Comparing the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Reality Therapy on Psychological Flexibility and Responsibility in Divorced Women

Psychological flexibility is a person’s ability to fully communicate with the present as a conscious and aware human being and his ability to change or continue his behavior in the direction of his values with responsibility and consideration. The result of self-behavior, reliability, and trustworthiness in behavior, as well as the sense of commitment, are related to the larger social structure. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to compare the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Reality Therapy on psychological flexibility and responsibility in divorced women.

This semi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest control group design and a follow-up. The research population included all divorced women in Hamedan City, Iran, who referred to the family court of Hamedan city between 2018 and 2022 and got divorced. Out of this population, 3 groups of 20 people were randomly selected and assigned into two experimental groups and a control group using the availability sampling method and completed the Hayes Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (2000) and Goff's Responsibility Questionnaire (1982) in three pre-test, post-test, and follow-up stages. The experimental groups underwent weekly 90-minute group training sessions focused on skill-building using acceptance and commitment, while the control group received no training. The data were statistically analyzed in SPSS22 software using the repeated measures ANOVA and a significant level of p < 0.05.

The results showed that the effects of both Reality Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy were significant on psychological flexibility (P=0.010) and responsibility (P=0.015). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, compared to Reality Therapy, significantly increased psychological flexibility in divorced women.

According to the results of this research, it can be said that the goal of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Reality Therapy was to improve behaviors that would probably lead to psychological flexibility and responsibility in women, which was the internal or external reward