Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Journal of social sciences
Year:2010 | Volume:7 | Issue:1|Papers Count:10

This paper analyzes the historical causes of the rise of the natural sciences in Iran after Islam. Through reviewing different accounts of the scientific movement that happened during a period from the third to the fifth century A.H., the researchers try to provide a convincing explanation for this historical event. The employed research methods in this study including "causal narrative" and Max Weber's "objective possibility" and "causal Adequacy" are used to test the causal narrative presented in this paper. The results show that the equality seeking slogans of Islam led to the elimination of the Sassanid's semi-cassette system and the tribal government of Umayyad.In addition, the influence of the Persian nobles in the Abbasid court and the transmission of culture and values of scientism to the Sassanid government in the politically stable and wealthy environment of Abbasid court led to the rise of natural sciences in Iran and Islamic countries. It is argued that with the establishment of semi- independent states in the third and fourth centuries A.H. in Iran, this academic growth was transferred to these governments and led to the rise of science in Iran.

Juvenile delinquency can be considered as an important issue in the social sciences. Also, the adolescents' leisure activities are important subjects which have been studied in the social sciences and humanities. This study assessed the relationship between leisure activities and delinquency among 610 male and female high school student in the city of Shiraz.The Questionnaire consists of two sets of questions regarding the amount of leisure time and delinquent activities. Item reliability of leisure time is equal to 0.83 and reliability of delinquency items is equal to 0.88 respectively. The results show that there is a negative correlation between organized leisure activities and delinquent behavior. On the other hand, there is a positive significant relationship between leisure activities and unorganized delinquency. The results of the regression model with four variables (idle, gender, socialization and leisure time without organized supervision) account for 23 percent of changes in juvenile delinquency.

The purpose of the present study is to measure male and female students’ attitudes towards Social Studies course and to investigate its relationship with students’ exam anxiety in public high schools of the first and fifth areas of Isfahan.Students have different interpretations and attitudes toward school materials.Curriculum developers must plan the curriculum based on real and valid data gathered from investigating students’ attitude towards the course presented in the high school. Two instruments are employed in the current study. The first one is Mathematics Attitudes Scale (MAS, Aiken, 1985; 2005) which has been modified based on the Social Studies Course. This instrument contains 28 items and four subscales (Enjoyment, Important, Motivation and Fear). The second one is Exam Anxiety Questionnaire (Abulghasemi et al., 1375). The data was collected from 300 male and female high school students of Isfahan.The reliability of Mathematics Attitudes Scale in this study was found to be 0.77. The results show that there is a negative correlation between students’ level of attitude towards social studies course and exam anxiety. The results of the study also revealed that there is no significant difference between male and female students with regard to their attitudes and anxiety levels in social studies course.

Counterfactual analysis is concerned with explaining events that have not happened.Counterfactuals are mental experiments through which one can reconstruct hypothetical versions of the history in one’s mind; these versions are relatively different from the real history, but provide one with the opportunity to test historical hypotheses against the available evidence.Historicist researchers in social sciences often aim to account for certain results in few cases. In this paper it is argued that such historical accounts are usually based on counterfactual analysis. In other words, to study the causal chains in the past or to evaluate an historical account, one has no way but to resort to counterfactual reasoning. Four types of causality in historical explanations namely necessary and insufficient, sufficient and unnecessary, necessary and sufficient, and unnecessary and insufficient and their relationship with counterfactual analysis are elaborated. In counterfactual analysis, the sequences and interconnected causal factors are used to account for interconnected historical events that unfold in time and space. Finally, the significance of counterfactuals for testing causal hypotheses in social science studies which are of an historical nature is discussed.

Taking both work and family roles in society simultaneously results in role conflict. This conflict may prevent one from performing each role effectively and this in turn may provoke serious work-family conflicts. Usually there are more expectations for women concerning domestic and family affairs. The current study, applying Merton’s theory, Good’s theory and social support theory investigates factors affecting work and family role conflict among Kerman employed women.The instrument used for data gathering in this survey is questionnaire. Participants of the study included 400 employed and married women who had children. The results showed that nearly two third of women have experienced work-family conflicts at some level. Variables like women educational level, traditional domestic division, and family expectations have a positive correlation with the level of conflicts experienced in family life. However, variables like age, work experience, number of children, family and work support have a negative correlation with work-family conflicts. The results of regression analysis show that sharing household duties, family support, job expectation, work experience and work supporting explains the 0.334 variance observed in the dependent variable.

The aim of the current study is to investigate the role of organizational anomie concerning the existing relationship between university faculty member’s attitude towards oneself, managers, co-workers and students with organizational citizenship behaviors. Population of the study includes Isfahan university faculty members from which 387 members (160 female and 227 male) were chosen randomly. Research instruments were: faculty members’ attitude scale, organizational anomie scale and organizational citizenship behaviors scale. The data was analyzed using moderated hierarchical regression analysis.Results showed that organizational anomie moderated the relationship between attitude towards coworkers, attitude towards one’s job, attitude towards students and attitude towards oneself with organizational citizenship behavior toward organization. Also organizational anomie moderated the relationship between attitude towards coworkers, attitude towards bosses as a person, attitude towards position of bosses, attitude toward one’s job and attitude toward oneself with organizational citizenship behavior toward coworkers.Finally, it was found that organizational anomie moderated the relationship between attitude toward bosses as a person and attitude toward one’s job with organizational citizenship behavior toward students.

The history of mankind is intertwined with war. What distinguishes man from other creatures is his ability to dominate and capture the nature; he accomplishes this though using his rationale and making tools which set the ground for production and accumulation of capital. To protect his benefits and accomplish his desire for dominance, man creates weapons which become more developed parallel to other tools. The industrial societies produce and trade weapons to empower their economy; they create job opportunities, metal industry and armory which are all involved in the process of weapon production. The scientific and technologic developments help political organizations to compete for gaining more power and to dominate the world; this leads to the production and expansion of weapons of mass destruction.The international treaties and plan for the elimination and controlling these weapons has not resulted in the prevention from or even reduction of wars. On the one hand, the suggestion put forward by antiwar parties i.e.changing social structures is not enough. On the other hand, theories which render any attempt to prevent from war as useless are challenged and can be criticized.