Journal of Research in Behavioral Sciences
Year:2012 | Volume:10 | Issue:4 (25)|Papers Count:11

Aim and Background: “Need assessment” is considered the process of evaluation of needs in a specific domain, which is fundamental for quality improvement of health education and research. As suicide is one the most important problem in public health, it would be expected that all psychiatric residents should have adequate knowledge and skills and play in different roles in this field. This study was design to assess educational needs in the residences of psychiatry in SBUMS about suicide.Methods and Materials: This qualitative study was based on triangulation method. Psychiatry residents at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences in 2012 was recruited. Purposive sampling resulted in selection of 15 subjects. Data was gathered by interview and focus group debates. The analysis was performed based on “Galaizzi” seven-step model.Findings: Findings of this study encoded 1032 codes, which distributed in 3 main domains The most important educational need for the residences in psychiatry department are “The control worries about legal responsibility”, “The management of suicide”, “protocol for admission process”, “guide line for suicide” and psychotherapy.Conclusions: This study revealed multiple educational needs in the field of suicide. On the other hand, the current educational Program could not respond to professional needs. This finding mandates revision of current educational programs.

Aim and Background: Mood disorders are a significant group of psychiatric disorders. Bipolar spectrum disorders are mood disorders that usually remain unrecognized and subsequently undertreated. One of the most useful screening instruments for underdiagnosed bipolar disorders is the Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ). This paper presented the Persian version and psychometric properties of MDQ for patients with mood disorder in Isfahan, Iran.Methods and Materials: A total number of 62 patients with mood disorders were selected using convenience sampling. The subjects completed the MDQ before being interviewed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The control group was selected according to psychiatric interviews and the General Health Questionnaire. A demographic questionnaire and the MDQ were administered to both groups. Data was analyzed by descriptive statistics, factor and differentiation analyses, and Cronbach's alpha and Spearman correlation coefficient tests in SPSS13.Findings: The reliability of the whole questionnaire was α=0.81. Each question showed an internal positive consistency with the whole questionnaire (0.18-0.64). The cut-off point was determined to be 8.5 based on the differentiation analysis (sensitivity=0.67 and specificity=0.76). The factor analysis using major elements and varimax rotation resulted in three factors.Conclusions: Our findings showed that the MDQ had appropriate psychometric properties in our sample.This questionnaire can be used in screening by the health centers of Iran.

Aim and Background: Emotion focused couple therapy is one of the methods that has focused on the negative cycles of interaction caused from deep emotional vulnerability. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of emotionally focused couple therapy on reducing the damage caused by marital infidelity.Methods and Materials: The statistical sample included 30 couples that were selected through available sampling, and placed randomly in the experimental (16 couples) and control group (14 couples). The groups were assessed by pretest-posttest and Beck depression inventory-II, PTSD symptoms scale self report (PSS-SR), transgression-related interpersonal motivation and intimacy in committed relationships scale. The experiment group was exposed to 8 sessions of couple therapy. The data were analyzed by multivariate analyses of variance-one way (MANOVA-1 way).Findings: Emotion oriented couple therapy decreased depression and post-traumatic stress symptoms and increased forgiveness and intimate relationship. The results from the follow-up after a month showed that there was differences between experimental and control groups considering the scores of Beck depression inventory-II, PSS-SR, transgression-related interpersonal motivation and intimacy in committed relationships scale (P<0.01). The efficacy of emotionally focused couple therapy remained after a month.Conclusions: The emotion oriented couple therapy was effective on the reduction of depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms, and increased intimacy and forgiveness in the wives of unfaithful men in both short-term and long-term.

Aim and Background: Suicide is a multifactorial attempt. Cultural and religious factors play important roles in its prevention and frequency. Moslem societies have various approaches to different months of the year. They also have different ceremonies and customs during each month. We studied the frequency of suicide attempts during different months of lunar calendar along a 10-year period.Methods and Materials: In a descriptive survey, we studied the records of patients who had committed suicide attempts and had referred to the central toxicology emergency of Isfahan Province (Iran) during 1995-2004. We categorized the subjects based on sex and age. The collected data was analyzed by chi square test in SPSS11.Findings: From all 14280 individuals with suicide attempts, the majority were female and aged 20-39 years old. The least frequency of suicide attempts were during Ramadan and Sha'ban lunar months.Conclusions: The least frequency of suicide attempts during Ramadan may be due to more self-control and abstinence caused by fasting, altruistic activities, and religious ceremonies.

Aim and Background: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between cognitive intelligence and ambiguity tolerance with entrepreneurship of West Azarbayjan Payam Noor University students, Iran.Methods and Materials: This cross-sectional correlational research was conducted during 2010-2011 academic years.1122 student (672 female and 450 male) were selected using stratified proportional to size random sampling methods. The research tools were Rayon's progressive matrices test, Lin’s ambiguity tolerance and Robinson’s entrepreneurship test.Findings: The regression analyses results showed that the relationship between ambiguity tolerance and cognitive intelligence with the entrepreneurship variables were statistically significant (p<0.01). The association of cognitive intelligence compared to ambiguity tolerance with entrepreneurship was more notable.Conclusions: The more the features of cognitive intelligence and ambiguity tolerance of students, the more they are creative and entrepreneurial.

Aim and Background: Due to the development of a new approach to the treatment of chronic disorders and the higher prevalence of chronic depression in relation to non-chronic depression, this research was conducted in order to investigate the effectiveness of schema therapy on chronic depression.Methods and Materials: 14 patients with chronic depression who were 21-29 years of age were selected from students of the University of Isfahan with available sampling. They were interviewed with Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-I) according to DSM-IV criteria. The Beck Depression Inventory was also used to screen the patients. They were then randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Only the experimental group received schema therapy, for 8 weekly sessions.Findings: The analysis of variance showed that schema therapy has significantly decreased the symptoms of depression in the experimental group.Conclusions: The results suggest that schema therapy has lowered the symptoms of depression, alongside decreasing early maladaptive schemas. Moreover, this treatment can be performed in psychotherapy centers.

Aim and Background: The main purpose of this study was to review the effectiveness of applied behavioral analysis (ABA) approach on symptoms of autistic children during a five-year period.Methods and Materials: In this quasi-experimental study, 20 autistic children (3-7 years of age) were intervened by ABA approach at Isfahan Center of Autism for a period of five years (2007-12). Gilliam Autism Rating Scale (GARS) was filled out at baseline and at the end of the five-year period. Besides, the subjects were assessed by a checklist including cognitive comprehension, mathematical and verbal skills, and self-help at the beginning of the study and at the end of each year. After five years, all collected data was analyzed with SPSS19.Findings: Pretest and the posttest values of stereotypic behaviors, communication problems, social interactions, and GARS total scores were significantly different (P<0.001). Furthermore, significant improvements in cognitive comprehension, mathematical and verbal skills, and self-help were observed after each year and at the end of the five-year period (P<0.001).Conclusions: On the whole, it can be concluded that ABA-based interventions can effectively reduce symptoms of autism and increase skills.

The classical test theory (CTT) and item response theory (IRT) are widely used in construction and analysis of exams and questionnaires. Because of the various shortcomings of CTT, IRT has been designed. Even though IRT has overcome most of the limitations of CTT and has made computer adaptive testing possible, it is still important to point out that not enough reasons exist to totally discard CTT. This theory is still in use in different scientific fields. Previous studies have showed that IRT is complementary to CTT, and is not a competitive model. The main difference between these two theories is that CTT is test-based, but IRT is item-based, for example, measurement error modeling in CTT and IRT were done in the test and item level, respectively. In practice, the IRT is shown to have very good performance in dealing with the problems presented in the CTT model, such as conditional standard errors, developing parallel tests, equating, and item bias and adaptive testing. In this study IRT and CTT are explored and the weaknesses and advantages of both theories have been discussed.