The Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) on EmotionManagement, Experiential Avoidance and Cognitive Flexibility in Women Affected byMarital Infidelity

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on emotion management, experiential avoidance and cognitive flexibility in women affected by marital infidelity who visited the counseling centers in Khorramabad. The statistical population included all women affected by marital infidelity who visited to counseling centers in Khorram Abad city in 2022. The research sample consisted of 30 women affected by marital infidelity. They were selected by convenience sampling method and randomly replaced in two groups of 15 people, experimental and control. The research design was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test-Follow-up type with control and experimental groups. To collect data, Garnevsky et al.'s (2001) cognitive emotion regulation questionnaires, Gams et al.'s (2011) experiential avoidance, Dennis and Vander Wall's (2010) cognitive flexibility questionnaires were used to analyze the data. One-way Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance were use (p<0.005), Acceptance and commitment therapy was performed in the form of 8 sessions of 90 minutes and once a week on the experimental group, and during this period, no intervention was performed on the control group The results showed that acceptance and commitment therapy is effective in increasing emotion management and cognitive flexibility and reducing experiential avoidance.The findings showed that the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy had an effect on the average scores of emotion management, experiential avoidance and cognitive flexibility (p<0.05). It can be concluded that the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is effective on emotion management and flexibility Cognitive adaptability and experiential avoidance of women affected by marital infidelity are effective.