Journal of Psychology
Year:2006 | Volume:10 | Issue:2 (38)|Papers Count:9

The present study aims to compare the theory of mind and number conservation abilities of children with and without mental retardation. Sixty children involved in this study represent a sample of mentally retarded children and normally developing preschool children which were equally divided in two 30 member groups. In order to assess the theory of mind ability, three tasks were used including dolls house, recall story and candy. Token as well as flower & flower-vase tasks were applied to assess number conservation ability. Data analysis, using Hierarchical Log Linear analysis model, Chi-square test and Cochran test, revealed that the mentally retarded children, being indicated weaker performance in theory of mind tasks. Furthermore, there was no statistically significant difference between two groups in conservation tasks. It was concluded that the subjects performance depends on the kinds of task: The easier the tasks are and the more they are related to children's experiences, the more children are likely to succeed.

Family is important to both health and adolescence domains. There are few studies on Iranian adolescents' health, and even fewer on adolescents' perspectives on family-based health in a qualitative approach. Adolescence is commonly considered as a time of peak health, but there are some important family-based risk factors. The goal of the present research is to develop an analysis of the adolescents' perspectives on health and family. A content analysis has been done on adolescents' perspectives on health and family. Adolescents were interviewed with ethical issues being considered until the data became saturated. The analysis of adolescents' explanations revealed the following three categories: widening generation gap, parental responsibility in adolescents' health promotion, ineffective parenting, family economy and adolescents' health. Exploring adolescents' perspectives will be useful in creating a healthy future. Nowadays social factors affect familial situations in different respects and this will play a role in changing both the familys and adolescents' health. Both children and parents need more knowledge and better skills about adolescence health and development, and about social trends. Understanding adolescents and families in a more realistic way, parents should develop healthy communications and avoid familial health problems. Policy-makers, understanding both adolescents and families, can achieve the same goal. However, this issue requires further investigation.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effectiveness of group and individual exposure and response prevention treatment on the reduction of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in out-patients referred to psychological service centers of Isfahan, Therefore 18 patients were randomly selected and assigned to three groups: the experimental group 1 received group exposure and response prevention treatment, experimental group 2 received the same treatment individually, and the control group were in the waiting list. All the patients were interviewed, scored average or less on the Beck Depression Inventory, and did not have any personality disorders. The Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI) were administered to all subjects as the pre-, post and follow-up tests. It was that hypothesized both the individual and group treatment would significantly reduce the mean scores of the two experimental groups as compared to the control group on the post-and follow-up tests, and that there would be a significant difference between the mean scores of the two individual and group therapy groups both on the post-and follow-up tests. The results of multivariate analysis of variance showed that the two experimental groups significantly scored less than the control group did on the post-test and on the one-month follow-up (p<0/0001). But the difference between the individual and group treatment groups was not significant neither on the post-test nor on the follow-up.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate reliability and validity of the Theory Of Mind Test (TOM test-38) for use in Iran. To pursue this aim Tom test was administrated on 80 subjects (40 mentally retarded & 40 non retarded) aged 7-9 years old students in Shiraz. Validity of the test was studied through 1) concurrent validity, 2) subscale-total correlation, and 3) content validity. Concurrent validity of the test, as measured by Dolls House Task was .89 (p<0.01). Subscale total correlation as another index of validity were between .82 and .96. Reliability of the test was studied using test-retest, Coronbach Alpha and interrater agreement reliability. Test-retest coefficient ranged from. 70 to .94 (p<0.01). Internal consistency of the test with Alpha value were. 86 for total score, .72 (Tom 1), .90 (Tom 2) and .81 (Tom 3). Interrater reliability coefficient was .98 (p<0.01). Taken together, the finding of this study indicate that the Theory of Mind Test (Tom test) is a valid instrument for using in Iran.

This study aims to compare early visual information processing in patients with schizophrenia, major depression and normal individuals. 32 schizophrenic patients (15 acute patients and 17 chronic patients), 32 patients with major depression (14 patients with psychotic symptoms and 18 patients with nonpsychotic symptoms) and 32 normal individuals were chosen. Age range of the sample was 19 to 51. The 3 groups were matched on the basis of age, sex and education. Subjects in all groups were assessed by the Visual Backward Masking Task. The results indicated that schizophrenic patients had significantly poorer performance in comparison to patients with major depression and normal individuals in all Interstimulus Intervals (ISI) (20, 40, 60, 80 & 100 Milliseconds) of the Visual Backward Masking Task. Also, patients with major depression in comparison with normal individuals had significantly poorer performance in ISI of the Visual Backward Masking Task. Comparison of means of the 3 groups in the no masked condition, showed that the schizophrenic patients had significantly poorer performance in comparison to patients with major depression and normal individuals, but no significant difference was observed between patients with major depression and the normal individuals in this aspect. Repeated measure Analysis of Variances revealed that, with the increase in the Interstimulus Intervals (ISI); the Visual Backward Masking performance in all 3 groups improved. It is concluded that results of this study are similar to results of different cultures and are in accord with general principles governing the Visual Backward Masking.

Music can serve as non-threatening means of providing successful experiences: A good attitude, motivation and self-control in children. Orphan children in residential centers, often need to learn ways to reduce anxiety and depression, express feeling accurately and control aggressive and destructive impulsive behaviors. Active music therapy such as singing, moving to music, playing musical instruments and musical improvisation activities can facilitate the reduction of affective problems and develop adaptive behavior in children. 28 boys (6-15 year) who were living in two residential orphan centers in Tehran were participated in this study. Their instructors filled the Conners Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS, Conners, 1985) which provides measures of variety of behavioral problems in children. Subjects randomly were divided in two experimental and control groups (each groups=14). The experimental group was participated in ten active music therapy sessions in a group setting program. Both groups received pre and post tests. Result showed significant (p =0.044) effect in reduction of anxiety, antisocial and conduct problem in the active music therapy group. Utilization of music therapy for treatment of emotional and behavioral problems along with other interventions is recommended, however further studies in Iran is needed for extending this finding.

The gifted student's dissatisfaction of educational indicators has negative effects on their performance. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between gifted student's satisfaction and organizational, personal, environmental and educational management factors. Therefore, 48 gifted students were randomly selected from the population of gifted students in Isfahan University and the satisfaction of Management Factors Questionnaire was administered to them. The results of Person correlation and MANOVA showed that there was a significant relationship between gifted student's satisfaction and the four academic factors: organizational, personal, environmental and educational. (p<0.01) The highest rate of satisfaction was given to the organizational factors while the lowest rate belonged to the personal factors. Also there was a significant relationship between satisfaction and gender (males were more satisfied), years of study, and academic discipline (p<0.05).