Abstract
Objectives This study was attempted to apply a positive reinforcement personality program for nursing students and to verify its effects on care, defense mechanisms, empathy ability and emotional intelligence. Methods This positive reinforcement character program was developed based on positive psychological reflection on character education and character education based on Seligman's(2011) positive psychology theory, and was provided as an 8-session program once a week. Data collection was from October 17 to December 9, 2022, and the study subjects were first-year nursing students at two four-year universities located in the region, with a total of 44 people, 22 in the experimental group and 22 in the control group. Data collected in a quasi-experiment with a non-equivalent control group before and after design were analyzed using SPSS 26.0. Results The positive reinforcement personality program significantly differed in nursing students' care(t=2.73, p=.013), empathy ability(t=3.87, p=.000), and emotional intelligence(t=-2.56, p=.012). However, the defense mech-anism sub-domains were immature(t=2.35, p=.076), mature(t=1.57, p=.136), self-inhibitory(t=2.96, p=.068), con-flict avoidant(t=-1.83, p=.152) there appeared to be no significant difference in any of the defense mechanisms. Conclusions Since this program can be an effective intervention to improve nursing students' care, empathy abil-ity, and emotional intelligence, it is thought that it can be used as basic data to prepare a plan to vitalize personality education of nursing students and develop a personality education program.
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