A Pilot Randomized Trial of an Online Parenting Skills Program for Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury: Improvements in Parenting and Child Behavior

This pilot study examined changes in parenting skills and child behavior following participation in an online positive parenting skills program designed for young children with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Thirty-seven families with a child between 3 and 9 years of age who sustained a moderate to severe TBI were randomly assigned to one of two interventions: online parenting skills training (n = 20) or access to Internet resources on managing brain injury (n = 17). Parent–child interaction observations and parent ratings of child behavior were collected pre- and post-treatment. Generalized estimating equations and mixed models were used to examine changes in parenting skills and child behavior problems as well as the moderating role of family income on treatment response. Participants in the parenting skills group displayed significant improvements in observed positive parenting skills relative to participants in the Internet resource group. Income moderated improvements in parent ratings of child behavior, with participants in the low-income parenting skills group and high-income Internet resource group reporting the greatest improvements in behavior. This is the first randomized controlled trial examining online parenting skills training for families of young children with TBI. Improvements in positive parenting skills and child behavior support the utility of this intervention, particularly for families from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Memory for words as a function of spelling transparency

The authors investigated the impact of spelling transparency on memory for words written in Persian orthography. Adult Persian university students (N = 212) performed in a memory recall experiment on 160 monosyllabic words printed on 8 cards (20 on each card) manipulated for spelling transparency, frequency, and imageability. Each card was presented randomly to the participants and they were asked to read the words aloud as quickly as possible. After reading each card, the participants were asked to engage in a digital addition task for 20 s (as a distracter), which was immediately followed by a request to write down as many words as possible from the cards in 40 s. No significant difference was found in the time to name aloud the opaque and transparent words, whereas on the memory recall task there were main effects for spelling, frequency, and imageability and significant 2-way and 3-way interactions. The effects were greatest for transparent spellings when they were of high frequency and high imageability or low frequency and low imageability. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Psychopathy in Iran: a cross-cultural study

Few cross-cultural studies have assessed psychopathy and none have included a sample from non-western countries. This study investigated the factor structure of the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version (PCL:SV) in an Iranian sample, and compared the results with a western sample. Three hundred fifty-one Iranian prisoners were compared with 405 participants of the standardization sample of the PCL:SV. Confirmatory factor analysis and item response theory method were used for data analysis. The Iranian data fitted well with the hierarchical three-factor model of psychopathy and neither two- nor four-factor models showed an adequate fit. Differential item functioning existed across samples, with discriminatory power of factor 1 (arrogant and deceitful interpersonal style) being lower in the Iranian sample that for factor 2 (deficient emotional experience) being greater in the Iranian sample than the standardization sample. Deficient emotional experience might be the most significant factor in diagnosing psychopathy, regardless of the studied culture. Other factors appear to be relatively culture-specific.     

Influence of adjuvant mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) on symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans – results from a randomized control study

Even 30 or more years after the end of a war, veterans can suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In the present study, we explored the influence on symptoms of PTSD among Iranian veterans of the Iran–Iraq war of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) as add-on to a standard treatment with citalopram. Forty-eight male veterans with PTSD (mean age: 52.97 years) took part in this eight-week intervention study. Standard treatment for all patients consisted of citalopram (30–50 mg/day at therapeutic dosages). Patients were randomly assigned either to the treatment or to the control condition. Treatment involved MBCT delivered in group sessions once a week. Patients in the control condition met at the hospital with the same frequency and duration for socio-therapeutic events. At baseline and at study completion, patients completed questionnaires covering symptoms of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress. At study completion after eight weeks, scores for PTSD (re-experiencing events, avoidance, negative mood and cognition, hyperarousal), depression, anxiety, and stress were lower, but more so in the intervention than the control group. Data suggest that, as adjuvant to standard SSRI medication, MBCT is an effective intervention to significantly reduce symptoms of PTSD, depression, anxiety, and stress among veterans.     

A pilot investigation into unimpaired and dyslexic Persian children's word naming and spelling: Implications for models of reading and counselling

There is now a growing body of research examining developmental dyslexia in different languages and writing systems. The phonologically transparent Persian orthography is normally transcribed with two distinct spellings, words spelled with vowels (letters) transcribed as a fixed part of the spelling (transparent) and words spelled with vowels (diacritics) omitted (opaque). This peculiarity of Persian would enable one to examine the impact of transparency, as well as the possible psychological factors associated with verbal punishment in Persian schools on the development of reading and spelling. Twenty-nine Persian children (22 male and 7 female) classified as being developmentally dyslexic (mean age 9.4, SD?=?1.4) were compared with 49 unimpaired male children (mean age 9, SD?=?1.3) on two main aspects of reading Persian opaque and transparent spellings, namely: Spelling and word naming. The results showed an expected impairment on all aspects of reading between unimpaired and children with dyslexia. However, performance of both groups of participants was impaired when performing tasks with opaque as opposed to transparent spellings. There was also a strong correlation between the recorded number of times the dyslexic child was verbally punished and the number of errors on the spelling and naming of transparent and opaque words. These results are supportive of the impact of spelling transparency, as well as psychological variables as factors in the development of reading and spelling.     

Irrational beliefs in major depression and generalized anxiety disorders in an Iranian sample: a preliminary study

Previous research on Rational Emotive Theory using western samples has shown that irrational belief systems are associated with emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression. In a replication of this work the present study was conducted to compare the scores of 29 clinically depressed, 31 clinically anxious, and 34 normal controls on the Irrational Beliefs Test in an Iranian sample. Consistent with Ellis's theory, depressed and anxious patients scored higher than the controls on scores for the full scale and all 10 subscales of the Irrational Beliefs Test. Also, the two patient groups differed significantly in their endorsement of 2 out of 10 irrational belief subscales but not in overall score on irrational beliefs. Results were interpreted in light of previous literature.     

The meaning of race in psychology and how to change it: a methodological perspective

The primary purpose of this article was to offer a methodological critique in support of arguments that racial categories should be replaced as explanatory constructs in psychological research and theory. To accomplish this goal, the authors (a) summarized arguments for why racial categories should be replaced; (b) used principles of the scientific method to show that racial categories lack conceptual meaning; (c) identified common errors in researchers' measurement, statistical analyses, and interpretation of racial categories as independent variables; and (d) used hierarchical regression analysis to illustrate a strategy for replacing racial categories in research designs with conceptual variables. Implications for changing the study of race in psychology are discussed.     

I Belong

ABSTRACT

This essay focuses on the experience of an immigrant returning for a visit to her home country after forty years. She describes her surprise at finding herself “at home,” her changed relationship to her family, and her desire to be buried in her ancestors' crypt. She alludes to the immigrant's fate of not belonging to either country.     

The Religious and Social Principles of Patients’ Rights in Holy Books (Avesta, Torah, Bible, and Quran) and in Traditional Medicine

Health protection and promotion in healthy people and restoring patients’ health have been the most important themes in medicine and health throughout our history. Therefore, discussion of different aspects of patients’ rights includes implementation of these objectives by the medical community, including physicians, nurses, pharmacists, etc., and the people in charge of health affairs. The principal objective of our research is the study of medical ideology and the approaches of our ancestors in relation to different aspects of patients’ rights. To study the different ideologies of traditional medicine in relation to patients’ rights, appropriate data were extracted from the original resources of traditional medicine and from religious books. By means of library research we studied these resources in addition to electronic versions of the Alhavi book (by Rhazes), the Kamel-al-Sanaah (by Ahvazi), the Canon of Medicine (by Avicenna), the Zakhireye Khawrazmshahi (by Jorjani), the Avesta, the Torah, the Bible, the Quran, and many other resources, and, finally, after searching, gathering, and encoding the findings, analyzed them qualitatively for thematic content. The holy Avesta book clearly insists on the competence of physicians and setting the appointment fee in accordance with peoples’ income. The Old Testament (holy Torah) warned government officials who did not observe patients’ rights. In the four gospels (holy Bible) the importance of treatment and taking care of the patient is stressed. After the emergence of Islam, medical students, before beginning the principal courses, had to study Islamic jurisprudence, ethics, logic sciences, natural sciences, geometry, astrology, calculus, and similar courses so that after purifying their soul they could enter the saintly profession of physicians. The holy Quran refers to saving the life of a human irrespective of social class, race, and religion, and insists on exemption of patients from physical activity, including the physical aspects of prayer. In these resources, some warnings are offered in relation to fake drugs, the lack of awareness of some physicians, the need for complete preparedness of medical society, and the need to manufacture appropriate drugs and offer a suitable medical service. This information is to familiarize medical and health authorities and persons receiving health services. According to the evidence available about traditional medicine, there was no specific difference between public and professional ethics, public and professional rights, or rights and ethics—ethics were no different from rights nor rights from ethics. So ethics are similar to the soul in the body of rights, and rights are similar to the litter of ethics, and they have developed in parallel with each other. Traditional medicine is community-based and preservation of the health of healthy people is given priority over the treatment of patients; there is insistence that “health rights” has wider scope than “patients’ rights”. It can be stated that health rights in Iran both before and after the emergence of Islam have been based on guidance from divine religions, observation of humanist ethics, passing suitable courses in the basic sciences, and an introduction to the practical piety of our ancestors, in addition to the syllabus of medical and health education.