (P<0.001).

With attention to results the role of self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength in prediction of psychological well-being were important. It can be indicate that high levels of self-differentiation and ego strength, and low level of Alexithymia were salient in shaping of psychological well-being, and with diagnosing and improvement in self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength can expect to promotion in psychological well-being in students.

Lumosity is a computer game for enhancing and improving the memory and brain efficiency of the elderly.

This study aimed to investigate the effects of Lumosity on working memory, visual memory, and executive functions of the elderly living in nursing homes.

The present was an experimental study based on a pretest-posttest design. The statistical population consisted of all the elderly aged 65-70 years living in nursing homes of Bukan, in 2019. Some of them who were able to read and write were selected as the sample by using purposive sampling and then they were randomly assigned to the control and test groups. In this study, the Stroop Color and Word Test (SCWT), the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), and the Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) were employed for measuring working memory, executive functions, and visual memory, respectively. The data were finally analyzed by the analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) in SPSS-24.

The results showed that Lumosity was effective in working memory (F=18.856, P=0.001), visual memory (F=7.97, and p=0.009), and executive functions (F=9.94, p=0.004) at the 95% level of confidence. The results also indicated that there was a significant difference between the pretest and posttest mean of the studied variables, revealing the positive effects of Lumosity on working memory, visual memory, and executive functions of the participants.

Since the use of computer games, including Lumosity, can improve major cognitive functions, such as executive functions and memory, such games are recommended to be applied in nursing homes for rehabilitating the elderly.

Loneliness is the most painful experience of all human experiences that leads to severe psychological and physical problems.

 The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between social and emotional loneliness, fear of negative evaluation, thought Suppression, and mindfulness with mediating self-concealment in students of the Shahid Charmin University of Ahvaz.

The research design is correlational and structural equations. The study population included all students of Shahid Charmin University of Ahvaz in the academic year of 2016-2017, 200 of them were selected as the research sample and answered the Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI), the brief version of the fear of negative evaluation scale (FNES), the short version of the social and emotional loneliness scale (SELSA-S) and self-conceal scale (SCS). Data analysis was performed using AMOS and SPSS software version 20 and Pearson correlation, path analysis, and bootstrap statistical methods.

The fit indices of the model including RMSEA=0.01, NFI=0.99, CFI=0.99, IFI=0.99, AGFI=0.99, GFI=0.99, which indicate good fit the proposed model. All the indirect effects of fear of negative evaluation with mindfulness and thought Suppression and also social and emotional loneliness with mindfulness and thought Suppression with the mediation of self-concealment became significant (p≤0.001). 

Mindfulness reduces social and emotional loneliness, the fear of negative evaluation, thought suppression and self-concealment by accepting feelings and thoughts.

Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder and aggression are two of the most common challenges in children, so it is important to assess effective treatment approaches in this case.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether neurofeedback could help children aged 7-9 years pay more attention and be less aggressive.

The method of this research was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design with control group. In the winter of 2020, among children aged 7-9 years were referred to the Behnoud Child and Adolescent Psychology Clinic in Qazvin for therapeutic therapies, 30 children as a research sample with a definite diagnosis of the disorder were randomly assigned to two categories using a convenience sampling method. The experimental group received neurofeedback therapy twice a week for 2.5 months (20 sessions in total). Children aggression questionnaire (Shahim, 2016) and parent form of Attention Deficit / Hyperactivity Disorder (Connors& etal, 1999) were used to collect data. To analyze the data, the method of analysis of covariance with spss-26 software was used.

The results of analysis of covariance revealed that there was a significant difference between the mean scores of attention deficit (P<0.01) and aggression (P<0.01) (overt and relational aggression) in the post-test stage after controlling the pre-test scores. That is, neurofeedback therapy has increased attention and reduced aggression (overt and relational) in children aged 7-9 years.

Due to the importance of the findings, the effectiveness of neurofeedback in mitigating attention deficit and aggression may be generalized to all children aged 7-9 years and its use in health centers is suggested to the clinicians.

Today, drug abuse as a multifaceted phenomenon has become one of the main problems in societies and has taken different forms.

The present study aims to examine the relationship between the duration and the rate of drug use and explicit/ implicit memory bias among opium and stimulant addicts.

The study design was a casual-comparative study. The statistical population included all opium and stimulant addicts in Takab city in 2018, that 30 opium addicts and 30 stimulant (methamphetamine) addicts were selected by available sampling and were homogenized in terms of some demographic variables. The research instruments included a computerized explicit memory, a computerized word base completion test, an unstructured clinical interview, and a demographic information questionnaire. Statistical data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, t -test and SPSS-17 software.

The results showed that there is a relationship between the drug use duration and explicit/ implicit memory bias in opium (r=+0.68) and stimulant addicts (r=+0.79) and also between rate of drug use and explicit/ implicit memory bias in opium (r=+0.73) and stimulant addicts (r=+0.81, P<0.05). In other words, with an increase in the duration and rate of drug use, the opium and stimulant addicts showed signs of higher explicit/ implicit memory bias even though stimulant addicts showed greater memory bias than the opium addicts (P<0.05).

Emphasis on cognitive processes including memory bias among drug addicts, is one of the solutions to consider in prevention and clinical treatment interventions.

Major depression disorder is one of the most common psychological disorders that is often characterized by anhedonia, low mood, lethargy, distraction, changes in sleep and appetite and suicidal ideation.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of emotional schema therapy on the severity of depression, emotional dysregulation and emotional schemes of patients with major depressive disorder.

The present study was an experimental study with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The study population was patients with depression who referred to health centers in Khoy in 2020. 30 of them were randomly selected and assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent 9 one-hour treatment sessions. Data were collected using Beck Depression Questionnaire (BDI-II), Emotional Regulation Questionnaire (ERQ) and Leahy Emotional Schemas Questionnaire (LESS-II). Data collection was analyzed using multivariate analysis of covariance in SPSS-26 software.

The results of post-test scores of depression intensity, suppression, reappresial and adaptive and non-adaptive emotional schema showed that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups (p<0.001). The effect size of emotional schema therapy was to reduce the severity of depression (0.86), repression (0.63), re-evaluation (0.69), adaptive emotional schemas (0.74) and non-adaptive emotional schemas (0.78).

Emotional schema therapy as an emerging emotion-focused therapy can be used as an effective and efficient treatment to reduce depression, emotional dysregulation, and correct emotional schemas.

The anxiety is a main aspect of neuroticism that may be related to variables such as cognitive flexibility.

The aim of present research was to explain generalized anxiety in neurotic people based on cognitive flexibility.

This research was a correlational design study. The research population consisted of students of Arak University in 2019, from which a sample of 300 people was selected by convenience sampling method. At first, the Neuroticism Scale of NEO-FFI, Brief Scale of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (CFI) were administered. Then, 70 participants who had high scores in neuroticism based on the Neuroticism Scale (score of 24 and above) were studied. The data were analyzed using simultaneous multiple regression method, by SPSS software, version 21.

The results showed that component of cognitive flexibility predicted approximately 18% of variance in generalized anxiety in people with neuroticism (F=7.141, p<0.001), that perceive the controllability (with a Beta coefficient of -0.417) had a significant role in this prediction, while the cognitive alternatives did not have a significant role.

It can be said that perceive the controllability is an important variable in predicting the generalized anxiety of neurotic people that should be seriously considered to moderate their anxiety.

Evaluation of the electroencephalogram of schizophrenic patients has been the subject of many recent studies. However, accurate diagnosis of schizophrenia using the electroencephalogram is still a challenging issue.

This paper was aimed to investigate the information discrepancy between one brain channel and other electrodes in two groups of schizophrenic patients and healthy individuals. Furthermore, the capability of the extracted features in the problem of classification of the two groups was investigated.

In the present analytic observational study, 19 channels of the electroencephalogram of 14 patients with schizophrenia (7 males with an average age of 27.9 ± 3.3 years and 7 females with a mean age of 28.3 ± 4.1 years), who were hospitalized at the Institute of Psychiatry and Neurologists in Warsaw, Poland, were used. In addition, data from 14 healthy individuals (7 males and 7 females with an average age of 26.8 ± 2.9 and 28.7 ± 3.4 years, respectively) were analyzed as a control group. Cross information potential and Cauchy-Schwartz mutual information between each electroencephalogram electrode and all the other electrodes were calculated. Using two strategies, the performance of the support vector machine was evaluated: (1) the mutual information of an electroencephalogram channel with other channels, and (2) the combination of the mutual information of all brain channels.

The results showed that using mutual information between electroencephalogram channels, the diagnosis accuracy increases up to 100%. For both indices, the mutual information between O2 and the other channels provided the highest classification performance.

These results nominated the proposed system as a superior one compared to the state-of-the-art electroencephalogram schizophrenia diagnosis tools.

Postpartum depression has an effect on reducing maternal attachment and family relationships and can be a threat to the safety and well-being of mother, infant and other children.

The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of meta-emotion combined therapy on anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance in women with postpartum depression.

The present study was a quasi-experimental study with two-group pretest-posttest method. The statistical population of the study was all women referring to Golestan Health Center in Ardabil in the years 2018-19. Sampling method was available. Using the Edinburgh Postpartum Depression Scale, 40 subjects (20 in the experimental group and 20 in the control group) were selected. Then, for the experimental group, meta-emotion combined therapy protocol was performed during 12 sessions and the results were analyzed based on experimental avoidance and anxiety sensitivity scales using covariance statistical method using SPSS software version 18.

The results showed that the mean scores of post-test anxiety sensitivity and experimental avoidance in the experimental group were lower than the control group. In other words, meta-emotion combined therapy on reducing anxiety sensitivity (F=129.89, P=0.001>0.05) and experimental avoidance (F=229.10, P=0.001>0.05) is effective.

The results of this study showed that the meta-emotion combined therapy, through emotion regulation and reduction of negative emotions, is an effective therapeutic approach in reducing anxiety sensitivity and experiential avoidance in women with postpartum depression.

Parents problems can not only lead to the occurrence or aggravation of their childrens disorders, but also affect their childrens psychological problems.

The purpose of this study was to compare personality disorder symptom in parents of children with autism disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and normal control.

This is a cross-sectional study. The population of this study included all parents of children with autism and ADHD from Tabriz City in year 2020. 130 parents of children with autism, 170 parents of children with ADHD were selected available sampling method and were mached with 273 parents of normal control. All the clinical assessment of autism, ADHD and comorbidities were conducted by child and adolescent psychiatrists. The severity of personality disorder symptom were assessed by Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-III). Kruskal-Wallis test using SPSS version 26 software was used for data analysis.

According to results of Kruskal-Wallis test, the mean ranking of personality disorders in the three groups respectively were parents of children with autism> parents of children with ADHD> control parents were (p<0.01).

Parents of children with autism suffer from higher vulnerability than symptoms of personality disorders compared to parents of children with ADHD. Additional studies are needed to make clinical interventions in parents appropriate to childrenchr('39')s mental disorders.

For childrens mental health, different levels of family environment dysfunction are considered as risk factors.

The aim of the study was to comparatively interpret the family drawings test for normal and divorced children as well as orphans and abandoned (9 to 14 years old) with an emphasis on the study of anxiety, depression, and aggression.

The present study was causal-comparative research. The statistical population included children aged 9 to 14 years from normal families, children of divorce, orphans, and abandoned in Tehran. The sample size consisted of 50 normal and 50 children from the other three groups who were determined based on the purposive assignment method and available sampling. For collecting the data, the Buss and Perry's Aggression Questionnaire, Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale, Child Depression Inventory, and also the Corman family Drawing test were used. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software version 22 through analysis of variance and multiple comparisons (Scheffe).

Findings showed that there is a high correlation between the scores of the anxiety index, depression, and aggression of children with the scores of these variables in the children's drawing test (P=0.000) on the other hand, the results of analysis of variance and Scheffe test showed that there was a significant difference between normal children and divorced children as well as orphans and abandoned (P=0.000, F=581.870) and the level of anxiety, depression, and aggression of abandoned children (196.15), orphaned children (186.69) and divorced children (174.55) was more than normal children (111.94).

According to the interpretation of the tests, it can be concluded that children from divorced as well as orphans and abandoned children are more depressed, anxious, and aggressive than normal children and regarding these components, abandoned children were worse off than orphans and divorced children