The Effectiveness of Positive Thinking Training in a Group Method on Improving Empathy and Reducing Social Anxiety in Male Students with Learning Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of positive group thinking training on empathy and social anxiety in male students with learning disabilities. The present study was a semi-experimental design with pretest-posttest design with control group. The statistical sample consists of students with learning disabilities referring to clinical and clinical centers of Karaj, among whom 40 students were selected by available sampling method, and then each of them was randomly selected in two groups of experimental (20 students) and witness (20 students). The research instrument was Lamunica empathy questionnaire, Latter-type social anxiety questionnaire, and positive thinking education. Positive thinking education was presented to the experimental group in 10 sessions of 75 minutes, but the control group did not receive. Data were analyzed using covariance analysis method. The results of the analysis showed that positive thinking was effective in improving empathy and reducing the social anxiety of students with learning disabilities, so that the subjects in the experimental group in the post-test stage had significantly better empathy and lower social anxiety have. According to the results of this study, it is suggested that positive thinking be used as one of the effective therapies for improving empathy and reducing social anxiety in students with learning disabilities.