DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (JOURNAL OF IRANIAN PSYCHOLOGISTS)
Year:2011 | Volume:7 | Issue:26|Papers Count:12

The role of instruction on improving rate and correctness of addition operation strategies was analysed.Seventy-one first grader boys were randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. Form A Test of Individual Differences in Children's Addition Strategy Choices (Kerkman & Siegler, 1997) was administered to both groups to assess mean response time and frequency of correct responses.Over a three month period the experimental group received 15 sessions of forty-five minute instruction on retrieval and backup strategies for addition operations. The control group received none. After the ins- truction period both groups responded to Form B of the aforementioned test. Results of ANOVA demonstrated that the use of backup strategy significantly increased the frequency of accurate responses in the experimental group.

The mediating effects of positive and negative affects on the relationship between dimensions of perfectionism (self-ori- ented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed) with physical health in a sample of general population were studied. One hundred and thirty one women and 103 men volunteered for this study. Participants were asked to complete the Tehran Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (Besharat, 2007), Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (Watson, Clarke, & Tellegen, 1988), and the Physical Health Inventory (Molnar, Reker, Culp, Sadava, & DcCourville, 2006). Positive and negative affects mediated the relationship between self-oriented and other-oriented perfectionism with physical health in opposite directions. Positive and negative affects did not show a significant mediation effect on the relationship between so- cially prescribed per- fectionism and physical health.It was concluded that the mediation effect of negative affects (R2= 0.56) was greater than the mediation effect of positive affects (R2=0.44) in the relationship between dimensions of perfectionism and physical health.

The effects of anger management training on reducing parental anger was examined. Twenty-one parents (13 fathers with an average age of 37 and eight mothers (with an average age of 36) participated in seven sessions of anger management workshops.State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Spielberger, 1999) and Parental Anger Evaluation Questionnaire (Shokoo- hi Yekta & Zamani, 2008) were administered before and after training. The results of repeated measures revealed that anger management training significantly reduced the intensity of anger in situation-induced anger and trait anger, and increased anger control-in. There were no significant differen- ces in anger expression-out, anger expression-in and anger control-out. Results are discussed based on the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral interventions.

T he present study investigated the reliability and validity of the Social Problem Solving Inventory-Short form (SPSI; D’Zurilla et al., 2002). Four hundred and three students (245 females and 158 males) from Islamic Azad University (age range 18-48 years) an- swered Beck's Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1961), the Short Depression-Happiness Scale (Joseph et al., 2004), Satisfaction With Life Scale (Diener et al., 1985), and Social Phobia Inventory (Connor et al., 2000). SPSI in- ternal consistency and test-retest coefficients were 0.86 and 0.65 respectively and its correlation coefficients with the following were: Beck's Depression Inventory (r=-0.48), Depression-Happiness (r=0.38), Satisfaction With Life Scale (r=0.18) and Social Pho- bia (r=-0.39). The findings confirmed the construct and concurrent validity of SPSI and indicated the need for further studies.

The goal of this research was to explain creativity based on personality traits.One-hundred and twenty-one female and 167 male college students, with a mean age of 24, were chosen by random multistage sampling method from the schools of art and architecture (N=98), physical education (N=93) and engineering (N=98). The participants completed the Torrance Cre- ativity Inventory (1966) and the Five Factor Personality Inventory (Costa & Mc Crae, 1992). Results showed that in all three groups creativity was correlated with neuroticism (negatively) and with openness, extraversion and conscientiousness (posi- tively).Positive correlation between creativity and agreeableness was significant only in the physical education group. Compa- rison of correlations in all three groups using Fisher’s transformation was only significant between creativity and agreeableness in the two groups of physical education and art. Stepwise regression indicated that openness, extraversion and consci- entiousness explained 34% of variance in creativity scores in the art group, extraversion and conscientiousness predicted 28% of variance in the engineering group, and agreeableness, extraversion and conscientiousness accounted for 38% of variance in cre- ativity scores for the physical education group. It appears that personality traits can predict different levels of creativity in students.

The development of cognitive and behavioral dimensions of social anxiety during adolescence was studied. Using multi- stage random sampling method, 276 female and 224 male students in Tehran were selected from three age groups of 12- 13 years, 14-15 years and 16-17 years old and were administered the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (Puklek, 1997). Resu- lts of MANOVA suggested that 12-13 years old adolescents had higher means in the cognitive and behavioral dimen sions of social anxiety than the other two age groups. Females had higher means in the behavioral dimension of social anxiety in all three age groups, whereas there were no gender differences in the cognitive dimenstion of social anxiety. Findings are discus- sed based on Elkind's socio-cognitive perspective and the effect of gender on socialization.

The relationship between emotional intelligence and creativity among college students was examined. Two hundred and thirty six female and 160 male students from Tehran universities were selected using multistage cluster sampling method and answered the Schutte Self Report Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte et al., 1998) and Creativity Questionnaire (Abedi, 1993). The findings show- ed a significant positive relationship between the three aspects of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and creativity in bo th genders. Results of Fisher' s transformation showed that the correlation coefficients between the EI aspect of appraisal and expression of emotion and the subscales of creativity (elaboration, flexibility, fluency and total score of creativity) were significantly higher among males than the females. Regression analysis revealed that in females the two aspects of regulation of emotion and apprasial and expression of emotion (r2=0.07) and in males the EI total score and the appraisal and expression of emotion (r2=0.16) explained the variance in creativity.

In order to examine risk taking factors in youngsters, 50 male and 50 female students from Isfahan University comple- ted the Measures of Perception of Social Interaction Questionnaire (Glass, 1994), Risk Taking Questionnaire (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1975), and Anger Control Questionnaire (Griffin et al., 1999). The findings demonstrated a significant negative cor- relation between risk taking and perceptions of social interaction (r=-0.28) and anger control (r=-0.26), confirming the hy- potheses of this research. Rate of correlation coefficients for the two groups was similar.