The effectiveness of reality therapy on reducing shyness and emotional deficiency of students

Dissertation for Master's degree (M.A) in clinical psychology

Abstract

       The main purpose of this research was to study the effectiveness of reality therapy on reducing shyness and emotional deficiency of students and its components including reality therapy, reducing shyness, and emotional deficiency. The statistical population of the current research is all students studying in secondary school in Aslandoz city in the academic year 91-92, which is more than 3000 students. In this research, a multi-stage cluster random sampling method has been used. To determine the sample size, 4 schools (2 girls' schools and 2 boys' schools) and two subjects from each of these schools and two classes from each subject were randomly selected from among secondary schools. 341 people were selected based on Morgan's sample size tables. In order to collect the required information, the research was conducted using two standardized questionnaires, Shyness Questionnaire and Toronto Emotional Dysfunction Questionnaire. The present research is an experimental method.  Descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used to analyze the data collected through the questionnaire. In this way, to summarize, classify, and interpret the statistical data of frequency and percentage of frequency (tables, graphs) and in order to test research hypotheses, analysis of covariance test using SPSS software was used. And finally, based on the results obtained using the tests, it was concluded that reality therapy education significantly reduces the amount of shyness in students, and this means that reality therapy education significantly increases the students' skills in describing their feelings.

Key words: shyness, emotional failure, reality therapy. Alienation in America realized that the root of all people's problems is the weakening of the emotional bond between them. People who are lost and wandering cling to any broken board to survive for a few days. But you have to reach the real shore of salvation.

Glasser has come to the conclusion that humans are more than instincts, desires and habits, contrary to traditional therapeutic views. Humans choose, decide, change, examine themselves.

Glaser also realized that because he is on the side of humans, one more thing is needed for the implementation of therapeutic techniques, and that is the relationship, and a cold and dispassionate expedient therapist can no longer be successful. The important role of the therapeutic relationship for him was considered a serious assumption in the treatment.

In addition to the therapeutic relationship, Glaser's view of the individual in psychopathology is not a disease or a defect in behavior. Glaser associates everything that exists in the humanist movement with reason and reasoning, but there is still a lack of "learning from the past" in his theory. Because humans think, feel, experience, learn from the past and have dreams for the future. In their daily life, these people often play with familiar family members and peers and avoid strangers. The shame and shyness of these people may prevent them from acquiring the necessary skills and preparation for many activities that their peers enjoy or that are essential for their personality development. The evaluation of parents and teachers is different from this group. Sometimes they are known as harmless and good students, and sometimes they may look at them sympathetically and consider them abnormal with such behavior, but in Compared to other behavioral disorders, it is rare for this group of people to be considered as acute cases of class and school problems.

Although these students do not cause problems for their teachers and classmates, they may be one of the most unhappy children due to the suffering caused by the feeling of insecurity and inadequacy in themselves. If there is no solution for their antisocial behavior, these children will probably be exposed to mental illnesses.(Ahmedvand, 2010)

In fact, one of the proposed methods to reduce and solve the problems related to shyness is to use Glasser's group reality therapy method. In this method, it is tried to help solve the problems of a person by paying attention to the concepts of reality, responsibility and right and wrong things in a person's life (Shafi Abadi, 2010). The large number of students and the lack of efficient counselors in schools on the one hand and the inability of guidance and counseling programs in schools to rely on individual counseling on the other hand, reveal the necessity of paying attention and using group counseling methods (Nawabnejad, 1995). In addition, among the existing theories of counseling and psychotherapy, reality therapy has emphasized the issue of shyness more than other approaches.

Alexithymia [2] is called the inability to cognitively process emotional information and regulate emotions. Alexithymia is a multifaceted construct consisting of difficulty identifying emotions, difficulty describing emotions to others, and externalizing thought orientation. The main characteristics of alexithymia are: inability to recognize and verbally describe personal emotions, severe poverty of symbolic thinking that limits the disclosure of encounters, feelings, desires and drivers, inability to use emotions as symptoms of emotional problems, abstract thinking about unimportant external realities, reduced recall of dreams, difficulty in distinguishing between emotional states and bodily sensations, lack of facial emotional expressions, limited capacity for empathy and self-awareness. Also, failure to regulate and manage emotions (transition process from processing to action) is also one of the characteristics of emotional failure.

Alexithymia includes the destruction of the three domains of recognizing, processing and expressing emotions, which is one of the closest concepts to emotional intelligence (Taylor and Bagby, 2000; Bashart, 2008). The external characteristics that make up the structure of emotional failure are the expressions of defects in cognitive processing and regulation of emotions. From the point of view of cognitive science, emotions are known as a group of schemas based on information processing, which include symbolic and non-symbolic processes and visualizations. The reduction of emotional expression basically indicates a kind of lack or misregulation of emotions. In the same way, damage in emotional processing capacities based on emotional inadequacy may be a possible risk factor for all kinds of mental health problems. In fact, the reality therapy method is largely related to group work with teenagers and young people in educational situations. Glaser's theory has usually been accepted by teachers who intended to use his basic ideas in the field of reality therapy in classrooms. The basis of group reality therapy consists of the process of self-evaluation because the atmosphere governing the group can help group members to obtain a correct evaluation of their behavior (Curry, 2001). The main goal of this research is to determine the effectiveness of reality therapy on reducing shyness and emotional inadequacy in students. 1-2- Statement of the problem: Shyness has been a topic of interest in psychology for the past 30 years, and researchers have contributed to understanding that phenomenon. Anyway, shyness is considered as a social phenomenon characterized by anxiety in social situations, social inhibition, or interpersonal behaviors caused by concern about interpersonal evaluation. Shy people lack social skills and self-esteem, but at the same time, they strongly want to know themselves as social people, as a result, they act unskillfully in interpersonal relationships. One of the most important symptoms of shyness diagnosis is mental anxiety and avoidance of social behaviors.

The basis of the treatment of shyness is a change in the cognitive field (cognitive therapy) and a change in the way of life and social life of the person, a change in the way of thinking, finding a new attitude towards oneself and the surrounding environment, having the power to make new reactions to the people around and interpersonal interaction, a change in the beliefs and value system that strengthens shyness, and finally reaching the main focus of anxiety, reducing anxiety in For a shy person, strengthening motivation and increasing social skills and educational, occupational and professional abilities is the main method of treating shyness. (Afrooz, 2011)

Emotional deficiency (alexythymia[3]) is said to be difficulty in emotional self-regulation[4] and in other words in cognitive processing[5] of emotional information and regulation of emotions[6].