Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences - Theses
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ItemRational emotive education: efficacy with non-clinical children in natural setting: considerations for prevention( 1986)The present study investigated the efficacy of Rational Emotive Education (REE) in promoting psychological and emotional adjustment of non-clinical primary school children in a natural setting. This study was introduced subsequent to a two-term pilot study conducted in 1983. The sample studied consisted of two intact Grade 4 classes in a private school for girls, randomly assigned to either REE1, REE2, or attention control conditions. Two counsellors were employed, both staff members at the school where the study was conducted. The effects of the intervention program upon the variables of anxiety, locus of control, and rationality were assessed. All students were pre/post/follow-up tested on the Trait scale of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Edwards, Montuori & Lushene, 1973), on the Personal Reaction Survey, Locus of Control for Children (Nowicki & . Strickland, 1931), and the Children's Survey of Rational Beliefs (Knaus, 1974). An additional measure, the Analogue Survey (Bernard & Joyce, 1984) was introduced to evaluate REE’s contribution to adaptive coping. It was hypothesized that subjects in the REE groups will show increase in rational thinking and in application of rational principles to events and situations; that subjects in the REE group will demonstrate reduction in anxiety and ability to respond to situations with moderate emotions and that subjects in the REE groups will become more internal in their locus of control orientation after intervention. It was further hypothesized that REE effectiveness will not be associated with subjects' IQ level, initial level of anxiety, rationality, and locus of control, and therefore be suitable for classroom application. Correlations between gains in rationality and changes in other outcome variables were computed in order to assess whether the gains were the specific mechanisms mediating intervention effects. Counsellor effects on intervention outcome were also assessed. Results indicated that the principles of REE taught in class can be acquired by Grade 4 students, and supported REE's efficacy in increasing subjects' rationality and internality of locus of control. No support was found, however, for REE's efficacy in producing a significant decrease in anxiety compared to the attention control condition. On the Analogue Survey, the REE participants demonstrated better adaptive coping than the subjects in the attention control. Although higher rationality at pre-test was found to be associated with a decrease in anxiety from pre-test to post-test, gains in rationality were found to be associated with an increase in anxiety from pre-test to post-test. No association was revealed between program effectiveness and subjects' IQ level, locus of control, and anxiety at pre-test. Differences in intervention outcome due to counsellor effects were revealed particularly after the six months non-intervention period. Implications of the present study are discussed and future recommendations are made based on study outcome.