Cultural Psychology
Year:2018 | Volume:2 | Issue:1 |Papers Count:7

This research aimed to study the effectiveness of teaching modesty on reducing Internet addiction and high risk behaviors in adolescent high school girls. In this research, a quasi-experimental design with control and experimental groups was used. Twenty female students were selected using purposeful sampling. The method of teaching modesty was carried out in eight sessions in order to introduce concepts of modesty; philosophy and the necessity of modesty; pathology of modesty; types and manifestations of modesty; the role of modesty in physical, psychological, and family health; the ways of preserving and enhancing individual modesty; the ways of preserving and enhancing modesty in family; the ways of preserving and enhancing modesty in social relationships; and the ways of preserving and enhancing media modesty. The subjects answered to the questionnaires about Internet addiction, the degree of risk-taking in Iranian adolescents, and demographic information. The findings showed teaching modesty was effective in reducing Internet addiction of adolescent girls; but the efficacy of teaching modesty was not significant in reducing high risk behaviors. Teaching modesty helps Internet users increase self-preservation and self-control in facing problems such as pornography. Regarding various reasons of high risk behaviors, and the impact of social, cultural, economic, and family factors, you cannot expect any change in this short time period. Based on the findings of this study, modesty-based educational-pedagogic intervention could be a preventive approach to inhibit addiction to the Internet and cyberspace. Taking preventive measures at lower ages and implementation of educational programs for adolescents and their parents are necessary to reduce high risk behaviors.

The existential psychology is based on phenomenological philosophy. In this approach, the world has no meaning and is futile. What makes man distinguished from other creatures is his freedom and ability to choose. Psychological assumptions in this approach include human freedom, death anxiety, and humanism. In contrast, the unity-oriented psychology approach maintains that human nature has a purposive existence with a unity-oriented meaning and intention, and has founded its psychological assumptions on the basis of a unity-oriented nature, as well as the motivation of love, attachment and immortality of mankind. In this approach, the universe is not futile and vain, has inherent meaning, and each person, with his own unique characteristics is the creator of the story and meaning of his life. The purpose of this research was to answer these questions: What is the ontological nature of human existence, his cognition, motivation, and purpose? How is the analysis process in the native approach of unity-oriented psychology? And, what are the conceptual differences between this approach and the existential approach with regard to these indices? Unity-oriented psychology does not see human as a disposed object thrown away into the universe, and accounts human nature and psychological motives as a derivation of his love, connection, and attachment to the universe of unity that gives life a divine meaning and purpose. Therefore, the psychological interventions of the phenomenalist approach have little success or justification in the innatist and religious societies.

The purpose of this research was to describe the phenomenological personality of Imam Khomeini from the perspective of Carl Rogers’ Healthy Person. The research question was: Do characteristics of Imam Khomeini’ s personality correspond to Rogers’ indicators for healthy person (“ fully functioning person” )? In order to answer this question, the author used documentary research method, and extracted, categorized and analyzed the necessary data. The results showed that Rogers’ general criteria about a healthy person are converged from three points: personality dynamics, courage in self-realization, and unmasked existence. Moreover, Rodgers presented five particular features: open to experience, existential living, trust feelings, creativity, fulfilled life. According to research findings, Rogers’ eight indicators for healthy person (“ fully functioning person” ) are in complete correspondence with Imam Khomeini’ s personality. There are also unique features in Imam Khomeini’ s thoughts, behavior, and lifestyle that were not mentioned in Rogers's theory.

Immigrant-receiving cities and communities can pose numerous cultural challenges for their citizens. This condition is more difficult for non-native students. Accordingly, the present study aimed to investigate the relationship of social perspective-taking and ego strength to cultural intelligence, considering the modifying role of age and gender of the non-native students. A sample of 148 nonnative students was selected from the Humanities Faculty of the Islamic Azad University of Saveh using availability sampling. The research tools included Earley and Ang’ s Cultural Intelligence Scale, Barron's Ego Strength Scale, and the Social Perspective-Taking Scale. After collecting the questionnaires, the data was analyzed using hierarchical multivariate regression. The results showed that the relationships of social perspective-taking and ego strength to cultural intelligence were positive. Furthermore, gender had no modifying role in the relationships between the predictors and cultural intelligence. As for age, an increase in the age of the participants had a negative effect on the relationship between social perspectivetaking and cultural intelligence, whereas the relationship between ego strength and cultural intelligence increased with an increase in the student age. Paying close attention to the factors affecting cultural intelligence can promote competence and cultural adaptation of student communities.

Marital satisfaction is the concept dealt with the life context of satisfied couples in society and influenced by social values, culture and other components existing in their life. This research identified socio-cultural contexts that formed marital satisfaction for satisfied couples. This study has been done in the qualitative approach and is based on grounded theory. The authors used interviews as data gathering instrument; the interviews were continued until the phase of theoretical saturation. Twenty one satisfied couples were purposively sampled and interviewed in Tehran in 2017 and 2018. Analysis of participants resulted in uncovering 33 open codes, 8 axial codes, and a selective code of marital satisfaction. According to findings, what was extracted as efficient factors of forming marital satisfaction in socio-cultural contexts included: main families homology, tendency to simplicity, taking benefit from supporter net of friends and family, giving importance to free time, management of cyberspace, using advisory and consulting services, religious beliefs and religious behaviors. Existence of religious factors in findings represents socio-cultural contexts of this study. These religious factors are significant and considerable in terms of the traditional roots of religious teachings and their deep role in people’ s life style. Taking advantage from these religious virtues and their consequent outcome, that is to say, Islamic life style, makes couples and families more powerful in confronting life challenges, resolving conflicts, and developing a lasting satisfaction, and finally smoothes the path for their growth and development.

The current study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the 5th revision of Identity Styles Inventory (ISI-5) in a group of Iranian adolescents. ISI-5 was translated from English to Persian, and then the Persian version was edited by 5 experts in psychology and English language, back-translated from Persian to English by another translator and was confirmed by the author of the source version. The final Persian version of ISI-5 was administered among 373 high school students (189 female, 184 male) of Shahriar (Shahriar, Tehran Province, Iran) who were selected through multi-stage cluster sampling method. The reliability of the scale was determined by Cronbach's alpha and test-retest; and validity of the scale was confirmed by simultaneous validity and confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach’ s alpha coefficients for the three sub-scales of this test were between 0/67 and 0/79. The test-retest coefficients of the three subscales of the Persian version of ISI-5 were between 0/77 and 0/81. The findings indicated that the Persian version of ISI-5 has a good validity and reliability for Iranian sample and is applicable in research cases.