Iranian Journal of Practice in Clinical Psychology
Volume:10 Issue: 2, Spring 2022

Previous research has shown that attentional bias toward game-related stimuli is a significant factor in the etiology, maintenance, and severity of internet gaming disorder (IGD). Therefore, interventions targeting attentional bias toward game-related stimuli can potentially ameliorate this disorder. The present research aims to examine the effectiveness of online Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) training in reducing game-related attentional bias and the severity of IGD in adolescents.

In this quasi-experimental study, 33 adolescents with a DSM-5 diagnosis of IGD were sampled and randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=17) and a control group (n=16). The experimental group received online ABM, while no intervention was delivered to the control group. Attentional bias and IGD severity in these two groups were measured at pretest and posttest phases and then at 2 months follow-up via a modified Stroop test and internet gaming disorder-20 (IGD-20) questionnaire. Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance and Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD) were implemented to analyze the data using SPSS software, version 26.

Game-related attentional bias and the severity of IGD were significantly decreased in the participants of the experimental group (P<0.05). The reductions were also maintained at the 2-month follow-up, whereas such reductions were not evident in the control group at any stage (P>0.05).

Given our findings, it can be concluded that online ABM can be an auxiliary or standalone treatment for adolescents with IGD; further research is necessary to understand its mechanisms of effect.

The Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES) to code the client’s responses and the Process Focused Conversation Analysis (PFCA) to code the therapist’s responses were applied to transcripts of a successful case of integrative psychotherapy of depression.

The method used for the present research was a case study. Dialogues (150 conversations between therapist-client on the basis of meaning) between a therapist and a client in one case with a good outcome were coded and analyzed by two different systems of APES and PFCA.

The data revealed that combining the results of APES and PFCA is a suitable coding system for drawing a client’s change equation. In a pyramid of therapeutic change, questions, skills, and techniques applied by the therapist are located in the base, center, and high level, respectively. Meanwhile, higher APES levels are located at the top of the pyramid. The efficient intervention has to be delineated on the spot and is appropriate for a situation in which the client is at one particular moment. Case improvement has demonstrated that at high levels of APES, level 4 is the critical one.

Setbacks and stagnations are common within psychotherapy and are generally affected by the main topic of the therapeutic conversation.

During adolescence, transformations in the neural circuitry of the brain’s reward system can lead to vulnerabilities that pave the way for involvement in criminal and addictive behaviors. Some mental disorders (e.g., conduct disorder) are more comorbid with substance use disorders because of their unique nature.This study examines the role of anhedonia and low arousal in substance use disorders among adolescents with conduct disorder symptoms.

The present correlational study was conducted in 2021 in Tabriz City, Iran. The participants were 784 adolescents with Conduct Disorder (CD) aging from 13 to 17 years at Juvenile Detention Centers (JDC). After the attrition, 436 adolescents remained. We used convenience sampling for the sampling method. In addition, we utilized the substance abuse scale, the conduct disorder rating scale, the self-assessment anhedonia scale, and the how I feel scale to collect the data. After the ethical approval and signed informed consent, the questionnaires were distributed among participants. After collecting the questionnaires, we entered the data into the SPSS software, version 23, for analysis.

The Addiction Potential Scale (APS) had a significant and direct correlation with physical anhedonia (r=0.226, P<0.01), intellectual anhedonia (r=0.221, P<0.01), social anhedonia (r=0.236, P<0.01), and negative emotion (r=0.211, P<0.01). Substance use increases with an increase in anhedonia. On the other hand, APS had a significant and reversal correlation with positive emotion (r=-0.173, P<0.05), and positive and negative emotion control (r=-0.197, P<0.01), i.e., less positive emotion and weak control of positive and negative emotions lead to substance use disorder among adolescents with conduct disorder.

Impulsive behaviors (e.g., substance use disorder) respond to low arousal and anhedonia among adolescents with conduct disorder symptoms to relieve their negative emotions and strengthen their low arousal.

Allergic rhinitis, as a global health problem, accounts for several psychological disorders, including fatigue, mood changes, depression, anxiety, and disrupted Quality of Life. How people cope with the symptoms of this disease is essential. The present research is pioneering in comparing the QoL, psychological state, and cognitive emotion regulation strategies of patients with allergic rhinitis and healthy individuals.

Aligned with the purpose of the study, 132 patients and 132 healthy subjects were assigned to two groups. Both groups responded to the QoL symptom checklist (SCL90) and a short form of the Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ). One-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was run to make between-group comparisons.

The findings revealed that allergic patients had a lower QoL. Similarly, the two groups showed statistically significant differences in physical health, environmental life, and overall QoL. Clinical symptoms prevailed more in the allergic group compared to the healthy. Also, these two groups differed significantly regarding somatization, interpersonal sensitivity, and anxiety sub-scales. The healthy group used more adaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies (for instance, acceptance and positive reevaluation) than the allergic group. In addition, statistically significant divergences were found in the catastrophizing strategy, which prevailed more in the allergic group. 

Given the present findings, patients with allergic rhinitis have lower psychological health and QoL compared to the healthy population. These unfavorable conditions can result from inefficient use of cognitive emotion regulation strategies that mutually link allergic and clinical symptoms to the patients’ QoL.

Recently, the stability of marriages and the proper communication between couples has become more difficult. Therefore, exploring the impacts of relevant clinical interventions in resolving marital conflicts seems crucial. This study investigates the effectiveness of object relations couple therapy on marital intimacy of divorce applicant couples with high-level borderline personality organization while considering the moderating role of executive functioning.

Using a quasi-experimental design, a sample of 90 volunteers was selected from all couples seeking a divorce and referred to counseling centers in Tehran City, Iran. All participants were screened by Structured Interview of Personality Organization (STIPO). A final sample of 38 individuals with high-level personality organization was randomly divided into control and experimental groups. After dropping the sample, 11 couples remained in the experimental group and 8 in the control group. Participants in the experimental group received 14 sessions of object relations couple therapy, while the control group remained on the waiting list. The Wisconsin Card Classification Test (WCST) and Thompson and Walker’s marital intimacy scale were administered on pre- and post-intervention occasions as well. The data were analyzed by a multivariate analysis of covariance.

Significant positive effects were found on marital intimacy in the post-intervention stage (P<0.001). Significantly, better results were also evident for couples with higher executive function scores (P<0.001).

It could be concluded that object relation couple therapy could promote the marital intimacy of couples with high-level borderline personality organization, and executive functioning could moderate the therapeutic effects.

The role of unconscious factors in the motivational process, both in decision making and education, has increasingly been noticed. The effectiveness of commercial, non-commercial, and educational messages, as well as the structures of educational advertisements in neuromarketing, are discussed because the advertising audience has complex emotions. It is essential to determine the impact of motivational factors. In this regard, the present systematic review study was conducted to identify motivational factors related to the effectiveness of neuromarketing advertising.

In this systematic review study, English full-text articles published on Science Direct, Scopus, Google Scholar, and Emerald databases from 1990 to 2021 were searched with the keywords of “neuromarketing”, “commercial and non-commercial messages”, “ad effectiveness”, “behavior”, and “attitude”. Afterward, the qualified articles were reviewed.

Firstly, 900 articles were identified from different databases, of which 300 met the inclusion criteria. A total of 210 articles were deleted because they lacked experimental studies. Accordingly, 90 articles were selected for the final review. In total, 37 factors were identified related to the effectiveness of advertising in neuromarketing.

The two most influential factors in the research were attention and positive emotions. The greatest emphasis on the effectiveness of advertising is on attention-drawing stimuli and provoking positive emotions. Memory and negative emotions were identified as two other critical factors among the influencing factors.

The present study aims to evaluate the object relations and core conflictual relationship theme in depressed patients while comparing them with normal individuals.

Thirty people with major depressive disorder and thirty normal individuals were selected using the convenience sampling method via structured clinical interviews (SCID-I & SCID-II) and the psychiatric symptoms checklist (SCL-90-R) based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Bell Object Relations Inventory (BORI) and Central Relationship Questionnaire (CRQ) were used to investigate the study variables. The data were analyzed by multivariate variance analysis.

The multivariate analysis of variance showed a significant difference between the depressed and the normal groups in the four subscales of object relationships (egocentricity, insecure attachment, social incompetence, and alienation). Findings of the Central Relationship Questionnaire (CRQ) indicate that depressed patients in all three components of wishes (higher tendency toward aggression and reluctance to intimacy), the response from the other (RO) (perception of significant others being annoying and not receiving love from them) and the Response of Self (RS) (distance and a lack of sense of independence and success) had a significant difference and a higher mean compared to the normal group.

The findings of this study indicated that the style of object relationships and some core conflictual relationship themes in depressed patients is pathological, and these patients can be treated by identifying these styles and themes in therapeutic interventions.

In a world where the phenomenon of job loss is rapidly spreading, the desire to continuously invest in a protean career orientation is essential for it leads to saving human, social, and psychological capital. The purpose of this study is to compare the effectiveness of Schein’s theory-based counseling and constructivist counseling on the orientation of protean career orientations of contract employees of an industrial company.

The current research method was quasi-experimental with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. The participants of the present study included all contract employees of an industrial company, 36 of whom were selected by random sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (12 people in each group). The experimental groups underwent Schein’s theory-based counseling and constructivism-based training for 8 sessions per week. The data were collected using the various career attitude questionnaire and were analyzed by analysis of covariance and the Bonferroni pairwise comparison test.

The findings showed that Schein’s theory-based counseling and the training based on the constructivist approach are effective in shaping various career orientations of contract employees. Also, there is no significant difference between the two types of intervention.

According to the findings of this study, both types of training, depending on the situation, can be used by organizations and industries to increase the orientation of various career orientations of employees.