Iranian International Journal Of Social Sciences
Volume:1 Issue: 1, Winter 2011

The social capital, conceptualized into different aspects, i.e. scope of social relations and level of social trust, was studied among 600 cases of Indian and Iranian students and their parents, in two cities of Chandigarh and Tehran, in India and Iran. The results showed that the scope of social relations in India was higher than Iran. One of the variables which could affect the scope of social relation network was the distance or closeness of the person with his relatives. Normally, in villages or small towns, the relatives live close to each other. It is this closeness factor which results in the increased interactions of relatives and neighbors. Contrary to this, in large or metropolitan cities, the closeness people’s with their relatives is not available to such an extent.

The present study aimed to acquire more specific information concerning the prediction creativity in children from their parental marital satisfaction, intelligence quotient (IQ), and age. In order to examine research hypothesis, it was asserted that parental marital satisfaction is an important predictor on prediction of children’s creativity, 330 students (164 boys, 166 girls) were selected from Tehran (Iran) schools by clustering random sampling. Raven’s Progressive Matrices Test (IQ), and Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) (figural form) were administered among students and Afrooz Marital Satisfaction Scale (AMSS) was administered among student’s parents. All scales reported validity and reliability which were necessary for psychological the questionnaire. The results showed that parental marital satisfaction was the first important significant predictor on prediction of children’s creativity. Also, IQ and age stood the second and third significant predictors. The last part of article has discussed about how these findings have occurred.

In this article, having reviewed studies done through historical and documentary methods, on rural communities, the process of emerging rural studies was analyzed in three groups. The first group included monographs and writings which studied the rural society in general. These studies didn't have theoretical orientation to rural society and could be divided into two categories as general and special. However, monographic reports were of two types. Some of them were supplements to socioeconomic studies that had been conducted in rural areas and others were independent reports. The second group was historical and theoretical studies. They had theoretical orientation, the methodology of which was based on historical documents and historical analysis, and often had been affected by ideological values. The rural studies focused on political dimensions of rural areas and criticized the consequences of land reforms in 1340s (1960s). After the revolution, more emphasis on negative outcomes of land reform and systems of rural exploitation, changes in the systems of ownership, the forces of production, management changes, new social stratification system and changes in the power structure and developmental outcomes of the Islamic Revolution can be traced. The third group of studies had educational orientation. They discussed rural issues in the form of social science academic courses such as rural sociology and rural development. The final section of the article focused on weaknesses, needs, new subjects, problems and the use of new methodologies in rural studies.

This article surveys the effective factors involved in 'sense of unity' among cultural elites in Iran, being a case study on the university professors and seminary Alims. The main questions in this survey are as follows: (1) Today, two decades after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, how strong is the sense of unity among university professors and seminary Alims?; and (2) What factors can boost, or weaken the sense of unity among these two groups? In order to find answers to the questions, an experimental research through giving a questionnaire was conducted. A number of professors teaching at faculties of humanities at Tehran City's state universities and a number of Alims teaching at Qom seminaries answered the questionnaire and each group's answers were compared with the others’. Regarding the first question stated above, it was found that the sense of unity among university professors and religious seminary Alims was at a medium level. In reply to the second question, the important factors involved in boosting the sense of unity were under the influence of such variables as cultural (political) consensus, role consensus, prestige consensus, epistemological consensus, and communication action. All of these variables in various ways had positive effects in boosting the feeling of solidarity among university professors and religious seminary Alims.

The tensions of historical and cultural belonging and relations to colonialism, nationalism and racism in their diverse forms, in general, help in assuming what self-concept America takes for her self- and the way she identifies –recognizes and associates- herself through foreign relations and policies to relate herself and contribute to the rest of the world, or the ‘other’- enable us to imagine what identity America represents at certain eras. Wars for America have always played a significant role in the definition, representation and negotiation of identity and can be understood as global in scope but national in design. The present article traces the qualitative transformation of America’s identity through the study of war trilogy of Civil War, World War I and World War II.

This article explores the interaction between the creativity and environment. Resource orientation characteristics that help in influencing creativity are discussed. Resource orientation refers to making use of persons or things that means achieving person-environment fitness. Resource orientation includes environmental factors, home atmosphere and educational environmental. Environmental factors are related to climate, synergy, political environment, social influences and culture. Home atmosphere also comprises parentchild relationships and birth order. Educational environment contains classroom environment and teacher influence. It seems that factors as climate, political characteristics, culture, home atmosphere, parent-child relationships and birth order prepare an environment to creativity development.

The number of women with professional degrees, occupying high-end jobs and positions has been increasing all over the world. The fact that the number of Iranian women in universities and colleges in the country has been increasing steadily during the past 10 years and more than 60% of all those admitted to the universities and colleges in Iran are women, has caused noticeable increase in labor force participation and professional and high end jobs and positions for Iranian women. This is basically due to cultural, legal and structural obstacles towards women’s employment in Iran, which in turn leads to self fulfilling prophecy of negative outcome in their cost benefit analysis of time, energy and resources spent. This, in turn, debilitates and discourages them to get involved in professional arenas. A national representative sample of 908 university educated Iranian women responded to questions about their experience after their graduation. The results showed a self fulfilling prophecy at work that led them to believe that the time, energy and costs involved were not compensated and they didn’t think that getting a higher professional degree had been a profitable investment for them.

The present paper is an investigation into the phenomenon of the internet addiction as a social problem facing the information and communications age. The phenomenon of the internet addiction has recently emerged in the developed nations as a consequence of the increasing expansion in the network of the electronic communications. Such a phenomenon proves to have already involved a myriad of dysfunctions for the individual, the family, and the society. This paper is an adapted version of a survey research conducted in 2006 on the Situation of the Internet Addiction in Iran. The statistical population consists of the adolescent and the youth between 15 to 25 years of age, who have access to the internet connection. The sample size equals 800 subjects. The findings indicate that the phenomenon of the internet addiction does exist in Iran, too. Although the usage is attributed to most of the adolescent, young users are determined to be normal. Moreover, based on the present research findings, the addictive use of the internet among some of the adolescent and the youth is associated with problems such as evading social responsibility, social isolation, lack of social support, and inefficient job and educational performances. The above-mentioned problems bear direct relationship with the internet addiction, while the latter has an adverse effect on the feeling of self-worthiness.