Journal of Psychology
Year:2008 | Volume:12 | Issue:2 (46)|Papers Count:11

The main purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between general self-efficacy and psychopathological symptoms in a sample of high school students. This study is ex-post research. Through random sampling, 240 third grade high school students (120 boys and 120 girls) were selected from high schools in Babol (Iran). The participants completed the General Self efficacy Scale (Sherer, et al. 1982) and the Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (Derogatis, et al. 1976). The results revealed that self-efficacy was negatively associated with the high school students psychopathological symptoms (somatization, obsessive compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, hostility, phobic, paranoid thinking, psychoticism) and low levels of general self-efficacy were accompanied by high levels of psychopathological symptoms. It was also revealed that there was no partial gender difference between girls and boys in general self-efficacy. The implications of these findings are discussed.

The aim of this study was to predict and determine the relationship between illness perception and coping strategies with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). The study was conducted with survey and cross-sectional method. Data were collected from 146 outpatients with confirmed RA which admitted in two centers of RA in Isfahan (Iran) between 27 July and 27 August 2005. Subjects responded to the Standardized Questionnaires of Illness Perception and Coping Strategies. Results showed a significant correlation between illness perception and coping strategies, and also among the components of coping strategies and illness perception. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that the socio-demographic variables explained for %5.2, and components of illness perception explained for % 10.4 of the variance in the coping strategies. The present study approved the validity of Self-Regulation Model in explanation and prediction of RA patients' illness behavior and their coping strategies with RA. Moreover, this study explored the importance of illness perception as a psychosocial variable, alongside medical intervention, in management and control of RA, particularly in the onset of RA.

The present study intends to examine the role of national pride on immigration. The main question is that whether national pride in Iranian who lives in Canada, who applied immigration to Canada, and those who live in Tehran are different? The sample consists of 272 Iranians (75 Iranian immigrants who were living in Canada, 99 Iranian who applied immigration to Canada, and 98 Iranian who were living in Tehran), which filled out the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) questionnaire established in Chicago University in coordination with a number of reliable international institutes (cited in Smith and Jarkko, 1998). Participants in the 3 groups were generally matched in terms of their demographic characteristics. The results of the present research were analyzed using ANOVA and Post Hock. Result revealed that in all items, except for two, "I'm proud of my country's history..." and "People should support their country...", there were significant differences between groups; i.e. Iranian immigrants had the lowest national pride, while non-immigrant Iranians had the highest national pride. Although national pride scores for the immigration appliers were between the immigrant and non-immigrant groups, but this group were more similar to the immigrants. The role of national pride in immigration and the strategies of increasing national pride, considering the detailed results of the research, are discussed.

This research aimed at exploring the emotional words, their pleasant/unpleasant, somatic / non - somatic and common / uncommon ratios in Farsi dictionaries (Moeen, Amid and Moaser). All the entries in these three dictionaries were investigated by three independent referees (all pschylogists) for their descriptive and qualitative characteristics. The final judgments benefited from linguistic feedbacks produced by a specialist in this field. Using SPSS for windows, data analysis showed that frequency of the pleasant emotional words was significantly less than the unpleasant ones in all the mentioned dictionaries. Also, 03% of the emotional words appeared to have somatic component(s). Moreover, it seems that the ratio of the emotional words had reduced over the time from the past to the present. The findings will be theoretically discussed from psychological point of view.

The aim of this study was to provide standard tables for Isfahan-Fordyce Happiness Inventory(IFHI). The Happiness Inventory was originally developed by Eysenck (1990) based on fourteen fundamental of happiness. The inventory was translated into farsi and revised in the University of Isfahan. Considering the available literature in farsi, a skill of "expressing emotion" was added to the inventory and it was named as IFHI. The revised inventory was applied in Isfahan universities using 727 students. As a result of transferring of the row scores to Z, T and percentile ranks, standard-tables for happiness skills were separately developed. However, before developing the standardtables psychometiric characteristics of the IFHI were determined as; content validity of the Farsi version of Fordyce Happiness Inventory was approved by five academic members working in the School of Education and Psychology in the University of Isfahan; concurrent validity was established based on the correlation between the scores of the Oxford Happiness Inventory and IF HI; validity of the inventory determined by Abedi (2002) could differentiate the depressed and non-depressed students; and the internal reliability, using alpha, in a sample of (N=727) students was 0.92, and via six-week test-retest in a sample of 50 students, it was 0.7. Finally, educational experts and couselors can use the IFHI for their clients as well as planning for "happiness education" in Iran.

The purpose of this experiment was to study effects of governmental university (GU) students stereotypes about Islamic Azad University (IAU) and GU students on their attribution style about observed behaviors from GU and IAU students. 80 Tabriz GU students (32 males and 48 females) were assigned randomly in to four experiments. In each experiment condition, a target individual was introduced to the subjects with stereotype using consistent or inconsistent method. Then, they were requested to rate the importance of stable internal, unstable internal and external causes about the target behavior. The data were analyzed with multiple variable analysis of variance (MANOVA), two way analysis of variance (ANOVA), dependent t and independent t tests. The results showed that: 1) stereotype consistent behavior strongly attributed to stable internal causes, in comparison with the stereotype inconsistent behavior, 2) stereotype inconsistent behavior strongly attributed to external or unstable internal causes, in comparison with the stereotype consistent behavior, 3) stereotype consistent behavior strongly attributed to the stable internal causes in comparison with the external or unstable internal causes, and 4) stereotype inconsistent behavior strongly attributed to the external or unstable internal causes, in comparison with the stable internal causes. The results provided approval for the effects of stereotype on causal attribution's model, and did emphasize on a relative difference between the Iranian and western societies, in the use of causal scheme for explanation of counter stereotype behavior.

In this research, we tried to prove that suggestions' system could reduce job bum out as one of the methods of Participation Management. Thus 118 members of the staff working in the first, second and third caring units of Baghiyatallah hospital (Tehran, Iran) participated in this research and were divided into three groups of intervention, instruction and witness groups. Their job bum out were evaluated by Maslach Inventory in the pre-test, and then the suggestions' system were implemented in intervention group while the instruction group were only trained about the suggestions' system and the witness group remained unchanged. Three months after the implementation of the suggestions' systems, the job bum out was evaluated and analyzed. There was no significant difference among the three groups in term of the average of severity and occasions of job bum out in pre-test but in post-test there was a significant difference in terms of job bum out index between the intervention group and the two groups of instruction and witness (p< 0.0001). Also there was no significant difference between instruction and witness groups. The results of this research showed that the implementation of the suggestions' system in the intervention group could reduce the job burn out of the personnel, while no significant difference was observed in the witness and instruction groups in this regard. Consequently, the implementation of suggestions' system is introduced as a way for decreasing job burnout.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between empowerment, self-efficacy and job satisfaction. Three hundred and ninety high school teachers were selected via multi-stage cluster sampling method from four regions (3, 6, 11 & 18) of Tehran. Participant responded to a Demographic Questionnaire, The School Participant Empowerment, The Sherer's General Self-efficacy Scale, and The Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire. Data were analyzed with Pearson Correlation Coefficient, Multiple Regression analysis. Results indicate meaningful relationships between empowerment and Job satisfaction, empowerment and self-efficacy. There were no relationships between self-efficacy and Job satisfaction, although empowerment and self-efficacy had interaction relationship with Job satisfaction. As a conclusion, empowerment and self-efficacy have interaction relationships; i.e. self-efficacy in teachers leads to empowerment and empowerment in teachers leads to self-efficacy and both of them, have effects on Job satisfaction. Therefore, job satisfaction was increased with empowerment and self-efficacy.