Psychological analysis of the character element in the story "The Righteous King" based on William Glaser's choice theory

Introduction: Children's stories, as the most prominent sub-branch of children's and adolescent literature, are considered particularly important in the evolutionary structure of a society due to their influence on the intellectual and educational foundation of the most sensitive segment of society, which is children and adolescents. In fact, by reading children's stories with focus and accuracy, children follow the events of the story and the behavior of the fictional characters in facing various challenges and try to imitate these behaviors. On the other hand, using the achievements of other knowledge in the analysis of literary texts, especially children's stories, can open up new dimensions of texts to the audience and provide a new ground for authors to write books based on the needs of their audience. One of the new psychological perspectives that can play a prominent role in the analysis of children's and adolescent literature, especially children's stories, and show the behavior of the story characters and why and how they are, is William Glasser's theory of choice. By denying external control, which is the basis of the psychological views before it, this theory makes internal control its standard, and by emphasizing concepts such as realism and responsibility, it introduces the behaviors of each person as derived from his five basic needs. These needs include the need for survival, the need for love and belonging, the need for power and progress, the need for freedom, and the need for fun. In this theory, a person tries to choose appropriate behaviors to satisfy his five needs by respecting the needs of others and not violating them. In fact, by understanding the reality of the world around him, he is always trying to adapt his desires and desired world to these realities and guide his behavior in a better direction. Also, in this point of view, a person takes responsibility for his actions and actions and is known in the society as a responsible person and not one who avoids responsibility. Muhammad Atiyah Al-Ibrashi is one of the prominent Egyptian writers who has written in the field of children's and youth literature, especially children's stories, and has left behind great works in this field. Therefore, his stories can be a suitable platform for the application of William Glaser's selection theory. Therefore, in this research, one of his stories named "The Righteous King" is analyzed based on the mentioned theory, and why and how the characters behave to satisfy their needs for the audience is determined and also the amount of each of these needs and the realism and responsibility of the characters in the story should be measured.

Methodology: In the present essay, an attempt is made to analyze one of the stories of Mohammad Atiya al-Ibrashi called "The Righteous King" using a descriptive-analytical method and based on the selection theory. The main question of the research is what behaviors do the characters of the story choose in order to fulfill their needs according to the components of realism and responsibility, and what is the frequency of each of these basic needs in the story? In this article, the researchers try to answer this main research question by referring to various sources and clarify the author's ability to address the psychological needs of children, as well as the role of the story in the development of children's personality and education for the audience.

Results and Discussion: According to the research conducted on the background of the researches related to this topic and according to the search in the reliable scientific databases, it seems that no research has been done on the story of "The Righteous King" as well as the application of the selection theory in the field of Arabic language and literature and the current research can be considered as a beginning and a new project in this field.

Conclusion: By examining the story of "The Righteous King" based on William Glaser's selection theory, the following results are obtained: As the main character of the story, the princess chooses behaviors that are irresponsible and based on evasion of reality due to her arrogance, laziness and dreaming. Therefore, she rejects and mocks each of her suitors with an excuse. With his behavior, which originates from his need for freedom, he changes the course of his life. Therefore, after marrying a poor man and starting a poor life with him, after some time she comes to believe that choosing regret and misery cannot be a good choice for her. Therefore, by accepting the existing realities, she takes responsibility for her life and chooses reasonable behaviors according to her needs, and by abandoning laziness and daydreaming, she learns the style of life and managing its affairs. The secondary characters of the story, who are the king and the poor man, because of their overwhelming need for love and belonging, always try to choose their behaviors in accordance with the existing realities and help the main character of the story in changing his thoughts and correcting his behaviors. In the text of the story, trying to satisfy the need for love and belonging has been more important than other needs, and after that, the need for power and progress, the need for freedom, the need for survival, and the need for fun have the highest frequency. The author has been able to draw the attention of the child and adolescent audience to the main theme of the story, which is the acceptance of the realities and individual and social responsibilities in life, with a suitable setting and a strong plot and in an indirect way. Therefore, this story teaches children and teenagers well that pride and arrogance, dreaming, not accepting the advice of elders and laziness, which is considered a form of evading responsibility, can cause human failure and lost opportunities. Therefore, a person should consider all aspects in order to meet his needs and make wise choices and behaviors with realism and responsibility.