mohammad esmaeil riahi

The change in lifestyle is affected by modernity and increased awareness which has caused the increased tendency of women to be present in public and urban spaces. Using a qualitative method and a phenomenological strategy, this study sought to investigate women's socio-cultural problems and limitations in urban spaces of Tehran. The sample consists of 35 women between 20 and 67 years old living in Tehran in 2021 who were interviewed by visiting several crowded points in the north, south, east and west of Tehran. Purposive sampling with maximum dispersion has been applied. According to the results, the social-cultural problems and limitations of women in connection with urban spaces in Tehran are the feeling of insecurity in urban spaces, the appearance of poverty and lack of vitality in urban spaces, the non-recognition and acceptance of women in the public spaces of the city, people-oriented spaces , the objectification of women in terms of sex, the presence of unpleasant male behaviors, family restrictions on the presence of women in urban spaces, gender norms, structural restrictions on the presence of women in some public spaces and the use of certain vehicles and values ​​and norms of noble woman, affected by economic and cultural capital and district of residence, as well as work and transportation. In addition, women react differently to the obstacles and limitations. By resisting the facing challenges in urban spaces, women seek to achieve creative and effective civic activism. In order to realize this objective, institutions such as families and education shall act to change attitudes and gender relations and develop the culture of acceptance of women in public spaces.

The purpose of this research is to investigate the type of attitude and behavior of married women who have extramarital relationships from the perspective of rational choice theory.

The research method was a survey and the data collection tool was a questionnaire. The validity of the research tool was confirmed through content validity, and its reliability was confirmed through Cronbach's alpha. The research population consisted of 87 married women from Behshahr, Babol and Babolsar cities in 1400 who had extramarital relationships. The theoretical framework of the research, the rational choice theory and the independent variables of the research, were derived from this theory. The non-random sampling method was snowballing type. The type of attitude towards extramarital relationships was investigated in three cognitive, emotional and behavioral dimensions.

The results of the research showed that 35.6 percent of the respondents have an average attitude, 33.3 percent have a positive attitude, and 31 percent have a negative attitude towards extramarital relationships. Also, among the variables of the theory of rational choice, the variables of pleasure-excitement and utilitarian need had a significant relationship.  The independent variables of the research were able to explain 72.6% of the changes in the dependent variable of extramarital behavior and 50.3% of the changes in the dependent variable of attitude towards extramarital relationships.

The meaningfulness of the pleasure-excitement variable means that by increasing the motivation of pleasure and excitement, curiosity, freedom and adventure in new relationships, the positive attitude of married women towards extramarital relationships increases and the commission of extramarital behavior increases. Also, the significance of the utilitarian need variable means that if the costs of extramarital relations are less than its benefits and the costs are long-term and ineffective, the probability of committing it increases. Examining and explaining the attitude towards extramarital relationships and extramarital behavior based on the choice theory is one of the innovations of this research.

In this study, it was sought to achieve a typology related to women's activism in urban spaces of Tehran using a qualitative approach with the phenomenological strategy. Data was collected using in-depth, semi-structured interviews and field observations. Purposive sampling with maximum dispersion was utilized. The sample consisted of 30 women living in Tehran who were interviewed by visiting several crowded points in the north, south, east and west side of Tehran. Data was analyzed using Thematic Analysis. According to the results, women's activism in the spaces of Tehran were classified into economic, social, cultural, sports and leisure activism and dramatic and abnormal activism. Women's activism in each of these areas varied according to their social, economic, and cultural status and capital. Results suggested that the existing structure in urban spaces of Tehran has caused women to be creative and active in some areas, such as leisure activities as well as in relation to the type of clothing and behavior in urban spaces despite the pressures and restrictions. Also women's activism is passive and more in line with the existing structure of some areas like economic domains. However, increasing women's presence in various domains of urban spaces can be the basis for many changes and transformations, which demands structural and cultural changes and changing attitudes towards the status of women, recognition of their capabilities and giving attention to their needs and desires in urban spaces of Tehran, also creating conditions for healthy employment and women's active and creative activism in various spaces of Tehran.

Today, we are facing the widespread and increasing influence of social media in various aspects of people's lives, as well as the occurrence of crime and deviant behaviors in the context of these media. Considering the network structure of social media and the possibility of accessing a huge amount of social data in the last decade, we have seen the increasing interest of researchers in various fields, including social sciences, to use big data and network analysis. Despite the acceptance of this approach by sociology of deviance and criminology abroad, we are facing a lack of such studies in the country. The purpose of this article is to introduce Marvin Krohn's network theory, the application of the network analysis approach, and the use of big data in explaining social deviance in the context of social media.

This paper is a review article and the research method is documentary.

After reviewing concepts such as big data and social media, referring to deviance and crime in social media, the application of big data and network analysis in criminology and sociology of deviance is discussed. Considering the theoretical weakness in the current empirical literature, Marvin Krohn's network theory in the field of sociology of deviance is described as a framework that has the ability to overcome this deficiency. Some suitable tools for collecting, analyzing, and visualizing social media big data are introduced.

The integration of the three fields of sociology of deviance by providing theoretical support, network analysis, and big data can be of great help in describing, explaining, and controlling deviant and criminal behaviors in social media. Therefore, it is suggested to establish interdisciplinary cooperation in domestic universities among researchers of social sciences, computer engineering, computer sciences, and data sciences.

“Collective action” is the capacity and communicative quality of those social actors that fulfill individual determinations through collective determinations building on the understanding and commitments related to the role. As such, they trigger the institutional change resulting in development through incentivizing the political will to accept the “public good.”Centered around the concept of “collective action,” the present study rejects the general arguments in the analysis of the lack of development of the press in Iran that aim at presenting top-down solutions. It contends that the absence of institutional agency via press syndicates, which can be made possible with the participation of all media practitioners, is the missing link of the underdevelopment of the press in Iran.This study covers the time period after June 1997 up to June 2022. The data required were gathered through the conduction of in-depth narrative interviews with journalists as well as building on textual sources and data available in written forms. For data analysis, the narrative analysis method has been used through a thematic model for thematization. Drawing on the mixed purposive sampling method, an effort has been made to ensure compatibility sampling to achieve representativeness.The results signify that in press syndicates, “antagonizing” connections with other power centers are replaced by relationships with the “co-workers” that often eliminate the possibility of a consensus for taking essential steps and furthering impactful collective action, or significantly minimize such possibilities.Also, the unsustainable development processes of the press, especially in associations and syndicates, lack the “effective connection of the constituents” that hamper the institution-building of the collective action. Identity-oriented and professional resources are not attached to material resources, and as such cannot result in “hegemonic actions” and the emergence of institutional agency required for solidifying the development discourses.

Social capital has potential effects on reproductive health and childbearing behaviors. However, there is limited information about its relationship with childbearing.

This study aimed to explore female healthcare providers' experiences of childbearing based on the social capital theory.

This qualitative study was conducted from July 2018 to February 2019 on 15 female healthcare workers in healthcare centers in Babol City, Iran. The participants were purposively recruited with maximum variation respecting their age, work experience, educational level, and occupation. The study data were collected through 15 semi-structured interviews and analyzed using directed qualitative content analysis.

The participants were female healthcare providers working in hospitals or healthcare centers of the University of Medical Science. Their mean±SD age and work experience were 35±8.25 and 10±7.5 years, respectively. The extracted codes during data analysis were grouped into three predetermined main categories, namely structural social capital (social learning and conformation to social norms), cognitive social capital (social beliefs and values with three subcategories, namely religious beliefs, gender preference, and social stigma), and relational social capital (support and trust). The most critical factors affecting participants' childbearing behaviors were trust in their support systems and conformation to social norms.

The different dimensions of social capital can affect childbearing behaviors. Therefore, social capital should be considered when designing population and reproductive health policies.

This study aimed to investigate social and cultural factors affecting students’ attitudes toward violence against women. This study was conducted using a survey method among 400 male students of public universities in Mazandaran province who were selected based on stratified probabilistic sampling method and using theories of Liberal Feminism and Social Learning. The results revealed that the majority of participants (72/5%) had a negative, more than 26% of them had a medium, and more than 1% of them had a positive attitude toward violence against women. Also, the results of multiple regression analysis show that the independent variables of perceived norm qualities of significant others, traditional attitudes towards women, perceived reaction qualities of significant others, perceived rewards, and traditional marital role expectations, respectively have the greatest impact on the dependent variable. In general, the results confirm the propositions of the theories of liberal feminism and social learning and they show that the issue of violence against women and the attitudes toward it, is not inevitable, rather it is created under the influence of the structure and ideology that governs society and the social ties of the individual with those around him and the rewards and punishments he receives during his actions.

Many sociological studies in the area of stress have been due to the classic article of Pearlin (1981).The conceptual model presented in this paper has affected the sociological research of the last three decades and is a kind of reference model applied to research on mental health disparities.

The research was conducted the survey method. By using the stratified sampling, cluster sampling and systematic sampling, the number of 742 people was chosen as the sample size. The population of the study is all students of secondary school of Mazandaran province (2018-19).The date for this survey are collected by questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS and LISREL.

The results indicate that the highest levels of stress (primary and secondary) that students have experienced is associated with the component of deprivation & underreward and structural constraints. Also, the highest amount of chronic stress is related to the element of threats and Deprivation & underreward. From other research results, moderating variables have an effective role in moderating the relationship between stress and outcome (depression and anxiety) that have been significant. In explaining depression and anxiety: students in public and Magnet schools are more likely to be subject to stress sources that threaten their depression and anxiety.

The aim of sociological studies is to explain the relationship between social status and mental disorder; and the focus of these studies is the classical literature of Pearlin (1981) that describes the main elements of the stress process model. Each of the aforementioned model elements has been highly studied in recent years and has different sub - sections; this paper explores the detailed descriptions of its elements in response to the question that due to the stress process model (Sources, Moderator, Manifestation, and Social Context), the mental health differences can be identified. Generally, the most important positive aspect of the social stress process approach is its preventative property as the stress process model is a vehicle for explaining mental health differences and in other words, these models explain the differences in a meaningful way.

The aim of the present study is to investigate the effects of exposure to gender stereotypes on women’s unequal position in family. The theoretical framework of this research is a combination of theories, such as Rigeway and Michell’s gender stereotypes, Fiske’s two_dimensional sexism, Oakley, Gelenn and England’s inequality gender and Burgess and Borgida’s gender streotypes. A survey method has been used in this research and data have been collectedusing a researcher-made questionnaire. The statistical population included 364 female students of University of Mazandaran, selected through stratified sampling method appropriate to the volume. The results of the study showed that about two thirds of the respondents (%63) were exposed to moderate and high (high and very high) unequal position in their parents' families. A comparable percentage of married respondents (%63.5) had also experienced moderate and higher levels of unequal status in their married life. Furthermore, regression analysis of the data showed that the variables of marital status (with beta coefficient of 0.68), exposure to gender stereotypes (0.28), and behaviors based on gender stereotypes (0.15), respectively, were the strongest predictors of the unequal position of women in the family.

the present research, have been aimed to study amount of the experience of sexual harassment of employed women in the workplace and the social analysis of the causes of sexual harassment. Independent variables of the analytical model, which following to explain the main dependent variable of the research (the amount experience of women sexual harassment in the workplace), are amount of diagnosis as a suitable target, the amount of the presence of the motivating subject and the absence of protection. In this research, the theory of Routine activities has been used as a theoretical framework and has been surveyed by a questionnaire tool among 400 women working in hospitals in Karaj. The descriptive results of this study show that 67% of respondents experienced at least one occurrence of sexual harassment (verbal and non-verbal) at work. It was also found that the proportion of non-verbal disturbances (such as Hayes's look, etc.) was slightly higher compared to the verbal disturbance (reverberation, etc.).The results of regression analysis show that, in general, the combination of three variables: the motivational subject (male colleague of the hospital), the appropriate target (female hospital staff) and the lack of protection (poor monitoring in the hospital) of 0.573 with the variable of experience Sexual intercourse has been correlated with women and has been able to explain and predict 33% of its fluctuations. However, in terms of beta, the strongest predictor variables for the degree of sexual harassment at the workplace were, respectively, the presence of motivating agents (beta 0.536), the rate of detection as the appropriate target (0.436), and lack of protection (0.104). Thus, according to the results of this study, the amount of experience of sexual harassment of employed women in the workplace was greater among those women who, on the one hand, had some demographic and personal characteristics that made them more suitable for the victim of harassment Sexual orientation, secondly, at work, there were men who had more motivated men to engage in sexual harassment, and, thirdly, at work there was not enough organizational and personal protection to prevent sexual harassment. This result suggests that the theory of routine activities is predictive of sexual harassment in the workplace.

Sociologists attempt to discover social patterns on the generation and distribution of mental health and disorders as they believe social structures of societies such as inheritance and biological features definitely restrict individuals’ behaviors. The stressful experiences leading to mental disorders could be associated with the social structures surrounding individuals as well as the position that they occupy in social structures. Accordingly, social structures can be classified into two general groups: the social stratification system (class, race, gender, ethnicity, and age) and social institutions (social statuses and roles) (Pearlin, 1989).In this regard, examining the social status and role of students who study at universities, seminaries and religious schools with the purpose of identifying their impacts on students’ mental health and disorders, can be considered an important subject in sociology. It appears that given the different social statuses and roles of university and seminary students, their diverse educational backgrounds in seminaries (religious sciences) and universities (nonreligious sciences) as well as being exposed to various stressors, examining the effects of the received stress by these two groups and understanding the moderating variables in this relation (social support and religiosity) could offer a valuable opportunity to observe the direct and indirect impacts of religiosity as a social variable on regulating stressors and, ultimately, the condition of their mental health and disorders. The theoretical model used in the present inquiry is Leonard Pearlin’s stress process model. Within the framework of sociological studies on mental health, this theoretical model is an attempt to describe and explain the causes behind the occurrence and prevalence of mental disorders resulting from stress, which itself is influenced by social environment. Pearlin et al. (1981) believe that social stress process could be considered a combination of three major conceptual realms including: 1) Stress sources (such as life accidents and life’s chronic pressures); 2) Stress mediators and moderators (such as social support, coping strategies); and 3) manifestations of stress (within a range of microbiological layers of stress to emotional manifestations and extrinsic behaviors). Subsequently, Pearlin (1989 & 1999) completed his social stress theory so as to incorporate in his model the “social context” in which the stress process takes place (Riahi & Rahbari, 2014). In line with the application of this theory, it could be stated that as university and seminary students occupy their particular different statuses in the former and the latter, playing their particular roles, they could be exposed to various stressors and tolerate different levels of stress (stress sources); this, in turn, could result in the students and seminaries’ suffering from a variety of mental disorders which could reduce their level of mental health (stress consequences). Nevertheless, the stressors related to the status and role of being a university/seminary student can be moderated through mediating factors (sources of coping with stress). In this study, religiosity and social support were examined and tested as the mediating and moderating factors, respectively, for the effects caused by the stresses of being a university/seminary student on the students’ mental health. The present inquiry is a quantitative study conducted as a cross-sectional research using the survey method. The total population of the study included the entire students (undergraduate or above) of various majors in Humanities studying at public, Azad, and Payam Nour universities in addition to seminary students (level two or higher) in Qom, Iran. Out of the total population of 56237, four hundred individuals were selected as the sample population using stratified sampling with disproportionate allocation.Standard scales were used in order to measure the independent and dependent variables of the study. Subsequently, Goldberg’s general health questionnaire containing 28 questions (GHQ-28), multidimensional scale of perceived social support (Zimet et al. 1988), life stress questionnaire (Thomas et al. 1993) , and religiosity evaluation model (Seraj Zadeh, 1998) based on Glock and Stark, (1965) (made compatible to Islamic religiosity) were employed to evaluate and operationalize variables of mental health, social support, stress, and religiosity. According to the descriptive findings, 60.9% of respondents were identified as seemingly suffering from mental disorders (69.9% and 52.6% for university and seminary students, respectively), while 59.9% involved high levels of religiosity (36.7% and 81.8% for university and seminary students, respectively). The results obtained from path analysis using regression coefficients denote the highest general impacts of variables namely; stress (beta coefficient of 0.643), social roles of university/seminary students (-0.261), social support (-0.146), and religiosity (-0.077) on mental health, respectively. As a result, it can be predicted that the highest extent of mental health were observed in respondents who were less stressed, seminary students, received more social support, and more religious. 5. ConclusionAccording to the main hypothesis of the study based on Pearlin’s stress process theory, the occupation of social statuses by university/seminary students and playing the roles related to such statuses could, directly or indirectly (through mediator and moderator variables), result in differences regarding their levels of mental health. The results obtained in the present study which represent the difference between the respondents’ level of mental health and demonstrate a better mental health in seminary students compared to university students confirm the stress process theory; accordingly, when playing the social roles related to their social statuses, individuals (seminary students compared to university students) are primarily exposed to a lesser extent of stressors while having access to different extents of sources to cope with mental pressures (social support, esp. religiosity). In this case, i.e. receiving less stress on one hand and having access to more sources of coping with stress on the other have led to a reduction in seminary students’ vulnerability against mental pressures compared to university students, ultimately enhancing the former group’s extent of mental health.

The workplace social capital is one of the important features of clinical work environment that improves the productivity and quality of services and safety through trust and social participation. Evaluation of workplace social capital requires a valid and reliable scale. The short-form workplace social capital questionnaire developed by Kouvonen has long been used to evaluate the workplace social capital. To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the questionnaire among a group of female Iranian health care workers. The Persian version of the short-form questionnaire of workplace social capital was finalized after translation and back-translation. 500 female health care workers completed the questionnaire. Then, the content validity and the construct validity of the questionnaire were assessed. The reliability of the questionnaire was assessed by Cronbach's α, θ, and McDonald's Ω. The construct reliability and ICC were also evaluated. Based on the maximum likelihood exploratory factor analysis (n=250) and confirmatory factor analysis (n=250), two factors were identified. The factors could explain 65% of the total variance observed. The model had an acceptable fit: GFI=0.953, CFI=0.973, IFI=0.974, NFI=0.953, PNFI=0.522, RAMSEA=0.090, CMIN/DF=2.751, RMR=0.042. Convergent and divergent validity as well as internal consistency and construct reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed. The Persian version of Kouvonen workplace social capital has acceptable validity and reliability. The questionnaire can thus be used in future studies to assess the workplace social capital in Iranian health care workers.

The main objective of the study was to investigate the simultaneous effects of social structures and learning processes on the attitude towards honor killings. This study is cross-sectional and conducted using survey method. The population of the study consists of all men and women over 18 years of Marivan in Kurdistan province that 384 of them have been selected by applying Cochran's sampling formula as the final sample. Using cluster sampling method, researcher made questionnaire, distributed among the respondents and required data were collected. The theoretical framework of the study is the Social Structure - Social Learning (SS-SL) of Ronald Akers. The results of the study indicated that 19.4 percent of respondents have a positive attitude towards honor killings (27.6 percent of men and 5.3 percent of women), while the attitude of 38.2 percent (28.1 percent of men versus 55.6 percent of women) were negative. In addition, the analytical results showed that the social learning variables are the most powerful and important predictors of attitude toward honor killings. Among the structural factors, variables such as feeling of gender inequality, the acceptance of patriarchal beliefs, and religiosity, are the most important predictor variables of attitude toward honor killings. The findings support the theory of Social Structure- Social Learning (SS-SL), indicating that the impact of structural variables on attitude toward honor killings, are mediated by social learning variables.

Medical malpractice lawsuit can persuade physicians to be more careful in practice but each file may have many adverse consequences for doctors and patient and society. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of medical malpractice lawsuit on doctors and their practice.
This qualitative study conducted by Problem-centered interview and convenience sampling. Participants were 15 physicians who were summoned to Dispute Resolution Council. After declaring the informed consent, a Semi-structured interview was conducted with each doctor. Data was analyzed by encoding and categorization.
Psychological consequences include anxiety and depression; professional effects include time loss and absence from work, social consequence like loss of reputation, family members’ concern were the deleterious effects of complaints against physicians. Also changing the practice to defensive medicine is an important consequence of complaints.
Patient’s complaint can lead to Psychological and social consequences for physicians. Also it can result in defensive medicine that doctors avoid of admitting high risk patients and impose medically unnecessary costs to patients. Investigation of patient's complaints in preliminary expert commissions and before calling doctors to judicial authorities can help reduce these problems.

This study evaluates the sociological approaches on gender differences in shaping and strengthening the depression of men and women. The key research question of this study is how do gender roles lead to varying levels of depression among married men and women? Theoretically, this study is based on a combination of the theories of role, power and gender, and self-silence. The research findings discussed in this article are based on a survey conducted in Tehran City. It includes a sample of 720 married men and women aged 20-45 years old. Generally speaking, the research results indicate the key fact that the level of depression varies substantially by male and female gender roles. This suggests that female gender roles increase the likelihood of being depressed, whereas male gender roles protect people against depression. Furthermore, the results show that the levels of self-silence and depression are positively and directly correlated.

There has been violence against females since a long time ago in different communities irrespective of social status, religion and race. Street harassment is a form of violence against females by strangers outside of the family in public places. It is one of the obvious aspects of sexual harassment in the public in which women are sexually humiliated. This type of violence leads to various negative consequences for both victim women (such as increasing physical and mental disorders) and society (deprivation of women’s aptitudes and capabilities). Regarding to the fact that most of researches in this field have investigated on the domestic violence which implemented by males (husbands) the street harassment has been neglected. In spite of the slump of the academic circle in the past decades, street harassment has been highly considered in recent years. Although many researchers in different countries of the world recognized the importance of this problem and therefore it is now the subject matter of numerous studies. In spite of high prevalence of street harassments in our country, a few studies has been conducted in this regard yet. However, the findings of some studies in several cities such as Tehran, Mashhad, Kerman, Gorgan, Shiraz and Sanandaj point out that the street harassment is been spread in Iran. The objective of this research is social analysis of the street harassments toward females as well as their passive reactions to it.
The study is done by implementing quantitative method by using survey. Statistical population of the study is 6399 of the female students of Mazandaran University which 362 students have been chosen by stratified random sampling method. Data has been collected through self-administered questionnaire and data were analyzed by SPSS software.
The rates of victims of street harassments as well as the passive reaction to these harassments were considered as dependent variables. These variables measured with an investigator-made scale based on 22 and 18 questions, respectively. The reliability coefficient for two above mentioned scales were 0.890 and 0.760 which are indicating high internal consistency of these scales. Furthermore, acceptance of gender roles stereotypes, acceptance of patriarchal values, and social learning of passive reaction has been treated as independent variables. To analyze the collected data, SPSS has been applied.
Findings: The findings of the study indicated that the respondents mainly were young girls (average age 22.1 years old), residents of dormitories, unmarried, and undergraduate students. These respondents mainly belong to low and medium socio-economic status families. Furthermore, 97.4 percent of respondents experienced one type of street harassments during last yare, while 14.1 percent of them reported daily street harassments. Patterns of harassment show that harassers were mainly young men (under 29 years old) which harassed their victims mostly in the places such as streets, parks and markets at the time of between evening and night.
According to the findings of the study, the street harassment is happening in the different times and places irrespective of the age of the victim women. Moreover, acceptance of patriarchal values may cause to more passive reactions by victims. These findings are in line with radical feminist theory which emphasize on the process of female monitoring by male. Radical feminist theorists aim to analyze the men violence against women, and try to unveil the fact that patriarchal values conceal men violence against women, hide it, or inculpate women for being under violence. In this theory point of view perpetration of violence against women and women's passive reaction toward sexual taunts shows that women are suppressed in a patriarchal system.
Furthermore, the rate of “acceptance of sexual role's stereotypes” by young girls and women in this study had no impact on the passive reaction toward the street harassments. According to Pearson's correlation test there is a significant and positive relationship between the “acceptance of sexual role's stereotypes” and passive reaction to the street harassments. But, the results of multiple regression analysis show that as acceptance of gender role's stereotypes increase, the rate of passive reaction to the street harassments will not increase and people who act based on their sexual role’s stereotypes do not have more passive reaction in comparison with the other respondents because those females, who are affected by masculine hegemony in society, have passive reaction toward the street harassments. It seems that believing in the sexual role’s stereotypes or not, could not overcome the patriarchal structure.
In addition, it has been concluded that the social learning of passive reaction to street harassment from family, friends and peers, is effective on the passive reaction of females to street harassments. This might be, to some extent, due to complexity of human behaviors especially in regard to sexual affaires. In the other words, female reactions to street harassment might be under the influence of many factors which cant be reduced to factors like observation and imitation. Seemingly, between the learning process- as a first step- and the incidence of behavior -as the final stage-, numerous factors and conditions might intervene as moderate and mediate factors. It seems that in this study, the girls who learnt passive reaction to street harassment from their families and friends mentally, may behave differently depending on the time and place of harassment.

One of the features of society and even the human nature is to seek safety and comfort in religion. Fear of death and sufferings, make humans in need of faith in God. As one of the most important social institutions in formulating meaning of life, religion has always had a special place. It is a social as well as divine phenomenon, and as it is mentioned in the holy books, it is sent to save humanity from life's difficulties and tragedies. According to the socio-cultural structure of Iranian society, religious identity has a prominent place among other forms of identities (national, ethnic, gender, etc.). With the development of communication technologies and the emergence of mass media such as newspapers, television and cinema, different aspects of our social activities are affected by these phenomenon. Indeed, it is an agreed-upon fact that in the cotemporary world, the formation of our personality and social identity has been assigned to mass media. In this regard, television has undoubtedly a prominent position. According to Giddens, the advent of television strongly influenced everyday-life patterns, because many people adjust their activities around certain television programs. The entrance of television into Iranian society is almost a new event, but even in this short time, its deep and lasting effects on social relationships and the Iranian-Islamic identity can be seen clearly. The TV provide us with an overall framework and attitude towards social life, and influence our social identity, specially our religious identity. Due to its importance in providing this framework, we need to evaluate its consequences and impacts on social relationships. From this perspective, not only is the TV a mere entertainment provider, but also an active information and communication tool which has lasting effects on reproduction of culture and collective identity of the society. Thus, any study of television effects on religious identity is important. In addition, to identify the rate and type of television usage among students as a young group of society, and its relation to their identity, can help planners and policy makers to design strategies and policies specifically for this group. Because of the complexity of the issue, to examine the effects of television on religious identity, it seems that only one theory is insufficient to explain the issue completely. Therefore, a combined theoretical framework was used in this study to explain the effects of television, on religious identity. The main objectives of this study were to ascertain: 1) the students’ religious identity, 2) the rate and type of television consumption as a cultural commodity, and 3) and the relationship between rate and type of television consumption with religious identity of students. The study has been conducted via survey method. Research population included 12962 formally enrolled students of Mazandaran University, of whom 373 individuals were selected by means of multi-stage cluster sampling method, to fill a self-administered questionnaire. A 14-item scale is used to measure the rate and type of television consumption. Also, a 4 dimensional scale with 26 items was applied to measure religious identity (the dimensions being theological, experiential or emotional, outcome and ritual). The pre-test of final questionnaires was done in two stages among 100 respondents. Finally, all gathered data was analyzed using SPSS software.Discussion of Result & The findings of the study indicate that in general students have a high level of religious identity. However, there are some variances as one considers different levels of religious identity by its four dimensions for example, the highest and lowest reported scores belonged to theological (average of 4.61 out of 5) and ritual (average of 3.63) dimensions, respectively. Also, research findings on the rate of television consumption indicate that the status of television consumption among students is at a moderate to low level (average of 2.37 from 5). Furthermore, a considerable number of students (7.5 percent) never watch television. As explained in the Cultivation Theory, as a low-consuming audience of television, students watch TV in a selective and programmed fashion, only for 2 or less hours per day, but the usage of other media, especially the Internet, is higher among them. When Students consume television as a cultural commodity, they try to be "active", which means they try to interpret the content of the received program "actively". It seems that using other mass media (the Internet, books, magazines, etc.), and lack of access to the TV, and/or reluctance to watch national television programs, are responsible for this low level of TV consumption among students. This finding would be more important if one notice that according to sociologist's views (e.g. Giddens), today television could have very serious effects on daily-life patterns. One of the important findings of the present study is that it seems that along with increase in the consumption of national TV among students, the level of religious identity also tends to increase. This finding must be paid attention to by policy makers. Another important result of this study is the content of the programs watched by students as well as their effects on their religious identity. Entertainment and leisure programs (average of 3.29 from 5) were the first favorable programs while the least are those oriented towards religious issues (average of 2.23). The results of this study indicate that a reconsideration of the quality and quantity of religious programs on national TV is important in strengthening student's religious identity. On the other hand, this will have a great influence on the outcome dimension of religious identity. The findings suggest that higher levels of consumption of different TV programs can be effective on traditional religious identity of students. Therefore, filling the leisure time of individuals, especially young students, by television programs, could be seen as an effective strategy to be regarded by the relevant authorities. In fact, working on the quality of television programs and make them adjustable with the need of society, especially young students, is an important way to protect religious identity.

The present study aims to describe the rate of premarital skills among daughters of Martyrs and Veterans in Mazandaran Province، as well as to identify the impact of parents’ marital skills on their girls’ skills. The universe of the study is all of single، older than 15 years old girls whose fathers were martyr or veteran. 366 young girls have been selected as a sample of the study via two-steps proportional random sampling method. Descriptive results indicate that rate of premarital skills is less than expected level (9. 4 out of 20 score). However، these girls were more skilled in communication and anger control skills، as well as problem solving than marriage expectation and fertility skills. On the basis of regression analysis، rate of premarital skills among young girls can be predicted significantly (R2= 0. 45)، by independent variables، such as receiving direct education on marital life from parents، being younger girl، having higher education level، having richer fathers financially، and observing less negative behaviors of their fathers at home. These findings imply on necessity of invest on the teaching of premarital skills to young girls، especially in order to regulating their marriage expectation and increasing fertility knowledge.

Infertility is a twofold phenomenon: biological as well as psycho-social. Therefore، following the infertility diagnosis by others، one might anticipate the psycho-social consequences. The present study seeks to examine some of the psycho-social consequences of infertility among a sample of infertile men and women in Yazd and also explain gender differences in this regard. The study is conducted via survey method; and data has been collected through questionnaire. The subjects of the study were 360 men and women who have been referred to Yazd’ Infertility Center and selected by means of simple random sampling method. The results of the study show that no significant gender differences were observed in the negative consequences of infertility among infertile men and women. However، there were significant gender differences in such variables as; coping styles with infertility-related stigma، isolation caused by infertility، self-image due to infertility، and perceiving Important Others’ view concerning him/herself.

This study seeks to explore the emerging tendency of young people to join in new mysticisms and explain some of the social factors associated with these trends. Applying the survey method and the Questionnaire to implement data collection, the 400 students through a two-stage were selected as respondents in random. The results show that more than 18 percent of students have a strong tendency towards new mysticisms, while only less than 10 percent of them have a weak tendency towards these mysticisms and the rest (72%) of the average has middle orientation. The data show that the highest levels of spiritual trends emerge among young students, especially the Lour (lor) and Turkish ethnicity, and also some higher social classes. In addition, gender differences are also reported in mysticisms emerging trends that based on its greater tendency to mysticism for girls. Finally, it was found that young people who have a higher religious adherence and ethnic identity, less have inclined to mystical sects.Based on these findings we suggest that besides awareness to the youth about spiritual sects we should pay special attention on strengthen and consolidate of the foundation of religious ethnic identity of youth.

The main purpose of this study is to describe gender differences in body image and to explore the influences of some socio-psychosocial factors on it. The study has been conducted via survey method and data has been collected by self-administered questionnaire. The present statistical society was all students of the University of Mazandaran in 2010. Overall, 360 students were selected through availability sampling as the final research sample. Descriptive results of the study show a significant gender difference in the body image satisfaction, that is to say that women or men are more dissatisfied bodily.Moreover, analytical results indicate that; such variables as appearance orientation (body investment), body embarrassment, body surveillance and self esteem variables could significantly presuppose the level of body satisfaction among total sample. However a substantial gender difference has been witnessed in influencing body shame variable. In other words body shame variable, in addition to body investment and self esteem- as components of self objectification variable- are predicting factors of body satisfaction among women (and not men), illustrating the severe effects of social expectations from ideal body of the females and internalization of them compared to men. Furthermore, there is a gender difference in the level of body investment, signifying that young females compared to males, report greater investment on their bodies and engage in extensive grooming behaviors. Finally, students with a sense of self esteem had greater sense of satisfaction over their body image.

Watching Television and soap operas, is one of the most important activities of most people, particularly women, worldwide. There are various motives for watching T.V, such as obtaining serenity and entertainment, filling up the leisure hours, forgetting daily problems, and gaining information. The present study seeks to study the dimensions of satisfaction obtained from watching T.V soap operas by women. It also aims to find out the social correlations of obtained satisfaction, as well as their probable inter-correlations. The study utilizes Survey method, and data is collected through questionnaire along with interview. Since the “Use and satisfaction”, is the theoretical framework of the study, four-dimensional model of McQuail (including; gaining personal identification, achieving information, establishing social interactions, and obtaining serenity and entertainment) is applied to measure motives of watching (or sought satisfaction) and obtained satisfaction. Motives of watching and obtained satisfaction are considered as dependent variables and measured by investigator-made scales, on the basis of the McQuail model as well as previous research. Some social factors (such as level of education, employment status, socio-economic status-SES-, and rate of watching) are considered as independent variables. To measure the validity of the scales, Content Validity is applied and Alpha Chronbach is used to calculate reliability of the scales. The overall reliability coefficients for motives of watching and obtained satisfaction scales are. 661 and. 911, respectively; indicating strong internal consistency of the scales. The sample study consists of 383 married women residing in Isfahan city within the age range of 20 to 54 years old. SPSS (version 16) software is employed to analyze the collected data. Descriptive findings of the study indicate that slight majority of women have low education and income; while the great majority of them are married and housewives who belong to low SES families. The analytical findings of the study show that the strongest and weakest motives of watching soap opera for women are gaining personal identification and obtaining serenity and entertainment, respectively. On the other hand, the highest and lowest satisfactions which women obtained are the establishing social interactions and achieving information, respectively. Furthermore, there are significant correlations between different dimensions of sought and obtained satisfaction. Finally, the mean of watching motives and obtained satisfaction decreased in contrast with increasing level of education and SES. It seems that the women in this study reinforce their cultural and religious values, acquire socially accepted values, recognize and improve their social and familial status, and explore realities (which are used as criterions to measure gained personal identification) via watching soap operas. However, the subtle analysis indicates that although “gaining personal identification” was the strongest motive of women for watching soap opera, but they reported slight satisfaction in this regard. It appears that soap operas are mostly amusing and establish social interactions rather than inform and give personal identity.

The main purpose of this study is to explore the correlation between religion and mental health. Therefore, using some socio-psychological theories, the study seeks to investigate the relationships between religiosity, religious orientation, perceived social support, and optimism with mental health of university students. The study has been conducted via survey method and data collected by self-administered questionnaire. The universe of the study was 7083 undergraduate students of the University of Mazandaran. Overall, 405 students were chosen through proportional stratified random sampling method as subjects of the study. The descriptive results of the study showe that on the basis of GHQ-28, 55/7 percent of the students recognized as having proper mental health, while 44/3 percent of them suspected to mental disorders. In addition, almost 60 percent of the students reported high degree of religiosity and religious orientation of majority of them was external. Moreover, two-thirds of the students enjoyed middle optimism and more than half of them, perceived high degree of social support. Furthermore, the results of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) show that mean numbers of mental health was significantly different by degree of religiosity, internal religious orientation, degree of optimism, and degree of social support. Applying multivariate regression analysis, however, it has been appeared that the degree of students’ mental health was under direct influence of such variables as perceived social support, degree of optimism, and internal religious orientation; while external religious orientation and degree of religiosity had indirect effects on the degree of students’ mental health, through increasing social support and optimism. The implication of the study is that internal religious orientation is the most effective factor to improve the mental health of students, as compared to degree of religiosity and external religious orientation.

Over the past two centuries, the rapid socio-economic transformations along with substantial advances in medicine have resulted in decrease of mortality rate, the significant increase of life expectancy, and the growth of the population aging. In despite of the increased proportion of elderly in the recent periods, their status has significantly decreased. Elderly in the traditional societies had high levels of mastery and authority, especially power, wealth, and prestige. In the light of these assets, they were able to play the vital role in both family and society. However, experiencing rapid changes in the society and family at the present time, the status of elderly is no longer as high as before. The falling trend of elderly's status in the modem societies has resulted in the formation of such stereotypes as elder are not able to take part actively in society. It is important to find exact responses to such questions as whether elderly are useless? and how society can profit their potential and actual abilities? In this regard, the first step is the investigation about roots of decreasing status of old people in the modem world. Overall, the literature review shows that the followings are amongst the most important factors affecting the status of elderly in the modem societies: the decreasing importance of traditional values to control social interaction, the increasing role of mass media and new forms of information technologies to transfer knowledge and science, the decreasing demand to elderly' participation in economic activities, the substantial decreasing in the family size and the emergence of nuclear family, the decreasing responsibilities and duties of family as a social institution, the increasing trend of women employment, the increasing generational gap, the increasing value of youth and beauty, and changing the architecture of residences. Since aging is a multidimensional phenomenon, every effort to empowerment of elderly and increasing their status is necessitated to coordinate and cooperate of all social, economic, political, legal, and medical institutions.