فهرست مطالب

Avicenna Journal of Neuro Psycho Physiology
Volume:4 Issue: 3, Aug 2017

  • تاریخ انتشار: 1396/07/17
  • تعداد عناوین: 6
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  • Khatereh Vojoudi , Mahnaz Akhavan Tafti*, Molouk Khademi Ashkzari Pages 79-86
    Background
    Dyslexia refers to a kind of learning difficulty, a combination of strengths and weaknesses which affects the reading and spelling learning process.
    Objectives
    The aim of current research was to develop an instructional package based on visual spatial abilities and examine its efficacy on the reading performance of students with dyslexia.
    Materials and Methods
    This is a quasi-experimental study with pre-test, post-test design and control group. The statistical population included dyslexic students in the elementary schools of Hamadan City, Iran in the academic year 2016-2017. The sample size was 60 students that were randomly selected and assigned to the experimental and control groups (n=30 in each group). This study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of an educational package based on visual-spatial abilities in reading performance of dyslexic students. To achieve this aim, we designed an educational package based on visual-spatial abilities presented in 10 forty-minute sessions. Before training the package, the experimental and control group were taken a pre-test of reading abilities and the same test was repeated after receiving the package training. The data gathering tools were reading and dyslexia tests. The covariance test was used to analyze the research data.
    Results
    The result indicated that the intervention was significantly effective in the subscales of words reading, word chain, word comprehension, text comprehension, and naming of the images. The results also showed that the educational package was not effective in other areas of reading, including rhyming, reading the non-words, removing the voices, marks of letters, and words.
    Conclusion
    Based on the results, the visual-spatial package was effective in improving the reading skills of dyslexic students.
    Keywords: Visual spatial processing, Reading performance, Dyslexia
  • Surur Ezatian *, Mohammad Ahmadpanah Pages 87-94
    Background
    Ego-defense mechanisms are automated ordering processes to reduce cognitive abnormal and contort perceptions of threatening events. Defense mechanisms are divided into different groups in terms of their relationship with psychosocial maturity. In the psychoanalytic system, each mental disturbance is related to certain incompatible defensive mechanisms. Early maladaptive schemas are emotional and cognitive patterns which are formed since childhood and duplicated across life. Alexithymia is the inability to cognitively process emotional information and emotion regulation. Individuals with alexithymia overexpress normal body massages, misinterpret symptoms of emotional arousal, and show emotional distress through physical complaints. Therefore, alexithymia is a multifaceted structure.
    Objectives
    To  examined the relationship among early maladaptive schemas, alexithymia and ego-defensive styles of students in two universities of Iran.
    Materials and Methods
    This correlational study was conducted on students of Azad and Payame Noor universities in Shahindej City, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran in 2017. The study population included all students of Azad and Payame Noor universities in this city. Of them, a total of 306 students were chosen by the multi-stage cluster sampling method. Three questionnaires were used for data collection. These questionnaires were the early maladaptive schemas questionnaire, ego-defensive styles questionnaire, and alexithymia questionnaires. The collected data were analyzed in SPSS V. 20.
    Results
    There is an inverse relationship between early maladaptive schemas and ego-defensive styles (0.023). There is an inverse relationship between early maladaptive schemas and alexithymia (0.016). Alexithymia of male and female students was different (0.000). But the early maladaptive schemas and the ego defense styles are the same (0.404). Early maladaptive schemas and the defensive styles of university students are different. But the alexithymia was the same (0.753).
    Conclusion
    Our findings indicate that early maladaptive schemas can act as the foundation of emotional and behavioral tendencies and defensive styles in students.
    Keywords: Early maladaptive schemas, Alexithymia, Ego defensive styles, Azad, Payame Noor University
  • Naser Mohammad Gholi Mezerji , Parisa Naseri , Zohreh Omraninezhad , Zahra Shayan* Pages 95-102
    Introduction
    Sleep disturbances are a significant public health issue and such problems are associated with a number of psychiatric disorders. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) is an effective instrument frequently used to evaluate sleep style and quality.
    Objectives
    The present study aimed to assess the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the Persian version of PSQI.
    Materials and Methods
    This cross-sectional study was conducted on 1115 citizens of Arak City, Iran aged 18-60 years. They were selected by stratified random sampling method from different parts of the city. The following aspects of the Persian version of PSQI were evaluated to assess its validity and reliability. To assess the validity of the content, the questionnaire was sent to a panel of 15 academic members consisting of experts in the fields of psychology and health education. The internal consistency of the PSQI questionnaire was evaluated by the Cronbach alpha coefficient and item-scale correlation. To investigate the factor structure of the PSQI, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was performed with a 2-factor solution and varimax rotation. The extraction of principal factors was performed after varimax orthogonal rotation and Kaiser’s criterion. At last, Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was applied to assess the reliability of the PSQI questionnaire. All analyses were performed in SPSS V. 16.0 and AMOS for Windows.
    Results
    The Persian version of PSQI was evaluated in the study with regard to its internal consistency and factor structure. The result showed excellent item content validity index (≥0.78) and excellent scale content validity index (≥0.90). The result of the Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.65. The factors of perceived sleep quality and sleep efficiency were extracted by means of factor analysis and these two factors explained 51.75% of the total variance. Confirmatory factor analysis results show the model’s satisfactory fitting based on adequacy criteria goodness of fit index, goodness of fit index adjusted for degrees of freedom, root mean square error of approximation, and comparative fit index. The non-normed fit index was close to its reference value of 0.90.
    Conclusion
    In general, findings suggest that the Persian version of PSQI displayed satisfactory validity and reliability to measure the quality of sleep of Iranian people, at least citizens of Arak City, Iran.
    Keywords: Sleep, Psychometrics, Reliability, validity, Factor analysis
  • Mohammad Ahmadpanah , Saeed Mosavi , Mohsen Dallband , Mohammd Zandi , Majid Saleh , Marzieh Nazaribadie* Pages 103-112
    Introduction
    Considering the increasing number of rhinoplasty applicants, lack of information regarding the psychological characteristics of these applicants, and specific cultural, social, and religious features in Iran.
    Objectives
    the present study aimed at assessing the psychological characteristics of rhinoplasty applicants.
    Materials and Methods
    This study was performed on 137 rhinoplasty applicants (surgery group) and 167 people reluctant to perform surgery (control group). After obtaining the subjects’ informed consent, the questionnaires (including standardized and normalized tests of quality of life, self-esteem, body image, and general health) were distributed between the surgery and control groups (before and after the operation). The obtained data were analyzed in SPSS.
    Results
    The general health of both male and female in the control group was far better than those in the surgery group. Life quality scores in the surgery group were significantly lower at some indices compared to the control group. Positive body image scores of the control group exceeded those of the surgery group. Also, there was a significant difference between the studied groups in terms of general health such that its scores were higher in the control group.
    Conclusion
    Based on the findings, cosmetic surgery applicants have more psychological problems than people uninterested in cosmetic surgery.
    Keywords: Rhinoplasty, Psychological individuality, Quality of Life, Body image, General health
  • Nasrin Lotfi, Hajilo , Mohammad, Kazem Zarabian*, Parvaneh Ghodsi , Mohammad Mahdi Shamsaei Pages 113-120
    Background
    Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is the most common personality disorder in psychiatric settings but it still presents with some ambiguities in its symptoms, etiology, individual, and social consequences.
    Objectives
    The purpose of this study was to compare the severity of BPD symptoms, defense mechanisms, and coping styles among men and women with this disorder.
    Materials and Methods
    This is a cross-sectional study with two study groups conducted in Hamadan Province from March 2018 to June 2018. The simple random sampling method was used to select the study subjects. The sample included 27 men and 27 women with BPD who were referred to the offices of 3 psychiatrists during the study time. The study variables included the severity of Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms assessed based on Borderline Personality Disorder Severity Index (BPDSI) and mature, immature and neurotic defense mechanisms assessed based on the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-40) and coping styles of emotional, problem and avoidance-focused assessed based on the Coping Inventory for Stressful Situations (CISS) questionnaire among women and men with this disorder. The obtained data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and t-test for independent groups and Mann-Whitney U test in SPSS V. 24.
    Results
    The results indicate that the severity of BPD in male patients is significantly more than women (U=199, P<0.05) and men significantly use the immature (t=4.88, P<0.05) and neurotic defense mechanisms more than female patients (U=58, P<0.05), but the mature defense mechanisms less than women (t=-5.54, P<0.05). Male patients also significantly use more the emotional-focused (t=6.73, P<0.05) and the avoidance-focused coping styles (U=125, P<0.05), but less the problem-focused coping style compared to female patients (t=-3.47, P<0.05).
    Conclusion
    While, the prevalence of this disorder is more reported in women, the severity of symptoms, and use of immature and neurotic defense mechanisms and emotional and avoidant-focused coping style in men is more than those in women suffering from this disorder. The reason for this finding should be investigated in future research.
    Keywords: Symptom assessment, Defense mechanisms, Coping style, Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD)
  • Amir Keshavarzi , Marzieh Nazaribadie*, Mohammad Ahmadpanah , Ali Ghaleiha Pages 121-128
    Introduction
    The likelihood of doing risky behavior such as drug use, high-risk sexual behavior, and adjustment problems in youth period is high. The present study aimed to investigate the prevalence of risky behaviors among first-year medical students.
    Objectives
    In this research, we intend to study the extent of risk behaviors based on demographic variables among medical students of Hamadan.
    Materials and Methods
    This cross-sectional study was carried out on all first-year medical students (498 females and 292 males) of Hamadan University of Medical Sciences in the academic year 2016-2017. The study data were collected by the Iranian Youth Risk-Taking Scale (IYRTS).
    Results
    The mean scores of risky driving (2.86) (53.60%) and sexual relationship/attitude (2.43) (48.60%) were higher than other high-risk behaviors while the mean scores of drug use (1.33) (26.60%) and drinking (1.57) (31.40%) were lower than other risky behaviors in medical students. Results of the Chi-square test indicated that the risky behaviors in males were significantly higher than those in females (P<0.05). The results of 1-sample t-test indicated that the prevalence of risky driving, violence, smoking, drug use and drinking in Hamadan medical students is less than average, and the sexual relationship and attitude among these students is at moderate level (P>0.05). The relationship between age and education with risky driving was negative and statistically significant. The violence was positively related to drinking and smoking. The sexual relation, attitude, and drinking statically significant.
    Conclusion
    Since some sorts of risky behaviors among students are prevalent, it seems logical to inform adolescents and youth about such high-risk behaviors and related health issues.
    Keywords: Risky behaviors, Demographic characteristics, Students