Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011)
INTI International University, Malaysia
COMPARING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FORDYCE`S
COGNITIVE–BEHAVIORAL APPROACH AND SOCIAL
SKILLS TRAINING APPROACH ON INCREASING HIGH
SCHOOL STUDENTS` HAPPINESS IN ISFAHAN, IRAN
Abedi, Ahmad and Hevrat, Atefeh
Esfahan-Iran University, Iran
ABSTRACT
(Not submitted by the authors.)
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, as one of the areas of positive psychology, happiness has attracted a large amount
of attention and includes an extensive range of meanings. Lyubomirsky considers the
happiness as the experiencing feelings of exhilaration and satisfaction, and also the feeling
that the person considers his life meaningful and valuable (Lyubomirsky et al, 2005).
Optimistic people are stronger believers and more popular and more consistent with
education, job, and sports. They have also more political and social opportunities (Milligan,
2003). Optimistic and happy people, in general, tend to limit the bad events to that specific
time and space in a way that they won’t affect other aspects of life. Because of the advantages
of a happy life for the people, many psychologists and researches have tried to develop
approaches to increase the amount of happiness in the life of the people. Happiness program
(Fordyce, 1997, 1983), social skills training (Lewinson& Gotlib, 1995), cognitive therapy
(Beck, 1991), interpersonal communication training (Buss, 2000) and mood-induction
methods are among these approaches. In this research the effectiveness of two of these
approaches which have theoretical basis are implemented are compared with each other.
RESEARCH METHOD
The present research has been conducted experimentally and with pretest-posttest-follow-up
model along with control group. The subjects of this research were six groups of male and
female students. Two groups (a male group and a female group) were exposed to Fordyce`s
happiness approach and two groups (a male group and a female group) were exposed to
Lewinson`s social skills training approach and two groups (a male group and a female group)
were formed as the control groups. Happiness training approaches were considered as the
independent variables and the amount of happiness was dependent variable. Pretest is
conducted before the intervention, and posttest, four weeks after the experiment and followup, six weeks after the interventions.
1
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011)
INTI International University, Malaysia
SUBJECTS
Statistical society of this research is the male and female high school students of Isfahan city,
Iran in the school year 2004-2005. The sample of this research was 120 male and female
students that were elected with multi-stage cluster random sampling approach. And, based on
their gender, they were grouped into four experimental groups and two control groups (each
group 20 students). With the support of education department of Isfahan province, happiness
training program was implemented for each experimental group during six sessions. A
limited number of subjects didn’t pursue the happiness programs and the number of students
in each group reduced to 19 students randomly; and the research continued with 114 students
in six experimental and control groups.
RESEARCH TOOL
Oxford happiness questionnaires were used for measuring the amount of happiness among
students. This measure has 29 questions with four options which are scored in order. Total
scores forms the scale score which is the same as the Beck`s depression scale scoring. This
scale was developed by Argyle & Lu in 1990. With the help of the retest method, they
reported a 0.87 final coefficient for this scale. And with the help of the divergence method
(correlation coefficient between oxford happiness scale and Beck`s depression scale) they
reported a -0.52 construct validity (Franice et al, 1998).
In Iran, Alipour, with the help of Cronbach`s alpha method, reported a 0.87 final coefficient
for this scale (Alipour et al, 1999). Nominal and contextual validity of this scale were
examined by asking 10 experts (psychologists and psychiatrist) to give their opinions about
them and all confirmed the ability of the scale in measuring the amount of happiness among
the subjects. In the present research, with the help of Cronbach`s alpha method, a 0.87 final
coefficient has been calculated.
INTERVENTION METHODS
The happiness program of Fordyce
The happiness program of Fordyce: Fordyce (1877) is one of the prominent experts in
happiness psychology and his researches in this field have resulted in a collection named
“The happiness program of Fordyce”. The happiness program of Fordyce consists of 14
principles. The fundamental principle of the happiness program of Fordyce is that if a person
wants to be happy the same as happy people, he/she is able to be happy. The approach of this
program is based on a combination of cognitive and behavioral theories. At the cognitive
level, the principles of this program are defined for individuals. The reasons to prove that
these principles are capable of increasing the amount of happiness among the trainees are
presented. At behavioral level, some techniques of behavior therapy are used so that with
their help, this program is implemented. The 14 principles of the happiness program of
Fordyce which are, implemented on the subjects during 6 sessions, with each session taking 2
hours, are as follow:
2
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011)
INTI International University, Malaysia
First principle:
Second principle:
Third principle:
Fourth principle:
Fifth principle:
Sixth principle:
Seventh principle:
Eighth principle:
Ninth principle:
Tenth principle:
Eleventh principle:
Twelfth principle:
Thirteenth principle:
Fourteenth principle:
being fun and active.
spending more time on the social and group activities.
doing meaningful and productive activities.
better organization.
putting away the discomforts.
lowering the level of expectations and desires.
positive and optimistic thinking.
paying attention to the present.
paying attention to the healthy personality.
being social and extraversion.
being the real self.
putting away the problems and negative feelings.
strong communications are the most important source of happiness.
considering oneself as valuable equals to being happy.
1-1. Subjects get acquainted with the Fordyce method and implementing the pretest (first session).
2-1. Subjects get acquainted with the feelings expressing and optimism increasing
techniques and implementing them (second session).
3-1. Subjects get acquainted with the intimacy increasing, creativity increasing and
expectations decreasing techniques (third session).
4-1. Subjects get acquainted with the physical activities increasing and social relations
increasing techniques (fourth session).
5-1. Subjects get acquainted with self being, planning, organization, and living in the present
techniques (fifth session).
6-1. Subjects get acquainted with putting away disturbing thoughts and giving priority to
happiness techniques and implementing posttest (sixth session).
Assignments related to the techniques also were given to the subjects for each session.
Social skills training program: after conducting many researches, Lewinson and Gotlib
(1995) concluded that the effectiveness of training social skills includes expression skills,
finding friends, discussion, transparent communications, self expression, and communication
skills; and if the individuals learn the social skills, they can have a happy life through having
an effective communication with others. This method is a combination of cognitive and
behavioral theories (, Lewinson & Gotlib, 1995, Hopz & Lewinson5991 ).
The steps and the educational content of this method are as follow:
1-2. subjects get acquainted with social skills training approach and implementing pretest
(first session).
2-2. subjects get acquainted with expression skills and discussion (second session).
3-2. subjects get acquainted with finding friends skills and communication skills (third
session).
4-2. subjects get acquainted with spending leisure time and sport (fourth session)
5-2. subjects get acquainted with self expression skills (fifth session).
6-2. subjects get acquainted with social relations and transparent communications and
implementing posttest (sixth session).
3
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011)
INTI International University, Malaysia
DATA ANALYSIS METHODS
Variance analysis with repeated measurements and Scheffe test has been used to analyze the
data.
RESULTS
Table 1 shows the average and the standard deviation of the scores of happiness test in
different groups at pretest, posttest, and follow-up stages.
Table1. The average and the standard deviation of the scores of happiness test in different groups at pretest,
posttest, and follow-up
Pretest
Posttest
Follow-up
Groups
Subjects
Average
Standard
deviation
Average
Standard
deviation
Average
Standard
deviation
Fordyce`s
happiness
program
Female
52/78
9/45
74/84
8/78
75/64
8/95
Male
51/78
10/32
72/02
9/43
74/32
9/45
Total
52/28
9/88
73/93
9/1
74/98
9/21
Female
49/91
11/02
79/98
10/11
88/87
9/91
Male
50/01
9/81
78/41
8/99
87/32
8/87
Total
49/96
10/41
79/19
9/55
88/09
9/39
Female
5730/
10/42
49/42
10/02
51/21
9/43
Male
49/52
9/95
48/93
9/36
49/1
9/63
Total
50/12
10/18
49/17
9/69
50/15
9/53
Social skills
training
Control
The results in Table 1 illustrate that the average scores of the experiment groups in posttest
and follow-up compared to the control groups have undergone considerable changes.
4
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011)
INTI International University, Malaysia
Table2. Summary of the variance analysis between and within the subjects with repetitive measurements and the
difference between pretest-posttest and pretest-follow-up scores of the amount of the happiness among male and
female students
Within subject effectc
Sum of
square
df
Mean
square
F
Sig
Sex
104/018
1
104/018
0/55
0/459
Groups
32756/6
9
1
32756/6
9
87/01
0/001
Sex*grops
118/28
2
59/14
0/314
0/731
Error
20331/5
8
108
188/25
-
-
Factor
416/07
1
416/07
8/84
0/002
Sex*Factor
252/63
1
252/63
5137
0/022
Groups *Factor
236/43
1
236/43
2151
0/086
Sex*Factor* Groups
706/92
2
353/46
7151
0/001
Error(Factor)
5080/95
108
47/04
-
-
‫بين آزموني ها‬
between subject effectc
effectc
Source
Table 2 shows the results of the variance analysis between the subjects with repeated
measurements and the difference between pretest-posttest and pretest-follow-up scores of the
amount of the happiness among the male and female students.
The results illustrate that there is a distinctive difference between pretest-posttest and pretestfollow-up scores of the amount of the happiness among students of training Fordyce and
social skills training and control (see the row named groups in Table 2 ). It is clear that there
is a meaningful difference between the differences of the factor scores (pretest-posttestfollow-up(the row named factor)).
Table 3. The comparison of the difference of the average scores of the pretest-posttest and pretest-follow-up the
amount of happiness in different experiment and control groups with Scheffe test
Groups
2
-
3
*
social skills
training
*
*
Control
*
*
Fordyce`s
happiness
program
5
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011)
INTI International University, Malaysia
CONCLUSION
The results of the research point that the Fordyce`s happiness method and Lewinson &
Gotlib`s social skills training method are both effective in increasing the amount of happiness
among students. The findings of this research confirm the findings of other studies on
effectiveness of these approaches in increasing the amount of happiness (Fodyce 1983,
Lyubomirsky 1999, Abedi 2002 & 2003, Lewinson& Gotlib 1995, Hopz & Lewinson 1992).
As illustrated in the findings of this research, Scheffe test showed that the social skills
training method increased the amount of happiness meaningfully. Also, the social skills
training method is more effective than Fordyce method in increasing the amount of happiness
among students. In researches conducted by Lewinson& Gotlib (1995), Hopz & Lewinson
(1995), De Neve& cooper (1998), and Kamps & Kay (2002) the effectiveness of this
method in increasing the amount of happiness among depressed people and families has been
confirmed.
The researches about happiness have indicated that, in general, happy and unhappy people
have different intellectual structures, judgments, and motivations. Happy people have had
higher individual, family, occupational, educational, and social efficiency (Lyubomirsky et al
2005). And also according to Patterson (2000) these people interpret the events positively,
don’t pay attention to failure, deal with events in the best way in a given time, and have
realistic optimism. Hence, since these methods are implemented easily, it is recommended
that the education department teach these two methods to students and also pay more
attention to them during training courses intended for military instructors, and family and
educational counselors.
6
Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference of Teaching and Learning (ICTL 2011)
INTI International University, Malaysia
REFERENCE
Argyle ,M ., Martin ,M,& Crossland ,J. (1989). Happiness as A Function of Personality and
Social Encounters. In J. P. Forgas , JM. Innes, Recent Advanes in Social Psychology: An
International Perspective, pp.189-203.
Balow, J.P. (2002). The Measurement of Optimism and Hope in Relation to College Student
Retention and Academic Success. PhD dissertation. Iowa State University.
Chiara,M.A. (2002). Multidimensional Optimism and Well-being: A Prospective Study of
Multiple Concepts of Optimism as Protective Factor Following High Stress. Phd
dissertation. Temple Umiversity.
DeNeve,K,.M. & Cooper, H. (1998). The Happy Personality: A Meta-analysis of 137
Personality Traits and Subjective Well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 124, pp, 197-229.
Franice, L.J., Lester, D. & Philipchalk, R. (1998). Happiness Stable Extraversion: A Cross
Examination of The Reliability and Validity Oxford Happiness Inventory Among Students in
Theuk . ESA, Australia and Canada, Personality and Individual Differnces, 24.(2) ,164-171.
Diener, E. (2000). Subjective Well-being. .American Psychologjst.55(1), 34-43.
Larson, R.W. (2000). Toward A Psychology of Positive Youth Development. American
Psychologisst,55.(1) ,pp,170-183.
Lyubomirsky, S. (2001). Why Are Some People Happier Than Others? American
Psychologist. 5.(2) 6,239-249.
Lu, L. & Argyle, M. (1991). Happiness and Cooperation. Personality and Individual
Difference, 12(10),pp,1019, 1030.
Lyubomirsky, S., Sheldon, K.M. & Schkad, D. (2005). Pursuing Happiness: The General
Psychology 9, PP.111-131.
Meyers, D. (2000). The Friends, Funds, and Faith of Happy People. American Psychologist,
55.(1),pp,56-57.
Milligan, M. (2003). Optimism and Five-factor Model of Personality, Coping and Health
Behavior. Phd dissrtaion Psychology Personality. Aburn University.
Peterson, C. (2000). The Future of Optimism. American Psychologist. 55(1), pp,44-55.
Veenhoven, K. (1988). The Utility of Happiness. Social Indicators Research. 20, pp, 333-254
7