Exploring the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and its underlying processes

Carter, Lois Linda (2018). Exploring the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and its underlying processes. University of Birmingham. Clin.Psy.D.

Preview

Carter18ClinPsyD_vol_1.pdf
Text - Accepted Version
Download (1MB)

Abstract

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a mindfulness-based behaviour therapy and its primary goal is to help an individuals live accordingly with their values despite the inevitable presence of painful psychological processes. ACT is theroretically driven by the belief that shared human capacities underlie psychological distress and so, ACT is believed to be applicable across various conditions (i.e. depression, anxiety, chronic pain). Firstly, a systematic literature was conducted to explore the effectiveness of ACT with children and adolescents using a statistical method of sysnthesisng the data, called a meta-analysis. This provided a value of overall effectiveness within four outcome domains: Depression, Anxiety, Psychological Flexibility and Functioning. The results tentatively indicated effectiveness within all of these domains. Results were particualry promising for Functioning. Secondly, a research project was conducted to explore whether two underlying processes of ACT, cognitive defusion aand self-as-context were justified. Correlations were conducted between self-report measures of these processes and psychological wellbeing measures. An alternative implicit measure was also trialled to overcome biases of self-report measures. Results demonstrated that the two processes were significantly associated with psychological wellbeing justifying them being focused-upon . The implicit measure demonstrated poor predictive validity and a number of confounding variables were identified.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Clin.Psy.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Clin.Psy.D.

Supervisor(s):