PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Year:2008 | Volume:11 | Issue:1-2 (21)|Papers Count:6

The aim of the present research was to compare the efficacy of Beck's cognitive therapy and Teasdale's mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in reducing depression and modification of meta-cognitive beliefs in dysthymic patients. The sample consisted of 30 subjects randomly selected from patients with dysthymia who consulted 6 clinics in the city of Mashhad. The subjects were randomly assigned to two experimental groups and each group was treated for a three month period using either Beck's cognitive therapy or Teasdale's mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. The instruments employed in this research were the Beck Depression Inventory, Psychological Interview, and Meta-cognition Questionnaire. Subjects completed the tests through pretest, posttest and follow up intervals. A repeated measure of analysis of variance showed that Beck's cognitive therapy and Teasdale's mindfulness-based cognitive therapy were effective in reducing depression and modification of meta-cognitive beliefs.However, no significant difference was found between Beck's cognitive therapy and Teasdale's mindfulness-based cognitive therapy in reducing depression and modification of meta-cognitive beliefs in dysthymic patients.

This study was aimed to determine the relationship between attachment Style and mental health in adult survivors in the earthquake stricken regions of the city of Bam. It also aimed to determine the contribution of predictor variables in predicting the criterion variable. This research was a descriptive ex post facto study and a one-shot cross sectional research. 314 adults (138 male and 176 female) survivors of the Bam earthquake were selected through voluntary convenient sampling and participated in this research. All subjects completed the Adult Attachment Inventory (AAI), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ- 28), and the Demographic Inventory. Stepwise multiple regression analysis was used for statistical analysis. Results demonstrated that there is a positive significant correlation between secure attachment style and mental health and a negative significant correlation among avoidant and ambivalent attachment styles with mental health. In addition results suggest that secure attachment style, avoidant attachment style and ambivalent attachment style are able to significantly predict mental health. In this research, secure attachment style was the best predictor of mental health. The findings confirm the role of attachment style in preserving and promoting mental health in earthquake survivors. Moreover, results imply that these three attachment styles are able to explain a considerable part of mental health variation in adverse conditions.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of brief group interpersonal psychotherapy in reducing depressive symptoms, and its effect on attributional style and dysfunctional attitudes. Participants were 25 university students who scored 14 or higher on the Beck Depression Inventory-II. They were randomly assigned to two groups: 12 participants to the experimental group and 13 participants to the control group. All subjects also completed the Attributional Style Questionnaire and the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale. Participants of the experimental group participated in 8 sessions of brief group interpersonal psychotherapy. The control group was placed on the waiting list. Results showed that brief group interpersonal psychotherapy may significantly decrease depressive symptoms and dysfunctional attitudes. However, this treatment failed to make attributional style significantly more positive. So, brief group interpersonal psychotherapy demonstrated effectiveness in decreasing depressive symptoms in university students and produced some changes in dysfunctional attitudes.

The Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R) has been developed to evaluate the severity of obsessive-compulsive symptoms in both clinical and non-clinical individuals. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of a Persian version of this scale. The OCI-R Persian version was completed by 400 graduate students from the University of Tehran and Tehran University of Medical Sciences. Results revealed satisfactory internal consistency as measured by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (ranging from 0.50 to 0.72). In addition, the six-factor structure found by the original study was confirmed in the present study by a confirmatory factor analysis. In brief, the Persian version of the OCI-R seems satisfactory for measuring obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms in non-clinical samples. However, future research is needed to confirm these data in a sample of OCD patients.

The aim of the study was to examine the relationships between the five factor model (FFM) personality traits and identity styles. The sample (N= 359; 177 females and 182 males) was chosen through multi-stage stratified random sampling procedures from the population of undergraduate students from two large governmental universities in the city of Tehran. The five factors of personality were assessed with the revised NEO personality inventory and three identity styles were assessed with the identity styles inventory (ISI). On the basis of correlation analysis, extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness were positively related to informational and normative identity styles. Openness was positively related to informational identity style and negatively related to normative identity style. In addition, neuroticism was negatively associated with informational and normative identity styles and positively associated with diffuse/avoidant identity style.Regression analysis showed that informational identity style was predicted by conscientiousness and openness. Normative identity style was predicted by conscientiousness, extraversion and agreeableness and negatively predicted by openness. Finally, diffuse/ avoidant identity style was negatively predicted by conscientiousness.