PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH
Year:2013 | Volume:16 | Issue:1 (31)|Papers Count:6

Transdiagnostic cognitive behavior-ral treatments for emotional problems have received some empirical supports in recent years. Most of the research on this area has been conducted without any control group. Moreover, little information has been reported about comparative effectiveness of this procedure. The purpose of the current study was to compare transdiagnostic group therapy with classical cognitive group therapy. To do so, 33 college students with anxiety and depression symptoms were randomly assigned to two groups and participated in eight two-hour sessions. Both groups have been gaining significant differences after the intervention and at the three month follow-up. However, results of ACOVA for anxiety symptoms and emotional regulation revealed significant differences. The effectiveness of transdiagnostic group therapy was confirmed in improving anxiety symptoms and emotions components. These results were significant after follow-up and the experimental group’s results had good effect size for anxiety and emotion regulation. Future directions, limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

This study explored the simple and multiple relationships between the Big Five personality traits and the job attitudes in a productive company’s staff. To do so, 280 individuals from the staff were selected by stratified random sampling method. To assess the study’s variables, NEO-Five Factor Inven-tory, Job Descriptive Index, Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, and Job Involve-ment Questionnaire were used. In order to analyze obtained data, Pearson correlation and multiple regression method were employed. Results indicated that the Five Big personality traits were strong predictors of job attitudes. As a matter of fact, the Big Five personality traits explained 12% of the total job satisfaction, 9% of the variance in organizational affective commitment, 7% of the variance of organizational continuance commitment, 12% of the variance of organizational normative commitment, and 14% of the variance of job involvement. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.

Although many educational programs aim to promote reflective thinking, there are few instruments for assessment and evaluation of it. The purpose of this study was to investigate psychometric properties of Persian form of Reflective Thinking Scale in order to prepare an applicable instrument for educational research. To do so exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used. A sample consisting of 332 students (176 female, 156 male) was selected from the State Universities of Tehran, using multistage cluster sampling. Results of exploratory factor analysis by using principal component analysis, led to four factors, namely habitual action, understanding, reflection, and critical reflective thinking which were similar to the results of research conducted in the primary culture. In order to determine validity and reliability of the scale, respectively confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were used. Results of confirmatory factor analysis showed a good fit to the proposed four-factor structure. More- over, Cronbach’s alpha coefficient indicated that the scale has acceptable reliability. The results of the present study suggest that this scale can be used as a valid and reliable instrument in assessing students’ reflective thinking.

The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare characteristics of cognitive emotion regulation strategies and general health of university students with and without alexithymia. To do so four hundred and thirty one students were selected by stratified random sampling method from Urmia University. The participants were assessed by using the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Strategies Questionnaire, (CERQ), the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28), and Farsi version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale. From this initial sample, two groups were chosen which consisted of alexithymic (n=75) and nonalexithymic (n=75) groups. Data were analyzed by t-test and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The findings indicated that there were significant differences between individuals with and without alexithymia. In comparison with nonalexithymia subjects, individual with alexithymia had higher scores in three dimensions of alexithymia (difficulty in describing feelings, difficulty in identifying feelings, and external-oriented thinking style), they used dysfunctional cognitive emotion regulation strategies (self-blame, catastrophazing, and other-blame), and had low general health. By reviewing the constructs of emotion regulation and alexithymia, it can be concluded that alexithymia is likely to be associated with emotion regulation difficulties which may result in a variety of mental health related problems.

This study examined the quality of attachment to God as mediator between perceived childhood attachment and religious coping.810 students from Tehran area universities completed the questionnaires measuring attach- ment to God, childhood attachment, and religious coping. Data were analyzed by using structural equation modeling. Results indicated that secure attachment to God mediated the relationship between secure attachments to parents with positive religious coping. And avoidant attachment to God mediated the relationship between insecure parental attach- ment with negative and positive religious coping. Results also showed that ambivalent attachment to God mediates the effect of insecure parental attachment on negative religious coping. Perceived childhood attach-ment didn’t show any direct effect on religious coping. These findings suggest that not only it is important to consider perceived childhood attachment in understanding reli-gious coping strategies, but also attachment to God plays an important role in these relation-ships. Implications for these more complex relations are discussed.

This study tested a mediation model consisting of distributional justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice as independent variables, organizational commitment as dependent variable, and pay satisfaction as mediator. Data were gathered from a sample of 170 employees (158 men and 12 women) of an industrial organization in Ahvaz, who were selected by stratified random sampling method. The instruments used in the present study consisted of Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, Organizational Justice Ques- tionnaire, and Pay Satisfaction Questionnaire. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and Baron and Kenny procedure were used for data analysis. Results showed that the proposed model fit the data properly. Findings also supported the positive relationships of distributional justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice, with organizational commitment and pay satisfaction. Positive relationship between pay satisfaction and organizational commitment, and mediating role of pay satisfaction in these relationships were also supported.