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The purpose of this essay is to analyze the concept of culture in the collection of short stories entitled as Lovely,Deep, Dark and I Am No One You Know by Joyce Carol Oates through Fredric Jameson’s theory of postmodern culture.The portraits of women,men,and children show Oates's compassion for the human life in the modern society.According to Jameson,postmodern culture is the internal and superstructural expression of a whole new wave of American military and economic domination throughout the world: in this sense,as throughout class history, the underside of culture is blood, torture,death, and terror.Lovely,Deep,Dark and I Am No One You Know represent the spot of postmodern man’s struggle with his background and real culture.The stories are associated with an avant-garde movement in which nature is gone and this feature can be seen in all collections of the stories.They create a deconstructed condition in which there is no direct relation between social beings.The setting of the stories reminds the postmodern society which is the metaphor for the current American society with a revolutionized culture.The place that the authors have created in the stories is devoid of natural life and happiness.It is a fabricated place in which the people are programmed like robots.Throughout the stories,the authors represent technological pessimism which refers to the sense of disappointment,anxiety,and menace in subjects due to technological issues.The researcher contributes to identify the main cause of Oates’s attack to her characters in these collections.The main purpose of research paper finds the cause of Oates’s message in postmodern world

Objective: The present study aimed to explain attitudes toward extramarital relationships based on personality dimensions and sexual schemas, with the mediating role of sexual novelty-seeking. Methods: This research employed a descriptive-correlational design. The statistical population included all couples who referred to psychological counseling centers and family courts in Tehran in 2021. The sample size was determined as 674 individuals based on Morgan's table and selected using a convenience sampling method considering inclusion and exclusion criteria. Individuals with anxiety or mood disorders were excluded from the study. Research instruments included the Attitudes Toward Extramarital Relationships Questionnaire by Mark (2006), the NEO Personality Inventory-Revised (2004), the Questionnaire of Cognitive Schema Activation in Sexual Contexts (QCSASC), and the Glass and Wright Justification for Extramarital Relationships Questionnaire (1992). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and path analysis with LISREL software version 10.20. Findings: Results indicated that 30.7% of the variance in attitudes toward extramarital relationships was indirectly explained by personality dimensions and sexual schemas, with the mediating role of sexual novelty-seeking. Based on the findings, attitudes toward extramarital relationships were positively and significantly predicted by neuroticism (path coefficient = 0.25), openness to experience (path coefficient = 0.84), sexual schemas (path coefficient = 0.27), and sexual novelty-seeking (path coefficient = 0.16). Conclusion: The findings revealed that attitudes toward extramarital relationships were negatively and significantly predicted by agreeableness (path coefficient = -0.38) and conscientiousness (path coefficient = -0.33). Thus, personality traits and sexual schemas predict extramarital relationships and sexual novelty-seeking.

Objective: This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of mindfulness-based psychotherapy on functional flexibility and health hardiness in patients with coronavirus anxiety during the epidemic. Methods: This research utilized a quasi-experimental method with a pre-test, post-test design, including a control group and a three-month follow-up period. The statistical population comprised individuals with coronavirus anxiety who contacted counseling centers in Isfahan for telephone consultations during the summer of 2021. From this population, 33 individuals were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. Participants in the experimental group received mindfulness-based psychotherapy (8 sessions) based on Kabat-Zinn's protocol (2003) over two months. The questionnaires used in this study included the Functional Flexibility Questionnaire (Dennis & Vander Wal, 2010), the Health Hardiness Questionnaire (Gibbhardt, VanderDerf, & Powell, 2001), and the Coronavirus Anxiety Questionnaire (Alipour et al., 2019). Data were analyzed using mixed ANOVA with SPSS23 statistical software. Findings: The results indicated that mindfulness-based psychotherapy significantly impacted functional flexibility (P<0.0001; Eta=0.62; F=52.32) and health hardiness (P<0.0001; Eta=0.65; F=55.09) in patients with coronavirus anxiety. Conclusion: Based on the findings of the present study, mindfulness-based psychotherapy, utilizing techniques such as mindful attitude, mindful activities, addressing problematic emotions, and breathing exercises, can be effectively used to improve functional flexibility and health hardiness in patients with coronavirus anxiety.

Objective: The aim of the present study was to predict distress tolerance in the elderly based on experiential avoidance and spiritual intelligence. Method: This was a descriptive correlational study. The population included all elderly individuals aged between 65 and 80 years who visited community centers in Tehran in 2022, from whom a sample of 300 was selected using cluster sampling. The Emotional Distress Tolerance Scale by Simons and Gaher (2005), the Spiritual Intelligence Scale by King (2008), and the Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire by Gámez et al. (2011) were utilized for data collection. Data were analyzed using regression analysis. Findings: The results indicated that experiential avoidance significantly negatively predicted distress tolerance. Additionally, spiritual intelligence significantly positively predicted distress tolerance. Conclusions: Based on the findings of the current study, it can be concluded that this predictive model could serve as an effective framework in counseling and psychotherapy centers to enhance distress tolerance among the elderly.

Objective: This study aimed to compare the efficacy of a specialized package for women with body dysmorphic disorder and schema therapy on perfectionism and maladaptive schemas in women afflicted with body dysmorphic disorder. Methods: The research employed a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and follow-up phases involving two experimental groups and one control group, conducted among women with body dysmorphic disorder visiting psychological centers in Isfahan in the first half of 2022. For this purpose, 45 women were selected by convenience and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received the specialized package for women with body dysmorphic disorder (researcher-designed), and the second experimental group underwent schema therapy according to the protocol of Young and colleagues (2023) over ten 90-minute sessions, while the control group received no intervention. Participants completed the Perfectionism Questionnaire (1995) and Young's Schema Questionnaire (1998) at pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA with SPSS software. Findings: There were significant differences between the groups receiving the specialized package and schema therapy and the control group in terms of negative perfectionism and rejection schemas (p < .01). Additionally, there were differences between the group receiving the specialized package and the schema therapy group in terms of positive perfectionism, autonomy schemas, impaired performance, and impaired limits (p < .01), such that the specialized package had an effect on positive perfectionism, and schema therapy had an impact on autonomy schemas, impaired performance, and impaired limits (p < .05). Moreover, neither treatment had an effect on schemas of other-directedness and hypervigilance. Conclusion: Specialists are recommended to utilize both interventions to improve women with body dysmorphic disorder in terms of reducing negative perfectionism and rejection schemas, to use the specialized package for enhancing positive perfectionism, and to employ schema therapy for reducing autonomy schemas and impaired functioning and limits.

Objective: The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of a combined package of Resilient Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy on the sense of coherence and marital interactions in women with marital burnout. Methods: The present study was a quasi-experimental design with a pre-test, post-test, and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population included all women aged 25 to 50 years with marital burnout who responded to the call posted in cultural centers in the city of Isfahan in the spring of 2022 and were contacted and received a moderate score based on the marital burnout questionnaire. A total of 45 individuals from the mentioned population were selected purposefully and randomly assigned to two experimental groups and one control group (15 individuals each). The experimental groups underwent nine 60-minute sessions of the combined package of Resilient Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Dialectical Behavior Therapy, while the control group received no treatment during this period. Data were collected using Antonovsky's Sense of Coherence Questionnaire (1993) and Gottman's Marital Interactions Questionnaire (1999) and analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA and Bonferroni post hoc test, with SPSS version 23. Findings: The results showed that both interventions significantly affected the sense of coherence and marital interactions in women with marital burnout (p < 0.05). However, in terms of the effectiveness of the two therapeutic methods, the combined package of Resilient Dialectical Behavior Therapy was more effective (p < 0.05). Conclusion: The results indicated that the combined package of Resilient Dialectical Behavior Therapy could be utilized to enhance the sense of coherence and marital interactions.