A counseling program to modify intellectual extremism behavior among secondary school students

Abstract

The present study aimed to identify the effectiveness of a counseling program in modifying intellectual extremism behavior among preparatory school students. The research population consisted of fifth-year literary track students in public daytime preparatory schools affiliated with the General Directorate of Education in Baghdad / Rusafa First for the academic year 2024/2025, totaling 5,262 students across 206 schools. The researcher purposively selected one school with two sections: Section (A) as the experimental group, consisting of 10 students, and Section (B) as the control group, also consisting of 10 students. To achieve the research objectives and test its hypotheses, the researcher prepared two instruments: a 20-item intellectual extremism scale and a counseling program composed of 7 sessions. Face validity was established by presenting the tools to a panel of experts, and construct validity was determined by calculating the correlation between each item's score and the total score of the scale. Reliability was measured using the split-half method. The researcher employed several statistical tools, including the Wilcoxon test, the Mann-Whitney test, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and the Spearman-Brown formula. The results revealed statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level in the scores of the experimental group on the intellectual extremism scale, indicating a reduction in extremism. No statistically significant differences were found in the control group's scores. Moreover, significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups in favor of the counseling program.