The Effectiveness of Teaching the Basics of Choice Theory on Enthusiasm for School and Psychological Toughness of Elementary School Boys

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to determine the effectiveness of teaching the basics of choice theory on enthusiasm for school and psychological toughness of elementary school boys. Methodology: The purpose of this research was applied, and in terms of the method of implementation, it was a semi-experimental pre-test and post-test with a control group. The statistical population of this research was all the male students of the elementary school in Kerman city in the academic year of 2021. 30 people were selected as available samples and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (15 people) and control group (15 people) by lottery method. The research tools included Glaser's choice theory basics training intervention (2015), Viga School Enthusiasm Questionnaire (2016) and Kubasa's stubbornness questionnaire (1979). The intervention sessions of training the basics of selection theory (during 2 and a half months and 10 sessions) were implemented for the experimental group, and no training was provided to the control group during this period. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and covariance analysis with SPSS-24 software were used for data analysis. Findings: The findings showed that after teaching the basics of selection theory, the enthusiasm for school and the psychological toughness of the experimental group increased significantly compared to the control group (p <0.01). The results of univariate covariance analysis also showed that teaching the basics of choice theory had an effect of 0.47 on enthusiasm for school and 0.53 on psychological toughness. Conclusion: According to the results of this research, teaching the basics of selection theory can be used to increase the enthusiasm for school and the psychological toughness of elementary school boys.