Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

Adequate reduction of marital conflicts in cardiovascular disease patients helps them cope better with their conditions, as well as improve their quality of life. The aim of this empirical study was to investigate the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on marital conflicts in cardiac patients with a history of coronary artery bypass. The method of this research was semi-experimental with pre- and post-test with a control group. Participants were 30 patients, who were selected through convenience sampling. Participants administered the Marital Conflict Questionnaire (Sanai, Alaghband, Falahati, & Hooman, 2009) as pre- and post-test. Finally, 30 individuals who had the highest scores in the marital conflict questionnaire were selected and randomly assigned to two groups of experimental and control (n=<em>15</em>). To analyze the data, the ANCOVA test was used. The findings of this study indicated that there was a statistically significant effect on the experimental group on the following sub-scales: decreased cooperation, dividing financial affairs and marital conflict. It could be concluded that ACT-based training intervention was effective of the above-mentioned subscales and could be used to reduce marital conflicts in patients with patients with a history of coronary artery bypass. This study indicates the importance of education, as well as psychological interventions as an essential part of the recovery process.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on university employees' work procrastination and work performance. This was an experimental study with pretest-posttest control groupdesign. In this study selected 56 employees by  Krejcie & Morgan (1970) technique. They were completed Work procrastination(Metin, Taris, & Peeters, 2016) and work performance(McColl, Paterson, Davies, Doubt, & Law, 2000) questionnaires. Then 24 participants who got a high score in work procrastination and low score in work performance were chosen. They were then randomly assigned into experimental and control groups. After that, the experimental group participated in 7 sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy and the control group received no intervention. Both groups were given pre-test and post-test before and after the intervention, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (multivariate analysis of variance). Results indicated that the treatment had a significant effect on reducing work procrastination (F =6.57; P < 0.05), but had no effect on work performance.

Methods and Materials: A quasi-experimental design with a pretest-posttest-follow-up framework was employed, involving two experimental groups (ACT and RT) and one control group. The sample consisted of 54 incompatible married individuals (18 per group) recruited from psychological centers in District 7 of Tehran. Participants completed the Spanier Dyadic Adjustment Scale at pretest, posttest, and follow-up stages. The ACT intervention comprised 8 weekly sessions focusing on mindfulness, acceptance, and value-based actions, while the RT intervention consisted of 8 sessions emphasizing need satisfaction and responsible behavior. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA to assess changes over time and between groups. Findings: Both ACT and RT significantly improved overall marital adjustment compared to the control group, with significant interaction effects observed for dyadic cohesion (F = 11.161, p = 0.001, η² = 0.247), dyadic consensus (F = 24.787, p = 0.001, η² = 0.422), and affectional expression (F = 22.477, p = 0.001, η² = 0.398). RT demonstrated greater effectiveness in enhancing dyadic cohesion and consensus, while ACT showed stronger outcomes in improving affectional expression. Post-hoc analyses revealed significant mean differences between pretest and posttest for dyadic cohesion in RT (mean difference = -8.167, p < 0.001) and affectional expression in ACT (mean difference = 2.694, p < 0.001). Follow-up assessments indicated sustained improvements, with RT maintaining higher scores in dyadic cohesion (mean = 15.139) and consensus (mean = 25.694), and ACT in affectional expression (mean = 4.78). Conclusion: Both ACT and RT are effective interventions for improving marital adjustment, with RT being more beneficial for addressing behavioral and communication aspects of marital conflict, and ACT more effective in fostering emotional intimacy.