Effect of Acceptance and Commitment Group Therapy on Social Adjustment and Social Phobia Among Physically-Disabled Persons

Objective Human behavior is a function of one’s existence and interaction between body and mind. Disability is the inability to perform all or part of the normal activities of individual or social life due to congenital defects, or physical or mental faculties being subject to accidents. Mental disability rehabilitation approach consists of three categories of services: mental, emotional, and physical. Physical or motor disabilities are divided into four categories: physical, visceral, sensory and aging. The concept of disability is omnipresent in every society and culture. Its form may vary between temporary or permanent, total or partial, and fixed or variable. Side effects of disability on individuals are different according to their attitude. Their views about themselves, disability, and familial and social attitudes leads to various complications in the lives of persons with disabilities. It has been proved that endangering the physical health provides psychological reactions in people. Many physical disabilities are associated with mental health problems. Mental health problems in people with health problems are very common. For example, chronic diseases, create physical conditions and limiting long-term negative consequences for the disabled person. Quasi-physical as well as psychological problems have serious implications with respect to diseases. Psychosomatic diseases, for instance, cause different kinds of disabilities. In addition to the development of the machines, the marriage and many other issues may be associated with increased physical disability and mental illness. The importance of physical disabilities due to mental health problems that are associated with health problems treated, including psychiatric problems that disabled people face; social is the low and high social phobia. The aim of this study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment group therapy based on social adjustment and social phobia among physically-disabled person.
Methods & Materials The study population consisted of all individuals belonging to a disability welfare organization in Qom. The sample included 30 males (15 in the control group and 15 in the experimental group) who were selected by random sampling method. In this quasi-experimental study, the participants in the experimental group underwent a 2-month intervention of eight 120-minute sessions. The research design was pretest-posttest with a control group. Data were collected from the questionnaires of Conover, social adjustment, Weisman, and social phobia. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model was used for analyzing.
Results Our results showed that the acceptance and commitment group therapy increased satisfaction as far as social adjustment was concerned (PConclusion The acceptance and commitment group therapy increased social adjustment and decreased social phobia among physically-disabled persons.