International Journal of Psychology
Volume:6 Issue: 2, Summer-Fall 2012

Understanding what makes couples strong has given helping professionals specific characteristics they can focus on and develop within families. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of spiritual well-being, family protective factors, and family strength on marital satisfaction in a propositional structural model. The research population consisted of all the married people of the Isfahan city (Iran), in the year of 2012 with preschool children and in the first decade of marriage with at least 9 grades of education level. Subjects were selected randomly through a multistage sampling from 7 parts of the city (N= 304). The instruments used in this study were the Spiritual Well-being Scale, Inventory of Family Protective Factors, Family Strength Scale, and Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Descriptive statistics and a structural equation modeling analytic approach were used. The analytic model explained 89% of the distribution of marital satisfaction. FS had a strong direct effect on DAS (= 0.89). SWB had indirect standard effects on FS (=0.37) through FPF, and on DAS (= 0.76) through FPF and FS. Also, FPF had indirect standard effect on DAS (= 0.52) through FS (p<.000). Consisted to the strength-based approach, the results of this study confirmed the interrelationships among spiritual well-being, family protective factors, and family strength and their simultaneous positive effects on marital satisfaction, and suggest that family counselors employ an integrated spiritual-religious, resilient, and strength-based perspective to inform their work with couples.

The aim of this study was to investigate the interactional relationship between behavioral inhibition and cognitive factors in the development of social anxiety symptoms. This study has been done in a cross-sectional comparative framework. A sample of 408 students who were selected by the arbitrary sampling method completed the following questionnaires: Social Phobia Inventory, Behavioral Inhibition Scales, Focus Attention Questionnaire, and Consequences of Negative Social Events Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using the Lisrel software and the path analysis method. Results showed a correlation between each pair of the variables (p < 0/05). Behavioral inhibition and cognitive factors had significant effects on developing social anxiety. Also, the causal model that behavioral inhibition, mediated by cognitive factors, creates social anxiety is confirmed. These results may be used as a tool for screening and predicting the social anxiety in students. According to the meditating effect of the cognitive factors between the behavioral inhibition and the social anxiety, we can use this knowledge for prevention and treatment of social anxiety.

The aim of the present research was to determine the effects of meta-cognitive and cognitive-behavior therapies on anxious thoughts and meta-cognitive beliefs of the students with generalized anxiety disorder. The sample consisted of 60 participants randomly selected from the high school male students with generalized anxiety disorder in Massal city, and were assigned randomly to two experimental and one control groups. To collect data the Meta-cognition Questionnaire and the Anxious Thoughts Inventory were used. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis. The results showed that significant differences exist between the experimental groups and the control group in the variables of meta-cognitive beliefs and anxious thoughts. Multi-comparison tests revealed that meta-cognitive therapy was more effective in modifying the dysfunctional meta-cognitive beliefs and decreasing the anxious thoughts than the cognitive-behavior therapy. Results provided support for the more effective role of meta-cognitive therapy in decreasing anxiety and modifying the dysfunctional meta-cognitive beliefs.

The present study aims at investigating the effectiveness of self-regulation techniques on the emotion–focused coping style. The sample of this study consists of 600 female students, aging from 20 to 35 years old, studying at the foreign language department of the Islamic Azad University–Central Tehran Branch. These students were selected through a cluster random sampling method. Participants responded to the stress-coping methods questionnaire designed by Billings and Moss (1981). After scoring the questionnaires, the students who had used the emotion-focused coping style were identified, 30 of whom were selected and distributed randomly intoexperimental and control groups. After holding 8 ninety-minute sessions of teaching self-regulation techniques, the participants of experimental and control groups took the post-test. Analysis of variance for repeated measures was applied to analyze the study data. Based on the obtained results, the significance level calculated for the emotion–focused coping group was below the 0.05 significance level and the calculated power effect was higher than 0.05. Therefore; based on the results, it turned out that teaching self-regulation techniques has been effective in changing the emotion–focused coping style.

This study investigated the relationship between transformational leadership with work-related flow. Participants included 320 employees from an organization who completed Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (Bass and Avolio, 1995) and Work-Related Flow scale (Bakker, 2008). The results show that the range of correlation coefficients between subscales of transformational leadership (idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration), and the three components of the construct of work-related flow (absorption, work enjoyment, intrinsic work motivation) are from. 15 to. 56 which are significant at p<.01 and p<.05. In addition, the results of the stepwise regression technique showed that the intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration had the most significant effects on the dimensions of work-related flow.

The main purpose of this Ex post facto study was the assessment of social-emotional skills development of children aged 4-6 years in Tehran kindergartens. One hundred children aged 4 to 6 years from six kindergartens in different areas of Tehran were randomly selected. The research instrument was CAMS (curriculum and monitoring system) social-emotional skills development chart. The assessment of children social-emotional skills development was done by interviewing with their mothers and teachers and by observing the children. The results showed significant differences between the social-emotional skills scores of the 4-6 years old children and the criterion scores. Meanwhile, the qualitative analyses indicated that children in these age groups had problem in some skills such as being able to tolerate frustration and pointing out differences between self and others remarkably. Finally, the results highlighted the importance of the cultural-social-educational factors.

Given the importance of drug addiction, this article aims to study the current relationship between personality disorders and types of drugs used (narcotics and stimulants) in Iranian addicts. The sample consisted of 285 drug addicts including 132 narcotic addicts and 153 stimulant addicts selected randomly in several phases. Data collecting process was accomplished by means of clinical interviewing based on DSM-IV criteria for addiction, Addiction Severity Index (ASI), and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory – III (MCMI-III). Using Pearson correlation coefficient and regression, the gathered data were analyzed. There was a significant correlation between stimulant consumption and histrionic personality disorder (p<0.001) and antisocial and narcissistic personality disorders (p<0.05). Besides, correlation between avoidant, histrionic and narcissistic personality disorders (p<0.05) and depressed, antisocial and borderline personality disorders (p<0.001) with narcotics consumption was significant. In total, there was a significant correlation between cluster B personality disorders, and narcotics and stimulants consumption in surface (p<0.001). In addition, this relation was explored between cluster C personality disorder and narcotics (p<0.001). The results of this article in terms of personality disorders and types of drug used match with the previous studies results. In order to provide medical treatment, it is necessary to find out which kind of personality disorders addicts suffer from.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived manager trustworthiness and job performance considering the moderating role of trust propensity. A sample of 300 employees of National Iranian South Oil Company (NISOC) in Ahvaz, Iran was selected by the stratified random sampling method and completed the Perceived Manager Trustworthiness Scale (Mayer & Davis, 1999), the Trust Propensity Scale (Jarvepaa, Knoll, & Leinder, 1998) and the Job Performance Scale (Williams & Anderson, 1991). The data were analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. The results indicated that perceived manager trustworthiness was positively related to job performance and employee’s trust propensity can moderate this relationship. It can be concluded that perceived manager trustworthiness is an important factor in promoting job performance and this relationship will be stronger when employees have high levels of trust propensity.