DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (JOURNAL OF IRANIAN PSYCHOLOGISTS)
Year:2013 | Volume:9 | Issue:36|Papers Count:9

In this article the findings of a national survey regarding Iranian youth attitudes to marriage were presented. A sample of 2680 male and female university and high school students from cities of Tehran, Tabriz, Zahedan and Sanandaj participated and answered Marriage Values Survey (Delkhamoush, 2005) derived from Shwartz Cultural Values Theory (Shwarts & Ros, 1995). Findings indicated autonomy and egalitarianism as the foremost positive values towards marriage and embededness as the foremost negative value toward marriage. However,autonomy and egalitarian values were not associated to all aspects of marriage. In other words, despite of the nontraditional attitudes of youth toward marriage, autonomy was not applied to all marital behaviors. Differences in groups' attitudes toward marriage values were discussed on the basis of Iran socio-economic development and its various effects on traditional values of the Iranian society.

this study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of psycho-educational intervention on the quality of life of patients suffering from breast cancer. This research was pretest-posttest with control group. From patients referring to Arak medical centers in 2012, 24 patients diagnosed with breast cancer were selected and randomly assigned to two experimental and control (n=12) groups. The experimental group received 10 psycho-educational sessions and the control group did not. In order to measure the quality of life and its components, the Quality of Life Questionnaire for patients with cancer (Aronson & et al., 1993) was administered. The results obtained from covariance analysis indicated that psycho-educational intervention improved the patients' quality of life measures and its performance subscales. The results also showed reliability after 30 days follow up for the experimental group. Therefore, it could be concluded that psycho-educational intervention effectively improves the quality of life of patients suffering from breast cancer.

The aim of this study was to determine the role of attachment styles and cognitive emotion regulation strategies in adolescents' social anxiety. Three hundred high school students (125 boys and 175 girls) were selected by multistage cluster sampling method and answered Attachment Styles Scale (Collins & Read, 1990), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski, Kraaij & Spinhoven, 2002) and Adolescent's Social Anxiety Scale (LaGerca & Lopez, 1998). Results obtained from stepwise regression analysis indicated the significant role of ambivalent and secure attachment styles in predicting social anxiety components. Furthermore, it was found that social anxiety was predicted by the components of maladaptive cognitive emotion(i.e., rumination, self-blame and catastrophizing strategies) and the components of adaptive strategies (i.e., reappraisal and putting into perspective and refocusing on planning strategies). Therefore the results supported the effects of insecure attachment styles and ineffective coping strategies on social anxiety.

this study investigated the function of cultural values of marriage and sex differences in mate selection. Three hundred and sixty students (199 females and 161 males) of Shahid Beheshti university were selected and answered Marriage Values Survey (MVS; Delkhamoush, 2005) and Preferences Concerning Potential Mates Questionnaire (PCPM; Buss, 1989). Using Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis, data were analysed. Results showed that the majority of marriage values were significantly related to mate preferences criteria and these values had significant predictive function in mate preferences criteria. Findings were discussed based on the theoretical framework of the cultural values of marriage.

The role of mother-child relationship and pain variables in inducing depression in mothers suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and Low Back Pain (LBP) was studied. The sample was consisted of 67 LBP, 60 RA and 63 MS patients selected from Atieh, Imam Khomeini hospitals, and the Iranian MS Society in city of Tehran plus 65 nonpatient mothers. All participants answered Depression- Anxiety-Stress Scale (DASS-42; Laviband & Laviband, 1995) and the Parent-Child Relationship-Short form (PCRS-S; Pianta, 1992). Patient mothers also answered Visual Analogue Scale (VAS; Wewers & Lowe, 1990) and Pain related Disability Questionnaire (PDQ; Roland & Morris, 1983). Data were analyzed using variance analysis, Pearson correlation and stepwise regression. Results indicated that the depression severity differed significantly in patient and nonpatient mothers. Also, disability due to pain and conflict in mother-child relationship significantly predicted depression in mothers. Therefore, it was concluded that disability and conflict in mother-child relationship is related to depression severity in mothers with chronic illnesses.

With the objective of defining the role of individual differences factors influencing individuals' tendency for argument, this research examined the epistemological beliefs, need for cognition and extroversion in predicting argumentativeness. Two hundred and twenty nine students (107 males and 122 females) were randomly selected and answered Epistemological Beliefs Inventory (Shraw, Bendixen & Dunkle, 2002), Argumentation Scale (Infante & Rancer, 1982), Need for Cognition Scale (Cacioppo, Petty & Kao, 1992) and Extroversion Subscale from Neo-Five Factors Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1984). Results demonstrated that extroversion, need for cognition and quick learning from epistemological beliefs were predictive of argumentativeness. The results and their implications were also discussed based on the theoretical framework.

The results of 10 year-old non-clinical Iranian samples in Rorschach test were compared with the ones of their non Iranian counterparts (Exner, 2003). In doing so, one hundred and seventy fourth grade students (80 girls and 90 boys) from five education districts of the city of Tehran participated in the study and the Rorshach test was administered to them. Mean scores comparison in two groups of Iranian and Exner samples showed significant differences in variables of location, determinant, content and popular variables. Considering the culture related factors affecting objective and projective tests similarly, these results could be attributed to cultural differences.

This study examined the relation of perceived childhood attachment and personality characteristics with cell phone dependency in high school students. Three hundred and thirty students (205 girls, 125 boys) were selected by multistage cluster sampling method from third and fourth junior high schools of Birjand city and answered Childhood Attachment to Each Parent Scale (Hazan & Shaver, 1986), Cell Phone Dependency Questionnaire (Jafarzade, 2010) and NEO-Personality Characteristics Inventory-Short form (Costa & McCrae, 1992). Path analysis method was used for data analysis. Findings Showed significant relationship between secure attachment styles to parents and personality characteristics (except extroversion and openness) with cell phone dependency in high school students. Furthermore, one's maternal insecure attachment style and neuroticism were predictive of students' vulnerability to cell phone dependency