RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGICAL HEALTH
Year:2018 | Volume:12 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:8

Culture influence psychological phenomena in different ways. In this article, we introduce a framework for studying relationship between culture and psychological phenomena and presented findings from some cross-cultural studies in this framework. It seems the definition and classification of personality traits, the experience of stress and mental health moderated by culture. The associations between positive and negative affects and mental health was different among Iranian and Swedish culture. In Iranian culture, both kind of affects was associated with mental health, whereas in Swedish culture, only positive affect was associated with mental health. Iranian students more used primary process against stress, whereas Swedish students more used secondary process. In addition, academic stress among Iranian students was less than Swedish students. It could conclude that there were some similarities and differences between Iranian and Swedish culture in personality traits, experience of anxiety, and coping with stress. Therefore, any policy making in global level and designing behavioral change strategies in national level should be influenced by these cultural similarities and differences.

Migraine headache is one of the most common forms of pain and due to its frequency, it is one of the most important types of headache. The purpose of this study was to identify the precedents and consequences of migraine headaches in a non-clinical population. We selected a set of 310 students as our samples by the use of multi-stage stratified random sampling. We collected Data using questionnaires Migraine Screen, Depression Anxiety Stress, State-Trait Anger Expression, Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire, Symptom Checklist-90-Revised, Fatigue severity scale and Quality of life scale. The results showed that all the coefficients of direct paths between the research variables were statistically significant. On the other hand, based on the results of the study, the indirect relation of anger, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and anxiety with the quality of life, depression, and fatigue were significant through migraine mediation. In addition, the relationship between obsessive beliefs, and migraine mediated by obsessive-compulsive disorder. The findings of this study provide a useful framework for identifying the factors affecting the onset of migraine headaches and its consequences.

Experience of anger is an indicator of the living conditions of patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain disorders. The aim of this study was to examine the mediating role of anger rumination on the relationship between anger and pain intensity in chronical musculoskeletal pain patients. For this purpose, a sample of 109 chronic musculoskeletal pain patients selected by convenience sampling method. Multidimensional pain questionnaire, multidimensional anger inventory and anger rumination scale used for collecting data. The present study is descriptive-correlation and analysis of data carried using simple correlation coefficient and regression analysis by Baron and Kenny method. Finding showed that anger and all of its dimensions except anger-eliciting situations and anger-out predicted pain intensity. Anger and all of its dimensions predicted anger rumination. In addition, results showed that anger rumination completely mediated the relationship between anger and pain intensity. Furthermore, the mediator role of anger rumination confirmed only for internal dimensions that had a significant relationship with the pain severity, such as anger arousal, hostile outlook and anger-in. However, this mediator role of anger was not confirmed for the dimensions with external nature (such as anger-eliciting situations and anger out), and there was not any significant correlations between pain severity and these dimensions. In general, anger rumination exacerbates the negative effects of anger on the pain severity in patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain.

Psoriasis is a chronic and inflammatory disease that psychological factors could cause or maintain it. The objective of this study was to compare personality traits and perceived anxiety control among individuals with and without psoriasis. Applying a causalcomparative research design, and using convenient sampling method, 260 participants were selected and assigned into two groups (with and without psoriasis). All of them completed the demographic information and NEO Personality Inventory and perceived anxiety control questionnaire. Findings revealed that individuals with psoriasis get the lower score in openness to experiences in comparison to individuals without psoriasis (p<0. 05). But, there were no significant differences between two groups in regard to four other personality characteristics. In addition, Individuals without psoriasis got higher scores in the perceived anxiety control and it subscales in comparison to the control group. In according to these findings, having biases in perceiving anxiety control and openness to experience can be a crucial factor in the formation or maintenance of psoriasis.

Organ donation is giving an organ to someone else who needs a transplant. The purpose of this study was to compare personality traits, spiritual intelligence and death anxiety in people with organ donation card and those without it. The research plan is causalcomparative. Using Snowball Sampling method, 148 donors selected as the standard group and 150were selected as peer group according to the criteria of the study using a convenience sampling method. Data were gathered using NEO Personality Inventory, spiritual intelligence, and Templar death anxiety questionnaire. Data were analyzed by independent t-test and multivariate analysis of variance and logistic regression. Results showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups in personality traits, spiritual intelligence and death anxiety. Among the components of personality traits, persons with a donation card received higher score in the component of the agreeableness. They also received higher scores in spiritual intelligence. In contrast, the persons without the donation card received higher scores in the death anxiety. According to the research findings and considering psychological factors, we cannot only encourage people to register for a donation card, but also we can decrease the number of people who would like to annul or cancel their organ donation card.

The loss reaction includes variety of the responses such as the bodily, emotional, existential and cognitive reactions. The strength of these responses can vary from the weak transitory emotional reactions to the lifelong strong ones, which can change the life story of the individuals. In this study, the qualitative data gathering on focus groups, the semi-structured interview about the loss experiences, and the life story interview by Mc Adams approach were applied on 21 participants. The phenomenological analysis of the manuscripts of the interviews used to investigate individual’ s responses to the loss. Results showed three major clusters that include context of the loss, nature of the loss and the experimenter’ s characteristics. In context of the loss, time and the sociocultural background of the loss experience is major themes. Another kinds of thems consisted of nature of the loss cluster includes its type, the obligatory versus the optional loss, and the predictable versus unpredictable loss. Finally, the participant’ s characteristics included the life experiences, personality, and knowledge level of participants. Results shows the interactive effect of objective living world which the loss happens as an incident in it and the sobjective living world of the individual who experiences the loss.

Intolerance of uncertainty is a kind of cognitive bias that affects how an individual receives, interprets and reacts to an uncertain situation in the emotional, cognitive and behavioral levels. The purpose of present study was to determine the various factors that influenced the intolerance of uncertainty by using the meta-analysis method and integrating the results of previous research. By using Articles in scientific journals, all the preceding studies conducted across the country during the years 2010-2017 collected and investigated. Eventually 12 eligible studies in the field of intolerance of uncertainty with acceptable methodology including sampling methods and proper statistical validity and reliability and appropriate questionnaires selected. The research tool was the metaanalysis checklist. For this purpose, the researches, which were methodologically accepted, were selected and meta-analyzed. Homogeneous assumptions and emission errors investigated. The coefficient of effect size was evaluated using CMA-2 software. results showed that metacognitive beliefs had the highest effect size, and after that, the highest effects size were related to stress, inability to take action, and negative repeated thoughts, although the effect size of behavioral inhibition and behavioral activation was not statistically significant. Therefore, attention to these variables can help to formulate and improve the therapeutic interventions related to intolerance of uncertainty.