Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
PhD candidate in Clinical Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University.
2
Associate Professor in Clinical Psychology and Health, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
3
Associate Professor in Applied Psychology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.
4
Associate Professor in Psychology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
5
Professor in Applied Social Psychology, University of Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
Abstract
Introduction:
Considering the role that ego plays in decision-making and taking action, as well as based on psychoanalytic formulations of the role of Object relations and ego adaptive capacity in migration, this study aimed to investigate the role of ego strengths and Object relations in immigration intention. For this purpose, a comparison was made between people who have decided to stay in Iran(stayers), people who have decided to emigrate(leavers), and people who have not decided yet. Also, a comparison was made among leavers between individuals who had begun their migration actions and those who had not yet taken any action.
Method:
sample consisted of 376 Iranian people residing in Iran who were aged 20-45 years. Data was collected using the Bell Object Relations Inventory (BORI) and the psychosocial Inventory of ego strengths (PIES). Also, two researcher-made questions about migration intention and action were included in the questionnaire. Data analysis was performed using multivariate analysis of covariance by SPSS.
Result:
The results showed that after controlling for sociodemographic variables (income, gender, and education) stayers compared to leavers had higher scores in the strengths of fidelity, love, hope, wisdom, and will and lower scores in alienation and ego-centricity. The results also showed that in the group that intends to migrate, those that have initiated their actions to immigrate obtained higher scores in wisdom, purpose, and competency and lower scores in alienation and social incompetency.
Discussion and conclusion:
This study's findings underline the significance of psychological factors and personality affecting migration decision-making. These findings indicate that ego strengths and object-relations affect the decision to emigrate. Further understanding of the migrant personality can help us develop pre-migration and post-migration psychological interventions.
Keywords
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