Search

Advances in the study of brain networks can be applied to our understanding of anxiety disorders (eg, generalized anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and posttraumatic stress disorders) to enable us to create targeted treatments. These disorders have in common an inability to control thoughts, emotions, and behaviors related to a perceived threat. Here we review animal and human imaging studies that have revealed separate brain networks related to various negative emotions. Research has supported the idea that brain networks of attention serve to control emotion networks as well as the thoughts and behaviors related to them. We discuss how attention networks can modulate both positive and negative affect. Disorders arise from both abnormal activation of negative affect and a lack of attentional control. Training attention has been one way to foster improved attentional control. We review attention training studies as well as efforts to generally improve attention networks through stimulation in self-regulation.

The ability to categorize has been known as one of the most important cognitive abilities in human beings. When it comes to the topic of categorization type, it seems different people select differently. Some of them categorize on the basis of similarity judgment and some based on the uni-dimensional rule. The present study attempts to evaluate the tendency toward a specific type of categorization as can be observed in a voluntary group of medical students in Iran. Most of the studies in categorization have been conducted in Western world and some of Eastern-Asian people. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study which has been done in categorization in Iran. The results suggest that Iranians, like Eastern-Asian people, tend to categorize mostly based on similarity. There was not any relationship between the IQ scores of the participants and the type of categorization. We also examined the implications of the words “similarity” and “belonging to” as translated into Persian.

One of the main interpretations of life as a poetic metaphorical concept is a stream or a river . In this article we analyze a well-known verse by Hafiz of Shiraz in which life has been conceptualized as a stream, utilizing domain mapping as well as blending theories of metaphor. It is concluded that metaphors, in general, are multi-dimensional structures which involve many cognitive, emotional, and motivational processes, and poetic metaphors, in particular, act as heuristic device for a world view. Their main function is to provide a shift from one frame to another, based on an emergent structure. The reader, in this shifting process, is drawn into the poem not as an observer, but as an active and dynamic participant. Hafiz’ verse provides us with an excellent example of such a shift on the one hand, and the active role of the reader, on the other.

This study examined the clinical validity of a Persian language version of the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ-Persian). We hypothesized that patients with major depression can be clearly distinguished from non-patient members of general population regarding both frequency of negative thoughts (ATQ-F) and degree of belief in these thoughts (ATQ-B). To test this hypothesis, we used discriminant function analysis in a group of 30 female patients with major depression and 30 female non-patient volunteers. ATQ-F and ATQ-B discriminated the large majority of depressed patients from non-patient volunteers and were correlated with the severity of depression as measured by scores on the Beck Depression Inventory-second edition. The data provide preliminary evidence for clinical validity and utility of ATQ-Persian. Depression and Anxiety 0:1–4, 2007. © 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Contemporary cognitive-behavior therapy underscores the importance of the culture-specific variables in the treatment of psychological problems. The flexibility and strengths of cognitive-behavior therapy provide us with an excellent opportunity to build a cultural model of cognitive-behavior therapy based on the clinical, as well as theoretical, knowledge of the practitioners and researchers working in different cultural settings. As a first step, we need to share our experiences with the other colleagues working in different cultures.

Aims: To examine the psychometric properties of a Persian-language version of Hollon and Kendall's (1980) Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ-Persian) – a measure of negative automatic thoughts in depression. Methods: In a sample of 125 student volunteers from two Iranian universities we assessed the internal consistency and test–retest reliability of ATQ-Persian, and examined its concurrent validity against the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck et al., 1996). We also examined the factor structure of the test through comparing the fit of various proposed factor-analytic models to the data using confirmatory factor analysis. Results: ATQ-Persian had excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96), test–retest reliability ( r = 0.84) and correlation with the Beck Depression Inventory ( r = 0.77). Using a receiver operating characteristics curve, a score of 53 on ATQ-Persian was associated with a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 78% for detecting moderate to severe depression defined through Beck Depression Inventory. None of the proposed factorial models fitted the data well. However, models with correlated factors generally provided better fit than models with orthogonal factors, suggesting that the latent factors underlying ATQ-Persian are highly correlated. Conclusions: These data support the reliability and validity of ATQ-Persian as a measure of negative automatic thoughts in depression.

The idea of mediation of elementary mental functions by “psychological tools” or “signs” was introduced and formulated by Vygotsky. The main purpose of this paper is to review some of the important aspects of Vygotsky’s mediational/semiotic psychology as they relate to the concepts of signalling, signification, and culture. It has been suggested that as a matrix reflecting many aspects of life, culture “creates special forms of behavior, modifies the activity of mental functions and adds new stories to the developing system of human behavior.” Culture regulates behavior through generating some “models” which may be reflected in different modes of representations as folk models and metaphors.

Background: The study of distorted beliefs about responsibility attitude and interpretation has become the central theme in Salkovskis’ (1985) and Rachman and Hodgson’s (1980) models of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Aims: The aim of this research is to assess the responsibility attitude in Iranian OCD patients. Methods: Twenty OCD patients were selected through available sampling from the case referred to psychology clinics. Two other patient groups comprised of 20 non-OCD anxiety disorder patients and 20 non-clinical participants were also chosen as comparison groups. All participants completed the Responsibility Attitude Scale (RAS) and Responsibility Interpretation Questionnaire (RIQ). Results: Analyses revealed statistically significant differences between OCD group and comparison groups on both RAS and RIQ. In addition, both RAS and RIQ scores were associated with the severity of OCD assessed by the Yale-Brown scale. Conclusions: These findings suggest that responsibility attitude and interpretations are the prominent features of OCD in Iranian patients and are associated with the severity of illness.

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is perhaps the most commonly used screening instrument for depression in the general population. We examined the psychometric properties of a Persian-language version of the second edition of this instrument (BDI-II) [Beck et al., 1996] in an Iranian college-student sample. In a sample of 125 student volunteers from two Iranian universities, we compared mean item scores on the BDI-II-Persian with those on the English-language version administered to North American college students, and assessed internal consistency and test-retest reliability of the BDI-II-Persian and its concurrent validity against a measure of negative automatic thoughts in depression, the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire [Hollon and Kendall, 1980]. We also examined the factor structure of the BDI-II-Persian through comparing the fit of various proposed models to the data using confirmatory factor analysis. The BDI-II-Persian had high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=0.87) and acceptable test-retest reliability (r=0.74). The instrument correlated strongly with the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire. In factor analysis, models with strongly correlated affective-cognitive and somatic-vegetative factors provided a better fit than models with one global factor. These data support the reliability and concurrent validity of the BDI-II-Persian as a measure of depressive symptoms in nonclinical samples.

Background: Characteristic features of the obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) occur with remarkable consistency in different cultural settings. The content of symptoms, however, seems to vary across cultures. Aims: To examine the content of symptoms in a sample of OCD patients from Iran. Methods: In a sample of 135 patients recruited from three treatment settings the prevalence of symptoms with different contents were ranked and compared across genders. Results: Doubts and indecisiveness were the most common obsessions and washing the most common compulsion for the whole sample. Fears of impurity and contamination, obsessive thoughts about self-impurity and washing compulsions were more common in women, whereas blasphemous thoughts and orderliness compulsions were more common in men. Conclusions: With minor differences, the pattern of symptoms with various contents in this sample was similar to that in Western settings.

Hebb and Vygotsky are two of the most influential figures of psychology in the first half of the twentieth century. They represent cultural and biological approaches to explaining human development, and thus a number of their ideas remain relevant to current psychology and cognitive neuroscience. In this article, we examine similarities and differences between these two important figures, exploring possibilities for a theoretical synthesis between their two literatures, which have had little contact with each other. To pursue these goals, the following topics are discussed: (a) Hebb and Vygotsky's lives and training; (b) their innovations in theory building relating to an "objective psychology" and objective science of mind; (c) their developmental approach; (d) their treatment of mediation and neuropsychology; and (e) their current relevance and possible integration of their views. We argue that considering the two together improves prospects for a more complete and integrated approach to mind and brain in society.