Comparing the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment-based Therapy and Reality Therapy in Aggression, Psychological Flexibility, and Career Decision-Making Self Efficacy among Adolescents

Adolescence is a critical period in a person's life since all the main characteristics of personality, career interests and desires, work values, and choosing a career path are formed in this period. Therefore, the present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment-based therapy (ACT) and reality therapy in aggression, psychological flexibility, and self-efficacy in career path decision-making in secondary school girls in Yazd, Iran.

In this study, we adopted a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design. The research population included all second-grade high school female students in two districts of Yazd in the 2022-2023 academic year. Out of this population, three groups of 15 cases were selected by cluster sampling method and randomly assigned to two experimental groups (Therapy based on acceptance and commitment and reality therapy) and a control group. The data collection tools were Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire, the Hayes Psychological Flexibility Questionnaire [2000], and The Career Decision Self-Efficacy Scale (CDSES, Taylor & Betz, 1983), which were answered in two stages, pre-test and post-test. The subjects in the experimental group received acceptance and commitment-based therapy and reality therapy in a group [in the form of training and skills] for two months(one 60-minute session per week). Nonetheless, no training was provided to the control group during this period. The data were statistically analyzed in SPSS software (version 23) using multivariate and univariate analysis of covariance at a significance level of P<0.05.

Paying attention to the significance level of less than 0.05 for aggression and job self-efficacy variables and high observed power and eta squared contribution greater than 0.14 for these two variables was the significant effect of our intervention on aggression and job self-efficacy variables. The Bonferroni test was used to compare the two groups and the effectiveness of these three treatments. According to the significance level of 0.013 for the acceptance and commitment treatment method and 0.003 for the reality therapy treatment method, we found a significant effect of these two treatment methods compared to the control group in the aggression variable. In the variable of psychological flexibility, there was no significant difference between the mean of the control group and the two treatment approaches in this variable. Therefore, the treatment intervention's effect was insignificant, and the only significant difference between the reality therapy approach and the control group was in occupational self-efficacy, with a significance level of 0.01 (P<0.05). This significant mean difference of 5.990 is in favor of the reality therapy approach compared to the control group.

As evidenced by the obtained results, the treatment based on acceptance and commitment and reality therapy was effective in aggression and self-efficacy in career path decision-making, with a significance level of less than 1%. Nonetheless, it has been effective compared to the control group. Furthermore, it was revealed that ACT and reality therapy approaches were not significantly effective in psychological flexibility