Effectiveness of participation in group existential analysis sessions on worry

Abstract

The present study examined the effectiveness of participation in group existential analysis sessions on worry. A high level of worry affects various aspects of existence, including biological, psychological and social changes that result in unadaptability. Existential analysis sessions focused on exploring free will, loneliness, death and the meaning of life, the factors which are considered the definite outcomes and phenomena of human’s existence by the existence-oriented psychotherapists. For this research, a pre-post test model was implemented together with a control group and with a semi-experimental method. 30 of female undergraduate students of Razi university, who were volunteers to participate in the research, were assigned randomly into two groups: an experimental group and a control group. 15 persons of experimental group participated in 9sessions, each lasting 90-minutes, during 6 weeks. The 15 persons in the control group did not receive any intervention during this period. The data collection tool was the why worry questionnaire (WWQ-II). The data analysis was performed by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA(. The findings of the research indicate the ineffectiveness of participation in group existential analysis sessions in reducing worry in female students. Thus, participation in these sessions had no statistically significant effectiveness in reducing worry.

Keywords

• existential analysis
• worry
• student.