SOCIAL COGNITION
Year:2015 | Volume:3 | Issue:2 (6)|Papers Count:10

Introduction: There are incongruent evidences about the lack of theory of mind as one of the causal hypotheses in psychopathy. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of theory of mind and empathy in convicts of penal courts and comparing them with normal individuals.Method: The research design of this study was ex post facto. The participants were 40 convicts of penal courts and 40 people of general population selected by convenience sampling method. Baron Cohen’s Reading Mind from Eyes Test (RMET) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) were used as research tools. MANOVA was used for comparing the differences of the two groups in theory of mind and empathy.Results: The results of MANOVA showed significant differences in the ability of mind reading in the two groups; as the functions of convicts of penal courts in mind reading test were significantly lower than their normal counterparts. No significant difference was observed between the ability of empathy in the two groups.Conclusion: According to the results of this study, deficit in theory of mind can be discussed as one of the causal hypotheses in the commission of delinquent behavior and criminal offenses.

Introduction: The present study aimed at predicting academic achievement based on intelligence beliefs, achievement goals, and academic emotions in a causal model framework through path analysis.Method: To do so, 231 postgraduate students from Fars Payame Noor University were selected through simple random sampling, and were asked to answer a self-report questionnaire consisting of intelligence beliefs (Dupeyrat & Marine, 2005), achievement goals (Middleton & Midgley, 1997), and academic emotions (Pekrun et al, 2005) subscales. Meanwhile, the students' final grade point average was considered as an indicator of academic achievement.Results: Overall, the results indicated the indirect and different effects of entity and incremental intelligence beliefs on academic achievement.Conclusions: The results showed that incremental intelligence beliefs have indirect and positive effect on academic achievement through the mediation of mastery goals and positive emotions. Furthermore, the entity intelligence beliefs have indirect and negative effect on academic achievement through the mediation of performance-avoidance goals, performance-approach goals and negative emotions. Moreover, the direct effect of entity intelligence beliefs on negative emotions was significant; however, the direct effect of incremental intelligence beliefs on positive emotions was not confirmed.

Introduction: One of the most important issues in training children is developing moral intelligence and storytelling is considered as a tool for transferring moral and behavioral messages in different societies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of storytelling on pre-school female students in Isfahan city.Method: The research method was experimental with pre-test and post-test design which was done on two groups of experiment and control groups. The statistical society of this study included all the female 4-6 years students of Isfahan kindergartens. After random selection of 30 children, they were placed into two groups of experimental and control and the 77 questions Questionnaire of Mickele Boreba was completed by their parents.Results: The results of analysis of covariance in a=0.50 showed a significant difference between the two groups in variants like empathy, conscience, respect and patience.Conclusion: Based on the results, the use of story telling as an indirect and educational method for children in a free and pre-determined manner and with regard to moral instructions is suggested.

Introduction: Social capital is a new concept that nowadays is dealt with. In fact, dealing with this approach reflects its importance and role in psychological health and well-being. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between social capital with psychological wellbeing of Tabriz University students.Method: The research method was descriptive and correlational and the sample included the entire students of Tabriz University who were 15000. Based on Morgan’s table, 400 people (200 males and 200 females) were selected by using cluster sampling. The data were collected by the Delaviz scale Social Capital and Ryff scale psychological well-being. The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and regression using SPSS software V.16.Results: The results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between social capital and its components with the psychological Well-being. On the other hand, the results revealed that the social capital and its components can predict changes in psychological well-being significantly.Conclusion: The results revealed that students who have better social capital have better and higher and psychological well-being.

Introduction: The present study was administrated to determine the effectiveness of social skills training on promoting the theory of mind in aggressive adolescents.Method: The statistical population consisted of male students of high schools in Bukan city in the academic year of 2014. The statistical sample included 40 students who had higher scores after completing the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire. These students took part in the theory of mind test as well. The collected data were analyzed using the statistical test of multivariate variance.Results: The results of multivariate variance analysis indicated that social skills training in experimental group had a significant effect on promoting the theory of mind and decreasing aggression.Conclusions: It can be claimed that social skills training leads to decrease of aggression in adolescents.

Introduction: Identifying the aspects and components of cognitive dissonance, especially personality and decision making, can not only increase the application of psychology in other aspects of humanities but also help experts in politics and advertisement industry. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between decision making styles and physiological components of cognitive dissonance.Method: To do this, 130 students of Elmi-Karbordi University of Safadasht were invited to complete Scott and Bruce Decision-Making Styles Questionnaire. Before and after distributing the questionnaires, their physiological conditions were receded. To create cognitive dissonance they were asked to write about the reduction of interest in a favorite character who ignores a child. Then, they were asked to write about reducing the amount of budget devoted to orphanages by welfare organization. Data analysis was conducted through regression.Results: The results showed the positive relationship between avoidant and dependant decision making styles and negative relationship between logical and intuitive decision making styles with cognitive dissonance; among them, avoidant style had the strongest relationship. Intuitive style predicted reduction in blood pressure and logical style predicted increase in heart beat rates and decrease in blood pressure. Avoidant and dependant styles predicted all of the physiological components.Conclusion: Decision making styles predict physiological components of cognitive dissonance.

Introduction: Because of the important role of procrastination and social loafing on personal and social development, the main purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of Choice Theory training on procrastination and social loafing.Method: A total number of 36 female students of Tehran Universities in 1392 were selected by accessible sampling and were divided into an experimental group including 16 students and a control group including 20 students. Tuckman's Procrastination Scale and Saffarinia's Social Loafing Test were conducted to collect basic level data. The participants of the experimental group attended 8 sessions of Choice Theory training protocol. Both inventories were conducted again immediately after the training period and after two months. The results of post-tests were compared with the basic level through covariance analysis.Results: The results of covariance analysis showed a significant difference between the two groups and reduction of procrastination and social loafing in the experimental group compared with the control group. But this reduction was not evident in the follow up test which was conducted after two months. Even the level of social loafing increased significantly.Conclusion: The implications of these results are discussed with respect to the utility of applying Choice Theory training for significant reduction of procrastination and social loafing in short time; however, these results are not perdurable in long time.

Introduction: The aim of this research was to study and compare the components of educational democracy in nonprofit and public schools and its relationship with critical thinking and social skills of students in guidance schools of Gachsaran city.Method: The research method was descriptive and comparative. The statistical population included all students and teachers of female guidance schools in 2011-12. There were 75 and 160 teachers in non-profit and public schools, respectively. The second population included female students of guidance schools in 2011-12 who were 320 and 820 in non-profit and public schools, respectively. The method of sampling was randomized clustering. From each type of school 2 were selected randomly. An author-made questionnaire for components of educational democracy whose reliability was confirmed by 5 professors was used. The second questionnaire was Critical Thinking Tendency of Rikth whose reliability was obtained as 0.79 using Cronbach's Alpha. The third questionnaire was Social Skills Questionnaire of Inderbitsen whose reliability was obtained as 0.86 using Cronbach's Alpha. The obtained data from questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics (computation of frequency, frequency percentage, cumulative percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and comprehensive statistics (T- test for independent groups).Results and conclusions: The obtained results suggested that there is a significant difference between public and non-profit schools for components of educational democracy meaning that non-profit schools have better status. Also, there was a significant difference between critical thinking and social skills of female students of public and non-profit schools. The scores of non-profit students were better in both cases.

Introduction: Nowadays a large population of the world uses the Internet. Despite the numerous advantages of this technology leading to positive changes in communication, unfortunately some studies, have attributed dangerous complications to the Internet, the most destructive one being Internet addiction. The present study was conducted with the aim of determining the relationship among components of Perceived Social Support and the Feeling of social- Emotional loneliness with Internet addiction in students.Method: To do this, 173 students from Tabriz University (78 males and 95 females) were selected by multiphase cluster-random sampling and in addition to demographic information, they completed the Perceived Social Support, Feeling of social- Emotional loneliness, and Internet addiction questionnaires. The data were analyzed by descriptive statistical methods, Pearson’s correlation coefficient, and multivariate regression.Results: Based on the results, there were significant relationships among Perceived Social Support and the Feeling of Social- Emotional Loneliness with Internet addiction (P<0.01). In other words, the status of individuals with Internet addiction was unsatisfactory in dimensions of perceived social support and the feeling of social-emotional loneliness as well.

Introduction: This study aimed at investigating the relationship between social procrastination, social identity, and students’ academic performance.Method: The design was correlational and the sample consisted of 200 students of Payam Noor University, Bukan center. Sampling was based on available sampling and three questionnaires including Social Procrastination, Social Identity, and Academic Achievement were employed to collect the data. Pearson correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to analyze the data.Results: The results showed a significant negative correlation between Social Identity and Social Procrastination. Both the individual and collective identities showed a significant negative correlation with Social Procrastination. Indifference, as one of the components of Social Procrastination, had a significant negative correlation with academic performance, but there was no significant relationship between attention to self, as another aspect of Social Procrastination, and academic achievement. Furthermore, Social Identity had a significant positive correlation with academic performance. From among the other aspects, the individual and collective identity had a significant positive correlation with academic performance.Conclusions: According to the results, it can be claimed that Social Procrastination has a negative relationship with academic performance and social identity, while social identity has a significant positive correlation with academic performance.