A detailed study and knowledge on the effectiveness of therapy training based on acceptance and commitment in reducing couples sexual dissatisfaction

Zeinab Hemati Mola¹

1) Master s student in clinical psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Andimshek branch, Khuzestan,

IOI Code : XHFH-KDFBC
Publication : The first international conference on innovation, growth and development in management, accounting and humanities(icimah.com/1st)
Abstract :
    Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a psychotherapy technique that promotes acceptance of negative thoughts, feelings, and events. Some supporters of the ACT psychotherapy technique believe that working on increasing acceptance can lead to greater psychological flexibility in a person. Psychological flexibility means accepting thoughts as they come and acting on long-term values rather than short-term motivations. Treatment based on commitment and acceptance, or ACT for short, is a mixture of 4 approaches: awareness, acceptance, commitment, and behavior change, and its overall goal is to ultimately achieve psychological flexibility in such a way that there is no need to remove or eliminate bad feelings. Rather, despite the existence of this feeling, the person should move towards behavior based on thought value. This method was introduced by Steven C. Hayes in 1982, and it is considered among the treatments of the third wave of behavioral therapy. The two philosophical bases of ACT are functional contextualism and relational frame theory, which have their roots in BF Skinner s radical behavioral philosophy. It is an empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies along with commitment and behavior change strategies to increase psychological resilience. This approach was originally called comprehensive spacing. Steven C. Hayes developed this therapy from around 1982 to develop an approach that integrates both key features of cognitive therapy and behavior analysis, particularly data from behavior analysis on the often negative effects of verbal rules and how to improve them. There are different protocols for ACT depending on the target behavior and settings. For example, in behavioral health fields, an abbreviated version of ACT is called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (FACT). The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on the sexual satisfaction of couples in Dezful city. Methods: To investigate the effectiveness of the treatment based on acceptance and commitment on couples sexual satisfaction, the pre-test, post-test method was used with a control group and an experimental group. 40 couples from the statistical population of all affected couples referring to the psychology clinics of Dezful city were selected purposefully. The sample size of 40 couples was divided into two control and experimental groups. The required data were collected through the Larson sexual satisfaction questionnaire and the acceptance and commitment treatment protocol of 12 treatment sessions. Data and hypotheses were analyzed using SPSS-22 software and using multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). Findings: The research results show that the treatment based on acceptance and commitment has a significant effect on increasing the sexual satisfaction of couples.

Keywords : acceptance and commitment therapy sexual satisfaction act couples