The Effectiveness of Metacognitive Therapy on Relationship Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (ROCD) and Experiential Avoidance

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of metacognitive therapy on relationship obsessive-compulsive disorder (ROCD) and experiential avoidance. In terms of the purpose, the current research was of an applied type, and in terms of the method, based on the research design and method, it was a semi-experimental with a pre-test and post-test design (with an experimental group and a control group and a three-month follow-up period). The statistical population used in the present study included all married women who referred to the psychotherapy centers of the 10th district of Tehran in 2022. Among these people, 40 people were selected using the purposeful sampling method and randomly assigned to an experimental group (20 people) and a control group (20 people). Then, on the test group, the metacognitive therapy of Wells (2009) was implemented. In order to collect data, the research tools included the experiential avoidance questionnaire by Bond et al. (2007) and the relationship obsessive-compulsive questionnaire by Doron et al. (2012). In order to statistically analyze the data, analysis of variance with repeated measurements and Bonferroni's post hoc test and SPSS software version 26 were used. F value and significance level were obtained for the variable of experiential avoidance (F = 6.29 and P = 0.001) and relationship intellectual-practical obsession (F = 6.45 and P = 0.001). It can be concluded that the independent variable (metacognitive therapy) has significantly changed the dependent variables (experiential avoidance and relationship intellectual-practical obsession). Therefore, it can be concluded that the changes in the dependent variables were caused by the implementation of metacognitive therapy on the experimental group. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that metacognitive therapy was effective on experiential avoidance and relationship intellectual-practical obsession of married women. Therefore, it is suggested that experts benefit from the techniques of this approach in their work.