Psychological capital is a positive psychological state which included of four dimensions of self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. These dimensions together have a positive impact on individual performance and play as a strong defense against internal and external stressors. The purpose of this study was to compare the components of psychological capital (resilience, optimism, hope, and self-efficacy) beteen women doing yoga exercise and non-athletic women.
The research was a causal-comparative study. The statistical population of this research consisted of women who did yoga and non-athletes women in the same area in 2016. Eighty-one non-athletes female and Eighty- five female who did yoga were selected by simple random sampling. The participants completed questionnaires of Hope (Snyder, 2005), resilience (Connor and Davidson, 2003), self-efficacy (Scherer, 1981) and life orientation (Seligman, 2000). Data analyzed via multivariate analysis of variance.
The results showed that the difference between two components of psychological capital, the resiliency and self-efficacy in athlete women who did yoga and non-athletes women were significant, but the difference of optimism and hope between two groups was not significant.
This study showed the effects of yoga on self-efficacy and resilience. It is recommended to health psychologists that more focus on the positive effects of yoga on psychological capital.