Examining and comparing the effectiveness of psychological capital training and behavioral activation therapy on hope in female students

The purpose of this study was examining and comparing the effectiveness of psychological capital training and behavioral activation therapy on hope among female students of Isfahan University dormitories in the second semester of the academic year 97-98. The research design was pre-test and post-test with control group. The Hope Questionnaire (Schneider Et al 1991) was used to measure hope. The method of sampling was voluntary. First the pre-test was conducted on 45 volunteers. They were then randomly assigned to three groups and of the three groups, two groups were randomly assigned to experimental group 1 and 2 and the other group as control group. Then the two experimental groups received behavioral activation therapy and psychological capital training, respectively; but the control group not received intervention. After the intervention sessions, post-test was administered for all three groups (38 persons in total).The results of analysis of covariance showed significant difference between the post-test hope scores of the groups(P=0.008); Paired comparisons showed that both psychological capital training and behavioral activation therapy significantly have been increased hope as compared to the control group (P = 0.003 and P = 0.019 respectively), but the two intervention groups did not differ significantly in hope scores. The findings suggest that both psychological capital training and behavioral activation therapy can be used to increasing hope.