The Effects of an Emotion Strengthening Training Program on the Optimism Level of Nurses

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of emotion strengthening as a training programme for optimistic for nurses. The experimental and control group of this research has totally composed of 20 nurses. A pre-test post-test research model with control group was been used in this research. Nurses' optimistic levels have been measured by 'Optimistic Scale' which was developed by Balci and Yilmaz (2002). In order to test that, meaningful differences between the scores of pre-test and post-test within both control and experimental group Mann Whitey U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test were applied for statisical analysis. It was found that this emotional strengthening training had positive effects on levels of optimistic for nurses. The findings have been discussed in the light of literature, and some suggestions have been made. Key Words Emotion Strengthening Training Program, Nurse, Optimistic, Optimistic Scale. As internal mechanisms emotions are psychological signs of how an individual feels. They develop in situations which call for an individual's life style or behavioral pattern. The aim here would be to change the situation for the individual's benefit. For an individual who tries various mechanisms before to fulfill this aim or does not believe in finding other ways of fulfilling the aim, emotions find their ways as obvious and strong actions (Adler, 1995). Being aware of our emotions and putting them into words are important, but as a result of various reasons, there might be difficulties to make this happen (Dokmen, 2002). Emotions are not events full of mystery which are impossible to solve. They are simply internal psychological mechanisms and mainly direct our feelings. This mechanism prepares the individual for how to behave under difficult circumstances (Goleman, 1998). Basically, individuals' emotional states significantly affect their important life events and motivations. As a result, emotional states play an important role in self motivation and are important factors helping reach goals and cope with stress, which in turn brings hope to an individual's life (Schette, 1996; Schweizer, & Koch, 2001). When individuals feel good about themselves they lead a happy and satisfactory life. However, the state of feeling good, in other words, thinking optimistic varies from person to person (Brown, Ryan, & McPartland, 1996; Scheier, & Carver, 1992). While optimism can be associated with positive emotions, high morale, ambition, efficient problem solving, success in academia, military and professional life, popularity, living a long and healthy life, coping with trauma, and pessimism, its opposite is considered as a reflection of depression, being passive, failure, social inefficiency, sickness, and death (Seligman, 1998). Whereas optimism is defined as a characteristic of being able to adapt to life, pessimism is seen more as a psychological deficiency (Daco, 1989). An optimistic attitude protects individuals against indifference, hopelessness, and depression. Optimists go through the life experiences similar to pessimists. The difference between optimists and pessimists is that optimists can cope with life experiences more easily, learn from their experiences, and have a higher resiliency after failure. Optimists have more positive emotional states than pessimists. One can conclude that people who have healthy emotions and behaviors would have better interaction skills compared to those who do not have these characteristics (Turkum, 1999b). If an individual is faced with a negative life event, the way he or she explains this situation would influence the way of coping with the situation. It may not only decrease an individual's ambition to fight or his/her motivation for solving the problems, but it may also enable one to solve his problem with greater ease. Nursing is one of the professions, which involves helping people directly. …