The Effect of Positive Thinking Training on Psychological Well-Being and Quality of Life in the Elderly

Nowadays, the phenomenon of aging and its problems and issues are a very important subject that has attracted the attention of different thinkers of various scientific backgrounds and to addressing this issue from various aspects has become extremely important. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of positive thinking on psychological well-being and quality of life in the elderly.

This is a semi-experimental study that was carried out with a pretest-posttest design with a control group and one-month follow-up. The statistical population of this study was 80 elderly individuals living in nursing centers in Lahijan in 2018. In this study, 30 elderly individuals were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (N = 15). Both groups completed Ryff's psychological well-being inventory and the quality of life questionnaire, and experimental group was exposed to positive thinking training. Finally, the collected data were analyzed by SPSS.22 software using the statistical method of Covariance Path Analysis.

The result of data analysis showed that positive thinking training increased the scores of psychological well-being (P <0.001). Positive Thinking training also had a positive effect on the quality of life of the experimental group compared to the control group (P <0.001), that is it increases the quality score of life of the experimental group while the control group's score did not differ from the previous one.

According to the results of the current study, positive thinking training can increase psychological well-Being and quality of life in the elderly.