effectiveness of identity-based psychodrama educational-therapeutic program on identity styles and neuroticism

Background: neuroticism is one of the serious mental health problems of people. no study has been conducted on the impact of identity issues in the treatment of neurotic people. objectives: this study aims to formulate, design, and investigate the effect of identity-based psychodrama educational program on identity styles and neuroticism. materials & methods: this research was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test, post-test design using a control group. the study participants were 40 people aged 15-30 years referred to pendare nik counseling center in najafabad city, isfahan province, iran, in 2020. they were selected using a convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into the intervention (n=20) and control (n=20) groups. the data collection instruments were berzonsky identity style inventory (1992) and mccrae and costa 5-factor inventory (1992). a researcher-made identity-based psychodrama program (2020) was used for the intervention. the collected data were analyzed using ancova in spss v. 23. results: the educational-therapeutic program significantly affected identity styles and neuroticism (p<0.001). it significantly reduced the neuroticism level of people in the intervention group (f=200.71, η2=0.84). conclusion: the identity-based psychodrama program reduced diffuse-avoidant, normative, and informational identity styles and neuroticism and promoted the achieved identity style.