پژوهش نامه روانشناسی اسلامی
سال دوم شماره 2 (بهار 1395)

Longitudinal quantitative studies show that the level of religiosity in the last decade has been declining in Iran. These findings have some implications, one of which is a need for powerful interventions to improve and enhance religiousness. The present study, in answer to the current need, was done to develop a life skills training package based on Islamic teachings for employing in college context and facilitating the procedure of religiosity among university students. In so doing, using World Health Organization model and Islamic sources, a program constituting of 10 sessions was designed and its effectiveness was investigated in a sample group of 15 students of the University of Tehran. To collect the data two instrument were applied: Religiosity Scale for Students (Khodayarifard et al., 2013) and Positive Thinking Scale (Khodayarifard et al., 2012). The results of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) with repeated measure design showed that the religiosity profile of the group in posttest stage is significantly different from that in the pretest stage. Examination of the between-subjects effects also showed that religious belief and religious affections have significantly increased; however, religious behavior did not change. On the other hand, results showed that there are significantly differences between the two stages (pretest and posttest) in the positive thinking profile of the group has  and its effect size is high. Therefore, we may conclude that it is possible to enhance some components of religiousness by the present program, although some changes needed to be made in the program to pave the ways for promoting “religious behaviors”.

Previous research has shown positive relations of religion, religiosity, and spirituality to happiness, life satisfaction, well-being and mental health. Current study investigates how religion relates to subjective well-being (SWB). This study addresses a causal model of SWB by religion in which religion indirectly through hope, purpose in life, and death anxiety affects indicators of SWB. 472 college students completed the following questionnaires: “Subjective Happiness Scale”, “Satisfaction with Life Scale”, “Rosenberg’s Self-esteem Scale”, “Religious Orientation Scale-Revised”, “Purpose in Life Test”, “Hope Scale”, and “Templer’s Death Anxiety Scale”. Results showed that religiosity scales were positively correlated to happiness, life satisfaction, self-esteem, hope, and purpose in life. Extrinsic personal religiosity was positively related to death anxiety. Path analysis confirmed the goodness of fit of the proposed model. Particularly the mediating roles of hope and purpose in life in the relations of religion to SWB were verified. Theoretical implications of the findings were discussed.

This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Etekak rituals on components of spiritual intelligence, anxiety, depression, and stress among students. All of the 321 students who participated in the rituals were selected as the exper-iment group. The control group, selected through randomized sampling method, consisted of 321 students who did not participate in the rituals. At the beginning of the Etekaf ceremony and after it, all the participants answered to King’s (2008) Spiritual Intelligence Self-Report Inventory and Lovibond and Lovibond’s (1995) Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale. The method of this study was a quasi-experimental one, with pre-test post-test and control group. The results of Multivariate Variance Analysis of differences between pretest and posttest scores indicated that there were increases in all of the components of spiritual intelligence, and decreases in depression, anxiety, and stress of the experimental group, compared to control group.

Data from three studies were conducted in order to identify the possible developmental aspect of religious orientation and its relation to emotional intelligence, general health, and parenting styles. Among the four dimensions of religious orientation, only religious valuation was relate to age, levels of education, and being married. 10 questions constituting the developmental dimension were extracted from the religious orientation scale. Studying the concepts of the questions and the relationship of the extracted factor with other variables indicated that it is possible to name this factor as religion-centered happiness seeking and that it has two subscales: cognitive-effective investment and behavioral investment. The religion-centered happiness seeking is independent of emotional interest, but is directly related to emotional differentiation and effective restructuring and all aspects of general health. The relations of behavioral investment subscale with these variables were stronger the relations of other subscale to them. The accuracy of labeling the abovementioned factor was confirmed through interviews with 5 professional in psychology.

This research aimed to construct and introduce a model of gratitude based on Islamic teachings and to study its effectiveness on life satisfaction. We hypothesized that higher levels of gratitude lead to higher levels of life satisfaction. After looking into Islamic sources and obtaining the components of gratitude, a 6-session training program was designed. 19 male and female undergraduate students from the University of Qoran and Hadith were selected and were divided into two groups of 7 and 12;they were interviewed and answered to  gratitude and life satisfaction scales.  The Group of 7 received the designed gratitude training program and the control group was put into the waiting list to receive the intervention later. Both groups were evaluated in three stages: pre-test, post-test, and follow-up. The instruments used in this study were McCullough and colleagues’ (2002) 6-item Gratitude Questionarie and the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS; Diner et al., 1985). Analysis of Variance was used to compare the two groups. Results showed that participants in the intervention group have experienced significant increase in their levels of gratitude and life satisfaction, which were not found in control group at the pre-test and post-test stages .After 45 days, the increase was still there. Gratitude intervention and training program based on Islamic teachings have a significant effectiveness and can increase people’s levels of life satisfaction and gratitude.

This study aimed at introducing the multimodal model of religious coping based on anger control doctrines. The research method was a descriptive–analytic one and was conducted in religious jurisprudence way. Study findings indicated that analysis of religious doctrines produces two models: multimodal model of coping and single modal model of coping. In the multimodal model of religious coping which is based on “theory-based technical eclecticism”, the cognitive, behavioral, effective, physiological, interpersonal, and spiritual modality were considered. Furthermore, single modal model of coping is concerned with one modality of the multimodal coping and this model applicable to less severe psychological problems. Both coping models are applicable in anger Control. If the emotion anger has more intensity and more duration, the application of the multimodal model of coping is recommended instead of the application of the other model.