assessment of effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group training on self-esteem and achievement motivation of high school students

background: based on researches done  in recent decades, there are several therapeutic approaches to increase self-esteem and achievement motivation of students. among these methods, we can refer to cognitive-behavioral therapy. the purpose of this research is assessment of effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral group training on self-esteem andachievement motivation of students. methods: the research method was experimental with two- grouped pre-test and post- test design, experimental group and control group. the statistical population includes all students of high schools in sarakhs (educational year 2012-2013). (n=85). participants were chosen by available sampling method and randomly assigned to an experimental (15 boys) and a control group (15 boys). the experimental group received cognitive-behavioral group training through 8 sessions of 1 hour, while the control group received no training at all. for assessing the research variables, alis pop self- esteem questionnaire and edwards’s achievement motivation questionnaire were done before and after completion of the trainings. the collected data were analyzed using independent and dependent t test by spss statistical software. results: the study demonstrated that cognitive-behavioral training had positive effects on students’ self-esteem (p<0.001) and achievement motivation (p<0.001) in comparison to control group. conclusions: in general, it can be concluded that cognitive- behavioral training were found effective in increasing self-esteem and achievement motivation.