Comparing the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy and reality therapy on the responsibility and self-efficacy of divorced women

Introduction:

 Modern life's most significant stressor is divorce, drastically altering a person's lifestyle. Divorce lowers self-efficacy in women and single mothers. Bandura's social-cognitive theory defines self-efficacy as a person's perception of competence, sufficiency, and life-coping abilities. This study also assessed responsibility. Responsibility is meeting needs without denying others.Psychologists and counselors utilize many methods to boost self-efficacy and responsibility. This study uses acceptance and commitment, and reality therapy. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people alter their connection with their ideas and emotions via acceptance and value-based behavior. William Glasser calls reality therapy a choice-based evolutionary systemic psychotherapy. This theory views humans as an inwardly motivated system with purposeful activity and a perpetual pursuit of life balance. Research indicates that ACT can provide significant support and benefits to women who are going through or have completed the divorce process. In addition to prioritizing action and strategic planning, these two behavioral models concentrate on distinct aspects of human life, which forms the basis of their comparison. This study examines whether ACT and reality therapy, which view destructive relationships as the root of human problems, have the same effect on divorced women's self-efficacy and responsibility.

Methods :

Quantitative and applied, this quasi-experimental study has a pre-test, post-test, and 3-month follow-up with a control group. The statistical population includes all divorced women in Hamedan who were referred to family court-supervised therapy clinics between 2019 and 2021. Inclusion criteria:1. Participants are assessed for mental health using the Symptoms Checklist-90-Revised questionnaire (Derogatis et al., 1973) and accepted if they are healthy. 2. 25-45-year-olds participate. 3. Divorced 1-3 years. 4. Participants are high school graduates. Exclusion criteria:1. Psychologically treated participants. 2. Non-drug-treated participants. 3. Missed training sessions. 4. Study participants can quit. Following procurement of the ethical code (IR-IAU-REC.1401.076) from the university, the research team made visits to Rouzbeh, Farzaneh, and Mehravar counseling centers in Hamedan, Iran, to seek permission for conducting research. Eligible individuals signed informed consent papers, and a university staff member led two experimental groups via eight weekly 90-minute therapy sessions. The control group received no intervention. Professional ethics require that control group members receive individual therapies following the treatment period. After the intervention, all groups had a post-test and follow-up and thanked the participants. Collecting data:1. Responsibility Acceptance Questionnaire (Gap, 1984). 2. GSEQ (Sherer et al., 1982). 3, Reality Therapy Procedure. 4. ACT Protocol. Results A total of 55 participants were divided among three groups: reality therapy (18 participants), ACT (17 participants), and a control group (20 participants). The average age of participants in the reality therapy group was 31.33 years, with a standard deviation (SD) of 4.17 years. Meanwhile, those in the ACT group had an average age of 30.18 years with a SD of 7.04 years. Lastly, the Control group's members had a mean age of 32.20 years and a SD of 4.34 years. Within the group of reality therapy participants, 12 were parents, while six were not. Conversely, in the ACT group, only four participants had children, whereas 13 did not. The control group consisted of seven parents and 13 individuals without children. As for educational background, six members of the reality therapy group and nine members of the control group had graduated high school, while three did not. In the ACT group, nine participants held a high school diploma, six had further education, and two did not complete high school. The control group comprised eight high school graduates, ten with further education, and two who did not finish high school. Regarding marriage longevity, marriages among reality therapy participants lasted between 22.5 and 42.2 years. Couples in the ACT group were married for either 53.5 or 38.2 years, while those in the control group had marriages lasting 15.6 or 18.2 years. Lastly, the average time post-divorce for the reality therapy group was 24.67 to 7.84 months. ACT group had 27.06 and 0.94 months since the divorce. The control group was 26.55 and 7.19 months divorced.

Results:

 demonstrate the three research groups' pre-test, post-test, and follow-up responsibility and self-efficacy components. Both experimental groups increased responsibility and self-efficacy post-test and follow-ups. Control remained unaltered. The Shapiro-Wilk values of the dependent variables for the three groups of pre-test, post-test, and follow-up were examined to assess data distribution normality. Both dependent variables were negligible in all three groups and stages. Group and three study stage dependent variables are normally distributed. Levene’s test examined group homogeneity assumption of responsibility and self-efficacy error variances. Levene's test demonstrates that groups and three stages had an equal variance in responsibility and self-efficacy measure error scores. This helps research variable error variance homogeneity. Mauchly's test confirmed the dependent variables' covariance matrices' sphericity. Repeated measures analysis of variance analyzed data after validating assumptions. Results demonstrate the reality and ACT therapy multivariate analysis on responsibility and self-efficacy. Results demonstrate that independent variables significantly affect responsibility and self-efficacy. Results illustrate repeated measures analysis of realism, ACT improving responsibility and self-efficacy. Responsibility and self-efficacy reveal solid group-time connections. Independent variables strongly affected responsibility and self-efficacy. Finally, Findings present responsibility and self-efficacy Bonferroni post-hoc test findings for the three groups and implementation stages. Results show that pre-test and post-test responsibility and mean self-efficacy scores differ statistically. Accordingly, post-test and follow-up differ. Responsibility and self-efficacy scores differ between reality therapy, ACT, and controls. Reality, acceptance, and commitment treatment increased pre-test, post-test, follow-up responsibility, and mean self-efficacy scores. Reality therapy, ACT differ significantly in responsibility and self-efficacy (P=0.015 and 0.042, respectively). This study found that reality therapy and ACT improved divorced women's accountability and self-efficacy. Reality therapy improves divorced women's responsibility more than ACT, which improves self-efficacy.

Conclusion:

 ACT increases divorced women's accountability. Afshari et al. (2022) (27), Barrett-Naylor et al. (2018) (28), and Flujas-Contreras and Gomez (2018) (29) found similar results.In the ACT model, participants learn to accept painful inner and exterior situations without fighting or coping. Acceptance lets people follow their values and give up control. This approach emphasizes goal formulation and values defined as the life route. Goals and values are personal. Divorced women have learned that obsessing over previous events and toxic relationships with their spouses does not help them have a worthwhile, rich, and entire life, and they must focus on the present to responsibly create their future.Reality therapy can also make divorced women more responsible. This matches Yadolahi Saber et al. (2019) (7). Reality therapy has proven beneficial in assisting divorced women to embrace self-acceptance, circumvent justifications, and desist from attributing blame to external circumstances or past events. It enables them to confront reality by focusing on aspects within their control—such as their thoughts, actions, and behaviors—while accepting those beyond their reach, such as divorce and external factors. Moreover, this therapeutic approach fosters optimism toward the future while helping them steer clear of common pitfalls. Divorced women may cope with their past and make better choices in the present by addressing their basic needs responsibly.Reality therapy outperformed ACT in enhancing divorced women's responsibility, and this matches Afshari et al study (2022) (27). Since one of reality therapy's core principles is to increase human responsibility, and a large portion of therapy sessions aim to increase group members' responsibility, reality therapy was expected to be more effective at increasing responsibility. Reality therapy is an existential and experiential therapy that respects the right to choose and requires individual accountability and responsibility. Existential therapies hold people responsible for their actions and choices, not past events, parental behavior, genes, negative events, fate, or unconsciousness. Reality therapists accept these aspects' impact but do not consider them the key determinants.ACT increased divorced women's self-efficacy. Eskandari (2020) (19), Raeesi et al (2021) (33), and Asadi Khalili et al (2020) (34) found similar results.Individuals who doubt their ability to adapt to change or who question their self-worth often find themselves stuck in the initial stage of unawareness. This can lead to a pessimistic view of change. These individuals must build self-efficacy and self-confidence to take action and sustain it. Most therapies—including ACT—require client control. Self-efficacy determines my ability. ACT tasks and values enhance self-efficacy. Flexibility, clarifying beliefs, communicating change, and completing activities can boost self-efficacy and client responsibility in acceptance and commitment therapy. Divorced women gain self-confidence from reality therapy. Asadi Khalili et al (2020) (34), Li et al (2018) (36), and Low and Gue (2015) concur (37). Self-efficacy refers to an individual's belief in their ability to accomplish tasks or adapt to various circumstances successfully. However, crises can significantly hinder this confidence. For example, divorce can lead to mental health issues in women. World therapy offers a solution, aiding women in managing these challenges by facilitating the creation of a supportive environment.Reality therapy has taught participants to face problems, not blame others, use internal control instead of external control, take responsibility, and use all their abilities to handle divorce issues. This method helps women solve problems instead of arguing or fleeing, boosting their responsibility and self-efficacy.The results showed that reality therapy was less effective than acceptance and commitment therapy at increasing self-efficacy in divorced women. Asadi Khalili et al (2020) found similar results (34).ACT could potentially surpass reality therapy in effectiveness, given its proven strategies. These techniques have demonstrated success in both laboratory and experimental studies involving diverse groups. Reality Therapy, being a more recent approach, is still in its evolving stages. Targeted ACT can give people quick and deep insight, giving them the courage and strong will to plan intelligently, start a program, and continue despite opposition from others or their negative self-concepts, which Steven Hayes says is an effective way to cope with failure. Divorced women agree with Steven Hayes that "the problem is not whether you have hardships and pain in your life, because life is always accompanied by pain and suffering of humans." Your life values these difficulties." High self-efficacy. Reality therapy increases self-efficacy, while ACT is better for some reasons.Reality therapy is more successful in increasing responsibility and self-efficacy in divorced women than ACT. Counselors and psychotherapists can use both methods to help divorced women. The COVID-19 pandemic limited class attendance, limiting this study. Divorced women's issues necessitated frequent follow-ups and encouragement to continue sessions. Social workers may help future studies focus on teaching and therapy. Given the effectiveness of ACT and Reality therapy, therapists and researchers should do a qualitative study combining both approaches to benefit divorced women.