title: The relationship between some psychological factors and the outcome of medical rehabilitation.
abstract: The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between some psychological factors and the outcome or rehabilitation. The subjects were 70 patients at the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Central Hospital, Jönköping. The mean age was 45.8 years (range 20-66). They were subjected to an intelligence test, a personality inventory and a perceptual test. The outcome of the rehabilitation was measured with ratings by the staff members and by the patient himself. Positive factors for a sucessful rehabilitation was low age, good education, good intelligence and a high degree of dominance (i.e. self-confidence, ego-strength, a need to attract attention and no guilt feelings). A negative personality factor was passive dependence (i.e. lack of independence, application for assistance and dependence on other people). The most pronounced factor was field dependence-independence. The field independent subjects reached a more sucessful rehabilitation than the field dependent. This may be due to the fact that a field independent person makes his perceptual judgements according to inner frames of reference and directs and organizes his experiences more than does the field dependent. He also uses more complex and more specialized defences and experiences his own body in an analytical fashion which results in an articulated body concept and a well-developed sense of separate identity.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D001828:Body Image; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D005364:Field Dependence-Independence; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010551:Personality; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012050:Rehabilitation, Vocational; D012737:Sex Factors