A Comparison of the Effect of Positive Existential Therapy and Iranian-Islamic Positive Therapy on Affective Capital of Female Students with Social Anxiety

Affective capital is one of the most new constructs that can substantially help female students to overcome their problems. This study was conducted to compare the effect of positive existential therapy and Iranian-Islamic positive therapy on the affective capital of female students with social anxiety.

This study was a semi-experimental research with three group two stage (pre-test and post-test) design. The sample consisted of forty five 15-18 year old female students with social anxiety studying at the 2nd grade of secondary school in Ardestan in 2017. They were randomly assigned to three groups (two experimental and one control group). Social anxiety questionnaire (Connor et al., 2000) and affective capital questionnaire (Golparvar, 2016) were used to measure the dependent variables at the pretest and post-test. The positive existential therapy group received 10 sessions of treatment, Iranian-Islamic positive therapy group received 11 sessions of treatment, and the control group received no treatment. The data were analyzed by analysis of covariance.

The results showed that there was significant difference in the pretest and posttest score of positive existential therapy group, Iranian-Islamic positive therapy group, and control group in terms of affective capital and its three components; i.e. positive affection, feeling of energy, and happiness (p<0.001).

Based on the findings of this study, it seems that because of helping the girls with social anxiety to cope with their anxiety, positive existential therapy and Iranian-Islamic positive treatment can improve the affective capital of these girls.