Compilation and Validation of Life Skills Training Package Based on Wisdom in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and its Effectiveness on Meaning of Life, Interpersonal Intelligence and Emotion Regulation in Adolescents

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student in Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabataba'i University, Tehran, Iran

2 Associate Prof. of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

3 Prof. of Educational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

4 Prof. of Measurement and Assessment, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

This study aimed to compile and validate the life skills training package based on wisdom components in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and its effectiveness on the meaning of life, interpersonal intelligence and emotion regulation in adolescents. In terms of objectives, this mixed-methods study was basic research in the first phase and applied in the second. A combination of grounded theory and quasi-experimental methods was used for this purpose. The statistical population in the first phase includes the complete text of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh, Jalal Khaleghi Motlaq, while high schools' students in Tehran were the target population of the second phase. Statistical sample was selected by census for the first phase. For the second phase, 40 students were randomly placed into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group received 13 wisdom-based life skills training sessions. The research tools included the interpersonal subscale of Multiple Intelligence Survey developed by Chislett and Chapman (2006), Steger’s (2010) Meaning of Life Questionnaire and Garnefski and Kraaij (2001) Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. Findings confirmed the validity of and reliability of wisdom-based life skills training package. Also, MANCOVA showed that the experimental group scored higher in terms of meaning of life, interpersonal intelligence and emotion regulation than the control group. As a result, wisdom-based life skills training package can be a practical tool for psychologists and counselors to train adolescents to have a better life.
Introduction
Today's world is filled with complexities and challenges that make people face special difficulties and turbulences (Guzman, 2022). Accordingly, education and preparation of citizens for a healthy life requires the use of different tools (Rashidi et al, 2023). In the meantime, cultivating life skills is a basic solution to fulfill this important goal. Furthermore, it should be stressed that different contexts and cultures lead to different life skills, which should be attended to for classifying the skills and relevant teaching methods (Kaya, 2020). We noticed a gap in the literature regarding this issue in Iran, and decided to seek the answer to the question which native theoretical framework is the best for teaching life skills.
Wisdom is one of the efficient psychological concepts (Zhang et al., 2023) believed to be the foundation for building life skills in Iranian culture. Evidently, this concept has a valuable place in the view of great Iranian thinkers, such as Ferdowsi, Rumi and works such as Kalila and Demeneh. However, we could not find a definition and structure for wisdom from the psychological perspective (not the philosophical view) based on Iranian schoold of thought in the literature. Investigating the psychological dimensions of the concept of wisdom in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh can open the way to understand the concept of wisdom in the Iranian perspective and a basis for designing suitable education methods for the multidimensional and desirable education of people.
However, a point that should not be neglected is whether it is really possible to teach wisdom in pre-adulthood (Zhang et al., 2023). Some renowned researchers believe that different components of wisdom can be taught, based on learning principles, at any age (Sternberg, 2022). A very important point in teaching life skills based on wisdom is that wisdom is multidimensional, and that one can focus on a part of its structure and prepare appropriate content to teach wisdom at any age (Polizzi & Harrison., 2022). The possibility of teaching life skills based on wisdom led the researcher to look for the design of a wisdom-based life skills package from Ferdowsi's perspective and to examine its effectiveness on the cognitive (meaning of life), emotional (emotion regulation) and social (interpersonal intelligence) skills of adolescents.
Methodology
This mixed-methods research was a basic study in the first phase and applied in the second phase, and used grounded theory and quasi-experimental methods. The statistical population included the complete text of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh in the qualitative phase and high school students in Tehran in the quantitative phase. A sample of 40 high school students different were selected from different districts of Tehran and randomly divided into an experimental group (n=20) and a control group (n=20). The ethical principles of the research were followed by receiving the code of ethics from Allameh Tabataba'i University. (IR.ATU.REC.1401.043). The research tools included the interpersonal subscale of Multiple Intelligence Survey developed by Chislett and Chapman (2006), Steger’s (2010) Meaning of Life Questionnaire and Garnefski and Kraaij (2001) Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire. The wisdom-based training package based on Ferdowsi's Shahnameh consisted of 13 sessions of 45-60 minutes. In order to validate the training package, the viewpoints of eight experts and researchers in the field of psychology, literature and life skills training were used. The overall CVI coefficient for the set of package exercises was calculated as 0.92.
The results of MANCOVA are shown in Table 1. Accordingly, in the post-test, the experimental group had significantly higher mean scores of meaning life (sig = 0.001, df = 1& 40 and f = 180.089), interpersonal intelligence (f=105.507, sig=0.001, and df=1 & 40), and emotion regulation (f=189.506, sig=0.001, df=1,40) after receiving wisdom-based life skills training than the control group. That means they showed higher levels of meaning of life, interpersonal intelligence and emotion regulation after the implementation of wisdom-based life skills training as compared with the control group.
Discussion and conclusion
In general, the comparison between the dimensions of wisdom in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and the existing theoretical views on wisdom showed that wisdom in Ferdowsi's view enjoys such a wide and complex concept that covers wisdom theories in the scientific literature.
First, adolescents’ meaning of life was significantly influenced bty the wisdom-based life skills training package from Shahnameh. This finding is consistent with those of Nurani & Pratiwi (2020) and Kackar & Joshi (2019) studies.
Second, the wisdom-based life skills training package from Shahnameh significantly impacted interpersonal intelligence of adolescents. This finding is consistent with those of studies by Lee, Ham, Oh, Lee, Ko & Kim (2022), and Miri (2019).
Third, wisdom-based life skills training was significantly effective on adolescents’ level of emotional regulation. This finding means that teaching life skills based on wisdom increased adolescents’ ability to be productive and regulate emotions. This finding is consistent with those of Kirchhoff & Keller (2021), Lee et al. (2020), Huang, Chen, Jin, Stringham, Liu & Oliver (2020) and is inconsistent with that of Naqvi & Khan (2022).

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References

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