Relationship Between Religiosity and Psychological Symptoms in Female University Students

Depression, anxiety and stress are among major psychiatric conditions being prevalent in contemporary youth. This study intended to examine the role of three religious orientations (Allport and Ross 1967) in students demonstrating these psychological symptoms. A sample comprising 502 Pakistani girls studying at university level was randomly selected. Age Universal I–E Scale and Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale were used to collect data. Findings reveal an inverse relationship between extrinsic personal religious orientation and symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress among the respondents. Results support the integration of religious orientations in mental health care of young adults in Pakistan.     

Using the Structure of Evaluative Components as a basis for comparing the oral narratives of schizophrenics and healthy individuals

Journal of Psycholinguistic Research - In this study, evaluative language in narratives of 15 healthy and 15 schizophrenic females was compared using the Structure of Evaluative Components. The two...     

Premenstrual Syndrome: The Role of Emotion Regulation Strategies and Trait Meta-Mood

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - The aim of the current study was to compare women with premenstrual syndrome (PMS) and with women in a non-PMS group with regard to...     

Gender equality perceptions of preservice teachers: are they ready to teach it?

Social Psychology of Education - Ensuring gender equality in education is among the Sustainable Development Goals specified by the United Nations. Ensuring gender equality in teaching/learning...     

The role of healthy emotionality in the relationship between fear of COVID-19 and mental health problems: a cross-sectional study

Cognitive Processing - Understanding pandemic-related psychopathology development is limited due to numerous individual and contextual factors. It is widely accepted that individual differences to...     

Especial Skills in Experienced Archers

Especial skills are skills that are distinctive by virtue of massive practice within the narrow contexts in which they are expressed. In the first demonstration of especial skills, Keetch, Schmidt, Lee, and Young (2005) showed that experienced basketball players are better at shooting baskets from the foul line, where they had massive amounts of practice, than would expected from their success at other locations closer to or farther from the basket. Similar results were obtained for baseball throwing. The authors asked whether especial skills hold in archery, a sport requiring less movement. If the emergence of especial skills depends on large-scale movement, one would expect archery to escape so-called especialism. But if the emergence of especial skills reflects a more general tendency for highly specific learning, experienced archers should show especial skills. The authors obtained evidence consistent with the latter prediction. The expert archers did much better at their most highly practiced distance than would be expected by looking at the overall function relating shooting score to distance. We offer a mathematical model to account for this result. The findings attest to the generality of the especial skills phenomenon.     

The Factor Structure of the Spiritual Well-Being Scale in Veterans Experienced Chemical Weapon Exposure

This study aimed to determine the factor structure of the spiritual well-being among a sample of the Iranian veterans. In this methodological research, 211 male veterans of Iran–Iraq warfare completed the Paloutzian and Ellison spiritual well-being scale. Maximum likelihood (ML) with oblique rotation was used to assess domain structure of the spiritual well-being. The construct validity of the scale was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), convergent validity, and discriminant validity. Reliability was evaluated with Cronbach’s alpha, Theta (θ), and McDonald Omega (Ω) coefficients, intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC), and construct reliability (CR). Results of ML and CFA suggested three factors which were labeled “relationship with God,” “belief in fate and destiny,” and “life optimism.” The ICC, coefficients of the internal consistency, and CR were >.7 for the factors of the scale. Convergent validity and discriminant validity did not fulfill the requirements. The Persian version of spiritual well-being scale demonstrated suitable validity and reliability among the veterans of Iran–Iraq warfare.     

Attachment Style,Perceived Loneliness,and Psychological Well-Being in Smoking and Non-Smoking University Students

The growing rate of smoking cigarettes among the youths necessitates examining its contributing factors. Accordingly, we aimed to compare smoking and nonsmoking university students in their attachment styles, perceived loneliness, and psychological well-being. To this end, we recruited 100 current smokers and 100 nonsmoking students by using a convenience sampling method from Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. All participants completed the Adult Attachment Scale, Loneliness Scale, and General Health Questionnaire. Data analysis indicated that compared to nonsmokers, smokers had a more anxious attachment style and they felt lonelier. Moreover, current results showed that smokers suffered from higher rates of psychological problems than nonsmokers. These results suggest that smoking is influenced by a set of psychological factors and therefore, prevention and treatment programs targeting these factors may be effective in reducing the rate of smoking cigarettes among university students.     

Continuing Medical Education: A Cross Sectional Study on a Developing Country’s Perspective

To determine the attitude of general practitioners towards continuing medical education (CME) and reasons motivating or hindering them from attending CME procedures, we conducted a cross-sectional survey from November 2013 to April 2014 in Karachi. Three hundred general practitioners who possessed a medical license for practice in Pakistan filled a pre-designed questionnaire consisting of questions pertaining to attitudes towards CME. Data was entered and analyzed using SPSS v16.0. 70.3% (n = 211) of the participants were males. Mean age was 47.75 ± 9.47 years. Only 67.33% knew about CME and only 52% had attended a CME session. Reasons for attending CME procedures reported were: need for updating knowledge, skills and competencies (67.30%), opportunity to meet colleagues (18.58%) and presenting scientific papers (8.97%). Mean Likert score was 1.67 (±0.667) for those who thought CME is worthwhile and 1.44 (±0.686) for those who consider their clinical duties as the major hurdle in attending CME procedures. Most common cause for not attending CME was lack of knowledge (32.66%) followed by time constraint (24%). Most physicians were not sufficiently informed about the potential benefits of CME and had never attended a CME session. Most common reason for attending CME procedures reported was need for updating knowledge, skills and competencies while reasons hindering physicians from attending CME were lack of knowledge and time constraint.