Iraqi Journal of Psychological Counseling

Abstract :
This research aims to examine the relationship between emotional stability and occupational stress among female teachers in girls\' secondary schools within the Erbil Education Department. The study employed a descriptive correlational design. The sample consisted of 86 teachers, selected randomly from secondary schools for girls in Erbil for the 2024-2025 academic year. To achieve the research objectives, two scales were developed and finalized after logical, statistical, and standard psychometric analysis: an emotional stability scale of 46 items and an occupational stress scale of 50 items. The statistical analysis revealed a statistically significant inverse relationship between emotional stability and occupational stress. This indicates that higher levels of emotional stability contribute to lower levels of occupational stress among the teachers. The researcher recommends implementing psychological and educational support programs tailored for female teachers to enhance their emotional stability and equip them with strategies to manage professional stressors within the school environment

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the illusion of superiority and its relationship to self-awareness among preparatory school students in the Baqubah district center for the 2022-2023 academic year. The researcher developed a scale to measure the illusion of superiority based on the Dunning-Kruger theory. The scale's face validity was established by a panel of 24 experts in educational and psychological sciences. Reliability was confirmed through two methods: a test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.76 and a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.81. The final scale comprises 30 items across three domains: intelligence, superiority over others, and attractiveness. For self-awareness, the researcher adopted a scale developed by Al-Qarah Gholi (2011). Its face validity was verified, and reliability coefficients were 0.79 for test-retest and 0.85 for Cronbach's alpha. This scale consists of 25 items. After statistical processing, both scales were administered to a sample of 400 preparatory school students. Data were analyzed using SPSS, employing Pearson correlation, Cronbach's alpha, independent and one-sample t-tests. The findings indicate that students exhibit a low level of illusory superiority, which is attributed to their adoption of appropriate self-awareness strategies that positively impact their well-being and self-awareness. Furthermore, the results reveal a statistically significant correlation between the illusion of superiority and self-awareness.

Abstract:
This study aims to identify the effect of the deeper-level information processing approach on the achievement and retention of rhetoric among students in the Arabic Language Department at the College of Basic Education, University of Diyala. To this end, the researcher formulated two null hypotheses to test for statistically significant differences at the 0.05 level between the experimental and control groups in the dependent variables of achievement and retention. The sample comprised 101 male and female students from the department. An experimental design was adopted. The researcher prepared an achievement and retention test, consisting of 60 multiple-choice items, to measure student outcomes. Data were analyzed using the SPSS statistical package. The results demonstrated the superiority of the experimental group over the control group in both the achievement test and the retention test. In light of these findings, the researcher recommends increased emphasis on teaching rhetoric to university students through modern approaches and strategies, as these methods activate and enhance their scientific thinking.

Research Summary
This research seeks to identify the impact of a guidance program utilizing Reality Therapy on the development of moral awareness among middle school female students. To achieve this objective, the researcher employed the Moral Awareness Scale developed by Asal (2014), which consists of 28 items. The scale's validity and reliability were verified, yielding a test-retest reliability coefficient of 0.80 and a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.70. The initial statistical analysis sample included 400 female students. The guidance program, based on Reality Therapy, was then implemented with an experimental group of 10 students. Statistical analyses, including the t-test, arithmetic mean, standard deviation, Mann-Whitney U, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, were employed. The results indicated statistically significant differences in the post-test scores, favoring the experimental group. Based on these findings, the researcher presented a set of recommendations and suggestions.

Abstract: The present study aims to investigate the effectiveness of the "Reach for the Moon" (Tanal Al-Qamar) strategy on the academic achievement of fourth-grade science students in Islamic Education and on the development of their holistic thinking. The researchers adopted an experimental design. The research sample was randomly selected from Zenobia Secondary School for Girls and consisted of 59 students, divided into experimental and control groups. This required the researchers to formulate 80 behavioral objectives encompassing the cognitive domains of remembering, understanding, application, and analysis. Subsequently, the researchers developed a 40-item achievement test in Islamic Education and a 36-item test to measure holistic thinking. After establishing the validity and reliability of both instruments and applying appropriate statistical methods, the researchers derived a number of significant results, recommendations, and proposals.

Abstract:
The aim of the current study is to measure the variables of domestic violence and disruptive behavior among middle school students and measure the correlation between them, as the domestic violence scale consisted of (24) items, and the correction alternatives were (applies to me a lot = 4, applies to me a little = 3, applies to me sometimes = 2, and does not apply to me at all = 1), As for the measure of chaotic behavior, it consisted of (44) items, and the correction alternatives were (applies to me a lot = 4, applies to me a little = 3, applies to me sometimes = 2, and does not apply to me at all = 1). The researcher used the descriptive correlational approach, as the sample was selected by random stratified method. The sample size reached (200) students from Baghdad Governorate in the Second Rusafa Education Directorate. A researcher extracted the web site metric (validity and reliability) for the two measurements, The researcher concluded that the current research sample does not suffer from domestic violence and does not have chaotic behavior... The researcher also concluded a set of recommendations and proposals.

Abstract: The present study explores the repair between lecturers and students during the classroom discourse at the university level. based on an eclectic model, the analysis includes Conversation Analysis and sociolinguistic theories. The researchers analyse classroom discourse to identify how repair is initiated, accomplished, and determined, to provide valuable insights into how students understand each other. In this study, the researchers aim to find out classroom discourse, where the teacher always corrects students\' mistakes to preserve the flow and unity of the lesson. The participants are several university lecturers who interact with their students from the Department at first, second and third levels. The data will be analysed in the form of questions and responses between the lecturers and students, in various subjects. The levels of the students are chosen because students continuously make mistakes in various subjects such as conversation, phonetics, grammar, and linguistics. Moreover, the lecturers frequently use repair sequences to solve these mistakes during lessons. These repair sequences are vital in an effective communication, helping to avoid confusions, and supporting cooperative knowledge. The analysis emphases on the kinds of repairs, their purposes, and their influence on the accepting discourse through interaction. The results tell that instructor\'s usage a diversity of strategies, such as clarification demands, rephrasing, and explicit mistake adjustments, to aid comprehension and continued interaction. Besides, it exposes that repair sequences function not only to address language or content discourse, but also to achieve power relations, support learning, and encourage communicative competence.

Abstract
This field study investigates the efficacy of the podcast reproduction technique in enhancing oral fluency among Iraqi English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners.
Fluency remains one of the greatest challenges for Iraqi learners of English, who often demonstrate solid knowledge of grammar but struggle to speak smoothly in real time conversation. The current research addresses the common challenge of limited speaking fluency despite adequate grammatical knowledge, an issue frequently observed in the Iraqi EFL context. it explores the use of the Podcast Reproduction Technique (PRT) as a means of improving learners ’speaking fluency.
A single-group pre-test/post-test design was employed with thirty intermediate-level undergraduate learners from an Iraqi university. Over a six-week period, participants received training based on authentic English podcasts. They listened to selected episodes, reproduced the content orally in their own words, and participated in guided discussions aimed at reinforcing fluency. Oral performance was assessed before and after the training using a fluency rubric that measured speech rate, number of pauses, and self-corrections.
Fluency is measured before and after the treatment using a rubric assessing speech rate, pauses, and self-corrections.
The anticipated results indicate a statistically significant improvement in the oral fluency of the participants. The findings also revealed notable improvements: participants spoke faster, reduced long pauses, and made fewer self-corrections. Learners also reported increased confidence in speaking. These results suggest that PRT is an effective approach for enhancing fluency in EFL conversation classes, particularly in contexts where authentic exposure to English is limited and assured that the podcast reproduction technique is a practical and effective pedagogical tool for Iraqi EFL instructors to integrate 188
into conversation classes, promoting more automatic and fluent speech production by providing learners with a structured model to imitate and internalize.

Abstract:
The current study aimed to identify the level of experiential avoidance among postgraduate students, as well as to examine differences in experiential avoidance according to the variables of gender (male–female), academic specialization (scientific–humanities),. To achieve the research objectives, the researcher developed a scale of experiential avoidance based on the theoretical framework of Hayes (1996). After establishing the validity and reliability of the instrument, Cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficient for the scale was found to be ((0.89) The scale, in its final form, consisted of 22 items. The final version of the scale was administered to a proportionally stratified random sample of 500 male and female postgraduate students from the University of Baghdad. The data were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods in line with the research objectives. The findings revealed that the sample demonstrated a high level of experiential avoidance, and that there were no significant differences in experiential avoidance according to gender or academic specialization.
Based on these results, the researcher presented a set of recommendations and suggestions for future research.

Abstract: The present study aimed to identify the strength of courage in the personality of children and adolescents according to two variables: A. Age (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17) years. B. Gender (males, females) .
To achieve the objectives of the current study, the researcher adopted the Character Strengths Scale (Courage) by Park and Peterson (2017), which is based on Seligman’s theory (2002). The scale consisted of 12 items with five response alternatives. The researcher selected a sample of 240 children and adolescents from six directorates of education using a stratified random sampling method. The validity of the scale was confirmed through item discrimination and the correlation of each item with the total score of both the main and subordinate domains. Reliability was verified using test–retest and Cronbach’s alpha methods. The results indicated the presence of courage as a personality strength among children and adolescents aged 10–17 years, and that this strength follows a developmental, stage-like trajectory across these ages. The results also showed no gender effect on this strength among children and adolescents In light of the findings obtained in this study, the researcher has formulated a set of recommendations and proposed directions for future work.

Abstract: This study aimed to identify the level of emotional blackmail among students at the Southern Technical University, measure their level of psychological resilience, and examine the correlational relationship between these two variables. It further sought to identify any differences in this relationship based on gender. A random proportional sample of 400 male and female students was selected from the Southern Technical University in Basra. Two instruments were employed: an Emotional Blackmail Scale constructed by the researcher based on Forward's theory (1997), and the Psychological Resilience Scale adapted from Friborg et al. (2003). The results indicated that students did not experience high levels of emotional blackmail and demonstrated a good degree of psychological resilience. An inverse relationship was found between the two variables, with no significant differences emerging according to gender.

Abstract: This study addresses organizational justice and its relationship to job loyalty among teaching staff—a prominent issue in educational administration and organizational behavior, as justice is a fundamental pillar for the success of educational institutions and a lever for stabilizing the educational environment and enhancing the effectiveness of its human resources. The research examines the four dimensions of organizational justice—distributive, procedural, interactional, and informational justice—and their relationship with the dimensions of job loyalty: affective, continuance, normative, and behavioral loyalty.
A descriptive-analytical approach was adopted, utilizing Al-Suhaili's Organizational Justice Scale and the modern Arabic version of Al-Omari's Job Loyalty Scale (2023). The study was applied to a sample of 78 teaching staff members from the College of Education for Girls at the Iraqi University. Following tests for validity and reliability, descriptive statistics were calculated. Data analysis employed Pearson correlation, simple regression analysis, and an independent samples t-test.
The results revealed that organizational justice clearly contributes to raising levels of job loyalty. The dimensions related to interactional and procedural justice appeared most closely associated with loyalty and belonging behaviors, while the impact of distributive and informational justice was relatively lower, though still statistically significant.

Abstract: This research aimed to identify: 1) adaptive training methods for parents of children with special needs, and 2) the role of educational methods in training parents to adapt. The researcher employed a descriptive-analytical approach. The literature on family adaptation for individuals with disabilities was reviewed, covering the concept, dimensions, conditions, and training for parents.
The researcher concluded the following:
First: Educational methods for training parents include: a) Individual training, b) Group training, c) The behavioral approach (utilizing role-playing and modeling techniques), and d) The cognitive-behavioral approach (utilizing interactive and discussion techniques). Second: The role of these educational methods involves: 1) Identifying the personal characteristics of parents of children with special needs, 2) Respecting parents’ own opinions and perspectives on disability, 3) Recognizing and utilizing the information and experiences parents possess to achieve psychological and social adaptation, 4) Focusing on the child's strengths, 5) Respecting different viewpoints, and 6) Ensuring parents understand school procedures.
In light of these results, the researcher presented a set of recommendations and suggestions.

Abstract: This study investigated the impact of the Round Robin strategy on acquiring rhetorical concepts and developing wisdom-based thinking among fifth-grade literary female students in their Arabic language course (specifically the rhetoric component). The following null hypotheses were derived:
1.
No significant difference exists (α=0.05) between the mean scores of the experimental group (taught the rhetoric component of Arabic language using the Round Robin strategy) and the control group (taught the same component traditionally) on the post-test of rhetorical concepts.
2.
No significant difference exists (α=0.05) between the mean scores of the two groups on the post-application of the wisdom-based thinking scale.
3.
No significant difference exists (α=0.05) between the pre- and post-test mean scores of the experimental group on the rhetorical concepts test.
4.
No significant difference exists (α=0.05) between the pre- and post-application mean scores of the experimental group on the wisdom-based thinking scale.
A quasi-experimental design with partial control was used. The sample consisted of 64 students from Al-Quriyah Girls' High School in Kirkuk, randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=32) and a control group (n=32). The groups were equivalent in variables such as academic achievement, intelligence, prior knowledge, and pre-test thinking skills. Two researcher-constructed tools were used: a rhetorical concepts acquisition test and a wisdom-based thinking scale (36 items across 6 skills, based on Brown & Crane's theory), both demonstrating sound psychometric properties. Data were analyzed using appropriate statistical methods.
Based on the findings, several recommendations and proposals were presented.

Abstract:
Security is considered the lifeline of both the individual and society. The security of the homeland is a fundamental need for every citizen, whether related to psychological security, security of resources and wealth, information security, or any other field connected to citizens’ lives, whether they work in the public sector, private sector, or in self-employment. Stability is also closely linked to security, as there can be no stability without security. The stability of society depends on the stability of the individual, and the stability of the state depends on the stability of its society. For example, an individual seeks to be stable in his home, and any disruption in an individual’s stability reflects on the stability of his family. As the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) said: “Whoever wakes up secure in his home, healthy in his body, and possessing his daily sustenance, it is as though he has gained the entire world.” Thus, whenever the individual is stable, the entire society becomes stable, and the reverse is also true—that lack of security and stability for the individual and society affects the political, economic, and social stability of the state.
The current research aims to identify the most important components of the feeling of security stability among employees at the University of Basra, and to determine the differences between males and females in their level of perceived security stability. The research is limited to the University of Basra for the academic year 2023/2024 and is restricted to a sample of employees from the College of Education for Human Sciences. As for the theoreticalA
framework, the researcher relied on Maslow’s theory of human needs (Maslow Theory). To achieve the research objectives, a scale measuring the feeling of security stability was developed. The researcher posed an open-ended question to a group of university employees to determine the main components of the feeling of security stability from the sample’s perspective, then identified the scale’s domains and formulated the items for each domain according to Maslow’s theory. After that, the psychometric properties of the scale—validity, reliability, and discrimination—were established, followed by administering the scale to a representative sample. The responses were then scored and ranked in descending order, and the results were presented and interpreted in light of the research objectives. Based on the findings, a number of recommendations and suggestions related to the research topic were proposed.

Abstract: This study aimed to identify the effect of a counseling program employing the erroneous thinking correction approach in reducing optimistic bias among academically delayed female students. The null hypothesis posited no significant differences (α=0.05) between the pre- and post-test scores of the experimental and control groups on the Optimistic Bias Scale.
The researcher developed an Optimistic Bias Scale based on the theory of Scheier & Carver (1985). The final scale comprised 26 items. Its reliability, measured by test-retest, was 0.85, and Cronbach\'s alpha was 0.92. The effect size for the erroneous thinking correction approach was 4.9137, indicating a large effect according to Cohen\'s criteria. Based on the results, a set of recommendations and suggestions were presented.

Abstract: This study investigated the effect of a counseling program based on the role-playing method in developing emotional sharing among university female students by testing the following null hypotheses:
1.
No significant difference (α=0.05) exists between the pre- and post-test scores of the experimental group on the Emotional Sharing Scale.
2. No significant difference (α=0.05) exists between the pre- and post-test scores of the control group on the Emotional Sharing Scale.
3.No significant difference (α=0.05) exists between the post-test mean ranks of the experimental and control groups on the Emotional Sharing Scale.
The researcher used a self-constructed Emotional Sharing Scale (final version: 29 items), validated for face and construct validity. Reliability was confirmed via test-retest and Cronbach\'s alpha. The role-playing-based counseling program consisted of 10 sessions (45 minutes each, twice weekly over 5 weeks) and was validated by experts.
The results were as follows:
1.
A significant difference was found between the pre- and post-test mean ranks of the experimental group.
2.
No significant difference was found between the pre- and post-test mean ranks of the control group.
3.A significant difference was found between the post-test mean ranks of the experimental and control groups, favoring the experimental group.
Based on these findings, several recommendations and suggestions were made.

Abstract: This study aimed to examine patience patterns among educational counselors، identify significant differences in these patterns based on gender (male/female)، and identify differences based on workplace (primary/secondary). To achieve these objectives، the researchers constructed a 30-item scale to measure patience patterns. The sample consisted of 200 male and female counselors ، selected based on the Stevens/Thompson equation. The scale\'s psychometric properties were confirmed، with a test-retest reliability of 0.803 and a Cronbach\'s alpha reliability of 0.822. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).
The results indicated that educational counselors possess a high level of patience patterns. Significant differences were found in favor of females over males، and in favor of primary school counselors over secondary school counselors. Based on these findings، several recommendations and suggestions were presented.

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the effect of using the semantic mapping strategy on the achievement and retention of Arabic language among second intermediate grade students. A sample of 65 students from Kirkuk Governorate for the 2024-2025 academic year was selected. Group A (n=33), taught using the semantic mapping strategy, represented the experimental group, while Group B (n=31), taught traditionally, represented the control group. The groups were statistically equivalent regarding chronological age (in months), prior knowledge, parental academic achievement, and intelligence (analyzed using the Z-test for two independent samples and the Chi-square test).
Test reliability, difficulty, and discrimination indices were calculated using Pearson's correlation coefficient. The results demonstrated the superiority of the experimental group over the control group in both achievement and retention tests.