Research Information System
Yildirim T. (Executive), Atli A., Çirak Y., Üstüner M., Şad S. N.
TUBITAK Project, 2014 - 2016
In this Project, it was aimed to determine the developmental and traumatic problems suffered by the high school students, and to cure these problems through Intensive Brief and Emergency Psychotherapy (B.E.P.) (B.E.P.) sessions. To this end a multiphase mixed research methodology was used in this research Project. The first phase of the Project (October 2014 – October 2015) was conducted to find out the high school students’ developmental and traumatic problems through parents’, teachers’ and students’’ views. A total of 64 participants composed of high school students, teachers and parents were subjected to semi-structured interviews. The obtained qualitative data were used to develop the 61-item “Developmental Problems Questionnaire” and 17-item “Traumatic Problems Questionnaire” to learn about the developmental and traumatic problems through the lens of high school students. At the second phase of the study, quantitative data were collected from 414 students, 94 teaches and 97 parents sampled using random cluster sampling method. In this research project high school students’ developmental and traumatic problems were investigated according to the views of parents, teachers and students, compared and contrasted and the results were discussed. The results suggested that, based on the views of parents, teachers and students, the most prevalent developmental problem experienced by high school students are “exam anxiety and academic success/failure” while the most common traumatic problems were “death”, “moving and changing the school”. The second phase of the project (October 2015 - October 2016) aimed to describe step by step the procedures of Intensive Brief and Emergency Psychotherapy (B.E.P.) in curing the developmental and traumatic problems of the high school students. In this respect, 6 to 10 Intensive Brief and Emergency Psychotherapy (B.E.P.) sessions conducted with four high school students, two suffering developmental and two suffering traumatic problems were presented using case study research design. Six psychotherapy sessions were conducted with the participant who demanded for psychological support due to divorcing parents, nine sessions were conducted with the participant who demanded for psychological support due to lose of father, eight sessions were conducted with the participants who demanded for psychological support due to developmental problems associated with adolescence. In each session, interviews were video recorded, transcribed, and presented verbatim in the qualitative findings of the study. The counseling sessions commenced considering the results of the pretests (Symptom Scan List-90-R; Hacettepe Personality Inventory, and Beier’s Sentence Completion test) administered to the volunteering participants were completed after administering the post- and retention tests. As a result of the research project the following findings were revealed:
ü Consultants were observed to improve from negative to positive, from unhealthy to healthy, from disadvantaged to advantaged in terms of their attitudes towards past and future, sense of self and self-perception, their attitudes towards their parents, their attitudes towards home and family life, their attitudes towards their friends, their attitudes towards the authority, in their levels of fear and anxiety, feelings of guilty, their attitudes towards school and work life, their attitudes towards their relations with the opposite sex.
ü Participants’ insights were enhanced by linking their past and present, the unconscious and conscious focusing on the dynamic reasons of their sense-thought and behaviors.
ü Their levels of empathy were enhanced and meta-conscious systems were fortified.
ü Their interpersonal communication skills were strengthened by arranging their object relations through their gains obtained from client-consultant relation in the therapeutic process.
ü Their identity development was affected positively through therapeutic factors and their ego functions were improved by learning favorable problem solving strategies.