The Effectiveness of Group Reality Therapy in the Development of Emotional Autonomy and Positive and Negative Affect in Students

Autonomy and positive and negative affect are among the most significant factors affecting the quality of life and academic achievement of students. Accordingly, this study aimed to examine the effectiveness of group reality therapy in the development of emotional autonomy and positive and negative affect in male students. This quasi-experimental study had a pretest-posttest control group design. The statistical population of the study included all male senior high school students in Isfahan (District 3) in 2018-19 school year. In order to select the sample, first 181 individuals were selected through convenience sampling. In the next stage, 30 students who had gained the lowest scores on the autonomy questionnaire were randomly assigned to the experimental and control groups. The subjects completed Emotional Autonomy Scale (Steinberg & Silverberg, 1986) and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (Watson et al., 1988). The experimental group received training in group reality therapy in eight 90-minute sessions. The collected data were analyzed by ANCOVA. The results showed that training in group reality therapy had a significant effect on the development of emotional autonomy and positive and negative affect in students. The findings of the study have important implications for researchers as well as education and therapeutic centers.