Effectiveness of Positive Psychology in Improving the Quality of Married Women’s Life: Spiritual Intelligence as a Moderator

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of training in positive psychology on quality of married women’s life referring to family centers in Isfahan, Iran. It was also taken into account the moderating effect of spiritual intelligence using a quasi-experimental method by selecting two groups (an experimental group and a control one) with pretest, post-test, and a follow-up stage. The population of interest comprised of all married women seeking family counseling throughout the Isfahan city. Thirty (30) people from the above population were selected using the convenience sampling method.  Then these people were randomly divided into two groups of fifteen (15), which one was called experimental and the other one control group.  The research tools used for this study included the WHO’s 26-question questionnaire on quality of life (1998) and King’s 24-question questionnaire on spiritual intelligence (2008). A training course on positive psychology was held for the experimental group. This course consisted of ten sessions by weekly and each session was 90-minutes. The control group did not participate in any training sessions. Findings from covariance analysis revealed that training for positive psychology had significant effect on increasing married women’s quality of life in the post-test period (p < .05). However, this observation was not seen during follow-up period. Likewise, the spiritual intelligence as a moderating variable was found to increase the degree at which conducting training on positive psychology affected the quality of life among married women within post-test and follow-up stages (p < .05).