Introduction. The question about ways of supporting motivation chronically ill patients still remains open. The illness perception construct and its connections with self-efficacy provide some information. Patient’s individual affective disposition is an important factor of illness perception. Aim. Checking connections between the type of affective disposition, individual illness perception, and self-efficacy. Material and methods. 40 patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) participated in the survey. The author’s questionnaire form in accordance with the Levental’s model of illness was used. For examining affective disposition a SUPIN C-30 version questionnaire was used, the level of self-efficacy was checked with the GSES scale. Results and conclusions. The group was dominated by persons with negative affective disposition with the high escalation, and by persons with positive affective disposition with the low escalations. Differences in the ways of illness perception by patients differing in affective disposition were observed. The account of self-efficacy is diversified by the patient’s positive affective disposition type.

Key words: illness perception, affective disorders, self-efficacy, rheumatoid arthritis.