www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com t Available online a Scholars Research Library Annals of Biological Research, 2012, 3 (5):2349-2352 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html) ISSN 0976-1233 CODEN (USA): ABRNBW 2349 Scholars Research Library An Investigation of the differences between personality characteristics and mental immunity within addicts and non- addicts Ali Mostafai 1 , Hassan Aminpoor 1 and Jafar Afshinfar 2 1 Department of Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, IR., IRAN 2 Department of English, Payame Noor University, Tehran, IR., IRAN ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference between personality traits and mental immunity of addicts and non-addicts. In so doing, forty addicts and forty non-addicts were selected using simple randomization sampling. The instruments employed to carry out the study was NEO-FFI questionnaire and Mental Immunity Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using Pearson's Correlation Coefficient, Regression and Independent t-test. The results of the study showed that there was no significant relationship between personality traits and mental immunity of the addicts. Among predictive personality variables of addiction, only responsibility taking has a strong predictive power. However, there was a significant relationship between those variables in non-addicts. The correlation coefficient of personality traits and mental immunity of non-addicts indicated that there was a significant relationship between mental immunity and responsibility taking at the level 0.05. Furthermore, there was negative correlation between mental immunity and openness at the level of 0.01. In addition, there was difference between addicts and non-addicts in terms of flexibility, openness and mental immunity. Key words: personality characteristics, mental immunity, addicts, non-addicts. ______________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Iran has been a victim of drug trafficking because of being on a route for drug trafficking and having some historical and social issues. According to some statistics, about 1.2 to 6 million people take narcotics for pleasure or habitually. As forty percent of the population of Iran is estimated to be fewer than 15 and thirty five to forty million people over 15 years old, if we optimistically assess the number of addicts about 2 million, around five percent of the population in Iran face drug abuse. However, in industrial countries, the number of addicts has decreased and reached 2% in comparison with the last two decades [1]. On the other hand, some important questions for psychologists and researchers in the field of behavioral science is whether special personality traits distinguish addicts from average people, whether these traits arises from changes that occur because of taking narcotics over a long period of time, whether the addicts have had these traits before getting addicted, and how the a-fore-mentioned parameters are affected by different social and cultural factors of the society [2]. According to the results of some studies [3,4and 5], people aging 15 to 54 get addicted to narcotics more than any other mental and behavioral disorders and every year a large number of people die because of taking these illicit drugs. Being addicted to narcotics is a kind of rebellious behavior that emerges with a set of cognitive behavioral and psychological symptoms within a period of 12 months because of taking narcotics [6].