Comparison of dysfunctional attitudes and social adjustment among infertile employed and unemployed women in Iran

This study aims to compare dysfunctional attitudes and social adjustment in infertile employed and unemployed females. Due to the stresses of infertility, infertile females are faced with a variety of sexual and psychological problems, as well as dysfunctional attitudes that can lead to depression. Moreover, infertility problems provoke women into maladjustment and inadvertent corruption of relationships. In this regard, our goal is to consider the effects of employment in conjunction with education on dysfunctional attitudes and social adjustment among infertile women in Iran. In this work, we employed the survey method. We recruited 240 infertile women, utilizing the cluster random sampling method. These women filled out the Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale and the social adjustment part of the California Test of Personality. Next, multivariate analysis of variance was performed to test the relationship of employment status and education with dysfunctional attitudes and social adjustment. Our results indicated that dysfunctional attitudes were far more prevalent in infertile unemployed women than in infertile employed women. Also, social adjustment was better in infertile employed women than in infertile unemployed women. It was shown that education level alone does not have significant effect on dysfunctional attitudes and social adjustment. However, we demonstrated that the employment status of infertile women in conjunction with their education level significantly affects the two dimensions of dysfunctional attitudes (relationships, entitlements) and has insignificant effects on social adjustment. It was revealed that in employed infertile women in Iran, the higher education level, the less dysfunctional were attitudes in relationships and entitlements, whereas in unemployed infertile women, those with a college degree had the least and those with master's or higher degrees had the most dysfunctional attitudes in terms of relationships and entitlements.     

Muslim Discrimination: Evidence From Two Lost‐Letter Experiments

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, there has been considerable concern about whether Muslims living in Western countries are targets of prejudice. A considerable amount of survey‐based evidence suggests that Muslims are victims of discrimination. This paper tested this hypothesis. Two lost‐letter experiments were conducted to test whether the difference in returned letters would be attributable to whether the addressee was Muslim or Swedish. The results show that Muslims receive far fewer letters than do Swedes. However, this discrimination only appears when the lost letters contain money; in which case, the finder gains by not posting the letter.     

Perfectionism, anger, and anger rumination

Anger and anger rumination are considered to be detrimental to both physical and psychological well being. Furthermore, perfectionism, as a personality construct, seems to be related to various types of maladjustment. Whereas perfectionism has been characterized as being positive when an individual derives pleasure from striving for excellence yet recognizes and accepts individual limitations, it is deemed negative when the individual has unrealistic expectations and is never satisfied with his or her performance. The present study examined whether positive and negative perfectionism was associated with anger and anger rumination. The Farsi version of the Positive and Negative Perfectionism Scale and the Farsi version of the Anger Rumination Scale, as well as Spielberger's State-Trait Anger Scale were completed by 384 Iranian students. Results showed that anger and anger rumination were, as expected, associated negatively with positive perfectionism and associated positively with negative perfectionism. Positive perfectionism enables individuals to strive for success in a flexible manner and, thus, to experience satisfaction and pleasure rather than dissatisfaction, frustration, and anger. Conversely, negative perfectionism makes individuals vulnerable to emotional distress such as predisposition to experience anger and anger rumination through setting high standards for performance, overgeneralization of perceived failures, negative self-evaluation, self-blame, and measuring self-worth in terms of unachievable goals of accomplishment and productivity. Hence, perfectionism may be regarded as having both adaptive and maladaptive aspects with regard to health.     

Some Reflections on William Lane Craig’s Critique of Islam

William Lane Craig has recently formulated a set of arguments that aim to undermine the rationality of Islamic theism. This paper will consider seven arguments that Craig deploys against Muslim belief. The seven arguments can be summarised as follows: (1) the Quran makes an egregious historical error by denying the crucifixion of Jesus; (2) the Quran contains legendary stories about Jesus; (3) the Quran is mistaken about the self‐understanding of Jesus; (4) the Quran misunderstands the Trinity; (5) the Islamic concept of God is morally deficient; (6) the Islamic concept of God is less plausible than a Trinitarian concept of God; and (7) the Muslim doctrine of salvation compromises God’s holiness and proves to be unattainable. I contend that Craig’s arguments, when examined closely, do not undermine the rationality of Islamic theism.     

Trust and trustworthiness in a sequential bargaining game

We use a two‐person extensive form bargaining game to explore individuals' trusting and reciprocal behavior and how those relate to their scores on a trust survey. In keeping with prior research, we find that the ‘self‐interested’ outcome is rejected by a majority of individuals. People who score high on the trust survey are both trusting and are also trustworthy, in that they reciprocate others' trust. But people with low‐trust scores often exhibit trust but are not trustworthy. These ‘inconsistent trusters’ seem to be interested in exploiting the trust and trustworthiness of others in increasing their own payoff. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The use of behavioral skills training to improve staff performance of discrete trial training

Well‐trained staff are a prerequisite for successful implementation of treatment plans when working in human service contexts. The high rate of turnover makes the use of efficient and effective staff training all the more important. Previous research has used behavioral skills training to train teachers in correct implementation of discrete trial training of children with autism. They showed that a brief 10‐min procedure could effectively train staff and result in improved performance. The current study elaborated on previous work by using participants without prior exposure to the method, including treatment integrity data and testing for maintenance 1 month after training ended. The mean percentage of correct teaching responses for the three participants increased from 70%, 58%, and 66% during baseline to 97%, 96%, and 99%, respectively, following training. Results indicated that the training package was effective and the results were maintained 30 days later.     

Towards a humanistic approach to the Quran: new direction in contemporary Islamic thought

Historically, Muslim orthodoxy has regarded the Quran as God’s Word dictated to Muhammad through the mediation of the Angel Gabriel, and has thus maintained the corresponding argument that the Prophet played no role in shaping the content of the Quranic revelations. This paper discusses a project of what I shall refer to as ‘reforming theology’ within contemporary Islamic scholarship which stands in contrast to the dominant orthodox view of revelation and the nature of the Quran. In particular, the paper examines how several contemporary Muslim scholars, namely Fazlur Rahman (from Pakistan), Abdolkarim Soroush and Muhammad Mujtahed Shabestari (from Iran) and Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd (from Egypt), challenge the widely accepted idea about the Quran being the literal Word of God. The paper argues that the project of these scholars represents a radically new direction in Islamic theology because of its strong emphasis on the human side of the Quran. It also shows that the implications of these scholars’ re-examination of traditional theories of revelation are not only limited to theological matters, or specifically the communicative relationship between God and His Prophet, but also have a number of consequences for the practice of exegesis.     

Effects of Developmental Task Constraints on Kinematic Synergies during Catching in Children with Developmental Delays

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine effects of a task intervention on kinematic synergies in catching. Participants were young children (5.58?±?0.52?years) with the lowest scores on two-hand catching, according to assessments with the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD-2) and were allocated into two groups. The constraints group took part in an 8-week intervention, whereas the control group experienced a typical physical education. Both groups were assessed with motor development and kinematic coordination measures with a catching task with a ball thrown from 2?m distance. Kinematic variables were recorded using a wireless motion capture system. A principal component analysis (PCA) was used to measure the kinematic synergies formed among active body parts. Two synergies that emerged in catching were mainly utilised for “reaching” and “catching” the ball. The control group tended to re-organise the majority of active body parts into two functional units in all phases, whereas the constraints group adapted their active parts into functional units according to the requirement of the novel movement in the transfer task. The findings of this study suggested that task constraints could facilitate object control by re-organisation of active body parts into functional synergies to achieve successful performance.