A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF PERSONALITY FACTORS, LIFE ORIENTATION AND HOPE LEVEL IN CORONARY HEART PATIENTS AND NORMAL SUBJECTS

One of the most important topics in the field of health psychology is the influence of psychological factors in coronary heart disease. The present research aims at comparing personality type، life orientation and hope level in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients and healthy people. 60 patients from two heart hospital of Urmia city as well as private medical offices were selected by available sampling method، and 60 normal individuals from hospital staff members were selected using random methods. All participants were completed the Type D personality scale (Denollet)، Revised life orientation test (Carver & Scheier) and Hope scale (Snyder). Data was analyzed by Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The results showed that the people with coronary heart disease showed significantly higher distress type personality، furthermore، level of optimistic life orientation was lower for both women and men with the mentioned disease. Patients with coronary heart disease tend to show a distress personality character، negative affect and a lower optimistic life orientation comparing to the normal people.