Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Journal of social sciences
Year:2020 | Volume:16 | Issue:2 (34)|Papers Count:12

Introduction: Health is one of the most important aspects of life and a part of social welfare; accordingly, it is considered as a social value and a necessary condition for playing social roles. In many countries, particularly the third-world countries, the mental aspect of health has been overlooked as a result of focusing on other primary health-related priorities such as infectious diseases or the chronic illnesses of today’ s world. In fact, mental illnesses are a serious problem faced by modern societies. Among various mental illnesses, depression is one of the most prevalent mental problems that are known by psychologist and psychiatrist as the “ mental cold” due to its universality and importance (Chalabi&Yaqouti, 2013). There are a considerable number of depressed individuals in various societies. As an increasingly growing mental disorder, depression demonstrates the prevalence of social problems. Consequently, such a universal social problem should be placed under examination through studying the social factors related to depression. Given the considerable prevalence of depression and its growing trend, the present study seeks to examine the relation between social factors and depression to identify the origins and causes behind this illness. According to theories and studies on depression, it is assumed that social factors such as religiosity, family solidarity, social capital, and socioeconomic base could explain how and why depression is widespread across the society...

Introduction: Marriage is the first step towards the formation of a family and one of the most important choices of individuals throughout their lifetime; a satisfying, lasting marriage can guarantee the health and stability of a society (Sommer & Justino, 2015). Various studies have asserted the role of making informed choices in marriage satisfaction. Nevertheless, a variety of factors including personal and interpersonal problems have transformed rapid social, economic, and cultural developments in families where making proper choices has become difficult (Alawi et al., 2014). Studies show that the majority of divorces take place during the first 3-5 years of marriage and 50% of such cases occur during the engagement period (Daneshpour et al., 2011). Divorce is considered as the second stressful lifetime event that brings about reduced occupational productivity (Blekesaune & Barrett, 2005), physical problems (Robles, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2003), and psychological distress (Comerford, 2006)...

Introduction: The present study seeks to provide answers to the following key question: Based on what considerations should a city with multiple tourism capacities in political economic terms edit and compile the strategic model for its urban development within the area of cultural tourism? In other words, what are the considerations behind policy-making considerations in cultural tourism development of Toos area?...

Introduction: Fertility refers to the experimental and potential behavior and act of childbearing; in other words, it is the number of living children that a woman is capable of bearing during her 35 fertile years. In recent years, there has been numerous studies conducted both in Iran and other countries on fertility indicators. This study is an attempt to examine fertility indicators of the past decade in both Iranian and foreign inquiries. The method adopted is meta-analysis and the population of the study consists of the entire scientific valid papers published in credible Iranian and foreign journals during the past decade. Out of 80 research papers related to the subject at hand, 45 studies on fertility indicators published from 2009 to 2019 were selected and then analyzed using CMA2 Software. Results obtained from systematic review of effective variables on the extent of fertility or fertility indicators in the examined research yielded 45 related variables. Fixed effect value of 0. 770 and random effect value of 0. 695 demonstrate the high impact of the 45 variables on the extent of fertility; the top 7 variables include the power of women in family hierarchy, women’ s education in economic shifts, high age of marriage, fitness, abortion, father’ s education in upbringing, and women’ s education had the highest effects on fertility, respectively...

Introduction: The prison is a particular experience for a prisoner. This perception or experience could influence the prisoner’ s behavior and attitude with respect to their interaction with both the internal and external environments. Moreover, it could also affect the behavior of prisoners relative to one another. In addition, the types of charges can also play a role. It appears that murder is the worst possible charge among prisoners. The perception and experiences of murders in the prison can pave the way for prison managers and policymakers. Given the lack of knowledge in this area, the purpose of the present study involves discovering and analyzing the perception and experiences of individuals charged with murder in Adel Abad prison of Shiraz...

Introduction: Divorce can be investigated from different aspects and one of them is the interaction between family institution, structure of gender and social actors. Family is the place of reproduction of gender (Goffman, 1977) and structure of gender is one of the main sources of maintaining family in its traditional form. Due to subjective and objective developments of social actors’ life, gender suffers from deep meaning evolution and family as well. Social actors have shown different responds to these changes because of different gender socialization path they’ ve come through. Women and men have different attitudes towards gender, gender roles and family life which in some would result divorce (Eidelson & Epstein, 1982; Black, Eastwood, Sprenkle & Smith, 2015). This article seeks to investigate the reasons for the formation and disintegration of family life with regard to the participation of the family institution, gender structure and different reactions of women and men to them. In this way, the social event of divorce will be examined in the trinity of the family institution, its desired gender emphases and its inconsistency with the mental image of social actors about marriage and family life...

Introduction: As the most abstract of arts, music can have a profound effect on its listeners; music can provoke feelings and stimulate its users, and it can bring about joy and sadness to its audience. Consequently, the functions of music in terms of leisure and spirituality has significantly become the focus of other social institutions such as religion, politics, sports, etc. The Iranian society in general and Kermanshah in particular have witnessed changes and formations of specific consumptions of arts, given their course of history and geographical location and subsequently, in terms of artistic perspectives. The presence of different ethnic cultures on one hand and the introduction of the Western culture on the other have resulted in creation of a variety of micro-cultures, needs, and tendencies across the society. Conversely, traditional music can no longer respond to the diverse needs of various classes considering its specific simplicity and monotony. These circumstances would place the members of the society under repression in which they are either content with the existing music or attempt to meet their needs through means other than clear, legal paths; a number of such instances could be associated with the formation of underground music or the increasing, irregular consumption of foreign music. These issues point to the necessity of conducting extensive and comprehensive studies on the matter. The main purpose of the study is to recognize the relation between individuals’ class-based perception and their tendencies toward music consumption in Kermanshah City...

Introduction: A Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach is an approach to adolescents that, unlike the current approach, considers youth are essentially seen as resources to be developed, not problems that need to be managed. Based on the youth positive development, the best way to prevent problematic behaviors is to focus on the adolescents abilities, not their shortcomings, and promote positive change during the second decade of their life. The purpose of interventions based on PYD are promoting the positive development of developmental assets such as belonging, resilience, moral competence, spirituality, self-efficacy, clear and positive identity, belief in the future, opportunities for prosocial participation, and social responsibility...

Introduction: Nowadays, achieving economic, political and cultural independence is considered as a significant component of development; it also requires pervasive and institutionalized national zeal amongst different classes of the society. In this regard, many financial experts have paid attention to producers and consumers’ supporting of the economy as well as the utilization of domestic capacities in various fields. Supporting the revival of domestic capacities to produce goods and services results in the formation of endogenous variables instead of exogenous ones, which would increase decision-and policy-making powers in economic, social, and cultural fields. The eighth clause on the general policies of the Resistive Economy asserts “ the promotion of consuming domestic goods” . Given the experience of many countries regarding their paths towards progress, the lower and middle classes’ state of welfare and livelihood in the society, as agents who are at the service of manufacturing firms, are a function of national zeal and economic empowerment of the society; it is also manifested in the growth of domestic production and consumption of domestic products. Considering these discussions, the main problem examined in this study involves the status of consumer nationalism along with identifying the most important factors that affects it in Isfahan City...

Introduction: The present study deals with analyzing and explaining electoral preferences based on the analysis of occupation classes. To date, electoral preferences in Iran has not been analyzed experimentally. Despite a few studies after the Islamic Revolution on social classes in Iran, these inquiries have been overlooked due to a variety of reasons (Haji Yousefi, Farazi, & Keyvan Ara, 2012). Certain researchers in Iran have challenged the efficiency of class analysis using Skase’ s (2001) idea that class is no longer a valid descriptive or analytic tool and as class has been deteriorating as a means for analysis, the existential cause behind academic sociology has been declining as well (Ghaderi & Kaveh, 2015)). On the other hand, some have emphasized analysis based on class as they associate Khatami’ s victory in the Seventh Iranian Presidential election to the middle class (Saei, 2007; Bashiriyeh, 2008; Ghouchani, 2000; Bohrani, 2010; Seifzadeh and Golpayegani, 2009; Zibakalam et al., 2009); It is also believed that Ahmadinezhad’ s victory has been the result of the middle class’ s passivity and progress of the underprivileged class (Qasemi Siyani, Ravash, & Mahmoudi Raja, 2016). Examination into the background of the study suggest the higher emphasis placed on the middle class along with the exploration of political behavior in this group. Given such a background, there exists a significant conflict in these studies due to the difference of this class’ s behavior in the seventh (1997), tenth (2005), and eleventh (2009) presidential elections. Given the absence of a comprehensive work with respect to the political behavior of classes in Iran and the paradoxical results obtained from examining the political behavior of the middle class, this study seeks to examine the orientation and preferences of classes in presidential elections...

Introduction: Tolerance is regarded as an important capacity and a component of development in societies. Without tolerance, individuals in the society would consider violenceas the only means to confront different beliefs and ideas, resulting in disruption and chaos in the social system. In addition to being faced with the common issues of all Iranian metropolitan cities, Mashhad accommodates immigrants with a variety of nationalities, religions, and beliefs, with vast numbers of population living in the surrounding slums. Furthermore, 30 million pilgrims travel to the city, each year, with different motivations. Accordingly, the following questions are posed: What is the extent of tolerance and its various dimensions among citizens of Mashhad? Are there any differences between the citizens in terms of tolerance level? Can social and cultural capital influence the citizens’ tolerance level?...

Introduction: Differences caused by inter-ethnic and extra-ethnic relations and conventions or social accommodation are one of the sociocultural distinctions that influence solidarity and cohesion in human societies. The significance of this subject relates to the fact that these differences can play a prominent role in both shaping social cohesion and placing the society under social rupture and conflict. In this study, variables including social distance, social tolerance, sense of social deprivation, social trust, social support, social indifference, and social participation are taken into account as independent variables; the relations between these variables and social accommodation is assessed to find out whether they affect social accommodation. Unquestionably, accommodation is a social issue that is present in all societies. Here, it is attempted to put forth a sociological argument on accommodation i. e. an examination of social accommodation in different social contexts. The connection between social accommodation and ethnicity can be made through the sociological outlook. The assumption here is that ethnicity leads to social conflict; subsequently, the conflict would not be mitigated and social accommodation would not take shape until the issue of ethnicity is resolved as a cultural element. Therefore, in this study, it is attempted to explain the important factors that reinforce social accommodation in the Afghan society so as to provide the means for tolerance and coexistence, guiding said society from chaos to optimal organization...