Masoumeh Tavakoli - PhD Candidate, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Islamic Azad University of Roodehen, Roodehen, Iran
Hasan Pasha sharifi - Faculty Member, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Islamic Azad University of Roodehen, Roodehen, Iran

Background and Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the role of intelligence, creativity, and personality characteristics of successful and unsuccessful social workers in empowering female household heads. Materials and Methods: This applied research was conducted on 24 social workers that were providing services to the female heads of households under the cover of welfare organization from 2015 to 2018 in Tehran and Alborz Provinces, Iran, using a causal-comparative method. The study population was selected using the multi-stage cluster sampling method. After data collection, the participants were divided into two groups of successful and unsuccessful cases based on their success in empowerment. The research tools included the Neo Personality Inventory, Abedi Creativity Questionnaire, and Cattell Intelligence Test. The data analysis was performed using ANOVA. Results: The results showed a significant difference between the social workers successful and unsuccessful in the empowerment of female household heads in terms of intelligence. Among the personality traits, only extraversionism was significantly different between the two groups. The result was not also significant for creativity. Conclusions: Based on the findings, it can be argued that the identification of the characteristics of successful social workers can help empower the female heads of households who suffer from many economic, social, psychological, and cultural problems. Therefore, the findings of this study can be useful in identifying the demographic and psychological characteristics of successful social workers in adopting strategies that reduce social harm in this group and empower them.

Creativity, Empowerment, Female-headed households, Intelligence, Personality, Social work