The comparison of the effectiveness of Fredrickson’s positive thinking and Dweck’s mind set program on psychological capital of ninth-grade gifted girl students with test anxiety of Isfahan

Introduction: The present study aimed to investigate the comparison of the effectiveness of Fredrickson’s positive thinking and Dweck’s mind set program on psychological capital of ninth-grade gifted girl students with test anxiety of Isfahan.   Method: This study is quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest with control group. The population of the study consisted all 450 gifted female students in ninth-grade of Isfahan city, Iran After screening the student using the Test Anxiety Inventory (TAI), a sample of 45 students who were obtained higher scores were selected and then randomly divided into the experimental group n=15, for Fredrickson’s positive thinking; and n=15, for Dweck’s mind set program) and the control group (n =15). Each of the experimental group were received 8 sessions of intervention, while no intervention for the control group. All participants were completed the Luthans Psychological Capital Questionnaire at pre-/post-test. Data were analyzed using the MANCOVA. Also, SPSS-22 was used.   Results: The findings indicated that there is significant difference between the Fredrickson’s positive thinking group and Dweck’s mind set program group with the control group in terms of self-efficacy, resiliency and optimism, with the two experimental group were effective and the effects of the trainings on resiliency and optimism were maintained at 6-month follow up. Moreover, the results indicated the effectiveness of the Dewick’s mind set program on hopefulness and optimism at posttest and at follow up, compared to the Fredrickson and the control groups.   Conclusion: using the Dweck’s mind set program and Fredrickson’s positive thinking we can influence psychological capital of the gifted students with test anxiety, which in turn can increase the efficacy and progress of these students.