Behavioral and Clinical Studies in Contemporary Psychology

Analyzing the Lived Experiences of Individuals with Performance Anxiety in Academic Settings

Mandana Hedayatian , Pejman Niazian ^*

This study aimed to provide a psychological analysis of young men’s lived experience of inability to express emotions. This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. The participants were 22 young men aged 20 to 35 years living in Tehran, selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation. Data were collected through individual semi-structured interviews, and recruitment continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Interviews lasted between 45 and 75 minutes. With informed consent, all interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. Data analysis included familiarization with the transcripts, generation of initial codes, construction of candidate themes, review and refinement of themes, and final naming of categories. To enhance trustworthiness, member checking, peer review, analytic memo writing, and constant comparison were used throughout the research process. The analysis led to the identification of five main categories: unfamiliarity with the language of emotion, fear of judgment and weakening of the masculine image, transformation of emotion into silence or withdrawal, bodily and mental pressure caused by unexpressed emotions, and the need for a safe relationship to express emotions. The findings indicated that young men’s inability to express emotions is not merely an individual or linguistic difficulty; rather, it is shaped by gender socialization, family interaction patterns, shame experiences, fear of vulnerability, and the absence of emotionally safe interpersonal contexts. The inability to express emotions among young men can be understood as a multidimensional process in which poor emotional awareness, restrictive masculinity norms, relational avoidance, and fear of judgment mutually reinforce one another. Effective psychological interventions should focus on emotional literacy, reconstruction of restrictive beliefs about masculinity, development of emotional communication skills, and creation of safe therapeutic and interpersonal spaces.

Identifying the Cognitive Components of Decision-Making Anxiety among University Students

Roshanak Rastegarian ^*

This study aimed to identify the cognitive components of decision-making anxiety among university students. This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. The participants were 20 university students studying in Tehran, selected through purposive sampling. The inclusion criterion was recurrent experience of anxiety, hesitation, cognitive overload, or distress during academic, career-related, interpersonal, or everyday decisions. Data were collected exclusively through semi-structured interviews. Interviews continued until theoretical saturation was reached; initial saturation occurred at the eighteenth interview and was confirmed by two additional interviews. After obtaining informed consent, all interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. Data analysis included repeated reading of transcripts, initial coding, comparison of codes, integration of similar codes, development of subthemes, and finalization of the main categories. The analysis revealed five main cognitive components of decision-making anxiety among students: catastrophic anticipation of decision outcomes, perfectionistic search for the completely correct choice, distrust in personal judgment, comparative rumination and mental reviewing loops, and fear of regret and post-decision self-blame. The most frequent component was comparative rumination and mental reviewing, identified in 18 participants. These components were associated with decision postponement, excessive reassurance seeking, dependence on others’ approval, and reduced decision-making self-efficacy. The findings indicate that decision-making anxiety among university students is not merely a transient emotional state; rather, it is rooted in a network of threat-based appraisals, perfectionistic standards, negative future simulations, low confidence in personal judgment, and maladaptive information-processing strategies. Psychological interventions should therefore focus on modifying catastrophic beliefs, increasing tolerance of uncertainty, strengthening decision-making self-efficacy, and teaching value-based decision-making skills.

Exploring the Lived Experience of Feeling Inadequate among Women with High Social Comparison

Arash Farzanehpour , Samira Ghazizadeh ^* , Kousha Rahnamaei

This study aimed to explore the lived experience of feeling inadequate among women with high social comparison tendencies. This qualitative study was conducted using a descriptive phenomenological design. The research population consisted of women living in Tehran who reported recurrent experiences of social comparison, negative self-evaluation, and feelings of inadequacy in everyday life. Participants were selected through purposive sampling with maximum variation in age, marital status, education, and occupational background. Data were collected through in-depth semi-structured interviews and continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. A total of 18 women aged 22 to 41 years participated in the study. After obtaining informed consent, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and imported into NVivo software for analysis. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. To enhance trustworthiness, member checking, peer review, analytic memo writing, and constant comparison of codes were used. The analysis showed that feeling inadequate among women with high social comparison tendencies is a multilayered, persistent, and context-dependent experience shaped by external standards of self-worth, repeated exposure to idealized representations of others, mental self-monitoring, hidden shame, doubts about competence, and psychological exhaustion. Five main themes emerged: “internalization of external standards of worth,” “exhaustive self-monitoring and continuous comparison,” “shame, self-blame, and devaluation of achievements,” “social relationships marked by threat and competition,” and “compensatory and avoidant coping strategies.” The findings indicate that feeling inadequate among women with high social comparison is not merely a transient emotion, but an organized lived experience centered on conditional self-worth, upward comparison, gendered pressures, and cultural norms of success and appearance. Psychological interventions should focus on strengthening self-compassion, reducing comparison-based self-evaluation, reconstructing standards of worth, and promoting media literacy.

A Thematic Analysis of Dysfunctional Mindfulness Experiences in Individuals with Chronic Anxiety

Hoda Kian , Arsalan Moghaddamnia ^*

This study aimed to conduct a thematic analysis of dysfunctional mindfulness experiences among individuals with chronic anxiety, focusing on how mindfulness practices may be interpreted or practiced in ways that intensify self-monitoring, physiological arousal, experiential avoidance, and perceived therapeutic failure. This qualitative study used thematic analysis. Participants were 18 adults living in Tehran who had experienced persistent anxiety symptoms for at least two years and had practiced mindfulness, meditation, mindful breathing, or mindfulness-based exercises for at least three months. Participants were recruited through purposive and theoretical sampling, and data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Data were collected exclusively through in-depth semi-structured interviews. Each interview lasted between 45 and 75 minutes, was audio-recorded with consent, and was transcribed verbatim. Data were analyzed using the six-phase thematic analysis framework, supported by NVivo software. Credibility was enhanced through participant review, peer debriefing, analytic memo writing, and continuous comparison of codes and themes. Five main themes were identified: “turning mindful presence into threat-oriented monitoring,” “hidden judgment under the language of acceptance,” “instrumental use of mindfulness to eliminate anxiety,” “amplified bodily focus and physiological arousal,” and “practice fatigue and perceived therapeutic failure.” Participants described that mindfulness sometimes became a rigid attempt to control thoughts, suppress anxiety, or monitor bodily sensations rather than a flexible, accepting, and nonjudgmental mode of awareness The findings suggest that dysfunctional mindfulness in individuals with chronic anxiety is not necessarily caused by mindfulness itself, but by the interaction between anxious cognition, inadequate instruction, rigid expectations, and unsupervised practice. Mindfulness training for chronically anxious individuals should therefore be gradual, clinically supervised, anxiety-sensitive, and integrated with emotion regulation, self-compassion, psychoeducation, and individualized therapeutic guidance.

A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Emotional Shame in Adolescents with Family Conflict

Mahdis Sarlakpour , Pouria Darvishi ^*

This study aimed to explore the experience of emotional shame among adolescents with family conflict and to identify the main themes shaping this experience within parent–adolescent relationships. This qualitative study used a thematic analysis approach. Participants were 19 adolescents aged 13 to 18 years living in Tehran who reported repeated family conflict and difficulty expressing negative emotions. Purposive sampling was used to ensure variation in gender, age, educational status, and family structure, and recruitment continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected only through individual semi-structured interviews. After obtaining parental informed consent and adolescent assent, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and organized using NVivo software. Data analysis followed the phases of familiarization, initial coding, theme development, theme review, theme definition and naming, and report writing. The analysis yielded five main themes: “self-blame and feeling defective,” “emotional concealment and defensive silence,” “relational shame within criticism and family comparison,” “the spread of shame into the body, school, and peer relationships,” and “maladaptive reparative strategies, including distancing, over-control, and approval seeking.” The findings indicated that emotional shame among adolescents with family conflict is not merely a transient emotional reaction, but a persistent experience of negative visibility, worthlessness, fear of exposure, and inability to communicate emotional needs. The findings suggest that family conflict may contribute to adolescents’ emotional shame through repeated criticism, unsafe emotional communication, invalidation of feelings, and family-based comparisons. Therefore, family-centered interventions focused on emotional validation, reduction of criticism, safe dialogue, and self-compassion may help reduce emotional shame and improve adolescent mental health.

Identifying Psychological Factors Influencing Voluntary Social Isolation among Young Adults

Azadeh Ahmadizad , Farshad Hosseinifar ^* , Maedeh Karimi Motlagh

This study aimed to identify the psychological factors influencing voluntary social isolation among young adults in Tehran. This qualitative study was conducted using thematic analysis. The study population consisted of young adults aged 18 to 29 years who lived in Tehran and reported conscious withdrawal, voluntary reduction of social relationships, and persistent preference for being alone. Participants were selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and sampling continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Eighteen participants were interviewed. After obtaining informed consent, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. Data analysis followed the main stages of thematic analysis, including familiarization with the data, initial coding, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the final report. Credibility and trustworthiness were enhanced through member checking, peer review, analytic memo writing, and maintaining an audit trail. Data analysis led to the identification of five main themes: sensitivity to social judgment, psychological exhaustion caused by unstable relationships, negative self-evaluation and hidden shame, interpersonal mistrust and expectation of rejection, and preference for controlled solitude as a coping strategy. The findings indicated that voluntary social isolation among young adults is not merely a sign of poor social skills or simple disinterest in relationships. Rather, it emerges from the interaction of evaluation anxiety, repeated relational disappointments, feelings of inadequacy, perceived interpersonal threat, and attempts to regain psychological control. Some participants described solitude as a safe, predictable, and low-cost space, while simultaneously reporting consequences such as stagnation, reduced motivation, and difficulty returning to social relationships. The findings suggest that voluntary social isolation among young adults is a multidimensional and meaningful phenomenon that should be understood through lived experience, psychological safety needs, rejection sensitivity, and avoidant coping strategies. Effective psychological interventions should move beyond simple encouragement to increase social contact and should instead focus on modifying maladaptive social cognitions, reducing shame, rebuilding interpersonal trust, and creating gradual opportunities for safe reconnection.

Analyzing the Lived Experiences of Individuals with Performance Anxiety in Academic Settings

Kiarash Yousefian , Aida Radmanesh ^*

This study aimed to analyze the lived experiences of individuals with performance anxiety in academic settings and to identify the cognitive, emotional, bodily, behavioral, and contextual components of this experience. This qualitative study was conducted using a phenomenological approach. The participants were 19 high school and university students living in Tehran who reported recurrent experiences of performance anxiety in academic situations such as examinations, classroom presentations, oral questioning, and practical evaluations. Purposeful sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data were collected only through semi-structured interviews. Each interview lasted between 45 and 75 minutes and focused on the participants’ subjective experiences before, during, and after academic performance, bodily reactions, coping strategies, and the role of the educational environment. After obtaining informed consent, the interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. Thematic analysis was conducted through familiarization with the data, initial coding, theme development, theme review, and theme naming. The analysis resulted in five main categories: “threat-based appraisal of performance situations,” “cognitive disruption and bodily dysregulation during evaluation,” “the cycle of avoidance, procrastination, and safety behaviors,” “the role of interpersonal and institutional context in intensifying anxiety,” and “efforts to reconstruct control and meaning.” Participants described academic performance anxiety not merely as fear of examinations but as a multilayered experience involving fear of judgment, attentional collapse, shame, post-performance rumination, and the fusion of self-worth with academic outcomes. Performance anxiety in academic settings is a cognitive, emotional, bodily, and social experience shaped by threat appraisal, family and educational pressures, fear of evaluation, and maladaptive coping strategies. The findings suggest that effective interventions should move beyond study-skills training and address beliefs about failure, emotion regulation, avoidance patterns, and psychologically safe assessment climates.

A Narrative-Oriented Study of Emotional Alienation in Marital Life

Babak Najafian , Pouya Rostamian ^* , Parisa Salehian

This study aimed to explore emotional alienation in marital life through a narrative-oriented qualitative approach and to identify the experiential patterns through which married individuals make sense of emotional distance in their relationships. This qualitative study used a narrative-oriented design. Participants were 18 married adults living in Tehran who reported persistent experiences of emotional distance, reduced affective intimacy, and feeling unseen or emotionally unsupported in their marital relationship. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling based on their lived experience of the phenomenon. Sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved; initial saturation occurred after the fifteenth interview, and three additional interviews were conducted to confirm the adequacy and stability of the emerging categories. Data were collected exclusively through semi-structured interviews. After obtaining informed consent, interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using NVivo software. The analysis focused on personal narratives, temporal sequencing of marital experiences, meanings attributed to emotional disconnection, and the extraction of recurrent narrative themes. The analysis showed that emotional alienation in marital life is not limited to the absence of communication or overt conflict. Rather, participants described it as a gradual process involving emotional silencing, physical co-presence without empathic presence, exhaustion after repeated failed attempts to reconnect, negative reconstruction of the marital story, and the development of survival-oriented coping strategies. Five main categories emerged: “emotional silence and the unspeakability of needs,” “physical presence and emotional absence of the spouse,” “exhaustion after unanswered attempts at connection,” “transformation of the self and marital narrative,” and “cold adaptation and marital survival without intimacy.” The findings suggest that emotional alienation in marriage is a multilayered and processual phenomenon shaped by attachment needs, communication patterns, emotional suppression, and perceived partner unresponsiveness. Clinical attention to spouses’ lived narratives may help identify early signs of emotional disconnection and inform couple therapy interventions focused on rebuilding emotional responsiveness and relational safety.

Behavioral and Clinical Studies in Contemporary Psychology

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Analyzing the Lived Experiences of Individuals with Performance Anxiety in Academic Settings

Identifying the Cognitive Components of Decision-Making Anxiety among University Students

Exploring the Lived Experience of Feeling Inadequate among Women with High Social Comparison

A Thematic Analysis of Dysfunctional Mindfulness Experiences in Individuals with Chronic Anxiety

A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Emotional Shame in Adolescents with Family Conflict

Identifying Psychological Factors Influencing Voluntary Social Isolation among Young Adults

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Indexing & Abstracting

Analyzing the Lived Experiences of Individuals with Performance Anxiety in Academic Settings

Identifying the Cognitive Components of Decision-Making Anxiety among University Students

Exploring the Lived Experience of Feeling Inadequate among Women with High Social Comparison

A Thematic Analysis of Dysfunctional Mindfulness Experiences in Individuals with Chronic Anxiety

A Qualitative Study of the Experience of Emotional Shame in Adolescents with Family Conflict

Identifying Psychological Factors Influencing Voluntary Social Isolation among Young Adults

Analyzing the Lived Experiences of Individuals with Performance Anxiety in Academic Settings

A Narrative-Oriented Study of Emotional Alienation in Marital Life