Fostering Gratitude in Underprivileged Female Orphans Using Group Process: A Comparison of Religious Storytelling with Positive Psychotherapy Interventions

Abstract

The purpose of the present study will be to investigate whether Religious story telling can be used as an intervention to enhance Gratitude in the lives of adolescents who are underprivileged and orphans through group process. Moreover, a comparison was made with current positive psychotherapy interventions to ascertain the effectiveness of the two approaches for increasing wellbeing in the participants. It was hypothesized that Religious Storytelling and positive suggestions would lead to an increase in Gratitude in underprivileged orphans. It was also hypothesized that Religious Storytelling and positive suggestions will lead to a greater increase in Gratitude and Life satisfaction as compared to Positive Psychotherapy. For this purpose, 29 female orphans coming from underprivileged families were selected within the age range of 13-18. A comparative approach to research was be used. The intervention group consisted of 15 participants. There will be a total of six weekly sessions in which religious storytelling and positive suggestions were used in the form of group therapy. The control group received six weekly sessions of positive psychotherapy. The effectiveness of treatment was measured by using a demographic information form, The Gratitude Questionnaire (McCullough, Emmons and Tsang, 2002), Single item Happiness scale ( Abdul Khalek, 2006) and the Subjective Wellbeing scale ( Mogul, 2012). Results obtained were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences using t test, and (ANOVA) to test the statistical significance of the relationship of the variables. Findings showed that while Religious Storytelling and positive suggestions did not lead to a significant change in Gratitude (t=1.168, p>.05), they were more effective than Positive Psychotherapy (.t= 3.099, p<05) Moreover, there was no significant difference between the scores on Life Satisfaction for both groups (t= -.152, p>.05). Additional qualitative data showed that Religious Storytelling and positive suggestions had a much greater impact as indicated by quantitative results. Significant implications of the present study include the use of religious interventions in psychotherapy and use of Gratitude for orphan adolescents. Future research on the same topic should use qualitative means of measurement. Overall the findings of the present study are significant in the body of psychological literature on the types of psychotherapy.