Cognitive fusion

This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of mindfulness-based therapy and cognitive-emotional therapy on the cognitive fusion of autoimmune patients. In this study, the research method was experimental with a pre-test-post-test design and a control group. The statistical population included all autoimmune patients in Tehran who were referred to medical centers in Tehran in 2019, and 45 autoimmune patients using the purposive sampling method were selected. This number of samples was randomly divided into two experimental groups (15 people in experimental group 1 and 15 people in experimental group 2) and a control group (15 people). The experimental groups were then trained in mindfulness-based therapy and cognitive-emotional therapy (for each therapy, seven weeks and sessions in two hours). But the control group did not receive any training. The instrument used was the revised Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (Gillanders, Bolderston, Bond, Dempster, Flaxman, et al., 2014). Data were analyzed using a multivariate analysis of covariance. Finally, the findings showed that the effectiveness of both mindfulness and cognitive-emotional therapies on cognitive fusion components are desirable, but according to the mean, cognitive-emotional therapy was more effective than mindfulness therapy on the component of cognitive fusion. In conclusion, these therapies will help to decrease cognitive fusion and improve cognitive defusion in autoimmune patients.

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the world, so it is important to know it as well as possible to design interventions to reduce it in society. The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between depression with cognitive fusion and defense mechanisms. This research is descriptive-correlation type. The research population was the students of Kashan University in the academic year of 2023-2024, and 350 of them were selected by convenience sampling method. Research tools included Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire (CFQ) and Defense Mechanisms Questionnaire-40 (DSQ-40). Data analysis was done using SPSS-26 software and Pearson correlation coefficient. The obtained findings showed that depression is positively correlated with cognitive fusion and immature and neurotic defense mechanisms (P < 0.01). But the relationship between depression and mature defense mechanisms such as humor and sublimation was negative and significant (P < 0.01). These findings show that depression is related to unhealthy thought processes such as cognitive fusion and immature and neurotic defense mechanisms, and therefore attention should be paid to this issue in the field of treatment.

Aim: People with Misophonia disorder are prone to suffering from other psychological problems, such as anxiety and mood disorders, due to avoidance of various situations. Therefore, the goal of this study is to assess an Experiential Avoidance model with Misophonia disorder through the mediating role of Cognitive Fusion and Emotion Dysregulation in university students.   Methods: The method of the present research is a descriptive-correlation study. The population included whole students of the Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in the academic year 2022-2023. 251 university students were selected using a random cluster sampling method. Data were collected with a demographic questionnaire, "Misophonia Questionnaire", "Brief Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire", "Cognitive Fusion Questionnaire" and "Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale".   Results: Experiential Avoidance is indirectly correlated with the symptoms of Misophonia disorder through Emotion Dysregulation.   Conclusion: Emotion Dysregulation plays a mediating role in the relationship between Experiential Avoidance and symptoms of Misophonia disorder, unlike Cognitive Fusion. It is suggested that approaches based on emotion regulation, such as transdiagnostic, be used in the development of preventive interventions and treatment for people with symptoms of Misophonia disorder