counseling in schools. a rational emotive behavior ... - Editura ASCR

Cogniţie, Creier, Comportament / Cognition, Brain, Behavior Copyright © 2008 Romanian Association for Cognitive Science. All rights reserved. ISSN: 1224-8398 Volume XII, No. 1 (March), 57 - 69

COUNSELING IN SCHOOLS. A RATIONAL EMOTIVE BEHAVIOR THERAPY (REBT) BASED INTERVENTION - A PILOT STUDY Sebastian VAIDA*, Éva KÁLLAY & Adrian OPRE Department of Psychology, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

ABSTRACT During the last five decades, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) (Ellis, 1955) clearly revealed its efficiency and flexibility beyond the clinical settings. An adapted form of the clinical model in educational environment is the Rational Emotive Behavior Education (REBE). By its structure and strategies, REBE strongly emphasizes the prophylactic value of the entire paradigm. In the present pilot study we addressed the matter of such an educational program and tested its efficiency in the Romanian high schools. We intended to decrease students’ irrationality and offer them the chance to develop a more adaptive life philosophy, by changing the way they see and perceive things. To reach this goal, we used an experimental design with repeated measures. The results clearly confirm our hypotheses and sustain the possibility of achieving significant changes in the belief systems, emotions and behaviors, by using an REBE intervention.

KEYWORDS: rational emotive behavior education; school counseling; rational and irrational thinking style.

REBT stands for Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, a form of psychological counseling first developed by Albert Ellis in the late 1950’s. Its foundations may be found in the writings of Stoics as Epicure and Epictetus. Around 500 B.C., Epictetus stated that It's not what happens to us, but how we react to it that matters (Epictet, 2002). In other words, it is not an event that *

Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]

S. Vaida, É. Kállay, A. Opre

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troubles us, but our perception and the interpretation we give to that particular event. The basic idea of this form of therapy is that we are the only ones responsible for the way we (decide to) feel, thus suggesting that we have, to a considerable degree, control over our thoughts (Ellis, 1979b). In a very simple, yet effective model called the ABC, Ellis (1979a, 1985) outlined an application for his theory, so that anyone could use it to identify and control his/her thoughts and then change them, thus achieving more adaptive and functional emotions, and behaviors. On the one hand, ABC stands for the first letters of the alphabet, thus proving its simplicity and clarity, and on the other hand, it is an abbreviation. “A” stands for the Activating Event (it refers to any real, external event, imaginative or internal event, or even an inference about an event) (Dryden, 2002) that might occur and trigger an idea or a series of thoughts or beliefs. “B” stands for Beliefs, and it represents the evaluations and interpretations of the particular event. These beliefs may be Rational (Self Helping) or Irrational (Self Defeating). They are considered to be rational when (i) they help us in achieving our goals, (ii) they can be verified in reality, and (iii) they are logical. By the same token, thoughts are considered to be irrational when they don’t meet these criteria. Last but not least, “C” stands for the consequences that might appear due to the thoughts and beliefs that one has. These consequences are observable through the individual’s emotions or behaviors, and can be adaptive or maladaptive. An irrational thinking pattern, once stabilized may lead to different forms of severe intra- and inter-personal functioning (depression, anxiety, uncontrollable anger, conflict, etc.) (Martin & Dahlen, 2004). The basic idea of the REBT theory is that by changing one’s irrational beliefs into more flexible and rational ones, one may achieve a significant change in the emotional and behavioral consequences, by changing them into more adaptive ones (Davies, 2006). In a simple scheme, the ABC model can be presented as follows (see Figure 1). For a more detailed description of the ABC model and the REBT, see Dryden and Giuseppe (1990).

A Activating event External

Internal

B

C

Beliefs Rational or functional

Consequences

(preference, objective evaluation, self-acceptance, moderate frustration tolerance)

Emotional or behavioral Adaptive

Irrational or dysfunctional (demandingness, awfullising, selfdowning, low frustration tolerance)

Figure 1. The ABC model (Ellis, 1979).

Cognition, Brain, Behavior 12 (2008) 57-69

Maladaptive


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Rational Emotive Behavior Education represents a psycho-educational preventive intervention program addressed to students. The program lies its’ foundations in the ideas of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy. An REBE system is characterized by a remarkable flexibility, which allows it to be relatively easy to adapt and use in counseling diverse populations. Thus, the program has proved its’ efficiency in counseling adolescents, students, youth in general, both overgifted students and students with special needs (intellectual deficiency, orphans, juvenile delinquency, etc.). An REBE program is composed of modular sequences of psychological education intended to develop students’ cognitive and behavioral competencies that will allow them to become more productive and happier at the same time. Back in the origins, the program was designed in the purpose of mental health optimization through group counseling; nevertheless, properly adapted, it can be just as efficient when used in individual therapy and counseling with children, adolescents and adults. Analyzing the diversity and severity of some of the problems adolescents deal with in schools, we have to agree that implementing such efficient programs has become nowadays more necessary than ever (Opre & David, 2006). We started this study with the intent of seeing whether Rational Emotive Behavior Education (REBE), derived from Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), could be used as an efficient educational counseling method within the Romanian cultural norms. This is due to the fact that the current Romanian undergraduate educational system either does not offer any viable counseling method, or the presently used ones are not efficient enough (Opre, 2006). Nevertheless, the REBE is a very useful method, because it can be easily learned, taught, and then applied to virtually any student within and outside the educational system. It is also very direct, time and cost-efficient, for it takes a very short time to teach it, understand it, and then apply it in all sorts of environments (Bernard & Ellis, 1983). The first problem that we encountered after we had begun working with students was their lack of familiarity with argumentative discussions and polemics. Romanian students are usually used to obey to their teachers’ instructions, and reproduce what has been said (unconditionally accept whatever the teachers tell them, without asking any explanations for their unanswered questions). However, the reasons for using REBE go far beyond this issue, because the irrational ideas that REBE attempts to change relate precisely to many of the problems students have to deal with nowadays: egocentrism, uncertainty, a global evaluation of themselves, in terms of the achieved performance, exaggerating (awfullising) events, self-defeating behaviors (Nucci, 2002). If we really want to help young adults overcome their practical or emotional problems, one has to teach them how to successfully change their dysfunctional thoughts and beliefs, thus changing behaviors as well; otherwise, any prevention efforts are almost useless (Ellis, 2005). Cognition, Brain, Behavior 12 (2008) 57-69


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In sum, we can present the purposes of REBE as it follows: helping students become more aware of their inner dialogue by teaching them how to think more rationally; teaching students to evaluate their own thoughts so they get less disturbing emotions; teaching students how to use rational emotive principles so they can more easily reach their objectives (Gonzales et al., 2004). And, last but not least, help them achieve a more adaptive life philosophy (Robb & Harold, 2001). The major aim of our study is to investigate the possible benefic effects of an REBE intervention on 11th grader Romanian students, by changing their irrational thinking patterns into more adaptive rational ones, thus achieving a better emotional and overall functioning. More precisely, we intended to evaluate the possible positive consequences of a program built on the tenets of cognitive restructuring on emotional and behavioral experiences. Consequently, we formulated the following hypotheses: “by applying an REBT based intervention, participants in the experimental group would experience lower levels of irrationality than participants in the control group”; more specifically, significantly lower levels of (1) demandingness, (2) awfullising, (3) low frustration tolerance, and (4) self-downing. METHOD Participants Our study comprised an experimental and a control group, both consisting of 11 graders from two different high schools in the same city (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). The experimental group consisted of 48 participants (24 males, 24 females), aged 17 – 19 (mean age =18.02 years, while the control group consisted of 24 participants (11 males, 13 females), aged 17 – 19 (mean age =18.14 years), both groups belonging to urban areas. All the participants gave their consent for participating in this study. th

Materials In order to measure the general level of irrationality and other specific aspects such as the level of tolerance, the level of self-esteem, etc., we used the Attitude Beliefs Scale II (ABS II) adapted to Romanian population (Macavei, 2002). The scale consists of 72 items (36 of them measures rational beliefs and the other 36 irrational beliefs). The items are arranged in a matrix consisting of three factors: (1) cognitive processes, with four levels of irrational thinking (demandingness, awfullising, low frustration tolerance, and self-downing), (2) content areas (approval, achievement and comfort), and (3) items formulating rational and/or irrational thoughts. For the intervention stage we used Vernon’s Emotional Curriculum for Adolescents.



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Experimental design and procedure After the pretest phase (assessment with ABS II), we moved on to the introductory phase, which meant presenting the students the basics of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy and Rational Emotive Behavior Education (rational vs. irrational thinking styles, the ABC model, activating events, rational vs. irrational beliefs, emotional or behavioral consequences, functional vs. dysfunctional negative emotions, etc; for more information on this matter, see Ellis, 1972; Ellis, 1979). After explaining and verifying their understanding of the ABC model and the REBT foundations, we moved further to the applications, based on several resources: Vernon’s Emotional Curriculum for Adolescents (Vernon, 1989), Bedell’s Handbook for Communication (Bedell & Lennox, 1997). The posttest (assessment with ABS II) has been done 6 months after the intervention. In fact, the experimental method consisted of a basic experimental design, with repeated measures. The independent variable was the REBE program, and the dependent variable was the level of irrationality. The intervention itself consisted of a 6 months educational program developed in two 1 hour meetings every week. Before implementing a selective, adapted REBE program, we first assessed all students’ basic level of irrationality, as defined by REBT. The program was structured similar to an alternative curriculum, inspired from Vernon’s application to REBT (Vernon, 1989, 1993, 1997). We called it Rational Emotive Behavior Education. For a more detailed example, see Appendix 1 and 2. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS For the pre-intervention homogeneity of the two groups (1 - experimental and 2 - control) we have conducted an independent sample t-test on the four levels of irrationality as measured at T1, as well as on the general level of irrationality (see Table 1). Table 1. Independent samples t-test for homogeneity at T1 SCALES

Group

Mean

St. dev.

t

Sig.

Demandingness

1 (48) 2 (24) 1 (48) 2 (24) 1 (48) 2 (24) 1 (48) 2 (24) 1 (48) 2 (24)

27.52 30.37 31.10 31.29 22.08 20.95 28.22 30.87 107.93 113.50

8.19 12.61 8.83 11.05 11.92 8.68 8.34 10.02 29.52 36.26

- 1.15

.251

- .49

.632

.43

.664

- 1.18

.240

-.68

.488

Low frustration tolerance Self downing Awfulizing Overall irrationality



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Since there have not been found any significant differences between the experimental (1) and control (2) groups regarding the levels of different aspects of irrationality, we have proceeded to investigate the possible effects of the experimental intervention by conducting a paired sample t-test regarding the posttest results (see Table 2). Table 2. Paired samples t-test for sub-scales of irrational beliefs and overall irrationality at T1-T2 Group

SCALES

GR 1 (N=48)

Demandingness Low frustration tolerance Self downing Awfulizing Overall irrationality

GR 2 (N=24)

Demandingness Low frustration tolerance Self downing Awfulizing Overall irrationality

Pre-test Post-test Pre Post Pre

Mean

St. dev.

t

Sig.

27.52 23.12 30.10

8.19 11.39 8.83

3.07

.00

3.42

.00

Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre

25.06 22.08 16.79 28.22 20.93 107.93 85.91 30.37 30.41 31.29

12.18 11.02 10.38 8.34 10.07 29.52 37.75 12.61 9.42 11.05

4.20

.00

6.08

.00

5.41

.00

-.20

.98

.74

.46

Post Pre Post Pre Post Pre Post

29.70 20.95 23.12 30.87 31.166 113.500 113.29

9.43 8.69 11.88 10.02 12.19 36.26 37.60

-.96

.34

-.14

.88

.03

.97

As seen, only in the case of the experimental group did the different levels of irrationality significantly lower. Demandingness has lowered significantly in the aftermath of the REBE intervention (t = 3.07 at p