The present study aims to verify the effectiveness of the reality therapy for patients with schizophrenia.

It is designed as a quasi-experimental study by which a nonequivalent control group pretest-posttest is conducted. The test was conducted with 30 patients with schizophrenia who were hospitalized at a mental hospital in South Korea. Fifteen of the patients participated in the reality therapy program while another 15 in the control group. The effects are measured by marking scores in the areas of the locus of control, self-esteem, and problem-focused stress coping of each participant.

The general characteristics and dependent variables related to outcome variables were controlled to be equal between the two groups. It turns out that the internal locus of control, self-esteem, and problemfocused stress coping are statistically significant.

Findings show that the reality therapy caused positive changes in terms of the internal locus of control, self-esteem, and problem-focused stress coping of the observed schizophrenic patients.