Applied Psychology
Year:2020 | Volume:14 | Issue:3 (55)|Papers Count:7

Aim: Question of meaning, is a kind of inquiry that has occupied people’ s mind. Answering this question that fits in a place between philosophy and psychology, many experts have tried to clarify this ambiguous concept. The aim of this study is to explore two questions about meaning of life by a phenomenological lens. Method: The present study was a qualitative research using latent thematic analysis method. The research performed semi-structural interviews in 5 focus groups with 33 participants and investigated college view of points about nature and development of meaning in life. The six phase strategy of Brown and Clark (2006) was used to extract themes. Results: After analyzing the results, two main themes, six themes and 12 subthemes were extracted. The main themes are: Nature of meaning and Development of meaning. The themes are: Need for Cohesion, Desire for Immortality, Meaning as a Scale, Livelihood Meaning, Epistemological Meaning, and Experiential Meaning. The subthemes are: Durability in the Another world, Durability via create Benefits, Living Everyday life, Living in Barrier of norms, Evasion of Thinking and Abstraction, Comfort and Benefit, Search for meaning, Creating meaning, Expansion of meaning, Imbalance, Seeking balance, and balance Discovery. Conclusion: Study results show a new perspective to build training protocols based on meaning of life in student population.

Aim: The purpose of the present study was to determine the psychometric properties of the Moral Perfectionism Scale (MPS-P) in undergraduate students. Method: The research method was correlational and statistical population included all 900 undergraduate students of Tehran, Al-Zahra and Al-Taha universities, which among whom, 587 (410 girls and 177 boys) were selected through available sampling. The research tool were Persian version of the MPS (Stoeber & Young, 2016) and MAC IV (Christie & Geis, 1970). After removal 16 outlier cases, the data of 571 (401 girls and 170 boys) were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis. Results: The results of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the two-dimensional structure of the Moral Perfectionism Scale, and showed that the factors of Personal Moral Standards (PMS) and Concern about Moral Mistakes (CMM) are separate from each other. The confirmatory factor fitness indicators with the exception of  2 /df 3. 21 (p = 0/001) were in the accepted range. Cronbach's alpha coefficients was 0. 85 for PMS and 0. 73 for CMM. Conclusion: Considering the acceptable psychometric properties of the Persian version of Moral Perfectionism Scale, its use is recommended to psychologists and counselors in research and clinical settings to measure the degree of perfectionism in the field of moralities.

Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of values in action inventory of strengths for youth. Method: The research method was correlation and the statistical population of students studying in the ninth grade of Tehran was selected by cluster sampling method of 417 students (213 girls and 204 boys) from regions 3, 4, 10, 13. The students responded to Values in Action Inventory of Strengths scale of Park and Peterson (2006), the Lyubomirsky & lepper General Happiness Scale (1999), Schwartz and Jerselm Self-Efficacy Scale (1995), and Rosenberg SelfHandicapping Scale (1965). To evaluate the reliability and validity of the questionnaire, internal consistency coefficient and convergent validity, divergent validity and confirmatory factor analysis were used. Results: The results of confirmatory factor analysis showed that CMIN/DF ≥ 3, CFI = 0/90, PCFI= 0/60, RMSEA= 0/08 confirm the proposed structure of the scale with data taken from the Iranian adolescent sample. Significance correlation of character Strengths with happiness and self-efficacy (r =0. 28 – 0. 56, p < 0/001) confirms convergent validity and with claim, behavioral SelfHandicapping and general Self-Handicapping (r= 0. 12-0. 61; p <0. 001) confirms divergent validity of the scale. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the virtues are 0. 79 to 0. 97 and its reliability was obtained 0. 76 to 0. 94 with a time interval of 15 days. Conclusion: adolescent character strengths scale 96 item is a valid and rely instrument. And can be used to identify the character strengths of children and adolescents.

Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the VOCI in northwest of Iran With the participation of a broader non-clinical sample and Compare the results with Abedi, Izadi and Moien’ s(2012) study. Method: The method was a descriptive-correlation and statistical population consisted of all adults with no psychiatric disorder residing in the East and West Azerbaijan province (N=3437411) which 200 people were selected through cluster sampling and 40 patients with OCD selected through purposeful sampling. VOCI and Abdel-Khalek death obsession scale (DOS) used for collecting data. Data analysis was performed using SPSS-24 software Results: results showed the same extraction and validation in the present sample. Significant correlation coefficients with DOS (p=0. 0001, r =0. 56) showed Criterion validity. Cornbrash’ s alpha coefficient of validity (0/946 non-obsessional group, 0. 938 obsessional group, & 0. 952 the whole score) showed favorable internal consistency. In addition, the results of the two-tailed independent t-test showed a statistically significant difference between mean scores of the present sample (In both clinical and nonclinical samples) with the mean of normative sample (p<0. 05, df= 278, T= 2. 23 non clinical sample & p=0. 02, df= 118, T= 6. 53 clinical sample & p= 0. 0001). Using the ROC curve, a new cut-off point (91) was proposed for this tool in northwestern Iran. Conclusion: It can be concluded that VOCI has also a favorable validity and reliability in the nonclinical sample but because of cultural reasons has higher cut point in the northwest of Iran.

Aim: The purpose of the present study is to explore and describe the marital disillusionment among married women. To achieve this goal, the constructing grounded theory method (Charmaz, 2014) was used. Method: The research population consisted of women with disillusionment who were purposefully selected in a homogeneous manner. The research tool was a semi-structured interview conducted with selected women. The time of each interview was between 60 and 120 minutes. Findings: The data collected were analyzed in three stages of initial coding, axial coding and final classification. Then two classes of findings were revealed, which were: (1) why disillusionment that it is included the before, during and after marriage causes and (2) how to cope with disillusionment that is included maladjustment and adjustment mechanisms. Conclusion: According to the results of this study, this grounded theory is effective in integrating the process of boredom experience and can help in redefining the term, prevention and correction of this family injury.

Aim: To investigate the mediating role of eating behaviors in the relationship between chronic pain and pain catastrophizing with body mass index in people with chronic pain. Method: The research method was correlation. The sample (n = 400) were recruited through purposive sampling method from patients (males and females) with chronic pain who were visiting orthopedic, physiotherapy, neurology wards of Al-Ghadir Hospital and Farahbakhsh Clinic in Tehran in spring, summer and autumn of 2016. Participants' body mass index were collected, as well as, participants' responses on the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (VanStrien, Frijters, Bergers & Defares, 1986), Chronic Pain Questionnaire (VonKorff, Dworkin & Le Resche, 1990), and the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (Sullivan, Bishop & Pivik, 1995), then analyzed using structural equation modeling employing Amos software. Results: The results showed that the model has a good fit (df2 <3, GFI, AGFI and CFI> 0. 90 and RMSEA <0. 08). Examination of the path coefficients showed that pain (β = 0. 303, P = 0. 001; β = 0. 148, P = 0. 001) and pain catastrophizing (β =-0. 149, P = 0. 001; β = 0. 153, P = 0. 001) have a significant direct and indirect effect on body mass index, respectively. Furthermore, chronic pain, pain catastrophizing, and eating behaviors explained for 30. 5% of the variance in body mass index. Conclusion: The interaction between pain experience and pain catastrophizing with eating behaviors affects body mass index.

Aim: Aim was to determine the relationship between biological maturation and physical activity of female adolescents regarding the mediating role of psychological factors. Methods: Method was correlational and statistical population included all of the 31522 female students of public junior schools, in Mazandaran Province in 2016-2017, using multi-stage random sampling method, finally 630 students were selected based on a ratio of 5 to each item with probability of sample loss. The tools included Khamis– Roche (1994) Adult Stature Estimation, Xiaomi Mi Band (2014) Pedometer, Seca 213 (2015) Stadiometer, Seca 813 (2015) Robusta Scales, Marsh (2010) Physical Self-description Questionnaire, Rosenberg (1965) Self-esteem Scale, Littelton, Axsom & Pury (2005) Body Image Concern Inventory and Simon & Smoll, (1974) Attitude toward Physical Activity Inventory. After excluding 57 respondents based on exclusion criteria, data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Results: The data analysis showed a significant inverse relationship between biological maturation and physical activity (β = 0. 289, P= 0. 001). The structural equation modeling results showed a goodness of fit of model (GOF= 0. 46) and there was significant indirect path coefficient between biological maturation and physical activity by mediating attitudes toward physical activity (β =-0. 150, P= 0. 012), self-esteem, (β =-0. 091, P= 0. 015), physical self-concept (β =-0. 062, P= 0. 016) and body image satisfaction (β =-0. 009, P= 0. 019). Conclusion: To promoting health-related behaviors, programs need to to be designed that girls can evaluate puberty as a normal and attractive transition to adulthood and to accept individual differences and differences in appearance.