SOCIAL RESEARCH
Year:2014 | Volume:6 | Issue:4|Papers Count:10

The present study focuses on addiction as a social problem. It means that the researcher goes beyond the individuals' behavior and puts emphasis on the social structure of a given society and also its functions. The main aim of this article is not to discuss about different dimensions of social problems. Neither am I going to discuss objective versus subjective characteristics. Rather, I intend to define addiction as a social problem which can be prevented.

Foreign language learning disabilities (FLLD) is one of the new terms in the literature of learning disabilities (LD) which seeks to investigate the disabilities English language learners may have in their experience with language. Many areas affecting learning a language are being investigated. Motivation and two other related terms demotivation and amotivation, as affective factors, are among the most recent undiscovered areas in studying FLLD. This paper aims at investigating the learning disabilities of an Iranian girl student called Shiva in pursuing her language learning in university. Different research instruments like MSQ, WTC Questionnaire, and Nelson English Language Test were adopted to diagnose different aspects of her disabilities to devise the most efficacious type of help for her. The findings indicated that demotivation causes mostly as a result of the misconduct of the teachers in not only their teaching techniques but also their misuse of motivational strategies.

The purpose of the present study is to validate a scale for measuring the productivity of the managers of higher educational institutes. The population of the study includes all the managers who work in all branches of Islamic Azad University in Iran (i.e., 420 branches and educational centers. The research sample consisted of 474 managers who were randomly selected from 79 branches using stratified and cluster random sampling methods). In this research, for each manager, three staffs under his supervision were selected and the questionnaire of productivity was administered to them. In fact, the sample of staff group consisted of 1422 subjects. The research instrument was the researchermade questionnaire for productivity which consisted of 8 scales and the obtained Cronbach's Alpha value was 0.98. The results of factor analysis and principal components analysis, using a varimax rotation, showed that building blocks of productivity includes effective use of the factors of production(Items 35, 36, 39, 40, 41, 50, 54, 55, 56, 57 and 58), the people's attitude toward productivity(Items 11, 13, 19, 24 and 51), human relations (Items 1, 2, 4, 9, 14, 15, 17, 26, 29, 38, 46, 49 and 52), policies and procedures(Items 3, 6, 23, 32 and 33), the system of evaluation(Items 5, 21, 22 and 43), tools, equipment and planning (Items 18, 27, 28 and 38), organizing (Items 8, 10, 20, 31, 44, 45 and 48) and the direction of human resources and control (Items 7, 12, 16, 25, 30, 34, 42, 47 and 53).

In the social structure of any society, women, compared to men, face more limitations in the workplace and the family structure. They are forced to perform consciously or unconsciously all their duties in the family. The methodology which was used in this survey consisted of interview and questionnaires as the primary method of gathering data. The researcher interviewed working women who worked in governmental departments and offices in Ahvaz City. The results revealed that Islamic personal laws and traditions have made unequal social, political, economic, and cultural conditions for a woman compared to a man in Ahvaz city, while in Quran, no discrimination is put upon the two genders. The rights and responsibilities of a woman are equal to those of a man. Moreover, the results reveal that working women are forced to keep their jobs under any conditions. They accept all problems in the office and at home trying to accomplish all their duties.

This study dealt with attitude and a particular domain of language and circled around writing, under a “parent” category, socioculturalism. Sociocultural theory is profoundly rooted in the Vygotskyan social constructivist views. The present research aimed at the feedback aspect of language learning, learners’ attitude towards error feedback and its shift after intervention, and, in this sense, only dealt with one area of language learning. Therefore, it has much in common with what is claimed by Vygotskyan approach to learning i.e. through intervention and mediation. 132 participated in this study to find out about the attitudinal shift of the learners after they were exposed to 6 different feedback strategies. The results through the statistical analysis of Chi-Square suggested that except for two, the learners’ original attitude was retained, suggesting strong attitudes. A number of theoretical and pedagogical implications are finally introduced.

The main aim of this research is the recognition of social and cultural sustainable urban development on citizenship culture for achieving an analytic theoretical model for selection evaluation of residential location concerning the citizens. The sociological theory framework includes: Bourdieu's cognitive background and subjective structure, Elster's rational choice theory, and Duhl's urban need assessment theory (Duhl, 1985). In this research, the main causes affecting evaluation of behavior, action and citizenship culture and residential location choice of Tehran citizens were analyzed. The method is a survey, using questionnaires for gathering information. The sample included 384 citizens who reside in Tehran urban districts 6 (Yousefabad), 8 (Narmak), and 21 (Tehransar) which were chosen by simple random sampling classified in the year 2008. The findings indicated a linear direct model statistical relationship between Social and cultural sustainable urban development and residential location choice.

The present study focuses on different information-gap activities, and their effect on learners’ willingness to communicate. More specifically, this study examines the effect of jigsaw, missing-information, and finding the differences activities on the learners’ willingness to communicate. Using non-probability sampling, Ket (Key English Test) was administered as test of homogeneity to select the research subjects. A total of 60 participants above the age of 13 who were at the elementary level participated in this study. The subjects were assigned to three experimental groups. A questionnaire was also administered to measure the learners’ willingness to communicate with the WTC scale, as a pretest at the first session of the term. The treatment included the application of the three information-gap activities, in the three experimental groups, and at the end, the same questionnaire was applied as the post-test. The obtained results showed that there were significant differences regarding the effects of information-gap activities on learners’ WTC.

The study aims at the preliminary normalization of Social Problem–Solving Inventory. To this end, 242 boy and 248 girl students from Islamic Azad University, Roudehen branch were administered Social Problem–Solving Inventory using a 24-item scale by D’zurilla, Nezu, and Maydeu-Olivares. In the analysis of main components, five theoretical factors of social problem-solving (positive orientation toward problem, negative orientation toward problem, rational solution of a problem, avoidance and inaccuracy style) were confirmed and the results of confirmatory factorial analysis from the obtained factorial structure were supported. Correlation coefficients are indicative of a convergence validity of this questionnaire. The coefficients of Cronbach’s Alpha for the factors of positive orientation toward problem, negative orientation toward problem, rational solution of a problem, avoidance and inaccuracy style were 0.80, 0.86, 0.90, 0.84 and 0.71, respectively. The results show the stability of social problem–solving Inventory and its validity for measuring its social problem–solving questionnaire among Iranian students.

It is normal to be anxious in certain circumstances but social phobia or social anxiety disorder is a common and disabling condition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of group cognitive-behavioral therapy on children with social phobia disorder. The design of the study was semiexperimental (pre-Test, Post-Test) with control group. Sampling was purposeful in which 20 children, who were diagnosed as Social phobia disorder, were selected, and randomly divided into two groups (10 subjects each). Experimental group received 11 sessions of group cognitivebehavioral therapy once a week. Tools were Raven Test in which special children with 36 items and Shapes and Spence's Anxiety Test with 44 items and 6 subscales one of which was social phobia. Variance and covariance analyses were used for data analysis. The results of covariance analysis showed the significant effect of group cognitive-behavioral therapy on reduction of social phobia disorder in children in post test and follow up stage. (p<0.05).

Mediation, as used in law, is a form of alternative dispute resolution (ADR), a way of resolving disputes between two or more parties with concrete effects. Typically, a third party, the mediator, assists the parties to negotiate a settlement. Disputants may mediate disputes in a variety of domains, such as commercial, legal, diplomatic, workplace, community and family matters. The term "mediation" broadly refers to any instance in which a third party helps others reach agreement. More specifically, mediation has a structure, timetable, and dynamics that "ordinary" negotiation lacks. The process is private and confidential, possibly enforced by law. Participation is typically voluntary. The mediator acts as a neutral third party and facilitates rather than directs the process. Mediators use various techniques to open, or improve, dialogue and empathy between disputants, aiming to help the parties reach an agreement. Much depends on the mediator's skill and training.