Psychological factors

Despite its direct relevance to second/foreign language learning, quality of life has been a neglected area within Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research. The present study sought to investigate the relationship between quality of life factors and speaking skill as one of the most challenging parts of L2 learning. To this end, an adapted version of life quality questionnaire originally devised by the World Health Organization (WHO) was administered to 100 female intermediate Iranian EFL learners. In addition, 30 of the participants were randomly selected to take part in follow-up semi-structured interviews which asked why the respondents felt the way they reported. The analysis of data obtained from questionnaire and interviews revealed that although all the four domains of life quality namely physical, psychological, social, and environmental domains had impact on the speaking ability of the participants, a number of facets in physical and psychological domains were more influential. Furthermore, the statistical Pearson correlation analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between life quality factors dominating learner’s success in speaking tasks. The findings of this study have implications for teacher educators and educational decision makers in bringing about higher levels of speaking ability and Quality Of Life (QOL) among English language learners.

As noted by Shohamy (1982), affective considerations in language testing have occupied an outstanding place in education. Despite the importance of this issue, it appears that the test-takers' perceptions regarding motivation, self-efficacy beliefs and feelings in addition to their possible relationships have not been investigated in much detail. To narrow the gap, the primary aims of this paper were to explore Iranian non-English PhD students’ perceptions about motivation, self-efficacy beliefs and feelings. This paper also sought to investigate the association between motivation and self-efficacy beliefs, motivation and feelings, as well as self-efficacy beliefs and feelings. To collect the data, an attitudinal researcher-made questionnaire constructed and validated (in Persian) with 15 items from 1-5 (strongly disagree to strongly agree). To ensure reliability, pilot study was conducted on 60 participants; subsequently, the questionnaire was distributed among 252 participants throughout Iran by online administration. The results of descriptive statistics using SPSS displayed that participants were intrinsically motivated to be prepared for this English Proficiency Test (EPT). Furthermore, they showed the low level of self-efficacy beliefs towards their achievement in the test with high level of amotivation. Lastly, spearman results confirmed that all of these psychological factors were significantly correlated.

Background: Many investment decisions are not only affected by economic indicators and rationality, but also categories such as work experience, social responsibility, risk, investor self-confidence, etc. affect investor’s behavior and their decisions. The main purpose of this study is to present a financial behavior model based on psychological and moral factors. Method: The present study was mixed. In the qualitative part, the Delphi technique was used. The statistical population of all experts and managers of brokerages, investment funds, investment portfolios, traders and analysts had professional qualifications and high experience, of which 12 people were considered as snowball technique as a sample. It was an interview tool and finally the data were analyzed by fuzzy Delphi method. In a small part, the descriptive-survey method was used. 287 members of the investor community were considered as a sample. A questionnaire was used to collect data. Finally, using AMOS software, confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation design were investigated. Results: Finally, the analysis model in this study was approved. Based on the importance of investors' behavior and the importance of moral and psychological characteristics in the capital market, it was shown that the expected return formed has a direct effect on the psychological characteristics of optimism, distrust, risk aversion and emotion, as well as ethics. It was also shown that psychological and moral characteristics affected turnover, trading volume, risk sharing, risk appetite. In addition, one of the most important results is a combination of behavioral factors (optimism, overconfidence, emotion, risk aversion and ethics) and market efficiency (trading volume, turnover, risk appetite and risk sharing). Conclusion: The obtained results indicate the effect of emotional and psychological and moral characteristics and characteristics on the behavior of investors and is important to drive the market towards rationality and on the other hand as a basis for designing investment strategies for investment managers.

Abdelaziz and Zehmi (2020) reported that “pictures, videos and PowerPoint presentations with interactive practice activities served as motivating and stimulating factors in delivering the lessons” (p.16). To examine other potentials of visual tools, we used animated educational GIFs (graphics interchange format) as the educational intervention based on strategies suggested by the computer-assisted nonlinear dynamic approach (CANDA) to test their efficacy in developing learners’ grammatical proficiency. To this end, mixed methods research was used to concurrently triangulate different strands of data on the effects of educational GIFs on grammatical proficiency among randomly sampled adolescent and adult participants. The interpretations were made based on methodological triangulation of QUAN + QUAL data and running one-way ANOAV. Pedagogical implication of the study confirms the efficacy of animated educational GIFs as a tool to enhance learners’ grammatical proficiency in mastering progressive tenses (present, past, and future).

Aim and Background: The factors of complicated grief are unclear, and many studies have referred to it as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Therefore, the present research aims to study the risk factors of complicated grief qualitatively.Method: This investigation's theoretical framework and research methodology were based on quality and phenomenology type. The study included grieving participants (n=15) and psychologists (n=4) specialised in grief and loss counseling. Data was collected through in-depth interviews from December 10, 2022, to April 30, 2023, using purposive sampling (n = 19), and data saturation determined the sample size. Interviews were conducted either online or face-to-face by one well-trained researcher, depending on the participants' convenience. The interviews were conducted in 4 sessions, each lasting about 60–90 min, and simultaneously collected and analyzed the data. The analysis approach of this study was grounded theory.Results: After transcribing and documenting the interview content, revisited the coding process, yielding 230 distinct codes, and carried out the selective and axial coding processes after extracting the codes. Researchers categorized the codes whittled down to 52 primary codes. These were then divided into three theme clusters (psychological, social, family, and cultural factors). psychological factors such as loss, social factors such as lack of social support, and cultural factors such as wrong comforting behaviors can be effective in complicated grief.Conclusion: This study suggests that various psychological, cultural, and social determinants contribute to the evolution of grief into a pathological condition, making it a cultural and social phenomenon.