Comparing the Effectiveness of Positive Psychology with an Islamic Approach and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on the Psychological Capital of Cardiovascular Patients

Cardiovascular disease is a chronic disease that is extremely costly to the affected individual and society. Positive psychology with an Islamic approach and and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can be effective in improving the psychological conditions of cardiovascular patients. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of positive psychology with an Islamic approach and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) on psychological capital of cardiovascular patients.
This quasi-experimental study was performed on cardiovascular patients referring to Babol medical centers in 2017. Using convenience sampling, 36 patients were selected and randomly placed into three groups (positivist psychology with Islamic approach, ACT, and one control group). The participants in the first group (Positive psychology with an Islamic approach) attended 8 training sessions each lasting 90 minutes, and the members of the ACT group participated in 8 training sessions each lasting 100 minutes. The data were collected by the Psychological Capital Questionnaire (Lutans, 2007) that was administered to the participants before, after, and two months after the treatment sessions. The collected data were analyzed using statistical techniques including mean, standard deviation, and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA).
There was a significant difference in the linear composition of the psychological capital variables in terms of group membership, the three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up, and the interactive effect of the group and time (p=0.001). Besides, the two treatment groups (positivist psychology with an Islamic approach and ACT) showed significant differences with the control group in terms of the components of psychological capital (p<0.05). However, there was no difference between the effectiveness of the two treatment techniques.
Positive psychology training with an Islamic approach and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are effective in improving psychological capital of cardiovascular patients and there is no significant difference between them.