The relationship between emotional intelligence and irrational beliefs with mental health in middle school teachers

Dissertation for Master's Degree in Psychology (M.A)

Trend: Clinical

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this research is the relationship between emotional intelligence and irrational beliefs with mental health in middle school teachers. Method: The method of this research is correlational. The statistical population includes all male and female teachers (number of 240 people) who are working in the first period of secondary school. The statistical sample of this research is the number of 148 male and female teachers who were selected using the cluster sampling method and were examined by emotional intelligence, irrational beliefs and mental health questionnaires. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics methods (mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage) and inferential statistics methods (Pearson correlation matrix and independent t test). Findings: The data analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the total score of health and irrational beliefs. (desire to value, reaction to failure, and perfectionism) there is a significant relationship. It was also found that there is no significant relationship between emotional intelligence and mental health, and the results of the independent t-test showed that there is a significant difference between male and female teachers in the irrational beliefs of high self-expectation, reaction to failure, emotional irresponsibility, excessive worry combined with anxiety, and helplessness in relation to change (despair), and the comparison of the means indicated that the level of these irrational beliefs was higher in female teachers. It was also found that there is a significant difference between male and female teachers in the total score of emotional intelligence, and no significant difference was found between the two groups of male and female teachers in the mental health score.

Conclusion: The results of this research showed that having mental health in the investigated teachers is related to the type of irrational beliefs and emotional intelligence in them. Therefore, helping teachers to change their illogical beliefs, and developing emotional intelligence in them, who are the leaders of our future generation, can predict their mental health and ultimately have an effect on the health of students. The efforts of new education and education are from the renaissance until now. Therefore, all nations with every political and social system have paid a lot of attention to this important institution, and they see it as a productive institution in which the costs incurred in it are much smaller than the results (developed human power and advancement of science and technology) (Atesh Afroz, 2016). Teachers, in today's world, mental health is of great importance, because we live in an era where, parallel to the technological, industrial, economic and social developments, mental disorders are spreading day by day, and many people are suffering greatly from discomforts and disorders, and not only are they in torment, but they are also tormenting their families and society (Lashkari, 2013). Today, mental health has received the attention of psychiatrists, psychologists and other thinkers of behavioral and social sciences. Mental health is the knowledge or art that helps people to adapt to the good environment by creating correct psychological and emotional methods and choose more favorable solutions to solve their problems. Because if psychological pressures constantly threaten a person, it will not be possible to cultivate a cheerful, strong and capable person to be able to fulfill his responsibilities. Undoubtedly, if the management and those in charge of providing mental health to the communities can control or reduce the psychological and psychological stress factors in practical, effective and efficient ways, they will be able to prevent many family and social harms as well as other unpleasant consequences that are the result of the deterioration of mental health (Taibi, 2004). Today, the attention of psychotherapists has been drawn to the influence of beliefs in creating various psychological problems (Cartier, Greenwell and Prendergast[1], 2008). For example, Ellis believes that people are exceptionally rational and irrational, and their problems mostly arise from distorted perceptions and irrational beliefs, and the way to overcome their problems is through improving their thinking and perceptions. Ellis believes that behavior can change human cognition and emotion, and cognition can influence behavior and emotion (Lam and Gall [2], 2004).The type of attitude people have towards themselves and the surrounding environment is effective in creating and increasing their perceptions. People who have healthy and efficient beliefs and use adaptive and successful coping strategies and have healthy interpersonal relationships, life satisfaction and a sense of peace (Wells [3], 2009). Beck states that intrusive thoughts, images, and impulses lead to disturbances when they are important to the individual and are associated with negative spontaneous thoughts. Research findings have shown that negative and ineffective attitudes are related to some psychological disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, self-diagnosis disorder, and depressive disorder (Salkoskis, Rowe, Goldhill, Morrison, Forster et al.[4], 2000). Emotional intelligence is made of a set of various skills, abilities and facilitators, most of which can be created or nurtured through learning from others (Kimaei et al., 2013).

Emotional intelligence represents a person's ability to evaluate and express emotions correctly and adaptively, it also includes the ability to understand emotions and be aware of emotions and the ability to achieve emotions or create them to facilitate cognitive activities and adaptive action and the ability to regulate emotions in achieving emotions and or creating them in order to facilitate cognitive activities and adaptive actions and the ability to regulate emotions in oneself and others (Akbarzadeh, 2013).

1-2- Statement of the problem

Teachers are constantly in anxiety and tension because of the intense activities and problems they find in school with the principal, parents and colleagues, and also because of the many efforts they spend in school to control students' abnormal behaviors, unless they can deal with it with scientific and effective methods. To control the pressures caused by the school environment. In addition, the problems of the social environment and provision of life's necessities have doubled the anxiety and depression of teachers (Shirkol, 2014). Health is a basic human need that a person continuously strives to achieve (Killer [5], 1984). Health is the source of life, not a means for it, health has a practical concept that affects people's psychological and social aspects in addition to their physical ability (Sheffield [6], 1998). General health is a person's complete physical, mental and social well-being, and there is a mutual and dynamic effect between these three aspects. Therefore, mental health is considered as one of the criteria for determining people's general health; The meaning of which is the feeling of well-being and assurance of self-efficacy, self-reliance, competitive capacity, intergenerational belonging and self-fulfillment of potential intellectual abilities, excitement, etc. (Global Health Report, 2001). Mental health is considered one of the most important factors in the improvement and development of humans. The purpose of mental health is to prevent the occurrence of discomfort and maintain mental health in order to create a healthy and appropriate personal and social environment, as well as treating mental disorders and preventing the chronicity of illness in people. In 1946, the World Health Organization[7] defined health as follows: the state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not the absence of disease or disability. In this definition, three physical dimensions are considered from the medical and psychological point of view, from the psychological and social point of view, in terms of the dimensions of healthy relationships with the environment (Khairabadi, 1381). Beliefs are formed under the influence of interpersonal experiences in childhood and are strengthened over time through the process of information processing. Irrational beliefs create distortions in the process of information processing, and this causes a person to downplay and ignore the evidence against his beliefs during his growth and only pay attention to the evidence that supports his beliefs. Beliefs are hypotheses about oneself, the world and the future (Qahari, 2019). Irrational beliefs are desires and goals that become necessary and mandatory preferences and become mandatory and definite goals, so that if they are not met, it leads to confusion and anxiety (Bernard [8], 1991). In the field of cognitive therapy, there have been many researches that deal with the role of people's beliefs on their performance in different situations. Shamlou (1368) considers the basis and foundation of cognitivism in the way of thinking and its role in behavior and believes that the abnormal behavior of humans is due to the disorders and inadequacies of illogical thinking that they have in the way of thinking, reasoning and dealing with their situations or life issues. Mehrband (1379; quoted by Motamedin, 1383). Emotional intelligence is the latest development in the field of understanding the relationship between thinking and emotion.