DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (JOURNAL OF IRANIAN PSYCHOLOGISTS)
Year:2015 | Volume:11 | Issue:42|Papers Count:11

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating role of theory of mind in the relationship between mother’s mental states input in daily conversations and children social behavior. The sample consisted of 208 preschool children, their mothers and their teachers from the city of Shiraz. The research instruments were the Theory of Mind Tasks Battery (Wellman & Liu, 2004), the Maternal Mental States Input Inventory (Peterson & Slaughter, 2003), and the Children Social Behavior Subscale (Teacher form; Corrigan, 2003). The results of path analysis indicated that by mediating of theory of mind, the elaborated mental states input is a positive predictor of children’s social behavior, while non-elaborated non-mental states input predicted the children social behavior negatively. The findings suggested that the type of mother’s speech in daily conversations, by mediating of theory of mind, played effective role in children’s social behavior.

the aim of the present study was to investigate the moderating effect of dispositional optimism in the relationship between cognitive exhaustion and solving cognitive problems. Three hundred university students completed the Life Orientation Test- Revised (LOT-R, Schier, Carver & Bridges, 1994). Forty students whose scores on the dispositional optimism were two standard deviations above or below the mean score were selected and randomly assigned into four groups each including ten participants. In the first phase of the experiment, experimental and control groups confronted with uncontrollable and controllable discriminative tasks, respectively. In the second phase of the experiment, all participants in the problem solving situation, replied to the anagram task. The data were analyzed using the two-way between subjects analysis of variance. The results indicated that there was a significant main effect of group and dispositional optimism but there was no significant interaction between group and dispositional optimism. Therefore, the relationship between cognitive exhaustion and solving cognitive problems was not moderated by dispositional optimism. These findings suggested the role of cognitive exhaustion variability and dispositional optimism in predicting problem solving and that the causal relation between cognitive exhaustion and problem solving is not a function of dispositional optimism variation.

in order to investigate the effectiveness of sand play therapy on reducing the preschoolers’ aggression, a semi-experimental research design with pretest-posttest and a control group was used. Fifty-four preschool children with two standard deviations above the mean on the Aggression Questionnaire of the Children of Kindergartens (Vahedi, Fathi, Hoseini Nasab & Moqadam, 2008) were selected from preschools of Kermanshah city in the academic year of 2014. The sample were assigned randomly into either experimental and control group. The members of experimental group received 45-minute sand play therapy session individually for ten weeks. The results of the covariance analysis indicated that the sand play therapy significantly reduced children’s aggression. This change was maintained for 2 months. The findings suggest that the sand play therapy is effective in reducing the aggression symptoms of preschoolers.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relations between internet addiction and social intimacy and happiness in college students. Two hundred college students were selected by cluster sampling method from Kharazmi University in academic year of2012.The participants completed the Internet Addiction Test (Young, 1998), the Oxford Happiness Questionnaire (Argyle et al., 1989) and the Miller Social Intimacy Scale (Miller & Lefcourt, 1982).The results indicated that there were no significant difference in happiness and social intimacy between normal users and users with mild addiction to the Internet. The happiness and social intimacy of normal users and users with mild addiction to the Internet were higher than the severe addiction users. The regression analysis indicated that internet addiction predicted 7% and 10% of the variance in happiness in healthy group of internet users and mild addiction ones, respectively. The findings suggest that although using internet with the aim of satisfying one's psychological and emotional needs can induce internet addiction, informing internet users of using internet appropriately may be helpful in preventive intervention.

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of cognitive-behavior therapy on patients with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). The study design was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest control group. Twenty patients with obsessive compulsive disorder who were selected from 62 patients referring to a clinic were assigned into either experimental or control group. After intervention, the experimental group received cognitive-behavior therapy and completed the Maudsley Obsession-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI, Hadgson, Rachman, 1977). The results indicated that the average scores in the experimental group reduced significantly in comparison with the control group and the severity of symptoms subscale decreased during the treatment (P<0.01). The findings suggest that cognitivebehavioral therapy is effective in decreasing symptoms of patients with OCD.

The aim of this study was to investigate the mediating role of emotional intelligence in relationship between attachment styles and social adjustment among first year university student. Two hundred and six university students were selected by random cluster sampling method. The participants completed the Adult Attachment Styles Questionnaire (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), the Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Petrides & Furnham, 2001), and the Social Adjustment Inventory (Bell, 1968). The results indicated that insecure attachment styles (ambivalent and avoidant) predicted social adjustment negatively. It was also found that emotional intelligence mediated the relationship between insecure attachment styles and social adjustment. The findings suggest that by promoting emotional intelligence and informing the families of the negative effects of insecure attachment styles, the social adjustment may be reduced in students.

This study aimed to compare brain-behavioral systems and positive and negative affects in patients with migraine and healthy individuals. One hundred and twenty males and females suffering from migraine headache were selected from medical centers of Dezful and Andimeshk cities using available sampling. The comparison group consisted of 120 healthy males and females who were matched for age, sex and education. Both groups completed the Gray-Wilson Personality Questionnaire (Wilson, Barrett, &Gray, 1989) and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988). The results of multivariate variance indicated that patient and healthy individuals had significant differences in behavioral inhibition systems, passive avoidance, flight, and negative affect. There were no significant differences between groups in the other approach system variables, including active avoidance‚ extinction‚ fight‚ and positive affect.

This study aimed to investigate the development of executive functioning in children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and normal children. Four hundred and twenty children (210 normal children, 210 ADHD children) were selected using multistage cluster random sampling .The participants completed the Connors Parental Questionnaire (Connors, 1997) and the NEPSY Tower Test (Korkman, Kirk, & Kemp, 1998). The results of two ways analysis of variance indicated significant differences in executive functioning between normal children and ADHD children in different age groups. The ADHD children performances were significantly lower than normal children. The findings suggest that the developmental trend of executive functioning in normal children increase with age.