Comparison of the Effectiveness of Positive Psychology and Motivational Interviewing on Lifestyle and Psychological Capital in People with Type 2 Diabetes

Diabetes is a chronic disease that requires long-term treatment, care, and lifestyle modification. In addition to biological mechanisms, psychological factors can play a role in diabetes. Positive psychological therapy and motivational interviewing seem to help. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of training based on positive psychology and motivational interview on psychological capital, lifestyle, and emotional distress in people with type 2 diabetes.

his quasi-experimental research project is a pretest-posttest with a control group. The statistical population included 45 type 2 diabetes patients in 2019 in Tehran, referring to the Endocrinology and Metabolism Research Institute who were randomly selected and divided into two experimental groups and one control group. Both under-treatment groups were evaluated before and after the treatment using Walker's lifestyle questionnaire (1997) and psychological Capital Lotanz (2007) questionnaire, Subjects were randomly divided into three groups of 15 people (two experimental groups and one control group). The first group received a positive psychology approach (Seligman, 2006), for 8 sessions of 60 minutes. The second group received a motivational interview therapy approach (Miller, 1983), for 10 sessions of 45 minutes. But the control group did not receive any treatment.

The results showed that there was a significant difference between the effectiveness of positive psychology training and motivational interviewing training on psychological capital and lifestyle (p<0/05). Also, motivational interview training is more effective in lifestyle subscales (nutrition, exercise, health responsibility, stress management, and self-actualization) in people with type 2 diabetes than in the positive psychology method. But in the interpersonal support subscale, there was no significant difference between the two training methods. In addition, the positive psychology training is significantly more effective than the motivational interview training on the subscales of psychological capital (self-efficacy, hope, resilience, and optimism) in people with type 2 diabetes (p<0/05).

The results showed both methods of positive psychology training and motivational interviewing training have a positive effect on the lifestyle and psychological capital of people with type 2 diabetes. So, it is suggested to be used in counseling centers and clinics for people with type 2 diabetes as a therapeutic approach.