Journal of Behavior in Clinical Psychology
Year:2012 | Volume:6 | Issue:24|Papers Count:9

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and its characteristic symptoms such as emotional symptoms, inappropriate, intense anger and difficulty in anger management, a pattern of unstable and intense interpersonal relationships, impulsivity, recurrent suicidal behavior and self-injury can pose major difficulties for emotion regulation as the capability to experience and convey the emotions. Therefore, the research aims at determining the role of emotion regulation strategies in predicting the borderline personality disorder symptoms in a non-clinical population. Hence, a sample of 317 (m=220, f=97) was selected using stratified sampling and tested with regard to emotion regulation and borderline personality traits. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that cognitive reappraisal is inversely correlated to severe dissociative symptoms, impulsivity and hopelessness. Moreover, results revealed that reappraisal predicted 11 percent of the total variance and 8, 6 and 10 percent of the hopelessness variance, impulsivity variance and dissociative symptoms variance, respectively. Results also find support for the predictive value of emotion regulation as an important psychological construct and may be taken into consideration to reduce the borderline personality symptoms in clinical preventions.

Many researchers have looked into the psychological impact of infertility and effective psychiatric treatments for male and female infertility applying a variety of methods to cope with its psychological reactions. Cognitive-behavioral stress management or stress inoculation training (SIT) not only alleviates the stress but also positively affects the quality of life and enhances the general mood of this population. Hence, the research purpose is to assess the effect of stress inoculation group training against stress upon infertile women’s quality of life in Ahvaz. Therefore, utilizing a quasi-experimental and pretest-posttest nonequivalent groups design, a sample of 40 infertile women visiting the infertility clinics in Ahvaz was selected using convenience sampling and was randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The experimental group that was tested in terms of quality of life prior to the training underwent ten 90-minute stress inoculation group training. Results of multivariate covariance analysis provides supports for the increase in the quality of life and its physical, psychological, spiritual, sexual, affective and social sub-components. Moreover, stress inoculation training against stress can be effective through altering the existing schemas and undergoing a process of accommodation to create new schemas.

During the last three decades, family-based therapies have gained increasing attention for adolescents’ drug addiction, among which is brief strategic family therapy (BSFT), a short term, family-based therapeutic intervention model that targets addicted individuals and their families. Therefore, the research purpose is to assess the effectiveness of brief strategic family therapy (BSFT) in patterns of family interactions with children involved with drug and relapse prevention. The sample comprised a sample of 45 male individuals attending outpatient addiction treatment centers located in the west and east of Tehran, that was selected using convenience sampling and were tested in terms of problem solving, communication, roles, affective responsiveness, affective involvement, and behavior control. The participants were subsequently assigned to brief strategic family therapy group, stages-of-change therapy group and methadone maintenance treatment group. The 3 groups received 14 hourly, weekly therapy sessions and were retested subsequent to the treatment and in a 2-month follow-up. Repeated measure analysis of variance indicated that there exists a significant, between-group mean difference regarding family functioning. Moreover, improvement was observed in maladaptive patterns of family interactions (family functioning), restructuring problematic family interaction, reducing drug use, decreasing relapse rate and refining problem-solving.

Somatoform disorders and other somatic symptoms that cannot be fully explained by physical symptoms are particularly prevalent in the medical field. Therefore, the research purpose is to draw a comparison of stressors and coping strategies between affected and non-effected individuals. Hence, 30 individuals were selected using convenience sampling and compared to 30 non-patient counterparts in terms of stressful events and coping strategies. Results of variance multivariate analysis indicated that patients suffering from somatization disorder had more considerable experience and more comprehensive evaluation of such stressful events. What’s more, affected individuals mainly used emotion-focused and physical-focused coping strategies and the use of problem-focused strategies was less frequent as compared to the control group. No between-group difference was observed regarding appraisal-focused (adaptive cognitive) and seeking social support strategies. As a result, closer cooperation is nevertheless needed between the medicines and well-qualified clinical psychologists specialized in behavior therapy to provide this population with the required service.

Interpretation bias, defined as the tendency to interpret ambiguous stimuli as threatening, is thought to play a central role in the maintenance of social anxiety. Socially anxious individuals tend to favor and defy false interpretation which may lead to distorted, hazard perception. The present research aims at investigating the relationship between interpretation bias and social anxiety in university students. Hence, through applying a correlational design a sample of 63 subjects was drawn from a larger sample of students studying at Ferdowsi University using convenience sampling. The subjects were consequently tested with regard to negative appraisal, depression and interpretation bias. The results of stepwise regression analysis indicated that interpretation bias and social anxiety are significantly, positively correlated to one another. Furthermore, biased information processing can be a good predictor of social anxiety even after depression control. As a result therapeutic approaches are bound to consider the mediators of biased information processing and alternative treatments to refute negative, biased interpretation.

Coping strategies are cognitive and behavioral efforts to manage specific demands that are appraised as taxing or exceeding the resources of the person. Locus of control refers to the extent to which individuals believe that they can control events that affect them as either internal or external. These two above-mentioned concepts occupy dominant role in the individuals’ mental health. The research purpose was to assess the effectiveness of group reality therapy in the locus of control and coping strategies amongst the female students.Therefore, utilizing a quasi-experimental and pretest-posttest groups design, a sample of 20 female students visiting the clinics at Ferdowsi University was selected using convenience sampling and was randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group underwent eight sessions of group reality therapy training. It’s worth mentioning that both groups were tested in terms of coping strategies and locus of control prior to the training. Results of multivariate covariance analysis provide supports for the change in the scores of the locus of controland decrease in the emotion-focused coping strategies.

Happiness is a core concept in people’s daily life. Understanding and facilitating the happiness, psychological well-being and its causative factors lies within the key issues in the realm of positive psychology. The present research purpose is to identify the factors influencing the happiness of students. Therefore, the sample comprised 364 students (F=183, M=181) who were selected using multi-stage random cluster sampling form among all the students studying in Islamic Azad University, Science and Research branch. The selected subjects were tested regarding happiness, personality characteristics, family environment, mental health, optimism and coping styles. Subsequent to the elimination of variables such as age, gender, education, number of siblings, problem-focused and avoidant coping mechanism, expressiveness, independence, achievement orientation, organizing and control which didn’t show any significant relationship with happiness, the stepwise regression analysis indicated that personality traits, emotion-focused coping strategy, being at ease with oneself and others, ability to meet the needs of mental health, cohesion, conflict, optimism, logical-cultured, active-uninhibited, moral-spiritual approaches explain 55 percent of the variance of happiness among the students.

A variety of research results have reported inconclusive and contradictory results in terms of cognitive and neuropsychological functioning in patients with schizophrenia and their relatives. Therefore, the present research aims at drawing a comparison of cognitive and neuropsychological functioning of schizophrenics with their siblings and normal population. Hence, a sample of 12 individuals was drawn from a larger population of hospitalized patients definitely diagnosed with schizophrenia in hospitals located in Isfahan. The selected subjects were tested with regard to abstract reasoning, memory, problem solving, visuomotor speed and verbal conceptualization and were compared to their normal siblings and 12 staff members working in the nonpsychiatric wards of these hospitals. Findings demonstrated that schizophrenics and their healthy siblings maintain a weaker level of performance in some cognitive and neuropsychological functioning as compared to normal population. Moreover, As observed, schizophrenics’ siblings suffer form more slight deficits in their cognitive and neuropsychological functioning.