The Effectiveness Study Of Miracle Question In Solution-focused Approach: The Effect On Emotions And Positive Psychological State Of College Student

Miracle Question is one of the most distinctive techniques in Solution-FocusedTherapy. Be different with the traditional Problem-Focused question, Miracle Question isfuture-oriented, help client jumping from the constraint-saturated state, and focus on theconcrete goal. The issue of previous studies is lack of evident-based research. Based onliterature reviews, this study use Wehr&Grant(2010) s study approach to test threehypothesis about Miracle Question:(1) Miracle Question arouse immediate positiveemotion and psychological state;(2) The response of subject to Miracle Question tend tobe more positive, and recall more exceptions;(3) The severity, duration time andfrequency of problem is NOT correlate with the effect of Miracle question.This research consists of three studies, of which:Study I:69Freshman in college is randomly grouped to Miracle QuestionGroup(MQ group)(N=35) and Problem-focused Question Group(RQ group)(N=34), testthe different effect on individual s emotion experience and positive psychological state.The result shows that (1) Self-Efficacy and Hope subscale of Psychological Capital scalesare significantly different between pre-test and post-test in MQ group(p<0.01);(2)positive and negative emotion subscales of PANAS are significantly different betweenpre-test and post-test in MQ group(p<.01);(3) All subscales of PANAS and PsychologicalCapital are no significantly different between pre-test and post-test in RQ group(p>.05);(4) the pre-post difference of Hope subscales in Psychological Capital, Positive andNegative emotion subscales are significantly different between MQ and RQ group(p<.01).It suggest that Miracle Question arouses more positive emotion, and enhance subject smotivational state about achieving the goal.Study II:59freshman in college is randomly grouped to Miracle QuestionGroup(MQ group)(N=29) and Problem-focused Question Group(RQ group)(N=30), testthe difference of the response to question between two groups with content-analysis. Theresult shows that:(1) Compared with RQ group, the number of positive response in MQ group is significantly more(p<.01), while the negative response in MQ group issignificantly less(p<.01);(2) The exceptions that subject write down is significantlydifferent between MQ and RQ group(p<.05);(3) The number of positive response issignificantly correlate with the number of exception that subject written down(p<.05). Itimplied that Miracle Question can lead to positive thinking and recall of exceptions.Study III:86college student answered the Miracle Question，exploring the factorsthat affect the effectiveness of Miracle Question by testing the correlation with theseverity, duration time and frequency of problem and pre-post difference in PANAS andPsychological Capital scales. The result shows that:(1) there is no significant correlationwith the severity, duration time and frequency of problem and pre-post difference inPANAS and Psychological Capital scales(p>.05);(2) the pre-post difference in positiveemotion subscale of PANAS is significant correlate with the self-reported confidence ofsolving the problem(p<.01);(3) the pre-post difference in Hope subscale of PANAS issignificant correlate with the self-reported confidence of solving the problem(p<.05). Itsuggest that no evidence support that the severity, duration time and frequency of problemaffect the effectiveness of Miracle Question.