the comparative study of psychological characteristics between prostitute women and normal women.

the present study aims to assess psychological characteristics (sensation seeking and it’s components, iq, self-esteem and identity status) of prostitute women in comparison with normal women. the hypotheses of this study are as follow: 1- prostitute women tire higher than normal women in sensation seeking are. 2- prostitute’s iq is lower than whom normal women. 3- prostitute women have lower self-esteem in comparison with normal women. 4- identity status of prostitute women is significantly differ from whom normal women. in this purpose, 60 prostitute women (aged 15-35 years old) participated in this study that were selected from the ministry of health’s rehabilitation center, and from females who were taken prisoner in evin. the comparison group participants were chosen from normal females who are living in tehran. two groups were matched in important variables (age, grade, and socio-economical conditions). all participants completed zukerman’s sensation seeking scale, progressive raen’s matrices, cooper smith's sell-esteem questionnaire anti (eom-ei s2). in order to examine the hypothesises, statistical methods such as independent samples t-test and chi-square (x2) were used. the results indicates that the sensation seeking total score and disinhibition, boredom susceptibility and experience seeking scores in prostitutes women were significantly higher than the normal women but significant differnces were not found in thrill and adventure seeking component among two groups. also, prostitute women were evaluated lower in iq and self-esteem than normal women, prostitute’s identity status wasn’t significantly different of those normal women.