The Effectiveness of Positive Thinking Skills Training on Psychological Capital and Happiness of Students

Since one of the most important factors influencing mental peace and security is having positive thoughts, the present study aimed to investigate the effect of teaching positive thinking skills on the psychological capital and happiness of elementary students. The research method was experimental with pre-test and post-test design with control group. The statistical population consisted of all male students of the sixth elementary school in Khoy city in the academic year 2016-2017. The sample consisted of 40 people who were selected by multistage random cluster sampling and assigned in experimental and control groups (20 in each group). In order to collect data in this study, psychological capital questionnaires (Luthans, Youssef, & Avolio, 2007) and Oxford happiness questionnaire (Argyle & Lu, 1989) were used. Positive thinking skills was trained in 10 sessions of 90 minutes to the sample group. Data analysis was performed using multivariate analysis of covariance. The results of the data analysis showed that positive thinking can increase the psychological and happiness of children, and the subjects in the experimental group in the post test stage had significantly higher psychological and happiness (P <0.005) In sum, the results of this study confirm the usefulness and impact of positive-thinking education on increasing the psychological capital and happiness of children.