Iranian Journal of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychology
Year:2016 | Volume:22 | Issue:3 |Papers Count:11

Objectives: The purpose of this research was to study the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy in decreasing cognitive avoidance among students with Specific Learning Disorder.Methods: This was an experimental study with pre-test, post-test, and a control group. The research population included 40 5th-grade male students suffering from Specific Learning Disorder in Ardabil in 2015. The research sample was selected using multi-step cluster sampling and random assignment classified into two groups: experimental group (n=20) and control group (n=20). The following tools were used for data collection: Kay Math Mathematic Test, Raven Intelligence Test, Reading Test of Shafiei et al., Falahchay Writing Expression, Cognitive Avoidance Questionnaire, and Diagnostic Interview Based on DSM-5. The data were analyzed by multivariate of covariance analysis (MANCOVA) model.Results: The results revealed that the acceptance and therapy was effective in decreasing cognitive avoidance in students suffering from Specific Learning Disorder (P<0.001). In other words, acceptance and commitment therapy help the people to be aware of their negative emotions and accept them to reduce cognitive avoidance.Conclusion: The results of this research showed that since acceptance and commitment therapy can have a significant impact on the acceptance of emotions and confrontation with them, this treatment can play an eminent role in decreasing cognitive avoidance in such students.

Objectives: One of the prevalent problems in children with autism spectrum disorder is that they face problem related to social initiation and initiation in questions asking. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the Pivotal Response Treatment on the degree of question-asking of children with autism spectrum disorder.Methods: The research population included all children with autism spectrum disorder who were referred to the Omid Bavar Institute for Counseling and Treatment of Autism in Tehran. Accordingly, three children below 6 years were selected as the sample using purposive sampling. The research method was a single subject with an A-B design. To conduct the research, after the position of baseline, intervention started and during 12 sessions, training "how to ask" was presented to the subjects using Pivotal Response Treatment. The dependent variable (improving Question-Asking) was measured attentively by two observers.Results: After visual analysis of the charts of data, the intervention in the three subjects was found to be effective. The percentage non-coverage data in the two situations of baseline and intervention was 83%, 100% and 67% respectively.Conclusion: Regarding the significance of initiation in Question-Asking, it is suggested that this method should be applied in treatment centers for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Objectives: The purpose of this research was to determine the effect of the special individual, group and cooperative exercises on the cognitive function of children.Methods: Forty boy students aged 9–12 years were chosen from elementary schools of Mashhad. The diagnosis of development coordination disorder, was done using Development Coordination Disorder Questionnaire (DCDQ), Movement Assessment Buttery for Children -2 Test, clinical interview and confirmation of a psychiatrist. Participants were randomly divided into four groups (control, individual, group, and cooperative which include two groups in below). They trained with one trainer for 24 sessions, and each session lasted for about 60 minutes. Before and after the exercises, the test groups were evaluated by MABC2 and Goodenough dummy test.Results: Data analyses were done using multivariate covariance. The results showed that special individual, group and cooperative exercises had a significant effect on development coordination disorder (P<0.05) and cognitive performance of development coordination disorder children (P<0.05).Conclusion: In conclusion, special individual, group and cooperative exercises can help to improve the development coordination disorder and cognitive performance in development coordination disorder children.

Objectives: This study was conducted to compare the executive cognitive functions of the brain in two groups of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) children with and without anxiety.Methods: In this cross-sectional comparative study, 15 children with ADHD and 15 children with ADHD and anxiety were compared in terms of executive functions. The study population was chosen from patients in three region of Tehran city (one, three and nine regions) through clinical interviews and questionnaires (Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS), ADHD Rating Scale, Kaners, Revised Children's Manifest Anxiety Scale (RCMAS). The executive functions were evaluated using the Tower of London Test (TOL) and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WSCT).Results: The results showed a significant difference between ADHD children with and without comorbid anxiety (P=0.05) in terms of executive cognitive functions of the brain (problem-solving and decision making, impulsivity, and abstract thinking).Conclusion: In this study, it was found that children with ADHD and anxiety are better in abstract thinking and flexibility and impulse control (they had fewer errors in WSCT) because anxiety can control risktaking behaviors and impulsivity, but they have more deficits in decision making.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of premarital education based on interpersonal choice and knowledge program in reducing idealistic marital expectation.Methods: This research was a experimental design with pretest-posttest and follow-up with the control group. From this population, 38 volunteer single students of universities of Ahvaz city were selected on the basis of 1 standard deviation higher of the mean of idealistic marital expectation subscale and were assigned randomly to experiment group (n=19) and control group (n=19). The experiment group was given a premarital interpersonal choice and knowledge program of 9 sessions, twice a week for 90 minutes.Results: The results of analysis of variance repeated measures showed that the premarital interpersonal choice and knowledge program training has led to a reduction in idealistic marital expectation in the experimental group than in the control group at posttest and follow-up.Conclusion: Our results showed that the premarital interpersonal choice and knowledge program is a suitable method for reducing the idealistic marital expectation singles.

Objectives: Alexithymia, as a personality trait, causes malfunctioning in individuals in three areas of recognizing emotions, describing emotions, and defective objective thinking. The present study aims to investigate the role of these three abnormal personality dimensions introduced in the 5th volume of the Diagnostic and Statistical Guide for Mental Disorders in the prediction of aspects of alexithymia. Based on previous works, we have hypothesized that there is a correlation between abnormal personality dimension and alexithymia dimensions.Methods: In order to test the proposed hypothesis, a sample of high-school students of Ramsar County (N=250) were evaluated using the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 (PID-5) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS18 and by the method of enter regressions.Results: The results indicated that there was a significant relationship between the inability to identify emotion and negative affect (r=0.28), disinhibition (r=0.20) and psychoticism (r=0.16). It was also revealed that there was a significant positive relationship between the description of emotion and negative affect (r=0.19), detachment (r=0.14), disinhibition (r=0.16) and psychoticism (r=0.27) and between objective thinking and all abnormal personality dimensions (P<0.01). Moreover, these personality dimensions can serve as a useful factor for predicting alexithymia.Conclusion: According to the obtained correlations between alexithymia and abnormal personality dimension, it is necessary that the comorbidity of these two variables be considered in the treatment of personality and emotional disorder.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between personality traits and religious/ spiritual well-being and schizotypal personality traits.Methods: The study was a descriptive-correlation. A total of 351 university students in Semnan (208 females and 143 males) were selected through multi-stage random cluster sampling. The participants responded to the questionnaires on Multidimensional Inventory for Religious-Spiritual Well-Being, Big Five Inventory and Schizotypal Trait Questionnair. Data were analyzed using Pearson correlation and stepwise regression analysis.Results: The results showed that schizotypal personality traits are negatively correlated with extraversion (r=0.22, P<0.001), agreeableness (r=0.23, P<0.001), conscientiousness (r=0.21, P<0.001), hope immanent (r=0.20, P<0.001), and hope transcendent (r=0.24, P<0.001). The schizotypal traits were also found to be positively correlated with neuroticism (r=0.49, P<0.001) and openness (r=0.19, P<0.001). The results of multivariate regression analysis indicated that neuroticism, openness, hope transcendent and agreeableness can predict 28% of the variance of schizotypal personality traits.Conclusion: Religious/spiritual well-being and personality traits are important predictors of mental health. It was found that neuroticism has the highest predictive power for schizotypal personality traits.

Objectives: This study aimed to build a scale of transparency, partnership, validity and reliability and factor structure it.Methods: The research method was descriptive in nature. The sample consisted of 345 patients (170 males and 175 females) in Tehran who were selected using stratified sampling. Transparency scale was used for the marital relationship. The internal validity of the method for determining the correlation of each question with a total score category was used. The exploratory factor analysis was conducted on 116 items of scale. Finally, the procedures for internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha and test-retest) and validity were used.Results: The primary factor analysis, 10 factors with eigenvalues greater than 1 were next and factor analysis were limited to ten. Based on the content of the article, the ten factors were "emotions", "finance income", "employment issues", "relationships outside the home", "boundary", "family home", "marriage", "leisure", "relationship with family and friends" and "children". The scale had good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha and test-retest reliability within ten days of 0.87, 0.86).Conclusion: The results showed that the scale transparent relationship of the structure is satisfactorily reliable and valid in the Iranian society. It can be said that the self-report scale tool is useful for research purposes. This tool can help determine the transparency of the relationships, the possibility of secrecy or predict the likelihood of marital infidelity.