This study is intended to compose a group counseling program based on positive psychology in order to increase the empowerment of participants in self-support projects, and to verify its effectiveness. First, basic research was done to compose a progr...
This study is intended to compose a group counseling program based on positive psychology in order to increase the empowerment of participants in self-support projects, and to verify its effectiveness. First, basic research was done to compose a program, and then on the basis of the research results, a positive psychotherapy program was developed and conducted, and its effectiveness was verified.
The subjects of the basic research were 348 participants in self-support projects in the area of Daegu and Gyeongbuk.
The number of subjects for the study of the program effectiveness was fifty, twenty five belonging to the experimental group, and as many to the control group.
The collected data were analyzed by Pearson's correlation, path analysis and ANCOVA. The result was that the variables such as subjective well-being, psychological well-being, optimism, gratitude disposition, and mental distress proved to affect the empowerment of participants in the self-support projects.
The research on the composition and conduct of the program can be summarized as follows.
The program is intended to intensify the participants' will to support themselves and ultimately to increase their satisfaction with living by helping them to recognize and practice ways of living a happy life in their everyday lives, and also in the realities of self-support, and to maximize their empowerment ability.
In order to reach the goal, the program is composed of elements that are highly correlated with empowerment as shown by the basic research: 'gratitude', 'optimism', and six subcategories of 'psychological well-being'(Ryff, 1989) like 'self-acceptance', 'interpersonal relationship', 'individual autonomy', 'power over the environment', 'life purpose', and 'individual growth'.
Among these six subcategories, the last two that are related with concrete planning for the future can be regarded as one category of practice. In this way, the program consists of seven components.
For the verification of the validity of the program's components, some experts in counselling and social work were asked to estimate the program components, giving a high validity score of .95.
The program was conducted by two project groups(each group of 15 participants or so) willing to participate in the program at the Regional Self-Support Center located in the city of A. In verifying the effectiveness of the program, fifty participants in two groups(one was the experimental group of 25 subjects, and the other was the control group of as many subjects) were involved excluding those who were absent twice or more from the program activities.
The research designs used for this study were '2×2 One Between-One Within Subjects Mixed Designs' in which a before-examination and an after-examination of each group are controlled: two groups were examined twice before and after the program.
The groups were the between-subjects variables, and examination time was the within-subject variable.
To verify the effectiveness of the program, this study has measured the influence of the positive psychotherapy program on increasing the empowerment of the participants in the self-support program, and also on their subjective well-being, psychological well-being, optimism, gratitude disposition, and mental distress.
The study results are as follows. First, the positive psychotherapy program was found to be effective in increasing the empowerment of the participants in the self-support program.
Next, the positive psychotherapy program was found to be effective in improving subjective well-being, psychological well-being, optimism, and gratitude disposition.
Third, the positive psychotherapy program was found to be effective in reducing their enmity which is a subcategory of mental distress.
These results of the study have led to the following suggestions about practicing the program for self-support and doing subsequent research on self-support programs.
First, no other positive psychotherapy program for participants in self-support projects has been conducted in Korea up to now, so the validity of this study needs to be confirmed through doing more research of this kind.
Second, more research should be continued in order to know which psychological variables of participants in self-support projects are related directly or indirectly to their desire to work.
Research could be done on the relation between a positive psychological variable like participants' character strength and their desire to work.
Third, various approaches could be tried in order to increase psychological well-being.
In particular, so that programs could be selectively applied to various participants with different gender, income level, and education, they should be composed in the form of modules. If so, they would surely be utilized in more realistic situations.
This study has also led to the following suggestions about conducting programs to provide psychological supports for participants in self-support projects.
First, participants should be offered incentives to be led to participate actively in such projects.
Next, as for the duration of programs, more time should be allotted to programs to deal with the participants' internal psychological problems.
Programs of shorter duration are rarely effective in coping with such matters.
Third, job-finding programs are more effective when combined with educational programs, so standardized educational programs need to be institutionally provided for participants to support themselves socially and emotionally.
In particular, the problems of those participants suffering from a high level of mental distress should be approached in connection with individual counselling, such as clinical case management.