The Effectiveness of Reality Therapy in Group Counseling to Achieve Student Motivation for Academic Well-Being

Abstract

Students today have to deal with various academic pressures stemming from the learning system itself or surrounding factors. Academic stress can erode students' motivation for achievement which in turn affects academic well-being. However, the counseling approach is considered an effective means to address this issue. This study examines the effectiveness of reality therapy in group counseling as a means to improve the motivation for achievement among students. This quasi-experimental study employed pre-and post-test designs for two groups involving 40 Form Four students in a secondary school in Malaysia. The students were selected through the purposive sampling method and the research instrument used was the Achievement Motivation Test (AMT) introduced by Abu Bakar Nordin (1995). Data were analyzed using the SPSS Version 26 software through a paired t-test for the pre-and posttreatment groups as well as an independent sample t-test between treatment group and control group who's given motivational reading materials. The study found significant differences between the pre-and post -test achievement motivation scores for the treatment group (p <.05). There were also significant differences between the level of achievement motivation for the treatment and control groups (p <.05). In conclusion, the application of counseling skills during counseling sessions and the use of reality therapy is seen to help enhance students' motivation for achievement as well as contribute to academic well-being. This study will aid teachers and school counselors facing low-motivated students and in turn be a catalyst for the development of guidelines or policies in the national education system for producing better quality human capital.

Effectiveness of Reality Therapy and Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy in Academic Meaning and Academic Emotions of Procrastinating Students

“…Based on another finding of this study, the results showed that reality therapy had a significant effect on the components of academic meaning. A review of the research background related to the present finding shows that the present hypothesis is implicitly in line with the findings of Aziz's study (52). Additionally, according to reality therapy's emphasis on responsibility, correlational studies also show that responsibility is one of the factors related to educational structures, such as academic progress and self-efficacy (53), which can affect an educational and career process.…”