EFFECTIVENESS OF LAUGHTER THERAPY AMONG STUDENTS WITH PERCEIVED ACADEMIC STRESS
Main Article Content
Keywords
Laughter therapy, Academic stress, Lakeav Response Stress Scale (LASRS-2)
Abstract
Academic stress among students may produce physiological and other psychological symptoms which affect the willpower of students against life stressors. Conventional psychotherapy is sometimes difficult to conduct with these students along with the ongoing academic activities. Hence many stress management skills have been introduced. Laughter therapy is a therapeutic technique designed for controlling and reducing stress and tension symptoms. Current study mainly intended to check the effectiveness of laughter therapy in reducing academic stress. It was hypothesized that students who undergo laughter therapy will show less academic stress on the post-test as compared to students who do not get laughter therapy. A sample of 64 students diagnosed with academic stress was pre-tested on the LASRS scale. After that, 32 students received laughter therapy twice a week for a month while the other 32 patients did not receive any psychotherapy. Both groups were re-tested by using the same scale. Results indicated that laughter therapy reduced academic stress among students (pretest=50.7, posttest= 44.93), while students in the control group showed increased academic stress (pretest=47.36, post-test=50.16). Thus, these results supported the hypothesis of the current study, and it can be concluded that laughter therapy can be used as a treatment for academic stress among students who are facing life strains and tensions.
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Dr. Shagufta Perveen
Assistant Professor, Psychology Department, Hazara University, Mansehra, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Dr. Nighat Gul
Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Gul Jabeen
M.Phil. Psychology, Hazara University, Mansehra, Pakistan.
Dr Sameena Humayun Khan
Lecturer, Department of Psychology, University of Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.
Dr. Salma Batool
Assistant Professor, Department of Applied Psychology, NUML, Quetta Campus