REBT

REBT in Saudi College Students

REBT in Saudi College Students

CHAPTER THREE

RESULTS

Introduction

This chapter includes the findings from the experimental study as well as qualitative data obtained from the reflections and cognitions of the participants. The results are presented in terms of the hypotheses set for the study.

Participants in all three treatment groups had significantly lower irrational thinking and social anxiety scores from pre-test to post-test. That is to say, results demonstrated that REBT alone therapy treatment and REBT plus REST therapy were effective in reducing participants' irrational thinking, social anxiety and shyness. However, the findings from ANOVA tests showed significant differences between the treatment groups and the control group in favour of the REBT only therapy treatment and the REBT plus REST; ANOVA results did not show which of these were more effective: the REBT only therapy treatment and the REBT plus REST. Therefore, post hoc tests, using Saudi Arabia's Honestly Significant Differences (HSD) post-hoc comparisons were utilised to show which treatment was more effective. The following tables show these findings in more details.

Results With Regard to Hypothesis I:

The first hypothesis proposed that “Participants exposed to the REBT/REST condition will show significantly lower irrational thinking test scores on post-testing and on the one month follow-up re-testing than participants exposed to REBT group therapy treatment and control participants”.

A One Way Repeated Measure ANOVA was conducted to compare scores on the Irrational Thinking Scale (pre-test, post-test and one-month-follow-up) of participants in the control group and those exposed to REBT only treatment and an amalgam of REBT plus REST. The means and standard deviations are shown in Table (2) below, and the mean performance of all treatment conditions is shown in Fig. 2. This analysis was carried out to determine whether performance differed across groups and conditions.

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics for scores on the Irrational Thinking Scale (pre-test, post-test and one-month-follow-up) (Maier & Warren, 1988, 18-25)

Group

Pre-test

Post-Test

One-Month-Follow-Up

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Mean

SD

Control (No Treatment)

N = 25

297.88

30.41

276.89

27.541

266.26

52.25

Experimental (REBT)

N = 25

275.16

32.17

210.84

32.15

201.04

29.50

Experimental (REBT/REST)

N = 25

242.61

25.11

191.14

28.77

289.46

33.19

Results showed there was effect of condition (REBT only, REBT/REST and the control group) on irrational thinking scores. Since Wilks' Lambda = .31; F (2, 71) = 78.91; p< .001, and the Multivariate Eta Square = .69, this suggested a very large effect size based on Cohen's (1988) proposition of .01 = small, .06 = moderate, and .14 = large. Further, there were significant differences between the three test conditions (pre-test, post-test and one-month-follow-up) F (1, 72) = 9.86; p< .001, significant differences between condition (REBT, REBT/REST and the Control Group) F (2, 72) = 15.95; p< .001, and significant interaction between condition and test condition F (2, 72) = 15.52; p< .001. Post Hoc comparisons using Saudi Arabia's Honestly Significant Differences (HSD) indicated that the mean score for the REBT group significantly differed from the mean score for the control group (M = 37.50 ; SD = 7.25 ); and the mean score for the REBT/REST group significantly differed from the mean score for the control group (M = ...