@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2383-3483    Journal of Police Medicine 2019;8(3):143-147

Background
People who are unaware of their emotions have less ability to suppress emotional excitement, which is even more severe when a person is under stress.
Previous Studies
... [2]. In a study titled "The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Criminal Behavior," the researchers concluded that the group of prisoners had a lower score in emotional awareness compared with the control group that was selected from ordinary people [3]. Emotional intelligence is deeply related to aggression and criminal behavior [4, 5]. People with low emotional intelligence will be more likely to show with high-risk behaviors [6]. ... [7, 8]. Some of the authors argue that assertiveness is one of the subcategories of emotional intelligence. In fact, they consider emotional self-awareness and assertiveness to be two of the most important subsets of emotional intelligence, and they believe that these two concepts are closely interrelated [9]. In this regard, researchers concluded that increasing emotional intelligence would increase the assertiveness in person [10, 11]. ... [12, 13]. Imprisonment can have devastating effects on intimate and personal relationships, feelings of being influential, identity, value, and other experiences related to the meaning of life [14, 15]. For some prisoners, the imprisonment experience leads to deep existential crises, often associated with meaninglessness in life and mental pain and suffering [16, 17]. Several studies have introduced imprisonment experience as a factor for meaninglessness in life [15-17]. On the other hand, for many people, the most prominent psychological function of religion is the sense of meaning and purpose in life [18]. Monotheist Integrated Therapy is one of the holistic and integrated methods. This syncretist method is composed of both humanist and cognitive techniques on the one hand and the monotheist and mysticism techniques of Islam on the other hand, was introduced by Jalali Tehrani in 2001 in a book entitled “modern psychotherapy” edited by Crsini. … [19].
Aim(s)
The purpose of the present study was to investigate the efficacy of the Monotheist Integrated group Therapy on the level of emotional self-awareness, assertiveness and meaning of life of prisoners.
Research type
This is a quasi-experimental research with pre-test post-test design with the control group.
Research society, place and time
The present study was conducted among male prisoners seeking treatment in Mashhad Central Prison in summer and autumn of 2018.
Sampling method and number
Because the lowest sample size in the experimental studies is 12 subjects [4], and considering the probable fall in the subjects, 30 subjects were randomly selected with purposeful sampling and were assigned into the experimental and control groups.
Used devices&materials
Research tools were the Attitude Life Regard Index (LRI) and Assertiveness Inventory and Emotion Awareness Questionnaire (EAQ). LRI: ... [21] .... [22]. The re-test reliabilities for LRI are obtained by Abits [22]. In a study conducted by Haji Abed et al. [23], the Cronbach's alpha of 0.75 obtained for the total index. In another study by Ghaffari and Fotokian [24], it was concluded that LRI in cancer patients is a multidimensional tool and has a desirable validity and reliability in Iranian society. Gambrill & Richie (GR) Assertiveness Inventory: it was developed by Gambrill & Richie consisted of 40 questions. Factor reliability of the main items has been reported between 0.39 and 0.70 and the reliability coefficient of this test is 0.81. The validity of this test was verified by the experts of Education and Psychology Faculty of Allameh Tabatabai University and Isfahan University in 1995-1996 and its validity was confirmed. [26] EAQ: it is a 33-item scale developed by Kauer et al., including 5 subscales. In the study of Kaer et al. [27], in addition to measuring its formal and content validity, the reliability of the emotional self-awareness scale was 0.83 based on Cronbach's alpha. In the Kaer et al. [27] study, in addition to measuring its face and content validity, its reliability was 0.83 based on Cronbach's alpha. In the Mohana & Talepasand [28] study, in addition to assessing face validity, EAQ reliability based on Cronbach's alpha obtained 0.79. After obtaining the necessary permissions and confirming at the Ethics Committee of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, the goals, methods and process of the study were explained for prisoners who had inclusion criteria and also the informed consent was obtained from the participants. The emotional self-awareness, assertiveness and meaning in life variables were measured in the pre-test and the Monotheist Integrated Therapy was performed for 4 months in sixteen 90-min sessions for the experimental group, whereas the control group did not receive any intervention. After the end of the sessions, both experimental and control groups responded to the questionnaires. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to check the normality of data and Leven’s test was used for homogeneity of variances. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation) and for inferential statistics, univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance was used to control the effect of pre-test by SPSS 21 software.
Findings by Text
The mean age of the participants in the experimental group was 35.13 ± 6.58 and in the control group was 34.87 ± 7.16, respectively. 33.3% of the participants in the experimental group were single, 46.7% were married and 20% were divorced. In the control group, 26.7% were single, 60% were married and 13.3% were divorced. There was a significant difference in the subjects in the experimental group (Monotheist Integrated Group Therapy) and the control group in terms of emotional self-awareness (p = 0.001, F = 17.35), assertiveness (p = 0.005, F = 9.43) and there was no significant difference between the experimental and the control groups in meaning in life (P = 0.12; P = 2.46; Table 2).
Main comparison to the similar studies
To assess the effectiveness of Monotheist Integrated Therapy on emotions, in general, in a study by Omidian et al. [29] entitled “the effectiveness of Monotheist Integrated Group Therapy on the level of aggression of Shahrekord prisoners”, it was concluded that the treatment had a positive effect on the reduction of aggressiveness, which can be due to the fact that this therapy compensates some of the deficiencies and skills deficiencies and makes the individual about the emotional mastery of special skills. Monotheist Integrated Therapy could increase the level of aggressiveness, which is consistent with the Hadi and Janbozorgi [30] research. They examined the effectiveness of Monotheist Integrated Therapy on the personality and clinical components of prisoners. They found that daring was one of the components of the personality which was increased, which is comparable with aggressiveness. In the literature review (the effect of Monotheist Integrated Therapy on meaning of life), no research was found that directly investigates the effect of this treatment on the meaning of life. However, given that this treatment is derived from a religious-spiritual worldview, the effectiveness of religion, spirituality, and religiosity on the meaning of life can be noted. The results of this study are consistent with the results of the research by Shojaee et al. [31], Wong [32] and Khakshoor et al. [33].
Suggestions
It is suggested that this study be carried out on women prisoners, and also for more than 16 sessions.
Limitations
We face some limitations, such as secrecy in the prison environment, as well as the prisoners were concerned about expressing some of their past behaviors for their criminal aspects.
Conclusions
The Monotheist Integrated Group Therapy can increase the level of emotional self-awareness and assertiveness of prisoners, but it has no effect on their attitude toward meaning in life.
Acknowledgments
We are thankful to Mr. Dr. Asghar Ebrahim Abadi, who helped us with many guidance and providing an organizational platform for this research.
Conflict of interest
None declared.
Ethical Permissions
All the participants were informed about the goals and methods prior study and the informed written consent was received for Monotheist Integrated Therapy intervention prior the sessions.
Funding Sources
This research received no funding.

TABLES and CHARTS

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