Comparison of Irrational Beliefs and Happiness in intelligent and normal students

An intelligent child، by defin-ition، makes informed judgements drawing upon his supreme intellectual capability and mental abilities، and enjoys higher psyc-hological health and happiness than do other normal children. The present study compared irrational beliefs and happiness in two groups of normal and intelligent stu-dents to answer the question whether inte-lligence contributed to the level of irrational beliefs and happiness in students.

This comparative study was carried out on intelligent and no-rmal female students in Ardebil high sch-ools in educational year of 2008-9. From the schools، 60 students (30 intelligent and 30 normal) were selected through simple random sampling method. We collected data using Ellis'' Irrational Beliefs Questio-nnaire and Oxford Happiness Questionnaire that are consisted of 66 and 29 items، respectively. The data were analyzed with independent t-test.

The obtained t values for irrati-onal beliefs and happiness was shown to be significant. So that، the mean scores of irrati-onal beliefs in intelligent students were lower than those in normal students. Furth-ermore، their happiness rate was higher. Our findings also indicated a significant differe-nce between intelligent and normal students in terms of irrational beliefs and happiness. Discussion &

Intelligent stud-ents have a more flexibility regarding their internal and external experiences and display higher capabilities in reassessment and mod-ification of irrational beliefs and values.