جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « ego strength » در نشریات گروه « پزشکی »

Stroke is the second leading cause of death in the world. The aim of this study was to compare anxiety sensitivity, defense styles and ego strength in patients with stroke of Educational and Treatment of Valiasr in Zanjan city and healthy people in Zanjan.

The current research is descriptive-comparative. The statistical population of this research included stroke patients hospitalized in the Stroke Care Unit and Neurological Department of Educational and Treatment of Valiasr and healthy people in Zanjan city in 2019. In the present study, 280 people (140 people with stroke and 140 healthy people) were included in the study by non-random and convenience sampling method, with homogenization of age, gender and marital status. Data collection instruments included demographic questionnaire", "Anxiety Sensitivity Index", "Defense Style Questionnaire" and "Ego Strength Scale". The validity of "Anxiety Sensitivity Index" and "Defense Style Questionnaire" were sufficient for previous studies. For "Ego Capability Scale", the content validity index was evaluated by Waltz & Bausell method. The reliability of "Anxiety Sensitivity Index" and "Defense Style Questionnaire" were calculated by internal consistency method by calculating Cronbach's alpha coefficient and "Ego Empowerment Scale" was calculated by Kuder-Richardson method. Data analysis was performed in SPSS.24.

The two groups (patient and healthy) differ in terms of the components of "anxiety sensitivity index" with a significant level of value (P<0.01) and stroke patients have a higher mean. In the "Defense Style Questionnaire", stroke patients with a significant level of level (P<0.01) had a higher mean than healthy individuals in all three styles of development: immature, immature and neurotic. Also, the mean ego power in patients with stroke and healthy individuals did not differ significantly and both groups were moderate.

Anxiety sensitivity, defense styles were significantly different between the two groups of stroke patients and healthy individuals, and stroke patients had a higher mean, but in terms of ego strength, both groups were moderate. It is suggested that psychological interventions be used to prevent the consequences of this disease.

Mentalization capacity is necessary for empowering students in interpersonal interactions and consequently obtaining future success, and for this reason, it is necessary to know its correlates, Therefore The purpose of the current research was to investigate the mentalization based on attachment styles, Ego strength, Object relations and Pattern of anxiety manifestation in students.

Methods and Materials: 

The research community was formed by the students of Isfahan National University and Azad University in 2022, according to the latest reports, their number is 35161. Based on Cochran's formula, 380 students were selected as available. The research tools were Attachment Styles Questionnaire (ASQ), Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strengths (PIES), Bell Object Relations Inventory (BORI), Anxiety Manifestation Patterns Questionnaire and Reflective Functioning Questionnaire (RFQ) which were completed individually by students. Data analysis was done by multiple regression analysis using the twenty-sixth version of SPSS software.

The results showed that secure and ambivalent attachment styles as well as ego strength can significantly predict students' mentalization capacity. (p<0.05).

Therefore, in order to improve students' mentalization, it is necessary to pay attention to secure and ambivalent attachment styles as well as ego strength.

Considering the wide range of duties, nursing job requires psychological strength at a suitable level, so the present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy(ACT) and paradox therapy(PTC) on the ego strength of nurses working in Military medical centers, Tehran.

The research method was a semi-experimental type of pre-test - post-test with a control group. The statistical population consisted of all 125 nurses who met the criteria for entering the research working in different departments of one of the military medical centers in Tehran in 1401. Based on this, 45 people were randomly selected and in the next step, they were randomly assigned to three groups of 15 people in two experimental and one control groups. In this research, Man Besharat's strength questionnaire (2017) was used. People in the acceptance and commitment therapy group participated in 8 individual 60-minute sessions and the paradox therapy group participated in 6 individual 60-minute sessions; But for the control group, there was no intervention, multivariate covariance analysis and Tukey's post hoc test were used to analyze the data.

The findings showed that the acceptance and commitment therapy and paradox therapy have an effect on the ego strength of nurses working in Military medical centers in Tehran. But paradox therapy is more effective than acceptance and commitment therapy on ego strength.

This research provides practical implications for psychologists and counselors regarding the greater impact of paradox therapy on ego strength.

Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is one of the digestive diseases that is associated with psychological causes, and dynamic treatment can play an effective role in improving psychological symptoms. Therefore, the present study aimed to determine the effectiveness of intensive and short-term dynamic therapy on alexithymia, defence style, and ego strength in patients with IBS.

The research method was quasi-experimental. The research population was all IBS patients referred to internal clinics in Andimshek in 2022. Thirty people were selected by convenience sampling and randomly assigned into experimental (15 subjects) and control groups (15 subjects). The experimental group received dynamic therapy for fifteen 90-minute sessions, while the control group did not receive any intervention. Two groups were evaluated in three stages using the Alexithymia, Defense Styles, and Ego Strength Questionnaires. Data were analyzed using two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The average scores of defense styles, alexithymia, and ego strength before the intervention were 72.25, 58.36, and 24.08 in the treatment group, and 72.12, 59.16, and 23.52 in the control group, respectively (p>0.05), but after the intervention, the average scores of ego strength showed a significant increase in the treatment group compared to the control group, while defense styles and alexithymia significantly decreased (p<0.001).

The results of the study indicated the effect of intensive and short-term dynamic therapy on the improvement of psychological symptoms in the experimental group. With caution, it is recommended to use this intervention as a complementary treatment for irritable bowel syndrome.

 Headache is one of the most common medical complaints and a debilitating neurological disorder in neurological clinics that affects the organization of patients' personality; Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of short-term and intensive emotional-oriented therapy on personality organization and ego strength in women with tension headaches.

 This study was a semi-experimental method with a pre-test, post-test and two-month follow-up plan with a control group. The target population was all patients with tension headaches who referred to the specialized neurology clinic in Tehran in 1401. The sample size was determined by referring to Cohen's table. In this way, at the confidence level of 95%, the effect size was 0.30 and the statistical power was 0.83 for each group of 12 people. However, since there was a possibility of some samples falling and also in order to generalize the results, the sample size was determined to be 15 people in each group. In the first step, 45 people were selected by available sampling method, and in the second step, these 45 people were replaced in 2 experimental groups (15 people) and a control group (15 people) in a simple random way (by lottery).

  The results of the study indicated the effect of the emotion-oriented method and intensive and short-term dynamic psychotherapy on the dimensions of personality organization and ego strength in tension headache sufferers (P≤0.001) and the effectiveness of both methods was similar (P≥ 0.05)..

 According to the results, specialists active in the psycho-physical field, especially tension headaches, can consider the use of emotion-oriented methods and intensive and short-term dynamic psychotherapy in the treatment of these people, along with other treatments.

Psychosomatic diseases are physical diseases that are caused by psychological factors, the most important of which are chronic colitis, high blood pressure, heart and coronary artery diseases, and finally tension headaches. Headache is one of the most common medical complaints and a debilitating neurological disorder in neurological clinics that affects the quality of life of patients. Severe headache can affect people's way of doing work and personal and social life and leave a negative impact on the quality of life in the long term, and intensive and short-term dynamic treatment can play an effective role in improving psychological symptoms; Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of determining the effectiveness of intensive and short-term dynamic therapy on intensive and short-term psychodynamic therapy on quality of life and ego strength in women with tension headaches.

This study was a semi-experimental method with a pre-test, post-test and two-month follow-up plan with a control group. The target population was all patients with tension headaches who referred to the specialized neurology clinic in Tehran in 1402. The sample size was determined by referring to Cohen's table. In this way, at the confidence level of 95%, the effect size was 0.30 and the statistical power was 0.83 for each group of 12 people. However, since there was a possibility of some samples falling and also in order to generalize the results more, the sample size was determined to be 15 people in each group. In the first step, 30 people were selected by available sampling method, and in the second step, these 30 people were replaced by simple random (by lottery) in an experimental group (15 people) and a control group (15 people).

The mean and standard deviation of the age of the experimental and control groups were 43.40 ± 3.92 and 44.07 ± 4.49 years, respectively (P=0.669). The results of the t-test of two independent samples regarding age and Fisher's exact test regarding gender, education level and marital status showed that there is no statistically significant difference between the experimental and control groups (P<0.05). The average quality of life scores And ego strength before the intervention was 72.25, 24.08 in the treatment group and 72.12, 23.52 in the control group respectively (p<0.05), but after the intervention, the average scores of ego strength and quality of life in The treatment group showed a significant increase compared to the control group (p<0.01). Mauchly's sphericity showed that the assumption of sphericity was maintained in the data for all three components of quality of life (P=0.358, χ=3.56), ego strength (P=0.055, χ=16.05). Therefore, the assumed sphericity test was used. Box's M test was used to evaluate the equality of covariance matrices, according to the results for quality of life variables (Box's M=3.051, F=1.572, P=0.514), and ego strength (Box's M=4.179) , F=3.260, P=0.508) was established. The results of the intergroup test indicated that the difference between the experimental and control groups was significant in terms of average quality of life (P=0.008) and ego strength (P=0.024). The results of intragroup test (period) indicate that the difference between the average quality of life (P<0.001) and ego strength (P<0.001) is significant. In other words, the difference between the average scores of the dimensions of quality of life and ego strength in the three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up in the entire research sample is 67%, 78%, respectively, and is significant. Also, the results of Table 4 show that the interactive effect of group and time on quality of life and ego strength variables is significant (P<0.001), which indicates the effect of the intervention on increasing the average scores of quality of life variables and Ego strength in the post-test and follow-up stages in the experimental group is higher than the control group. The findings of the research showed that intensive and short-term dynamic therapy has led to the improvement of tension headache patients in the ego strength index. In the treatment to experience emotions, we "build the capacity of the ego" so that they do not use defense mechanisms in order not to experience negative emotions through defending. In fact, by building my capacity for the patient, we help him improve and we do this by bringing the patient closer to his feelings without using defense mechanisms. In fact, creating a feeling of mastery over emotions by challenging defenses in the treatment process improves the patient's condition and consequently improves his quality of life. The inability to regulate emotions is rooted in the early years of life and failure in the internalization process has the characteristic of "self-care" of parents. The ability of self-care is a psychological capacity and one of the functions of the ego. This capacity protects the person from harm and leads to the guarantee of survival. Self-care capacity includes the ability to measure reality, judge, control, the existence of anxiety with the function of warning the person and the ability to make logical conclusions and inferences. Self-care capacity is created through parent-child interaction and parental support and affection in the early years of childhood. Since people with tension headaches lack these internalizations, they have problems in the ability to take care of themselves, maintain self-esteem, and regulate communication. In fact, failure in self-care and self-regulation causes painful and confusing feelings in the person and brings heavy psychological suffering to the person.

The results of the present study indicated that the use of intensive and short-term psychodynamic therapy is effective on quality of life and ego strength in women with tension headaches. Based on this, it is recommended to use intensive and short-term psychodynamic therapy to reduce the increase in the quality of life and increase the strength of the ego in people with tension headaches, and along with other treatment methods, this intervention can be used in psychiatric clinics.

 Although pain is necessary for the continuation of life, this phenomenon often loses its warning and adaptive role and causes various problems. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to design and test the prediction model of adaptation to pain based on attachment styles and ego strength with the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Tehran in 2021.

 In this descriptive study conducted by correlational method, the statistical population included all patients with rheumatoid arthritis in Tehran in 2021. 300 patients were selected from the pain clinic of Imam Hossein Hospital by convenience sampling method and answered the questionnaires of Attachment Styles, Ego Strength, Cognitive Emotion Regulation, and Multidimensional Pain Inventory. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

 The results of structural equation modeling showed that the coefficients of the direct path of attachment styles (β=0.61, p<0.001) and ego strength (β=0.89, p<0.001) to the adaptation to pain were significant. In addition, attachment styles and ego strength had an indirect effect on the adaptation to pain with the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation. 

 The results of this study reveal that attachment styles, ego strength, and cognitive emotion regulation can directly and indirectly affect the perception of chronic pain and ultimately the performance of patients with rheumatoid arthritis, and on the other hand, play a dynamic role in adapting to chronic pain. These results can be used in designing preventive and interventional programs of chronic pain.
Key words: Adaptation to pain, Attachment styles, Ego strength, Cognitive emotion regulation, Chronic pain, Rheumatoid arthritis
Funding: This study did not have any funds.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of personality organization, job stress, and ego strength on predicting audit quality in auditing organizations and independent audit companies.

 The statistical population of this study was all auditors of the audit organization with 191 individuals and independent audit companies with 208 companies, which included at least three auditors in 2019, and finally 815 people were studied. Using a random sampling method 261 individuals were selected. For data collection, the standard questionnaires of Audit Quality, Inventory of Personality Organization (IPO), Job Stress Questionnaire, and Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strengths (PIES) were used, which were designed based on a five-point Likert scale. 

 The research results showed that the variables of personality organization (0.425) and ego capability (0.222) had a positive and significant effect on the audit quality of auditors of independent audit companies and job stress (-0.505) had a significant and inverse impact on the audit quality of auditors of independent audit companies.

 The quality of auditors’ audits can be predicted according to personality organization, ego strength, and job stress of auditors, which can be used in the performance of stock exchange companies as well as other investment companies. The research findings can present new topics in professional associations for training courses.

 Spinal cord injury involves damage to the spinal cord that results in temporary or permanent changes in movement, senses, and or the autonomic functioning of the spinal cord. Compared to the general public, patients with spinal cord injury face significant restrictions in various psychological aspects. Given the problems of these patients, the question is which psychological characteristics may play a role in the mental health and resiliency of these patients. In this regard, ego strength and integrative self–knowledge can be mentioned. As an answer to these patients’ need for improving their psychological capabilities, paradox therapy can be a helpful method. Another therapeutic method that can be useful in improving the psychological state of the patients is reality therapy. Accordingly, the main objective of the current study is to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of paradox therapy and reality therapy on the levels of ego strength and integrative self–knowledge in female patients suffering from spinal cord injury.

The research method was quasi–experimental with a pretest–posttest and a follow–up design with a control group. Using random assignment, the subjects were placed in the experimental (paradox therapy and reality therapy) and control groups. The study population comprised 20–40 years old female patients with spinal cord injury, who were members of the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Tehran Province, Iran in 2019. The sample included 45 female patients with spinal cord injury being treated in occupational therapy centers, and willing to participate in the study. The participants were selected based on a voluntary non–random sampling method. The inclusion criteria were as follows: having a female gender, being single, being between 20 and 40 years old, living in Tehran, passing between 5 and 10 years since their spinal cord injury, not participating in psychotherapy at the same time as research, having paraplegic paralysis or two lower limbs with optimal functioning of the upper limbs, either because of the low severity of the injury or because of receiving rehabilitation. The exclusion criteria were as follows: having a history of psychotic diseases and hospitalization in a mental hospital, experiencing the death of first–degree relatives in six months leading to the beginning of interventions, having chronic diseases, being absent of more than two sessions in intervention groups. The Ego Strength Scale (Besharat, 2007) and the Integrative Self–Knowledge Scale (Ghorbani et al., 2003) were utilized in the study. The statistical analysis was performed at the level of descriptive and inferential statistics based on parametric statistical tests. Regarding the inferential analysis, we used 1–way analysis of variance (one–way ANOVA), the Chi–squared test, and ANOVA with repeated measures were used. Moreover, Cohen’s d was used for comparing the effects of target treatments. The significance level of the tests was set at 0.05.

There were significant group (p=0.011), time (p<0.001), and time × treatment effects (p<0.001) for both ego strength and self–knowledge. Post hoc analysis of simple main effects indicated no significant changes in ego strength and self–knowledge for the control group (p>0.05). Compared to the pretest strage, ego strength and self–knowledge for paradox therapy group (p<0.001) and reality therapy group (p<0.001) showed a significant increase in both posttest and follow–up stages. Additionally, compared to the pretest condition, the effect sizes of both treatment plans were almost the same for ego strength (Cohen’s d=2.6), while the effect size of reality therapy (Cohen’s d=2.37) was higher in the follow–up stage than of paradox therapy (Cohen’s d=1.35). In contrast, the effect size of paradox therapy on self–knowledge was quite higher in both posttest (Cohen’s d=1.94) and follow–up (Cohen’s d=2.10) stages than those of reality therapy (Cohen’s d=0.84 in the posttest and Cohen’s d=0.72 in the follow–up).

Paradox therapy and reality therapy are effective in improving deep psychological characteristics of 20–40 years old women with spinal cord injury, i.e., ego strength and integrative self–knowledge. The role of paradox therapy in improving the integrative self–knowledge of patients must be carefully considered by providers of behavioral interventions.

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common inflammatory rheumatic disease. Due to its chronic course, this disease is debilitating and its chronic pain brings a lot of emotional and psychological stress that produces or aggravate disability resulting from this disease. Pain causes a serious disturbance and challenge to a person's balance at different levels, especially in cognitive functions. Medical, pharmacological, and surgical treatments are insufficient to cure rheumatoid arthritis and other chronic pain situations and have limited effect at best. Therefore, the study of related psychological variables can help improve the treatment processes and ultimately improve the quality of life of these patients. This study aimed to investigate the mediating role of cognitive emotion regulation strategies in the relationship between attachment styles and ego strength with pain adjustment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

This research was a correlational study based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population was all the patients with rheumatoid arthritis, referred to Imam Hossein Hospital in Tehran City, Iran. Of them, 285 people were selected using the available sampling method based on the physician's diagnosis. The inclusion criteria were as follows: diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis by a specialist doctor based on medical records, ability to read and write, willingness to participate in research and respond to questionnaires, pain rate above 3 on the Pain Scoring Scale (von Baeyer, 2009). The inability to answer the questionnaires was considered as the exclusion criterion. Participants responded to the Attachment Styles Questionnaire (Hazan & Shaver, 1987), Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strength (Markstrom & Marshall, 2007), Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (Garnefski et al., 2001), and Multidimensional Pain Inventory (Kerns et al., 1985). The data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling at a significant level 0.05 in SPSS–23 and AMOS–22 software.

The direct effect of the attachment styles variable on pain adjustment was significant (p<0.001, β=0.61). Also, the direct effect of attachment styles on cognitive emotion regulation was significant (p<0.001, β=0.89). Regression weights of the path of the ego strength on pain adjustment were at the level of significance (p<0.001, β=0.93) and also the path of the ego strength on cognitive emotion regulation was at the level of significance (p<0.001, β=0.76). Indirect effect of attachment styles mediated by cognitive emotion regulation on pain adjustment was significant (p<0.001, β=0.89). The indirect effect of ego strength on cognitive emotion regulation mediation on pain adjustment was significant (p<0.001, β=0.76). The fit indices' results indicated the model's confirmation (p=0.415, CMIN/df=3.821, GFI=0.907, RMR=0.610, TLI=0.902, CFI=0.911, NFI=0.937, and RMSEA=0.076).

Since cognitive emotion regulation strategies have both a direct and mediating effect on pain adjustment, they can be used as an important factor in providing psychological services to patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) is one of the traumatic events that has a huge impact on the quality of life, growth and development of the injured patient. Several factors affect mental health in SCI patients, but the most important ones affect different aspects of personality and adaptation, such as ego strength, self-knowledge, depression and stress anxiety. Each set of these factors can be introduced as a path-breaking outcome in improving the psychological state of patients with SCIs. To achieve the desired level in these prominent personality and mood factors, flexible treatment approaches are needed. In fact, beneficial intervention in SCI patients should include features that help them to accept their existing situation, to step forward with strength, to achieve goals and progress, and prevent psychological consequences. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of paradox therapy with the PTC model (Paradox + Timetable = Cure) on ego strength, self-knowledge, and anxiety depression stress in a patient with SCI.

This research method was quasi-experimental with a single-subject design that was performed using the baseline-intervention-follow-up. The study population includes female patients suffering from SCI who were members of the Spinal Cord Injury Association of Tehran Province, Iran, in 2019. They were between 20 and 40 years old with the SCI injury at least five years and at most 10 years earlier. The subject of the present study was randomly selected from 60 female participants, who underwent conventional rehabilitation treatments. She entered the study with written informed consent. The first meeting was dedicated to obtaining informed consent and filling out the baseline questionnaires (pretest). The first treatment session was held one week later. Measurements were performed in the fourth session for the posttest and one month later for follow-up evaluation. Research instruments included Ego Strength Scale (ESS) (Beshrat, 2017), Integrative Self-Knowledge Scale (ISK) (Ghorbani et al., 2008), the Stress Anxiety Depression Scale (DASS-21) (Lovibond and Lovibond, 1995), and Treatment Outcome Subjective Rating Scale (TOSRS) (Besharat, 2003). Descriptive statistics, including the percentage change in posttest and follow-up scores compared to the pretest scores, were used for analyzing the collected data.

The results showed that the PTC psychotherapy model is effective. In the posttest stage, the score of Integrative Self-Knowledge reached 40, which showed an increase by 29%. Ego Strength increased by 15% and reached 77, and each of the stress anxiety depression items improved one score, which is a 24% progress. These changes were maintained during the follow-up period for Ego Strength and increased slightly for Integrative Self-Knowledge (16%) and improved to 29% in the symptoms of stress anxiety.

The PTC psychotherapy model is recommended as a very short-term, simple, effective, cost-effective and flexible approach in treating patients with spinal cord injuries.

Social networks are a new generation of possible new resources, and by using the way they can  allow you  to  do  so, they can  move  in their  own way  in  the  virtual  world  with  your consent,  so  that  they  can  enjoy  different  perspectives.  The  purpose  of  this study  was  to prediction  of  social  network  addiction  based  on  maladaptive  schemas  &  cognitive distortions  by  mediating  family's  emotional  atmosphere  variable  in  students.  For this purpose,  in  a  descriptive  correlational  study,  348  female  students  of  the  Faculty  of  Psychology, Islamic  Azad  University, Karaj  Branch  were  selected  by available  sampling method  and  in  terms  of  social  network  addiction,  early  maladaptive  schemas,  cognitive distortions and emotional atmosphere of the case family were evaluated. The Evaluation of standard  coefficients  of  research  showed  that  the  variable  of  maladaptive  Schemas  was 62% (β = 0.62) and the cognitive distortions were 20% (β = 0.20). The effect of Family's Emotional Atmosphere. It was also found that the family emotional climate variable had a 74% effect on social network addiction (β = 0.74). People with mental-emotional vacuum within  themselves,  with  tendencies  Extreme  social  networks  respond  artificially  to  their vacuum and need.

Psychological well-being as a component of positive psychology is associated with a variety of personal and family factors in psychology such as self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength.

This study was aimed to investigate on prediction of psychological well-being based on self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength in students in Islamic Azad University in Qom city.

Its method was descriptive and type of correlation. The statistical community included all students in Islamic Azad University in Qom city in academic year of 2016-2017, that 350 students (195 male and 155 female) were chose by cluster sampling method. Gathering data tool included Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI), Alexithymia Scale, 4 factors of Catellchr('39')s Sixteen Factors Personality Inventory, and Ryff Psychological Well-being Questionnaire. Data analyzed by using of SPSS-26 software with Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariable regression analysis.

Findings showed that self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength could predict 25/38 variance of psychological well-being (P<0.001). Also there was direct correlation between psychological well-being with self-differentiation and ego strength, and was negative correlation with Alexithymia (P<0.001).

With attention to results the role of self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength in prediction of psychological well-being were important. It can be indicate that high levels of self-differentiation and ego strength, and low level of Alexithymia were salient in shaping of psychological well-being, and with diagnosing and improvement in self-differentiation, Alexithymia and ego strength can expect to promotion in psychological well-being in students.

Emotional distress tolerance is one of the effective components in mental health and It is important to examine the factors that affect it, such as ego strength and perceived social support. This study aimed to the investigate structural relations between, between ego power and tolerance of emotional distress to the mediating role of perceived social support in the woman students of the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery University of Tehran.

The method of this research was correlational research based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population of this study consisted of all students of the first semester of the 98-99 academic year of the Faculty of Nursing, University of Tehran. In this study, due to the number of observed variables and aassign a coefficient of 15 to each variable and considering the possibility of incomplete questionnaire, 280 people By random sampling method were selected. Data collection tools included Perceived Social Support Scale, Ego Strength Scale, and Distress Tolerance Scale. Data analysis tools were SPSS-18 and AMOS-23.

Results of this research showed a significant relationship between ego strength and emotional distress tolerance (r=0.39, p<0.01) and between by perceived social support and emotional distress tolerance (r=0.35, p<0.01). Also, findings confirmed moderating role of perceived social support (B=0.46, p<0.01) in the relationship between ego strength and emotional distress tolerance.

According to the findings, since ego power and perceived social support had a positive effect on emotional distress tolerance, it seems that with their growth and improvement can be used to prevent psychosomatic diseases as well as psychological problems of nursing students.
Keywords: Emotional[S1]  distress tolerance, Ego strength, Perceived social support, structural relations.

The purpose of the present study was to explain the relationship between the quality of object relationships and marriage instability based on the mediating role of ego strength.

The present study was a descriptive-correlational study of path analysis and structural equations. Using available sampling method, 438 couples were selected from couples referring to counseling centers for separation and considering marital instability questionnaires (1997), psychological strength checklist. Ego Strom et al. (1997) completed the Bell Subject Relationship Questionnaire (1995). Path analysis and structural equations were used to analyze the data.

The results showed that the fitness index obtained from confirmatory factor analysis supported the fit of the research measurement model with the collected data. The coefficient of the whole path between the quality of the object relationships and the instability of the positive marriage was significant at the 0.01 level. There was a negative significant relationship between ego strength and marital instability at 0.01 level and finally indirect coefficient of coefficient between object relations and positive marital instability was significant at level 0.01 which indicated ego strength Significant positivity mediates the relationship between object-relationship and marital instability.

Ego strength and the quality of object relationships account for 22% of the variance in marital instability. Ego strength can mediate the relationship between the quality of object relationships and the instability of marriage among divorced couples.

In depression, the afflicted person is in risk of mental breakdown and his mental coherence is endangered. Two important psychological mechanism that seem to be important factors for susceptibility to depression and its continuity are emotional dysregulation and ego strength. This study aims to test the effectiveness of group behavioral activation on emotion dysregulation and ego strength in depressed people. for this purpose, in a quasi‐experimental research design with pretest, post-test and a control group, 30 patients were selected using convenience sampling method and placed randomly in experimental (n=15) or control group (n=15). Subjects in experimental group participated in eight 90 minutes sessions of behavioral activation and the control group waited for one month without receiving any intervention. Emotion dysregulation and ego strength of the subjects were measured before and after the intervention. Multivariable analyze of covariance indicated that when the effects of pretest are controlled, there is a significant difference between the two groups in terms of their average score on emotion dysregulation and ego strength variables. The results of this paper supports the effectiveness of group behavioral activation-based therapy on improving emotion regulation and ego strength.

 Mentalization-Based Therapy (MBT) and Cognitive Analytic Therapy (CAT) are psychotherapy approaches offering specific methods for the treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). Therefore, this study compared the effectiveness of MBT and CAT on improving the ego strength and defense mechanisms in people with BPD.

 This was a quasi-experimental study with a pretest-posttest and a control group design and follow-up stage. In total, 40 men with BPD were selected by purposive sampling technique. The samples were selected from males admitted to Isar psychiatric Hospital and the psychiatric department of Fatemi Hospital in Ardabil City, Iran, in 2018. The samples were randomly assigned into two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received 20 sessions of MBT, and the second experimental group received 16 sessions of CAT. To collect data, we used psychological inventory ego strength and defense styles questionnaire. The obtained data were analyzed using mixed model Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe posthoc test.

 The collected results suggested that both interventions were effective in improving the ego strength and defense mechanisms of people with BPD (P<0.001). However, the effect of MBT on the overall score of the ego strength and the immature defenses was higher than that of the other intervention (P<0.05). Moreover, there was no significant difference in neurotic defense between the two interventions (P>0.05).

The present research results can support the use of these therapies as part of a non-pharmaceutical treatment program in different treatment centers or psychiatric hospitals.