A comparative study of personality patterns, stress coping strategies, and attribution styles among substance addicts and rehabilitators

The main purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of personal factors, coping strategies and attribution styles of substance addicts at the start point and on the continuum of drug abuse. The research method was post facto and sectional-comparative. In this project, 85 substance addicts and 85 rehabilitators who had attended addiction treatment centers and Narcotics Anonymous Association in Takab and Shahindej were selected by convenience sampling. The research tools included Eysenck personality inventory (Eysenck And Eysenck 1975), Carver's coping strategies inventory (1989) and attributional style questionnaire (Peterson, Seligman, Baeyer, Abramson and Metalsky 1984) and the researcher made questionnaire (Arjmand, 1390). The data was analyzed by independent t-test and logistic regression. The results showed that there is a significant difference between the two groups of substance addicts and rehabilitators regarding most of subscales such as personality patterns, attributional styles, and stress coping strategies (p<0.001). The results also revealed that, while facing with stress, substance addicts conducted significantly more ineffective methods (superstitious thinking, wishful thinking, denial, drug taking, etc) than the rehabilitators. They also conducted more pessimistic attribution styles while encountering negative events, and showed higher level of personality traits such as neurosis, psychosis, and introversion, than the rehabilitators.