Journal of Assessment and Research in Applied Counseling
Volume:5 Issue: 1, Spring 2023

Family is known as the most important unit of societies, and marriage is the most basic human relationship; Because it forms the primary structure of family relationship and the growth of the next generations. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the mediating role of emotional intelligence in the relationship between marital conflicts and the tendency to marital infidelity.

This research is descriptive-correlation type. The statistical population of the present study included all the couples referred to the counseling centers of the 1st to 5th districts of Tehran in 2022. Among these people, 100 couples (200 people) were selected by the available sampling method. In order to collect data, Bar-on's Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (1980), Marital Conflicts Questionnaire (2008), and Bashirpour et al. (2018) Tendency to Marital Infidelity Questionnaire were used. Moreover, Pearson's correlation coefficient and path analysis were used for statistical data analysis.

The findings showed an insignificant relationship between marital conflicts and the tendency to marital infidelity. Also, the results showed that emotional intelligence plays a significant role as mediator in the relationship between marital conflicts and the tendency to marital infidelity so that the indirect relationship between marital conflicts and the tendency to marital infidelity is significant by mediating emotional intelligence while the direct effect is insignificant. 

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that people whose emotional intelligence plays a mediating role in the relationship between marital conflicts and the tendency to marital infidelity.

The consequence of the lack of expressing emotions is the intensification of unpleasant thoughts and negative arousal in people, and this is known as one of the most important factors of marital conflicts. These self-inflicted negative thoughts ultimately strengthen the cycle of increasing dissatisfaction with marriage, the feeling of marital exhaustion and boredom; So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of RACT on marital burnout and alexithymia in couples.

The purpose of the current research was applied, and the way it was conducted was quasi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design with an experimental group and a control group and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the research included all the couples referring to private counseling centers in the 5th district of Tehran in 2021. 30 couples were selected using the available sampling method and randomly assigned to an experimental group (15 couples) and a control group (15 couples). On the experimental group, a group intervention based on RACT was conducted based on the package compiled by Afshari et al. (2022). The research tools included Pines Marital Depression Questionnaire (1996) and Toronto Alexithymia (TAS-20). SPSS-26 software and mixed variance analysis with three-stage repeated measures were used for statistical analysis of data.

Based on the findings, there was a significant difference between the scores of marital burnout and alexithymia of the experimental and control groups in the pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages. The results of the analysis of the findings indicate that the RACT had a significant effect on the marital burnout and alexithymia of the experimental group. The effectiveness RACT was stable in the follow-up phase according to the Bonferroni post-hoc test.

Based on the findings, it can be concluded that RACT can be used in family counseling and couple therapy centers to reduce marital burnout and Alexithymia of couples.

abductive reasoning is one of the methods of reasoning that, despite the fact that it has been criticized by many scientists and philosophers, today some consider its application useful in research. The purpose of this research was to explain the concept of abductive reasoning and its capacities and applications in psychological studies and counseling.

The current research is a review and descriptive-analytical research article. Articles and books related to the application of abductive reasoning in research, especially psychology and counseling research, which were extracted from the databases of reliable scientific-research articles, were used.

A review of relevant sources shows that this method of reasoning can be a strong method for guessing scientific hypotheses. 

The use of abductive reasoning in making assumptions and conclusions for guesses can give more power to the conclusions, and if combined with the current common scientific methods, it can increase the power of explaining theories and conclusions.

This research aimed to compare the effectiveness of child-centered cognitive behavioral therapy (CCBT) and mother-child attachment therapy on the symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder.

In terms of the purpose of the present research, it was a quasi-experiment with a pre-test and post-test design with two experimental groups and a control group and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the research included all children aged 10 to 12 years who referred to a counseling center in the 8th district of Tehran in 2022, 30 people were randomly selected in two experimental groups (10 people each) and one group Control (10 people) were assigned. The research tools include the Children’s Symptoms Inventory (CSI-4), child-centered cognitive behavioral therapy protocol based on Kendall & Hedtke's coping cat program (2006) and mother-child attachment-based therapy (MCAT) protocol derived from Purnell (2004) and King & Newham (2008).

The findings indicate that both treatments were effective on oppositional defiant disorder. The efficacy of both was stable in the follow-up phase according to the Bonferroni post hoc test. The results of data analysis show that there is no significant difference between their effectiveness and both are equally effective (p<0.05).

It can be concluded that MCAT and CCBT were effective in the treatment of children's oppositional defiant disorder. Therefore, it is suggested that specialists use these two approaches in therapy.

Preschool years, a sensitive period of transformation in all dimensions, which is associated with flexibility, learning experience and providing environmental stimuli, is very important. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of Quinn's early program on the readiness to enter elementary school and social-emotional competence of preschool children.

The current study was quasi-experimental with a pre-test, post-test and follow-up stages with a control group design. The statistical population of the research was made up of preschool children in areas 1 to 5 of Tehran in 2021; for each sample group, 15 individuals (30 people in total) were selected as a sample by random sampling and were assigned to two experimental and control groups. The research tools included the Zhu and Ee’s (2012) emotional competence scale and Lils’ school readiness scale (2009). SPSS statistical software and multivariate analysis of variance with repeated measurements were used to analyze the data. Finally, Bonferroni's post hoc test was used to measure the stability of the effects.

The results of the statistical analysis of the data show that Quinn's early program significantly increased the readiness to enter elementary school and the social-emotional competence of preschool children upon entering elementary school in the experimental group, and this effect was stable in the follow-up phase.

It can be concluded that Quinn's program is effective on the readiness to enter elementary school and social-emotional competence of preschool children; therefore, this program can be used for this purpose in kindergartens and preschools.

Today, integrative approaches in psychotherapy and counseling have attracted the attention of psychologists. In this regard, researchers have done many studies, and research evidence is also based on the good effects of integrated approaches. Therefore, the current research aims to examine integrative approaches and provide strategies for an integrative approach in psychotherapy and counseling.

The current research is a review and analytical research using the library method to collect data. In this way, relevant articles and books were obtained by searching for the keyword integrative approach in reliable scientific and research databases.

The review of sources showed different strategies for formulating an integrative approach, among which we can refer to the six strategies proposed by Mahrer (1989), procedural strategy, and framework strategy.

Analyzing the research findings, using a dynamic and process strategy in integration and considering the approaches that integrators paid less attention to can be useful.

One of the important issues that can help the survival or collapse of the family is the values of people. In fact, the values that people have give direction to their life and help them in the path of family life.

This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the validity and internal consistency of marriage values among married women in Isfahan city. Therefore, the research was of the type of contextualization and tool making. All married women between 20 and 30 years of age in Isfahan made up the statistical population of this research. The statistical sample was 300 married women between 20 and 30 years old who were selected as available. The research tools included the scale of marriage values and the scale of willingness to divorce (Dehgani & Yousefi, 2019). The data were analyzed in two descriptive and inferential parts.

The results showed that the internal consistency of the dimensions of this scale and the internal consistency of the questions were appropriate. The frequency distribution of the dimensions was close to the normal distribution, except for the dimensions of own family values and peace, which had a positive skew, the other dimensions had a normal distribution. The evidence of convergent validity showed that all values had a meaningful relationship with the desire to divorce, except for religious values, having children, and peace. which confirms divergent validity for the three mentioned values and convergent validity for other values. The results of exploratory factor analysis using varimax method showed that this scale has 15 factors.

Based on these findings, it can be concluded that the scale of marriage values has desirable psychometric properties and can be used in educational and research fields.

Researchers believe that emotional intelligence is an important factor in determining a person's success in life and directly affects the variables related to a person's "self". Emotional intelligence causes the appropriate processing of information that has an emotional charge and its use is necessary to guide cognitive activity. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the mediator role of psychological flexibility in the relationship between emotional intelligence and the psychological well-being of couples.

The current research is descriptive and correlational in terms of applied purpose and study method. The statistical population of this research included all the couples referred to couples therapy and counseling centers in Tehran's 7th district in 2022, and 150 people were selected as the statistical sample. Then, the participants completed the questionnaires mentioned in the research tool section. Finally, SPSS and AMOS software and Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation path analysis were used for statistical data analysis.

The findings showed that the direct effect of emotional intelligence on psychological flexibility is significant (β = 0.28 and t = 3.82). Also, the direct effect of emotional intelligence on psychological well-being (β = 0.36 and t = 3.40) is significant. The direct effect of psychological flexibility on psychological well-being (β=0.40 and t=4.14) is also significant. Finally, the indirect effect of emotional intelligence on psychological well-being is 0.29 and the total effect is 0.65.

Therefore, it can be concluded that in the relationship between emotional intelligence and psychological well-being, the variable of psychological flexibility as a mediator can strengthen this relationship.

Since adolescence is a period in which intense emotions accompany the physical and psycho-social changes of adolescents and many nervous and cognitive systems that control emotions grow during this period. Therefore, it is necessary to have training based on emotional intelligence. This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotional intelligence training on action control and self-criticism of high school students.

The current research was applied in terms of purpose and quasi-experimental research design with a pre-test and post-test design with an experimental group and a control group and a two-month follow-up period. The statistical population of the research included all the second-level high school students who were referred to conseling centers in the 7th district of Tehran. For sampling, the available targeted sampling method was used. For this purpose, 20 students were selected as the statistical sample of the research and were equally assigned to two experimental and control groups. An emotional intelligence training program was implemented for the experimental group, while the control group did not receive any intervention. The data collection tool was Thompson & Zuroff's self-criticism questionnaire (2004) and Diefendorff's action control questionnaire (2000). Multivariate analysis of variance and SPSS software were used for the statistical analysis of the data.

The results of the data analysis showed that emotional intelligence training reduced self-criticism scores (F = 12.83) and increased action control scores (F = 10/04) The experimental group had a significant effect. Also, the results of the LSD follow-up test indicated good stability of these effects.

Therefore, emotional intelligence training can lead to decreased self-criticism and increased action control of secondary school students.

Coronary heart disease is associated with an epidemic and a very high prevalence in both developed and developing countries and is considered as one of the most basic causes of death in people. This research was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of treatment based on acceptance and commitment on perceived stress, perception of illness and severity of fatigue in people with heart disease.

The research method was a quasi-experimental pre-test-post-test type with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all people with heart disease admitted to Shahid Sayad Shirazi Hospital in Gorgan city in 2022, from among whom 30 people were randomly selected in 2 experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The experimental group underwent 8 sessions of 60-minute therapy based on acceptance and commitment, and the control group did not receive any intervention until the end of the study. The research tools included the questionnaires of perceived stress by Cohen et al. (1983), perception of illness by Broadbent et al. (2006) and severity of fatigue by Krapp et al. (2001). The research data was analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance and using spss software version 22.

The findings of the research showed that the treatment based on acceptance and commitment is effective on the perceived stress, perception of the disease and severity of fatigue in people with heart disease (P<0.05).

The results of the research indicate that the treatment based on acceptance and commitment, by using the required cognitive skills and thought control, leads to a reduction of perceived stress, perception of the disease and the severity of fatigue in people with heart disease.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of emotion-focused therapy on anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and coping strategies in betrayed women.

The current research method was quasi-experimental, with a pre-test-post-test-follow-up design with a control group. The statistical population included all women affected by extramarital relationships who had been referred to psychological clinics and specialized marriage centers (under the welfare organization) in Isfahan City in order to use psychological services in the second half of 2022. The sample of this research included 30 women affected by extramarital relationships who were willing to participate in the research and were selected as available sampling. The data were obtained by using an anxiety sensitivity questionnaire (2005), a distress tolerance scale (2005), and a coping strategies questionnaire (1984). The experimental group underwent Johnson's (2004) emotion-focused treatment. The data obtained from the research were analyzed using SPSS version 26 and the statistical method of analysis of covariance.

The results showed that emotion-focused therapy was effective in anxiety sensitivity (F=22.94, P<0.001), distress tolerance (F=29.17, P<0.001), and problem-oriented (F=8.95, P<0.001) and emotion-oriented (F=18.47, P<0.001) coping strategies in betrayed women.

It can be concluded that emotion-focused therapy was effective in anxiety sensitivity, distress tolerance, and coping strategies in betrayed women, and emotion-focused therapy can reduce the problems of betrayed women.

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of solution-oriented therapy on negative meta-emotions and body dysmorphic symptoms in cosmetic surgery applicants.

This research was quasi-experimental, with a pre-test, post-test and control group design with a two-month follow-up phase. The statistical population included all surgical applicants who had visited beauty clinics in the city. The statistical sample included 30 of these applicants who were selected purposefully. Then, 15 people were randomly placed in the control group and 15 people in the experimental group. The intervention group received solution-oriented therapy during 8 sessions of 90 minutes once a week. The data were collected using Meta-Emotions Scale (MES) (2009) and Body Image Concern Inventory (BICI) (2005) and analyzed by variance analysis with repeated measurements.

The results showed that the main effect of the group was significant for negative meta-emotions (F=94.2, P>0.05, P>0.771) and for body dysmorphic disorder symptoms (F=12.9, P>0.05, 315/315). In the negative meta-emotions variable, the main effect of the three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up (P<0.05, P<0.05, F=13.5) was significant. It was also reported as significant in the variable of body dysmorphic symptoms (P>0.05, P>0.05, F=6.37).

It can be concluded that solution-oriented therapy is effective in negative meta-emotions and body dysmorphic disorder symptoms. Therefore, they can be useful for cosmetic surgery applicants.

Substance abuse is considered one of the most important factors that threaten well-being and health, so it is important to identify the factors related to this disorder. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between behavioral activation and inhibition systems (BIS/BAS) and effortful control (EC) or clinical symptoms and personality disorders in patients with substance abuse disorders.

The descriptive research method was correlation type. The researched population was all the people suffering from substance abuse in 2022 who had visited Jask City addiction treatment centers in the first half of this year, 112 of them were selected using the cluster random sampling method. The measurement tools include the Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-20), Carver and White's BIS/BAS Scale (1994), short form of Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ), Symptom Checklist 90-R (SCL-90-R), and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – Third Edition (MCMI-III). Finally, the collected data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation test and multiple regression under SPSS-23 software.

The research data analysis revealed a significant correlation between clinical symptoms and personality disorders. BIS/BAS and effortful control were predictive variables, and their role in predicting most clinical and personality variables was meaningful.

In general, the results of this research showed that there is a relationship BIS/BAS and EC with clinical symptoms and personality disorders in patients with substance abuse disorders.

This research aimed to predict life expectancy based on pain self-efficacy, death obsession, and general health by mediating emotion regulation in indigent dialysis women.

The descriptive research method was correlation type. The statistical population of the current study included all poor dialysis women in the medical centers of Tehran and Alborz provinces, of which 287 women dialysis patients were selected by the available sampling method and measurement tools were Pain Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (PSEQ), Death Obsession Questionnaire (DOQ), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and Life Expectancy Questionnaire (LEQ). For data analysis, the structural equation modeling method was used via SPSS-23.

The findings showed that pain self-efficacy, general health, and emotion regulation have a positive and significant relationship with life expectancy (p<0.01), and death obsession and life expectancy have a significant negative relationship (p<0.01) and pain self-efficacy, death obsession, and general health had an indirect and significant relationship through emotion regulation with life expectancy (p<0.01).

This research showed that pain self-efficacy, death obsession, and general health explain life expectancy through emotion regulation, and the research model has a favorable fit. The findings of this research can be used by specialists in the fields of health and mental health to improve the life expectancy of dialysis patients.

Today, premarital relationships and their meaning for young people on the verge of marriage significantly differ from previous generations. In the meantime, considering the sensitivity of the role of girls in the family and society, it seems necessary to understand their understanding of premarital relationships over time and in two generations. Therefore, the current research aimed to identify the knowledge of female students and their mothers about premarital relationships.

This is an applied and qualitative research with a phenomenological approach. The study sample included 17 female Ferdowsi University of Mashhad students and their mothers, who were selected purposefully. A semi-structured interview was conducted with the participants. In order to analyze the data, the phenomenological method and MAXQDA software was used.

In this study, five main themes were identified, including 1. love in premarital relationships, 2. requirements of a healthy premarital relationship, 3. advantages of premarital relationship, 4. disadvantages of premarital relationship, and 5. premarital relationship management strategies.

The daughter's view of premarital relationships seems more based on emotions, and the mother's view is based on logic and realism; this difference was noticeable in the reported sub-themes. However, both emphasize the necessity of family supervision and marriage counseling.