SOCIOLOGY OF WOMEN (JOURNAL OF WOMAN AND SOCIETY)
Year:2010 | Volume:1 | Issue:3|Papers Count:8

The goal of this study was to identify the characteristics of criminal women in order to attain a deeper understanding of them and in order to prevent crime committing in time. Moreover, an effort was made to develop some criteria and rules to categorize criminals on the basis of a personality questionnaire (MMPI-2). The sample of the study consisted of 81 criminal women drawn randomly from the sampling frame of the available criminals in prison. They were divided into four categories as regards the type of the crime including murder, robbery, drug abuse and prohibited acts. It was hypothesized that these four groups are different from one another and the control group in terms of the personality characteristics. The data collected by administering MMPI-2 was analyzed using ANOVA, t-test and chi-square test. The results of the study indicated that the four groups of criminals had different personality characteristics. They were also different from the control group concerning the personality characteristics.

The present study aimed at studying the effectiveness of TA and solution-focused approaches in improving marital satisfaction of employed women in Tehran. This study used a pretest-post-test control and experimental group quasi-experimental design. 48 married women were randomly sampled from among 200 women who suffered marital satisfaction problems and referred to 10 counseling centers in Tehran. These participants were then randomly assigned to 3 groups (n=16). They all filled out Enrich questionnaire. Data was analyzed through covariance analysis. The results of the study indicated that there was no significant difference between TA and solution-focused approaches and both enhanced marital satisfaction. However, concerning religiousness and character subscales, TA was more effective as compared to solution-focused approach which was more effective with respect to sex and communication with relatives. All in all, it might be concluded that both methods were effective in enhancing marital satisfaction.

Social values have been a central concept in social sciences. Social values are crucial in explaining both personality and social organizations. As individuals and groups differ in their values, they can be studied to characterize societies and individuals, trace changes over time and explain motivations, attitudes and behavior. Over recent years, Iranian women have acquired new roles. They have achieved jobs and attended diverse social areas. The main research question was whether women's modern development oriented values differ across diverse jobs. In other words this research endeavored to explain the effect of women's job status on their development value orientations. This study particularly emphasized those values which sociologists predicted for the developing societies. Modern theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell have argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural changes, but others from Max Weber to Samuel Huntington, have claimed that cultural values have enduring and autonomous influence on societies. This study built on sociological and socio-psychological theories. The present investigation was more particularly concerned with value types including rationality, globalization, universalism and science-seeking, life satisfaction, tendency to dynamic employment. This survey research sampled 534 women from Shiraz comprising employed women (n=86), housewives (n=257) and students (n=186). They were all administered a questionnaire but 522 questionnaires were returned. The face validity and construct validity of the questionnaire (using factor analysis) was established. Besides, its reliability was evaluated using Cronbach's Alpha. Reliability indexes for all scales were above 0.70. The results of the study indicated that there was no significant difference between the three groups as regards rationality, science-seeking and life satisfaction. As such, it implied that employment as a modern experience could not provide women with essential insights.  Thus development oriented values are not different in these groups. However it was shown that there was a significant difference among these groups with respect to globalization, science-seeking and tendency to dynamic employment.

The aim of the present study was to study the effect of past socialization and current socialization on the self-esteem of married women. To this end this survey study drew a sample of 400 married women from Lar. This study builds on symbolic interaction theory as the theoretical framework. An analysis of the data indicated that out of the 400 married women, 17.3 percent of the respondents had an arbitrary socialization, 66.4 percent experienced a normal socialization and 16.3 percent had a democratic socialization. Also it was shown that 15.6 percent of women suffered a negative feeling, 69.4 percent had a normal feeling and 15 percent enjoyed a positive feeling about themselves. Further multivariate analysis, additionally, indicated that past and current socialization factors could account for 35.6 and 25 percent of the variance of the dependent variable respectively.

This study purported to investigate social factors affecting the women's tendency to get divorced among those referring to family courts in Shiraz. The underlying theoretical framework rested upon a review of literature and a combination of social theories of family & social deviations. A use was made of a questionnaire in this survey research. It was administered to a random sample of 353 women who referred to family courts to file divorce petition in 2009. In order to analyze the collected data a use was made of both descriptive and inferential statistics including regression analysis (simple linear and multiple), Pearson correlation analysis, t-test and F-test. An analysis of the data employing simple regression indicated that there was a positively significant relationship between mates' education level differences, age differences, wife's age and marriage age and women's tendency to divorce. However there was a negatively significant relationship between shortness of engagement and the number of children and women's divorce tendency. Further, it was revealed that there was a significant relationship between failing to fulfill a spouse's role, violence of the spouse, spouse's lack of honesty and lack of consultation in life affairs and women's divorce tendency. In order to predict women's divorce tendency multiple regression analysis was also performed which revealed that failing to fulfill a spouse's role, violence of the spouse and spouse's lack of honesty could account for 69 percent of the dependent variable, namely, tendency to divorce.

Social changes leading to a civilized society has been accompanied with the establishment of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Current societies do not develop unless all people regardless of their gender participate in society. Theorists of development maintain that NGOs can foster women's participation by empowering them and giving them a voice in decision-making.This study was concerned with the significance of social capital and its effect on the performance of women non-governmental organizations. This survey research drew on a sample of 324 women from 52 women NGOs in Shiraz. They were administered a questionnaire which was built drawing on theoretical and conceptual characterization of social capital and organization performance. A use was made of ANOVA and correlation analysis to analyze the data. Data analysis indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between marital status, ethnicity, age, the number of children, income, member's education, spouse's education and kind of occupation with the organization performance. However, there was a significant relationship between gender, the kind of organization activity and parent's education with organization performance. It was also revealed that as the rate of social participation, the extent of social activities, social responsibilities, integration, trust, attitudes and social values increased organization performance increased accordingly. Generally it could be concluded that organization performance increased with social capital.

This research examined the effectiveness of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) on improving mental health of female teachers in secondary schools of Marvdasht. This quasi-experimental study used a pre-test-post-test control and experimental group design. The sampling frame of the study comprised all female high school teachers of Marvdasht in the school year 1388-1389 from which a sample of 30 teachers was drawn randomly. The subjects were, then randomly assigned to a control and an experimental group. In this study a 90-item questionnaire was utilized as the instrument to tap mental health. The results revealed that the mean scores of subjects in the experimental group in the post-test was lower than those of the subjects in the control group indicating that they enjoyed a better  mental health. In other words Emotion-Focused Therapy counseling had a positive effect on their mental health by way of reducing the level of depression, anxiety and interpersonal sensitivity.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of integrated group therapy with redecision therapy and narrative therapy in controlling adolescent girls' emotions. This quasi-experimental study employed a pretest-post-test control and experimental group design. The sample of the study included 20 adolescent high school girl students from Shiraz district one in the school year 2009-2010. They were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=10) and a control group (n=10). The experimental group received a treatment of eight sessions of counseling through redecision and narrative therapy. Then, emotion control of both groups was assessed using a scale. Covariance analysis of the data indicated that integrated group therapy with redecision therapy and narrative therapy had a positive effect on the emotion control of the adolescent girls.