Psychometric Properties of the Persian Version of Spiritual Well-Being Scale in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction

The purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Persian version of Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) in patients with acute myocardial infarction. A multisite, cross-sectional survey was employed to determine the instrument’s reliability (Cronbach’s α and construct reliability) and validity (face, content, and construct). Using systematic sampling of adult outpatients at primary care clinic sites in the Qazvin City, Iran (N = 300), it was found that the Cronbach’s alpha and construct reliability of both factors associated with the SWBS were above 0.7. The construct validity of the scale was determined using exploratory factor analysis. The findings supported two factors: relation with God and relation with life. Further investigation through confirmatory factor analysis (eigenvalues of greater than one) confirmed a third factor construct associated with the SWBS. A total of 50.65 % of the variance were explained by these three factors. The overall findings of the study demonstrated that the SWBS is a valid and reliable instrument that has potential utility in future research and clinical practice settings.     

Do as I Do: The Effect of Teachers’ Ethical Leadership on Business Students’ Academic Citizenship Behaviors

We studied the impact of teachers’ ethical leadership on students’ moral identity and academic citizenship behaviors. Data from 256 student–teacher matching dyads were collected from one of the top 5 Pakistani business schools. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to ensure factorial validity of the measures that were employed, and the hypothesized relationships were tested using structural regression models that utilized structural equation modeling in AMOS with 5,000 bootstrap samples. Based on social learning theory, the results supported the hypothesis that teachers’ ethical leadership had significant direct and indirect positive effects (i.e., through the students’ moral identity) on the students’ academic citizenship behaviors that were directed toward other students and the school. This study contributes to existing literature on ethical leadership and organizational citizenship behavior by highlighting useful implications of these organization-based constructs in an academic context.     

Diversity and Dance: Exploring the Therapeutic Implications of World Dance

This phenomenological study examined the potential power of world dance as a therapeutic tool. The lived experiences of adult females (N = 16) were explored to understand the purposive essence of dance and subsequent benefits to mental health. Findings revealed 15 themes in total: 11 themes highlighted potential benefits of world dance, such as social support and stress relief, and four themes noted potential obstacles to using world dance as a therapeutic tool, such as access or finances. Implications for using world dance within creative counseling practice are provided.     

Assessing reliability and validity of the Farsi version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale in a sample of substance-using patients

The aim of this study was to estimate reliability and factorial validity of the Farsi version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) for 321 substance-abusing patients (187 men and 134 women). All were asked to complete the Farsi version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20, the Emotional Intelligence Scale, and The Mental Health Inventory. Analysis supported the internal consistency, test-retest reliability, concurrent validity, and three-factor structure of the Farsi version of the TAS-20 for substance users. The factors are similar to the three reported previously and were labeled as Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Difficulty Describing Feelings, and Externally oriented Thinking. These results provide evidence for applicability of the TAS-20 and its cross-cultural validity.     

Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and construct validity of the Farsi version of the Oxford Happiness Inventory

This study examined the reliability and preliminary evidence for validity of a Farsi (Persian) version of the Oxford Happiness Inventory with 309 undergraduate students (161 women and 148 men). Participants completed the Farsi versions of four subscales of the Oxford Happiness Inventory, the Satisfaction with Life Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and the Depression-Happiness Scale. Analyses indicated that the Farsi version of the Oxford Happiness Scale has reliability as a measure of well-being and provided some preliminary evidence of construct validity.     

Memory and consciousness: trace distinctiveness in memory retrievals

The aim of this article was to provide experimental evidence that classical dissociation between levels of consciousness associated with memory retrieval (i.e., implicit or explicit) can be explained in terms of task dependency and distinctiveness of traces. In our study phase, we manipulated the level of isolation (partial vs. global) of the memory trace by means of an isolation paradigm (isolated words among non-isolated words). We then tested these two types of isolation in a series of tasks of increasing complexity: a lexical decision task, a recognition task, and a free recall task. The main result of this study was that distinctiveness effects were observed as a function of the type of isolation (level of isolation) and the nature of the task. We concluded that trace distinctiveness improves subsequent access to the trace, while the level of trace distinctiveness also appears to determine the possibility of conscious or explicit retrieval.     

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.     

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.