Iranian Journal of Practice in Clinical Psychology
Volume:9 Issue: 1, Winter 2021

How people use social rank (dominance vs prestige) could explain different attitudes toward five moral foundations. This study aimed to investigate the differential relationships between prestige, dominance, and moral foundations.

This study was conducted on 150 participants who responded to the moral foundation questionnaire and dominance-prestige scale. 

Multiple regression analysis revealed that prestige was positively associated with four kinds of moral foundations (harm/care, reciprocity/fairness, loyalty/subversion, and purity/sanctity), whereas dominance was negatively associated with harm/care, reciprocity/fairness, and progressivism. Prestige had a stronger association with moral foundations than dominance.

It seems that dominance as a social status seeking-strategy is against any moral foundation, but prestige could increase attention to moral foundations in decision making toward every life issue.

Autism spectrum disorder severely damages children’s social skills, cognitive functions, and emotional self-regulation. This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of drama therapy on the social skills of children with high-functioning autism.

The research design was experimental with a pre-test, post-test and a control group. The statistical population included 120 children with high-functioning autism in special education centers in Isfahan City, Iran. For this purpose, 40 children with high-functioning autism disorder were randomly selected by purposive sampling method and using Morgan’s table. Then, they were assigned to the experimental and control groups. The experimental group received a drama therapy program, and the control group was placed on a waiting list. The children’s instructors completed the Matson social skills questionnaire at pre-test, post-test, and follow-up three months later.

Analysis of the results using repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the drama therapy was effective on the participants’ social skills in the experimental group (P<0.05).

Drama therapy will improve their social skills and performance in this field. Therefore, this study’s findings might be helpful as practical strategies for practitioners in the field of autism.

Considering the negative impact of infertility on the level of adjustment and stress in women, the present study aimed to examine the role of sexual self-esteem and alexithymia in predicting marital stress and adjustment of infertile women.

This research was a cross-sectional study. The study population consisted of all infertile women in Shiraz City, Iran (N=70000). A total of 400 women were selected through a non-random and purposeful sampling method, but the final sample consisted of 380 subjects. The study tools were a short form of sexual self-esteem scale for women, Locke-Wallace marital adjustment questionnaire, Stockholm-Tehran marital stress scale, and Toronto alexithymia scale. The obtained data were analyzed by the Pearson correlation and multivariate regression in the SPSS V. 26.

The results showed a significant negative relationship between sexual self-esteem and marital stress as well as alexithymia and marital adjustment (P<0.01). Besides, the positive relationships between sexual self-esteem and marital adjustment and alexithymia and marital stress were significant (P<0.01). The results of multiple regression analysis demonstrated that alexithymia and sexual self-esteem could significantly predict marital stress and marital adjustment with the standard coefficient of 0.44 and 0.22, respectively.

Alexithymia and sexual self-esteem play essential roles in predicting adjustment and stress levels of infertile women, respectively. Accordingly, difficulty in emotional awareness at first, and then the low level of self-esteem in sexual function can decrease adjustment and increase stress in marital relationships.

This study aimed to predict cognitive emotion regulation and academic achievement based on symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

The present study has a correlational design. The study population consisted of students at the University of Bojnord, Bojnord City, Iran, in the academic year 2017-18. Of these students, 190 were selected by a convenience sampling method. Adult self-report short-form Conners’ scale and cognitive emotion regulation questionnaire were used for data collection. Academic performance was determined by the grade point average. Multivariate regression analysis was used for analysis.

The results showed that hyperactivity and physical problems could predict self-blame, and hyperactivity can predict other blame and rumination. The variables of hyperactivity, impulsivity, and physical problems were also able to predict the catastrophizing strategy. Among the variables studied, only inattention predicted grade point average change.

Thus, the findings of the study suggest that some components of cognitive emotion regulation and academic performance can be predicted based on symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is one of the most severe psychiatric disorders. This study aimed to predict distress tolerance, impulsivity, and aggression based on emotional dysregulation and reward sensitivity among individuals with BPD features.

The study population was undergraduate students of Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran City, Iran, in the academic year 2017-18. A total of 1005 male and female students were chosen based on the available sampling method and were screened according to the personality assessment inventory-borderline scale. Finally, 146 subjects (50 males and 96 females) could reach the second phase of the research, and all of them completed the difficulties in emotion regulation scale, distress tolerance scale, Balloon analog risk task as well as aggression questionnaire. To analyze the data, we used multivariate regression analysis.

Results of the current research showed that emotional dysregulation and its components had a predictive role in distress tolerance and aggression. On the other hand, only reward sensitivity could have an essential role in predicting impulsivity in individuals with BPD features.

This study reflects the remarkable role of emotional regulation mechanisms in distress tolerance and aggression, and in contrast, the role of biological mechanisms such as sensitivity to reward in impulsivity among individuals with BPD features. Furthermore, the present research results can have clinical implications considering both etiology and treatment of BPD patients.

Because of the unwanted effects of the patient’s migraine headaches and the role of excitement and stress in the development and exacerbation of headaches, migraine headaches are psychosomatic disorders that affect the patients’ psychological lives. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) for improving emotional control and reducing the severity of pain in patients with migraines.

A total of 30 patients with migraines referred to Isfahan Al-Zahra Hospital, Isfahan City, Iran, were selected and randomly divided into experimental and control groups. The research instruments included the Emotion Control Questionnaire (ECQ), von Korff’s questionnaire for grading the severity of chronic pain, and the Migraine Disability Assessment (MIDAS) questionnaire. The experimental group received eight 90-min sessions of CFT, and both groups took the post-test after finishing the training sessions. Analysis of the data involved both descriptive and inferential statistics, including mean, standard deviation, Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA), and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). 

The results showed that the training based on CFT had a significant effect on improving emotional control and its subscales (F=21.81; P<0.01), as well as reducing pain severity in the patients (F=17.21; P<0.01). 

Therefore, in treating migraine patients, CFT can be a useful supplementary approach along with medications.

Suicide is a multidimensional phenomenon, and examining each of its dimensions can help control this destructive social phenomenon. This study aimed to investigate meaningless and absurd experiences in people who attempted suicide in Iran.

The present study was conducted using a qualitative-descriptive phenomenology. The participants were selected using the purposive sampling method from persons who attempted suicide and were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Loghman-e Hakim Hospital in Tehran City, Iran, in 2020. The study data were collected via semi-structured interviews. The collected data were theoretically saturated after interviewing 15 participants. All data were also recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using Colaizzi’s seven-step method.

The initial codes identified in this study were categorized into 4 main themes and 22 sub-themes. The main themes were “underlying and revealing causes of suicide”, “outburst of feelings and thoughts before suicide”, “reaction of those around to suicide”, and “the overall meaning of life and a looking at life after suicide”.

This study showed that those who attempted suicide for at least one of the reasons of poverty, lack of financial independence, love failure, and not being understood by parents or the spouse experienced a sense of meaninglessness and absurdity. An awareness of the experiences of people who attempted suicide can help mental health professionals understand its underlying causes and make subsequent clinical and treatment decisions.

Marital conflicts are normal in a couple’s life, and the important thing is how they resolve such conflicts. This integrated therapy plan has been created by considering several theories to reduce couples’ marital conflicts. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a unified protocol based on the McMaster model of the family, compassion-focused therapy, and mindfulness-based therapy on emotional divorce and marital boredom of women with marital conflict.

The present study used a quasi-experimental method with a pre-test, post-test design and a control group. The research population included all women with marital conflicts referred to four selected counseling centers in District 2 of Tehran Municipality, Iran, in 2019. A total of 100 women were selected by a convenient sampling method. Then, they filled out the emotional divorce scale and the marital disaffection scale. They were then randomly assigned to the intervention and control groups (each group with 15 participants). The participants in the intervention group underwent the intervention within a 12-session training package. After the 3 months, the follow-up test was taken. Upon the completion of the intervention, the participants in both groups completed the questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed using multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) by SPSS V. 24 software.

The results indicated a significant difference between the intervention and control groups in terms of emotional divorce (P=0.001, F=57.67) and marital boredom (P=0.001, F=26.80) in the post-test phase. Besides, after 3 months, using Bonferroni post hoc test, it was found that the difference in scores in both post-test and follow-up stages was significant (P=0.005)

The transdiagnostic treatment can decrease emotional divorce and marital boredom of women with marital conflict. This unified model can be applied by family and marriage counselors and other mental health professionals to resolve conflicts between couples.