Applied Psychology
Year:2012 | Volume:6 | Issue:2 (22)|Papers Count:14

Aim: The aim of the current research was to investigate the efficacy of effectiveness of group therapy based on metacognitive model of detached mindfulness on postpartum depression.Methods: The present research is a experimental study with pretest, post test and follow up that performed between November 2010 and April 2011. For this purpose, 30 female patients of clinic Esfahan hospital with postpartum depression (at least 5-7 scores of Beck depression inventory) were selected using simple random sampling between 121 patients that went to the hospital in 2010 (each group consist of 15 patients). The instrument of research included Beck depression inventory (1996). It was completed by both groups in three stages before، after and two months after. Experimental group therapy based on metacognitive model of detached mindfulness on postpartum depression was performed in experimental group in eight one hour weekly session. Data was analyzed by analysis of covariance.Results: Findings indicate the therapy based on metacognitive model of detached mindfulness on postpartum depression can decrease postpartum depression.Conclusion: The results suggest that group therapy based on metacognitive model of detached mindfulness can be useful for treatment of mothers with postpartum depression.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the effect of focusing on one’s self-concept on moderating role of self-esteem in cognitive dissonance processes.Methods: This is a semi-experimental study. Since there were 4 groups in the experiment and because of the necessity to include at least 15 subjects in each group, 60 students were selected from a population 400 students of Shahid Beheshti University’s graduate male students resident at the university’s dormitory using convenient sampling (because of inaccessibility to their name lists) and were divided into high and low self-esteem groups by completing Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale (1965). Each participant was assigned randomly to self-focus and no-self-focus groups. Subjects participated in a Role-playing/dissonance paradigm (Nail, Correll, Drake, Glenn, Scott & Stuckey, 2001) in which a loved person rejected the request of a 10 year-old child and then presented an insufficient justification. The participants’ self-esteem was measured using Rosenberg’s self-esteem scale (Rosenberg, 1965).Results: A 2×2 ANOVA revealed that in the self-focus condition, the value of the loved person decreased more in participants with high self-esteem, relative to participants with low self-esteem.Conclusion: Results of the present research show that the effect of self-esteem on the reduction of cognitive dissonance requires that people focus on their self-concept. Thus, it is necessary to adapt the strategies presented for overcoming cognitive dissonance and other conflicts with the level of self-esteem and it is important to highlight the individual’s self-role.

Aim: This study was done to investigate the effectiveness of Davis dyslexia correction method on reading performance of male dyslexic third grade elementary students.Method: The research was an experimental one with pretest and posttest including a control group. The whole population was 55, 824 dyslexic students among which 20 dyslexic students were selected through random sampling multi interval method and were randomly assigned to experimental and control group. Instrument consist of reading and dyslexia test RTD-Koromi Nouri and Moradi (2005), Wechsler’s intelligence scale for children,  1969and dyslexic children recognition checklist by Nikkhah and Mahaya Kavaring Jans, (2005) were used. Davis method was used in 16 half hour sessions individually on all experimental groups. After the intervention reading and dyslexia test were run on both experimental and control groups.Findings: Result analysis based co-variance analysis showed that Davis method was effective on dyslexic children reading activity, and there has been a meaningful relationship among dyslexic reading and reading post test scores of both control and experimental groups. According to research results, teachers and counselor can use, as an effectiveness method in dyslexic children. These results also confirmed in follow-up to one year and three month.Conclusion: Overall, Davis method has been effective on dyslexic students reading activity and through this method we can improve different reading domains including word reading, word chains rhymes, word recognition and non-word reading.

Aim: The goal of this research is to determine possible relationships between the individuals’ personal name and their self-concept and self-esteem.Method: The research design of this study was cross-sectional and statistical population of this study was all of Tehran, Shahid Beheshti and Allame Tabatabaie university students (approximately 60000 students). 404 university students (224 Male and 180 Female) were selected via accessible sampling method and responded to a questionnaire that had been made by researchers about their viewpoints and feelings around their personal name, as well as the Rosenberg self-esteem (1965) and the Sarasoat self-concept (1984) scales. The results analyzed with T-Student and ANOVA.Results: Results revealed that those who named and called with only one personal name, had significantly higher scores on both self-concept and self-esteem scales, than those who named and called by their family members, friends and peers with different or more than one name. Results also showed that those who had positive feelings about their personal name, and those who thought their name is more congruent with themselves and their family, had significantly higher scores on self-concept and self-esteem scales, in comparison with their counterparts.Conclusion: It seems that the individual’s personal name, as the outlook of the person, plays an important role for introducing her/him, just like a social cloth and this frequently referred component of the individuals’ life is significantly related to the quality of their self-concept and self-esteem. The results of this study highlighted the importance of extensive and profound consequence of choosing children’s name by their parents.

Aim: The purpose of the current study is to determine the process of transformation of identity style among 12 to 18 years old girls and its relationship with optimism and self-esteem.Method: Method of research was ex-post factor design and 138 students from first grade of guidance school to four grades of high school in Bojnourd City were selected through multistage random sampling and completed three scales: Berzonskey’s identity style inventory (1992), Rosenberg self-esteem questionnaire (1967) and Scheier and et all's life orientation questionnaire (1994). Descriptive statistic and ANOVA were used for data analysis.Results: Findings indicated that the girls with informative identity style had the higher score in optimism and self-esteem than other two identity styles. Also other findings revealed that although the rate of optimism in girls in different ages has no significant difference but there is a significant difference in optimism among three identity styles in girls. The interaction effect of age and identity style had a significant difference with optimism and self-esteem in girls.Conclusion: The results showed that the optimism and self-esteem score of girls with informative identity style had a descending trend at the first year of guidance school and ascending in the last year of guidance school as a result of age increasing. But, girls with normative and diffusive/avoidant identity style had a descending trend in optimism and self-esteem in last years of high school. So it seems necessary to consider specific counseling strategies for the girls in the last years of guidance school and high school.

Aim: The aim of this study was to examine the role of metacognitive state and its components on students’ self – regulation.Method: In this correlation study, first, 139 high school students (64 male, 75 female) were selected based on cluster sampling from 2 & 6 educational boroughs in the city of Tehran. They completed O'nell & Abedi’s (1996) metacognitive state questionnaire and Pintrich & De Groot’s (1990) self-regulation questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis and one way multivariate analysis of variance were applied to the data.Results: Revealed a positive association between metacognitive state and self-regulation. Four metacognitive state components: metacognitive awareness, cognitive strategy, planning and self-monitoring, predicted 57% of self-regulation variance. In addition the difference between male and female students in planning component was significant and females had better state than males in this component. But their difference in other components was no significant.Conclusion: According to the finding of study, metacognitive state is associated with that self-regulation. So that the metacognitive state components training can influence improvement of metacognitive monitoring, meta cognitive control and students’ self-regulation.

Aim: Aim of this study was to compare the way occupational choices of male and female students of math-engineering and humanities are influenced by personal and impersonal gender-major stereotypes. Also, gender importance and implicit major identification were tested as moderators of these effects.Method: Method was correlation. Among 700 third year and higher math-engineering and humanities undergraduate students of Sharif University of Technology and University of Tehran during the year 2010 were selected 192 by convenience sampling. Implicit stereotype and major identification were measured using Greenwald, McGhee and Schwartz’s implicit association test (1998). In addition, participants were asked about their gender importance and occupational choice.Results: In the math-engineering group, the interaction of gender and major identification predicted the tendency to choose a job related to one’s current major, whereas in the humanities group, the 3-way interaction of gender, personal stereotype, and gender importance predicted it. Both effects were in the expected direction.Conclusion: Students of the two major-groups are different with regard to the type of influencing stereotype (impersonal in math-engineering vs. personal in humanities) and the moderator of its effect (major identification in math-engineering vs. gender importance in humanities). This finding is explainable by the longevity of male majority presence in math-eng, as contrasted with the more recent majority presence of women in humanities. Results of this study can be applied to the identification of vulnerable students and design of interventions aimed at reducing negative effects of gender stereotypes on their occupational choices.