Psychosocial factors associated with the self-reported frequency of cell phone use while driving in Iran

Cell phone use while driving is a common contributing factor in thousands of road traffic injuries every year globally. Despite extensive research investigating the risks associated with cell phone use while driving, social media campaigns to raise public awareness and a number of laws banning phone use while driving, this behaviour remains prevalent throughout the world. The current study was conducted in Iran, where road traffic injuries are the leading causes of death and disability, and where drivers continue to use their cell phones, despite legislative bans restricting this behaviour. A total of 255 drivers in the city of Mashhad (male = 66.3%; mean age = 30.73 years; SD = 9.89) completed either an online or a paper-based survey assessing the self-reported frequency of using a cell phone while driving. Psychosocial factors contributing to cell phone use while driving and support for legislation restricting this behaviour, as well as the Big Five personality traits, were also measured. Overall, the results showed that almost 93% of drivers use their cell phones while driving at least once a week, with 32.5% reporting they always use their cell phones while driving. Ordinal logistic regression revealed that the presence of a child passenger, age, perceived benefits and risks of using cell phones while driving, as well as the perceived ability to drive safely while using a cell phone, were strongly associated with the frequency of cell phone use while driving. As for personality traits—extraversion, agreeableness and conscientiousness significantly predicted the frequency of cell phone use in this sample of Iranian drivers

The Personality Congruence of Iranian Veterinary Students with Their Field of Study

Introduction: Evidence shows problems like feelings of dislike for the profession, job inconsistency, and low rate of career success have increased among the Iranian vets in the recent years. We have studied the correlation between personality congruence of Iranian veterinary students with their field of study to find the cause of the mentioned problems. Methods: In this survey study, we administered the Holland Personality-Career Test (Self-Directed Search or SDS test) to 250 students of 6 faculties of veterinary medicine including 3 state universities (Tehran, Shiraz and Shahrekord) and 3 Azad universities (Shahrekord, Karaj, and Kazeroon). Results: The personality type of the majority of the students was investigative, realistic and social, respectively. Congruence between students’ personality types and their field of study (veterinary medicine) was obtained as 59.09% for perfect congruence, 17.36% for average congruence, 12.81% for low congruence, and 10.74% for no congruence. Conclusion: On the basis of the results of this study which indicate one forth (1/4) of the students have shown low congruence or no congruence, we suggest that tests such as Holland test be used in the admittance procedure to select the most prosperous students in the future, and therefore, students themselves feel satisfied to study and work in this field,which could improve the quality of veterinary medicine in general