Education in the Knowledge Society 22 (2021)

The Efficiency of a Group Counseling Program Based on Psychodrama in Enhancing Self-Awareness and Reducing Tension Among Tenth Grade Students in Qalqilia City

La eficiencia de un programa de asesoramiento grupal basado en el psicodrama para mejorar la autoconciencia y reducir la tensión entre los estudiantes de décimo grado en la ciudad de Kalkilia

Fakher Khalili^a, Said Swilem^b

^aDepartment of Psychology and Counselling, AN-Najah National University, Nablus, West Bank, Palestine

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7985-0643f.khalili@najah.edu

^bDepartment of Psychology and Counselling, AN-Najah National University, Nablus, West Bank, Palestine

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7458-1563faris_98@hotmail.com

ABSTRACT

This research was conducted through two studies, the purposes of the first study were to assess tension and self-awareness levels among the tenth-grade male and female students in Qalqilia city in Palestine, and to examine the impact of gender on tension and self-awareness. To achieve these goals a descriptive method was used, the sample consisted of (158) male and (152) female students age 16 years old. They were stratified randomly selected. This study found tension appears to be a broad problem in Palestine among respondents, and it is chronically existent with a high level. On the other hand, this study proved that self-awareness among Palestinian adolescents is low. No significant differences in tension and self-awareness due to gender were found. The objective of study 2 was, to examine the effect of psychodrama on the levels of tension and self-awareness of tenth-grade male students in Qalqilia city using the two-matching group pretest-posttest design. The experimental group consisted of (10) students and they received a psychodrama group-counseling program, in order to reduce tension and enhance self-awareness. While the control group received nothing. Based on the results psychodrama is an effective tool to treat tension and enhance self-awareness. It is suggested that for future studies to be from different grades and both gender with a larger sample size. It is also recommended to assess tension and self-awareness in different regions in Palestine.

Keywords:
Tension
Self-awareness
Psychodrama
Qalqilia
Adolescents
Tenth grade

RESUMEN

Esta investigación se llevó a cabo mediante dos estudios; los propósitos del primero fueron evaluar los niveles de tensión y autoconciencia entre los estudiantes de décimo grado de ambos sexos en la ciudad de Kalkilia, en Palestina, y examinar el impacto del género en la tensión y la autoconciencia. Para lograr estos objetivos se utilizó un método descriptivo, la muestra consistió en (158) estudiantes varones y (152) mujeres de 16 años. Fueron seleccionados aleatoriamente. En este estudio se constató que la tensión parece ser un problema amplio en Palestina entre los encuestados, y que existe crónicamente con un alto nivel. Por otra parte, este estudio demostró que la conciencia de sí mismos entre los adolescentes palestinos es baja. No se encontraron diferencias significativas en cuanto a la tensión y la conciencia de sí mismos debido al género. El objetivo del estudio 2 era examinar el efecto del psicodrama en los niveles de tensión y autoconciencia de los estudiantes varones de décimo grado en la ciudad de Kalkilia, utilizando el diseño de dos grupos de pruebas pre y post prueba. El grupo experimental consistió en (10) estudiantes y recibieron un programa de asesoramiento grupal de psicodrama, con el fin de reducir la tensión y aumentar la autoconciencia. Mientras que el grupo de control no recibió nada. Basado en los resultados, el psicodrama es una herramienta efectiva para tratar la tensión y aumentar la autoconciencia. Se sugiere que para futuros estudios sean de diferentes grados y ambos géneros con un mayor tamaño de muestra. También se recomienda evaluar la tensión y la autoconciencia en diferentes regiones de Palestina.

Palabras clave:
Tensión
Autoconciencia
Psicodrama
Kalkilia
Adolescentes
Décimo grado

1. Introduction

According to the World Health Organization, adolescence is the age between adulthood and childhood and the period between the age group of 10 to 19 years (World Health Organization, 2003). Adolescence is a period of psychological, social, and biological transition rapidly and critically. It is a sensitive developmental stage which probably facing different kinds of maladjustment, and some adolescents do not have sufficient skills and strategies to challenge such problems (Hazen, Goldstein, & Goldstein, 2010). Adolescents are an important part in Palestine. One-fourth of the Palestinian population is adolescents aged between 10-19 years (Ali, 2019) and they tend to have several problems in different areas psychologically, educationally, economically, and politically (Manenti, Reinicke, MacDonald, & Donald, 2016).

The mental health of Palestinian youths is affected by the exposure to chronic Israeli occupation and its violence, with different types of behavioral problems and psychological disorders representing one of the most significant challenges for mental health workers, policymakers, and educational and political systems (Manenti, Reinicke, MacDonald, & Donald, 2016). The occupied Palestinian territory has one of the highest burdens of adolescent mental disorders in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. About 50% of Palestinian children have behavioral and emotional disorders (World Health Assembly, 2010).

In conflict and war zones such as Palestine; children and adolescents are real victims of wars; they experience warzones’ endless stressors and endure a lifetime of suffering as a consequence (Al-Krenawi, Graham, & Sehwail, 2004; Veronese, Pepe, Jaradah, Al Muranak, & Hamdouna, 2017). War zones’ overwhelming amount of stress can lead to behavioral and emotional problems in children and adolescents (Mahamid, Rihani, & Berte, 2015; Parson, 2000). These stress-induced psychological problems have been revealed in both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies (Babapour-Kheiroddin, Badinloo, Shalchi, Rostami, & Hamzavi-Abedi, 2009; Compas, 1987; Hammen & Goodman-Brown, 1990).

This research paper targeted adolescent school students in the Qalqilia district due to the difficult living conditions in which they live, that in turn negatively affects their mental health and presenting a detailed description of the conditions of the Qalqilia area illustrates the psychological effects and the suffering faced by the citizens, including adolescents. Qalqilia is a marginalized and small region and constituted 2.8% of the total West Bank area with an area of 166 Km². The total number of population living in Qalqilia is about 116.000 individuals (Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics [PCBS], 2019). Since 2003, the Israeli Separation Wall has been built to completely encircle Qalqilia, separating the city from agricultural lands on the other side of the wall, leading to anger and protests from many of the citizens of the city. Qalqilia is surrounded on all sides by the Israeli separation wall. To the west is an eight-meter-high wall and Israeli observation tower system and about 80% of the Qalqilia residents are refugees since the Nakba in 1948 (Filc & Ziv, 2006).

Since 1948 Israeli occupation seized and stole about 28,000 dunums of Qalqilia land, leaving 9,400 dunums of developed, urban lands and agricultural lands surrounding the city. Since 2003 over 80% of agricultural lands are either under or isolated by the Israeli separation wall, mostly irrigated land with fruit, vegetables and greenhouses and most families have been affected because 62% depend on agriculture in Qalqilia compared to 24% in the rest of the West Bank. Qalqilya lies on the Western Aquifer Basin, one of the largest sources of groundwater in the West Bank. Eleven wells were isolated by the separation wall or in the buffer zone, representing 32% of the Qalqilia’s water supply (UNRWA, 2004).

In addition to the difficulties faced by citizens in Qalqilya, and as a result, affecting various aspects of their ordinary lives and obstruct their well-being; adolescents’ students in schools face and challenge various sources of stress and tension since adolescence is a transitional period from middle school to high school. Many researchers have illustrated that this school transition is associated with negative changes in the functioning of many adolescents, particularly in academic achievement (Akos, Rose, & Orthner, 2015; Coelho & Romao, 2016; Zeedyk et al., 2003).

According to Eccles and Roeser (2009) in their person-environment fit theory, an individual’s behavior, motivation, and mental health are affected by the fit between the characteristic’s individuals bring to their social environments and the characteristics of these social environments. Individuals are not likely to do very well or be very motivated if they are in social environments that do not fit their psychological needs; so, the person-environment fit theory predicts a decline in the motivation, interest, performance, and behavior of adolescents as they move into this environment. Moreover, in this period of life, there are different factors that pressuring the adolescent, so they face various stressors and which in turn lead to stress when they are not able to deal with these stressors. Stress can be explained in terms of sadness, worries, frustration, and tension (Reddy, Kannekanti, & Hamza, 2015). Some of the common reasons for stress can be problems with the parents, siblings, problems in the school, problems with the studies, teachers, and classmates. Chiang (as cited in Reddy, Kannekanti, & Hamza, 2015, p. 19) proposed that school is one of the main sources of stress among adolescents. Such stress comes from too much homework, unsatisfactory academic performance, preparation for tests, lack of interest in a particular subject, and teacher’s punishment. Generally, parents are very concerned about their children’s academic achievement and moral behaviors. Parents expect their children not only to respect teachers and follow moral norms but also to become elite in the future (Liu & Chen, 1994). Furthermore, parent and teacher expectations, and peer and social pressures are considered the source of stressors among adolescents, which affect the adolescence period critically, so it is regarded as an emotionally intense and often tense and stressful stage. And in many cases disorders start with normal stress among the adolescents that can turn to distress and result in many health problems both biological and psychological (Anyan, & Hjemdal, 2016; Keshi, 2012).

According to Pfeiffer (2001), stress comes in the form of negative tension that is caused by someone or something. Those who recognize stress as negative tension fail to realize that stress can generate a positive reaction to a stimulus. The positive reaction of stress can drive individuals to achieve and to enhance their potential to its fullest. In fact, many studies focused on stress as a complex or multidimensional construct (Hancock, Szalma, Parasuraman, & Rizzo, 2006; Patel, 2009; Yazdani, Rezaei, & Pahlavanzadeh, 2010). However, this study interested in psychological tension; as a component in stress (Mathew, 2017; Sham, 2015). Psychological tension describes an emotional state that associated with the experience of stress. In general, emotions can be described and differentiated by three aspects: emotional experience, emotional expression, and behavioral aspects (Stiglmayr et al., 2008).

Tension can be understood and described in all of these aspects the experience of tension accordingly. For instance, in the two-dimensional model of Russell (1980) the term “tense” is placed between high arousal and low valence, whereas the term “relaxed” lies exactly opposite between low arousal and high valence. Watson and Tellegen (1985) in their study found two orthogonal factors, positive affect-negative affect, with the term “tense” being related to negative affect. Affective valence generally directs behavior. Low affective valence leads to protective and defensive behavior, whereas high affective valence leads to approaching behavior (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1990). In general, the term “tension” describes at the semantic level the subjective perception of extreme emotional arousal in the face of threatening situations.

Tension experiences result from states of conflict, instability, dissonance, or uncertainty that trigger processes of expectation and anticipation directed at future events of emotional significance and the experiences of tension are ubiquitous phenomena that occurs in a variety of different contexts, and which can evoke strong emotions and significantly influence people’s actions and behavior (Lehne, 2014). The researchers assumed that situations at home, at school, in the peer group, and in the community may bring anxiety, tension, and depression for adolescents. Tension can affect negatively their mental health and academic performance at school (Moksnes & Haugan, 2015). Therefore, this tension makes natural relaxed behavior among adolescents’ students impossible. Studies showed; students who have too much tension may exhibit symptoms of fear, depression, angry or emotional outbursts, physical symptoms such as headaches, or stomach aches, emotional disturbances, maladjustment, bullying behavior, and school disturbances (Murdock, 1999; Roeser & Eccles, 2000; Wolf, 2012).

Since adolescents have not fully developed the cognitive capacities that lay behind mature emotional awareness (Ordaz & Luna, 2012; Steinberg, 2005). And based on Rith-Najarian, McLaughlin, Sheridan, & Nock (2014) research; the currents study assumed Palestinian adolescents’ students in Qalqilia had a lack of self-awareness, possibly due to immaturity of neurobiological and psychological systems underlying aspects of adolescents’ awareness as well as few experiences in managing stressors and tension. Moreover, many stressors among Palestinian adolescents’ students in Qalqilia at their schools and their community cause a high level of tension. Those stressors confuse them that in turn affect negatively on their self-awareness.

In fact, every person hopes to live a peaceful and healthy life, so every individual needs to realize and observe his/her self-awareness level in terms of strength, weakness, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, behavior, needs, motives, and actions at each along with his/her life (Kalaiyarasan & Solomon, 2016). Without or with low self-awareness we cannot perform any work in an effective way even our ordinary daily activities. The adolescent has to observe and realize his/her self-awareness since a human productivity life begins from the pre-adolescent period (Kalaiyarasan & Solomon, 2016).

One key, in order to reduce tension among adolescents’ students in Qalqilia is improving their self-awareness, which enables them to see where their tensions take them. Thus, on one hand, assessments of tension and self-awareness are required among adolescents’ students in Qalqilia. On the other hand, reducing tension and enhancing self-awareness among maladjusted adolescents’ students are required too. Those, in turn, help them in making the desired modifications in their thoughts and interpretations as well as in their behaviors. Therefore, enhancing self-awareness and reducing tension among adolescent play important roles in enhancing adaptation and improving behavioral patterns whose effectiveness has been proven by numerous studies (Hamidifar, 2004; Leslie et al., 2003; Omid & Mina, 2013).

One technique that might be able to reduce tension and enhance self-awareness among adolescents’ students at schools in Qalqilia is psychodrama. Psychodrama made a significant impact on the development of group psychotherapy in clinical and counseling settings for more than seven decades ago (Kipper & Ritchie, 2003). Psychodrama considered an effective method that is used in order to act out negative feelings and ideas and to control oneself that creates trouble for him/her. It is a method leads the individuals’ problems in re-performing instead of only talking about them (Blatner, 2000). Providing purification and obtaining insight, testing the truth, and developing logical ideas, creating learning and behavioral change are aimed at the psychodrama sessions (Tauvon, 2005). A psychodrama session is formed by stages of warming, action (play), and sharing (Feltham & Horton, 2012). These are the main items of psychodrama: Stage, protagonist, supporting actors, group director (leader), and audience. It is necessary to know these items well in the practice of psychodrama and to use the psychodrama techniques regularly and appropriately (Gladding, 2003).

In the last years, various experimental studies were held to examine the effectiveness of psychodrama in reducing stress, loneliness, anxiety, and depression symptoms (Bacallao & Smokowski, 2017; Dehnavi, Hashemi, & Zadeh-Mohammadi, 2016; Erbay et al., 2018; Orkibi, Azoulay, Snir, & Regev, 2017; Winslow, 2011) in enhancing self-efficacy, self-esteem; self-acceptance (Chae & Kim, 2017; Diani & Siddik, 2018; Mack, 2003; Orkibi, Azoulay, Snir, & Regev, 2017). Therefore, based on the previous evidence, the current study assumes the effectiveness of psychodrama in reducing tension and enhancing self-awareness among adolescents’ students at schools in Qalqilia.

To summarize; the study assumed that adolescents in Qalqilia city have noticeable tension and low self-awareness; since they are living in conflict and war zones and they are suffering from exposure to chronic Israeli occupation and its violence, and they and their families facing difficult living conditions. Adolescents in Qalqilia are facing and challenging various stressors inside and outside their schools. Therefore, this study tried to achieve two goals. The first is assessing levels of tension and self-awareness among the tenth-grade students at public schools in Qalqilia city, and the second is testing the effectiveness of psychodrama in enhancing self-awareness and reducing tension among Palestinian adolescents.

2. The Present Study

This study targeted the tenth-grade students because it considered a stressful transition period that extended from middle to secondary school (Powell, 2005). The academic achievement at the tenth grade is a significant factor because it maps out the student’s future, it is the time of branching at the Palestinian schools (science and literature) therefore students are very worried about their performance causes them tension. This study was carried out to achieve three goals; (1) assessment of tension and self-awareness among them, (2) reducing tension and increasing self-awareness among students based on psychodrama group counseling techniques and predicting of tension by self-awareness before and after psychodrama group counseling program.

This study hypothesized a high level of tension among adolescents’ students at schools in Qalqilia city since they are living in conflict and war zones and they are suffering from exposure to chronic Israeli occupation and its violence, and they and their families facing difficult living conditions. Adolescents’ students in Qalqilia are facing and challenging various stressors inside and outside their schools. In addition, the current study hypothesized a low level of self-awareness among adolescents’ students at schools in Qalqilia city. Because they have not fully developed the cognitive capacities that lay behind mature self-awareness due to immaturity of neurobiological and psychological systems underlying aspects of adolescents’ awareness as well as few experiences in managing stressors and tension which in turn confuse and affect negatively on their self-awareness. Therefore, this study tried to answer the following questions:

3. Method

In the present study, the population consisted of (428) male and (417) female students at the tenth grade distributed at six public schools in Qalqilia city in the academic year 2018-2019. Two samples were selected to achieve the goals of the study. The first sample consisted of (310) students who were selected using a stratified random sampling technique to answer the first and the second questions. On the other hand, the second sample consisted of (20) students selected using a purposive convenient sampling technique to answer the question.

Two scales were used in the current study: tension and self-awareness scales. The tension scale consists of 14 items, and it was developed by Weaver (2017). The original version of the scale has high degree of reliability 0.91. This scale measures three components; rapid anger and irritation, rumination, and sleeplessness. This scale starts with the prompt ‘‘in the past two weeks, to what extent have you felt the following mood-related items?’’ with three response categories: 0 if not at all, 1 if somewhat, and 2 if a lot. The self-awareness scale consists of 23 items, and it was developed by Fenigstein, Scheier, and Buss (1975). The scale’s validity and reliability were assessed in the original study with the Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient being 0.87. Again, it was assessed by Kinney, Smith, and Donzella, (2001), with the Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient of 0.84. Five choice Likert type scale was used (0 if the item is untrue, 1 if the item is true rarely, 2 if it is partially true, 3 if it is mainly true, 4 if it is completely true). This scale measures three components public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness, and social anxiety.

The researcher benefited from recommendations of the United States Census Bureau [USCB] method in translating and adapting foreign scales (Pan & de La Puente, 2005). USCB recommended five steps for translating scales’ research: prepare, translate, pretest, revise, and document (Pan & de La Puente, 2005). Based on these recommendations, the translated (Arabic) scales were reviewed by three academic members from the Department of Psychology and counseling in the Faculty of Education at An-Najah National University [ANNU]. Both scales were piloted with 35 adolescents’ students at the tenth grade; also piloted at this time was culturally adapted. The goal of this procedure was to assess the internal consistency of each translated and adapted scale. In the present study, Cronbach alpha coefficients of the tension and self-awareness scales are found as (.88) and (.85) respectively.

Formal permission was obtained from the Palestinian Ministry of Education to collect data and implement the group counseling sessions. Furthermore, informed consent was administered to each student in written form as well as orally prior to participation in the study. The informed consent included information regarding confidentiality, potential risks, as well as the voluntary nature of the study. Students completed informed consent prior to accepting research materials and only students agreeing with the informed consent participated in the study. Two research designs were used; descriptive and a two-group pretest-posttest design have been used.

3.1. Study 1

In the descriptive study, the sample consisted of (158) male and (152) female students at the tenth-grade age 16 years old. They were stratified randomly selected to assess tension and self-awareness levels among them and to examine the impact of gender on tension and self-awareness. Students are studying at six schools, As-Salam secondary boys’ school, As-Saadia high school, Al Razi high school for boys, Al-Khansa’ secondary girls’ school, Abu Ali Iyad secondary girls’ school, and Al Shaimaa secondary school for girls. The mean self-reported family monthly income was about 3000 NIS (equals 868 $). Of the 350 participants who were originally sampled, 310 students had complete data on both measures used in this study.

One sample t-test was used to assess tension and self-awareness levels with a test value of (1) for tension scale because three response categories were used and with a test value of (2) for self-awareness scale. According to results, the means of tension and self-awareness among the tenth-grade students in Qalqilia city were (1.67 ± .23, 1.65 ± .34 respectively), so they tended to obtain a high score in tension comparing with a test value of (1) and their mean is significantly greater than the corresponding hypothetical means (t = 51.29, p < 0.001). They tended to obtain a low score in self-awareness comparing with a test value of (2) and their mean is significantly lower than the corresponding hypothetical means (t = -18.12, p < 0.001). The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1. One-sample t-test for levels of tension and self-awareness among the tenth-grade students in Qalqilia city.

A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), using gender as the factor and the two scales (tension and self-awareness) as dependent variables, was performed to test for gender differences. No significant differences were found for any of the variables. Pillai’s Trace = .005, F = .828, df = (2,307), p = .438, indicating no differences in tension and self-awareness due to gender. The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2. A one-way multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) to test the effect of gender on tension and self-awareness among the tenth-grade students in Qalqilia.

3.2. Study 2

This study targeted only male students due to cultural considerations. It is easier for the researcher to implement his counseling intervention in male schools compared to female schools since the researcher is male too. In high schools, there is no mixing between males and females, because this violates the standards of the Palestinian society, religiously and morally. Also, all who teach female students in the adolescence period are female teachers, as well as for male students. Therefore, the researcher selected a purposive and convenient sample.

The two-matching group pretest-posttest design was used, and the matching based on tension and self-awareness scores to create an equivalent two groups. The sample consisted of (20) male students who scored a high level of tension and a low level of self-awareness. The experimental group consisted of (10) students and they received a psychodrama group counseling program with (13) sessions over three months, in order to reduce tension and enhance self-awareness. While the control group received nothing. The psychodrama group-counseling program was conducting at As-Salam secondary boys’ school since the principal and the educational counselor were ready to provide support and assistance. Furthermore, As-Salam secondary boys’ school has a big hall with liquid crystal display [LCD], laptops, speakers, microphones, strong WIFI connection, and tables. The psychodrama group counseling program. After taking the pretest, sessions of psychodrama were conducted for 60 days according to schedule. Psychodrama once in a week for two hours, it includes three techniques as mirroring, doubling, soliloquy, future projection, and role reversal.

Means and standard deviations were calculated to assess tension and self-awareness in the two groups in the pre-test and post-test. The results show descriptive statistics of tension and self-awareness of experimental and control groups in pre-test and post-test. The mean of the tension of the experimental group has decreased in the post-test and the mean of self-awareness of the experimental group has increased in the post-test. Table 3 shows the results.

Table 3. Means and standard deviations of tension and self-awareness in the two groups among the tenth-grade students in Qalqilia.

Multivariate Analyses of Covariance (MANCOVA) was used to analyze the dataset from the pretest and posttest of this study. Scores from pretest of tension and self-awareness are as a covariate. To compare tension and self-awareness of experimental and control groups according to pre-test and posttest scores, it is recommended to test whether the pre-assumptions of MANCOVA are guaranteed or not. By using Shapiro-Wilk normality tests for a small sample (less than 50) (Ghasemi & Zahediasl, 2012), the distribution of the scores in tension and self-awareness of tenth-grade male students in post-test and were normal. Table 4 shows the results.

Table 4. Shapiro-Wilk tests for testing normality of tension and self-awareness in the post-test.

The results of the M.Box test showed that homogeneity of variances of tension and self-awareness between two groups was not significant (P=.437). In order to determine the effect of the psychodrama group counseling program on reducing tension and enhancing self-awareness MANCOVA was used. Wilk’s Lambda and Hotellings’ trace vales were significant and indicated that overall predictive variables could differentiate between two groups. The results of MANCOVA for comparing tension and self-awareness of two groups are shown in Table 5.

Table 5. Results of MANCOVA to compare tension and self-awareness of the experimental and the control groups in the pretest and the posttest.

As presented in Table 5, the tension of the experimental group has decreased significantly, and self-awareness has increased significantly after receiving the psychodrama group-counseling program. Moreover, the pre-test scores did not affect the changing of tension and self-awareness in the post-test.

4. Discussion

The first study explored the levels of tension and self-awareness among the Palestinian tenth-grade male and female students in Qalqilia. Tension appears to be a broad problem in Palestine, and it is chronically existent especially among adolescents since they are living under stressful conditions and in conflict and war zones and they are suffering from exposure to chronic Israeli occupation and its violence, and they and their families facing difficult living conditions. Adolescents’ students in Qalqilia are facing and challenging various stressors inside and outside their schools. They are still immature to manage stressors and tension which in turn confuse and affect negatively their mental health. This result consistent with previous studies finding which were conducted on Palestinians (Al-Krenawi, Graham, & Sehwail, 2004; Mahamid, Rihani, & Berte, 2015; Parson, 2000; Veronese, Pepe, Jaradah, Al Muranak, & Hamdouna, 2017). On the other hand, this study proved that self-awareness among the Palestinian tenth-grade male and female students in Qalqilia is low since self-awareness is based on direct knowledge of oneself, and thus perceptual self-information, and because of Palestinian students are belonging to collectivistic culture (Arabic-Islamic Culture) they tend to observe others more than observing themselves. They are interested in the social environment, which causes increases social awareness instead of aware of themselves. Consistent with this, in collectivistic cultures, the content of the self includes as much information about the groups to which one belongs (Triandis, 2018), and individuals can have more elaborated knowledge about others than knowledge about themselves (Markus & Kitayama, 1991).

The objective of study 2 was, to examine the effect of psychodrama on the levels of tension and self-awareness of tenth-grade male students in Qalqilia city. Based on the results psychodrama is an effective tool to treat tension in terms of rapid anger and irritation, rumination, and sleeplessness. It is a powerful tool to enhance self-awareness in terms of public self-consciousness, private self-consciousness, and reduce social anxiety. Psychodrama is group therapy for the aim of increasing insight and understanding ourselves. Psychodrama can lead to a reduction of tension symptoms by using various techniques like mirroring, doubling, soliloquy, role reversal, and future projection that push students to speak and play with themselves and with others.

Through psychodrama, students modify and develop their cognition insight, understanding them-selves. Psychodrama assists students to resolve their internal conflicts and explore their roots. It pushes them to be more stable and more psychologically adjusted, less anxious. Psychodrama teaches students to be more patient since it provides them with skills to evaluate the context in a holistic manner based on Gestalt principles. Psychodrama helps the student to discover their strength, weakness, perceptions, feelings, thoughts, behavior, needs, and motives. The current findings are consistent with a lot of studies that utilized psychodrama techniques (Bacallao & Smokowski, 2017; Chae & Kim, 2017; Dehnavi, Hashemi, & Zadeh-Mohammadi, 2016; Diani & Siddik, 2018; Erbay et al., 2018; Mack, 2003; Orkibi, Azoulay, Snir, & Regev, 2017; Winslow, 2011).

5. Conclusion

In sum, it can be concluded that tension among Palestinian adolescents appears to be a broad problem and it is chronically existent since they are living under stressful conditions and in conflict and war zones and they are suffering from exposure to chronic Israeli occupation and its violence, and they and their families facing difficult living conditions. On the other hand, this study found that self-awareness among Palestinian adolescents is low since self-awareness. Moreover, psychodrama can lead to an improvement in the life of adolescents through decreasing tension and increasing self-awareness.

6. Limitations

Single grade from one age and single-gender sample and small sample size restrict the generalization of findings. It is suggested that for future studies to be from different grades and both gender with larger sample size. It is also recommended to assess tension and self-awareness in different regions in Palestine.

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