The effect of bibliotherapy on the psychological capital of the staff of the School of Management and Medical Informatics of Isfahan University of Medical Science

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Bibliotherapy is defined as using dynamic interaction along with reading a book in order to help the people to increase their cognitive understanding. This study aims to investigate the effect of bibliotherapy on the psychological capital of the employees of the Department of Management and Medical Informatics of Isfahan University of Medical Science. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is an applied study using a semi-empirical method. The statistical population consists of all nonfaculty employees of the target department (70 people). Twenty eight people were randomly selected and divided into experiment and control groups and answered the psychological capital questionnaire. The data gathering tool was the psychological capital questionnaire of Luthans. The experiment group underwent six 2-h sessions of bibliotherapy where the control group underwent no interference. Both groups answered the questionnaire again 1-month after the final bibliotherapy session. The information was analyzed using descriptive (average and frequency distribution) and analytical (independent t-test, paired t-test, Chi-square test, and Mann-Whitney U-test) with the help of SPSS 20 software. RESULTS: The findings showed no meaningful distinction average scores of the physiological capital of both groups before interference. However, the average physiological capital score and an average score of each factor in the experiment group was meaningfully higher than that of the control group after the bibliotherapy sections. CONCLUSION: The results showed that bibliotherapy is a suitable method for increasing the psychological capital of the employees of different organizations which will in turn provide both the employees themselves and the organization with material and spiritual gains.