AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
one´s life, self acceptance, acceptance of the environment and
total attitudes change in different aspects of life (Milby at al. In
Johnson, 2010).
The research part of the work focuses on acquiring the clients´
opinions. Drug addiction profoundly influences attitudes, values
but also opinions of the addicts. Value orientation moves to a
different level as opposed to the majority´s. One of the goals of
the therapy is to help clients to find new life priorities. As for the
question what an opinion is and how to define it, there are
considerable contradictions among the experts. Everybody
agrees that it is not a synonym of attitude and that it must be kept
distinct. An opinion in a certain way displays attitude mostly in
verbalized expression. Unlike attitude it is less stabile and is
affected by number of factors. There are disagreements in the
question of the opinion´s components. Some authors understand
opinion as neutral, subjective claim that the person regards as
truthful. According to this definition, opinion only has one part
and that is cognitive. When the clients´ opinions were analysed,
it proved they were formulated subjectively, they are convinced
about their truthfulness, they have some information about the
object and moreover evaluation and emotions manifestation was
projected. This research prefers the definition of an opinion
described in Velký sociologický slovník (1996), it says that
opinion is composed of two parts – rational and emotional
(Velký sociologický slovník, 1996; Hayesová, 1998).
2
Research methodology
The reality in quantitative research is rendered by means of the
variables; the values of the variables are gained by measurement.
The primary goal is to find how the variables are spread, what
relationships there are among them and why (K. F. Punch, 2008,
p.12). The advantages of quantitative research are clearness,
brevity, systemtic nature of the outcomes, accuracy (Chráska,
2011, p. 237). The philosophical base is new positivism and
basic elements of empiricism (sense experience brings us to
knowledge) and rationalism (the importance of logic thinking
and indisputability of deductive thinking). There is objective
reality that we can explore and is independent on our feelings
and persuasions (Gavora, 2011, p. 37).
2.2
Research method
The key method of the quantitative part of the research was a
questionnaire made of 41 entries. The first part of the
questionnaire is made of the entries 1-21 which are about basic
demographical data of the respondents. The second part of the
questionnaire is made of the entries 23-40 which find out the
respondents´ opinions in defined areas after they take part in the
adventure activity. E.g. entry 22 was focused on four areas;
perceived activity, the feeling of self-realization, work success
and feeling of personal comfort. The entry 41 was made for
qualitative working of free answers of respondents. Their task
was to give personal experience after adventure activity.
The validity and reliability of the questionnaire was found out in
pre research. Content validity was consulted with experts from
the field of addictology and direct work with clients in
therapeutic community. After pre research some entries of the
questionnaire were reformulated to be better understandable for
the respondents. Reliability was checked by the Cronbach alfa in
entries with scale answers. The value of Cronbach alfa after the
first adventure activity was 0,889 (Pinďáková, 2015). At the end
of the data collection after 11 adventure activities it was 0,709.
The questionnaire can be regarded reliable, most authors regard
the values around 0,700 as appropriate reliability border
(Evangelu, Neubauer, 2014, p.78).
2.3
Sample – research respondents
The research sample was made of the clients of the Therapeutic
community Fides in Bílá Voda. They participate in the middle
term or long term treatment of the substance addiction. The
condition of their participation in the research project was their
adventure therapy participation. It was realized by means of
adventure activities which are part of the treatment in the
therapeutic community. The respondents were over 18 years of
age, both men and women. Those who decided to participate
signed the informed consent.
The measurement unit was not the respondent but their
testimony after the adventure activity. 168 testimonies were
analysed altogether from all the clients from different treatment
phases which were collected during the two year research (2015
– 2016). Middle term treatment was represented by 23 written
testimonies, long term treatment by 145 testimonies. The data
about the testimonies spread throughout the treatment phases
were also important; 31 testimonies were made by clients in the
first phase of the treatment, 96 in the second and the longest
phase and 41 came from the clients in the third outcome phase.
2.4
Data collection and their analysis
Data collection for statistical evaluation was made by
questionnaire. The respondents got a questionnaire shortly
following their adventure activity, they answered it and handed it
in. During the hypothesis the verification of the middle values of
the clients in the first and third phase were compared. Working
with the middle values is similar to working with the number of
answers. Acceptance of an alternative hypothesis we understand
as acceptance of the option when the middle value of the first
phase testimonies of clients is lower than the middle value of the
clients in the third phase. During the data preparation for the
hypothesis evaluation it was necessary to verify whether their
spread corresponds with natural spread or not. This was done by
means of statistical test chi square. The questionnaire entries 23-
25; 27-35 and 37-40 had unnatural data spread. Therefore U-test
by Mann and Whitney was made to verify the hypothesis.
3
Results
In the following chapter the results and interpretation of the
answers to research questions will be presented. Relative and
absolute frequencies were used in the statistical processing,
Mann´s and Whitney´s U-test were used to verify hypothesis.
3.1
Results and interpretation
The first research question was to find out the prevailing
opinions of the clients of Therapeutic community Fides about
the effect of the adventure therapy. Figure 1 shows the
evaluation of the entries 23-39 in the questionnaire, which
processed the clients´ opinions after they finished an adventure
activity. The answers well – rather well (or much – rather much)
were included in the positive scale. In neutral answers clients did
not choose any offered option. In negative scale worse – rather
worse (little – rather little) the clients described the deterioration
after they finished an adventure therapy.
Fig. 1 Prevailing opinions of clients of the effect of the
adventure activities after their ending
n=168
entry
Opinions
Positive
scale
Neutral
Negative
scale
n
i
f
i
n
i
f
i
n
i
f
i
23
Overcoming limits
96
0,57
48
0,28
25
0,15
24
Self-confidence
106
0,63
57
0,34
5
0,03
25
Self-respect
11
0,66
55
0,33
2
0,01
26
Independence
116
0,69
50
0,3
2
0,01
27
Tolerance to differences
118
0,7
47
0,28
3
0,02
28
New experience
138
0,82
24
0,14
7
0,04
29
Responsibility
136
0,81
45
0,27
3
0,02
30
The ability of
cooperation
136
0,81
29
0,17
3
0,02
31
New skills
116
0,69
37
0,22
15
0,09
32
Negativism management
97
0,58
59
0,35
12
0,07
33
New ways for solutions
124
0,74
37
0,22
7
0,04
34
Thinking about values
134
0,8
30
0,18
3
0,02
35
Feeligs in the group
118
0,7
42
0,25
8
0,05
36
Communication skills
116
0,69
49
0,29
3
0,02
37
New experiences
146
0,87
19
0,11
3
0,02
38
Stress resistance
121
0,72
40
0,24
7
0,04
39
Use for future
123
0,73
34
0,2
12
0,07
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