This Thesis is submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Master’s Degree in Psychological and Educational Counseling Al-Quds Open University (Palestine)

Abstract

The study aims to investigate the effectiveness of a positive psychological counseling program based on Laughter Yoga in developing Learned Optimism among the adolescents. To achieve this, a scale of Learned Optimism was developed, as well as a positive counseling program. This is a quasi-experimental study conducted in the school academic year 2022/2023. The study sample consists of 30 adolescents, their ages ranged between (13-15) years, from Hebron Girls Basic School- UNRWA, who obtained the lowest scores on the Learned Optimism scale and then were divided equally into two groups: control and experimental, with (15) for each group. The counseling program was applied to the experimental group, in 8 sessions, two sessions a week, each of 90 minutes. The results show that there are statistically significant differences between the experimental and control groups in the post measurement on the learned optimism scale in favor of the experimental group, and the differences are also significant between the pre and post measurements on the experimental group in favor of the post measurement, while no significant differences appears between the post and follow-up measurements among the participants of experimental group, which indicates the effectiveness of the applied counseling program in developing learned optimism among adolescents, and the continuity of its effectiveness after a four-week follow-up period. Based on the results, the study recommends increasing the scope of using laughter yoga skills and positive psychology interventions in Palestinian schools and educational institutions.