A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Mindful Acceptance of Self Therapy and Positive Psychotherapy on Perceived Stress of Female Students with Depression

This study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of mindful acceptance of self-therapy and positive psychotherapy on perceived stress of female students with depression. The study was semi-experimental and research design was three groups with three stages of pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The statistical population of the study was depressed female students in Isfahan city in the fall of 2019. From the mentioned statistical population, 54 female students were selected purposefully based on the inclusion criteria, and then 18 people were randomly assigned in two experimental-groups and one control group. Cohen et al.’s perceived stress scale (1983) was used to measure dependent variable in pre-test, post-test and follow-up. The experimental groups received mindful acceptance of self-therapy and positive psychotherapy during ten 90-minute sessions. The data was analyzed through repeated measure variance analysis and Bonferroni post hoc test. The results showed that there was a significant difference in perceived stress between mindful acceptance of self-therapy and positive psychotherapy with the control group in post-test and follow-up (p<0.01). There was no significant difference between the two treatments in perceived stress (p>0.05). Given that both mindful acceptance of self-therapy and positive psychotherapy are effective treatments for reducing perceived stress in female students, these two therapies can reduce the symptoms associated with depression that result from perceived stress.