A Comparative Study on the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy(ACT) and Schema Therapy(ST) on Problem Solving Styles in People with Heart Diseases

Abstract

The aim of present study was to compare the effects of acceptance and commitment therapy and schema therapy on problem solving styles in heart patients. The research method was quasi-experimental with a pre-test-post-test and two experimental groups and one unbalanced control group. The statistical population of the study included all patients with heart diseases referred to the Nuclear Medicine Center in 2017 in Tehran for diagnostic examinations and cardiac scans.  The study sample consisted of 45 people (15 people in the acceptance and commitment therapy group, 15 people in the schema therapy group and 15 people in the control group). They were selected by a non-random convenience sampling method and were randomly allocated to three groups.  To collect research data, Cassidy and Long (1996) standard problem solving styles questionnaire (Aga Yousefi and Sharif, 2011) was used.  After performing the pre-test for all three groups, the experimental groups received acceptance and commitment treatment protocol (Wells and Sorrell, 2007; Mesgarian, 2012) for 12 sessions (1 session per week of 120 minutes) and the schema therapy protocol (Young et al., 2012; Hamidpour and Andoz, 2012) for 10 sessions (1 session per week of 120 minutes). After the intervention, post-test was performed in all three groups. To analyze the collected data, descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis of covariance were used. The results showed that therapeutic interventions were effective in improving the problem-solving styles of heart patients. However, the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy in patients with heart diseases was greater than schematic therapy training. It is recommended that the training of these psychological interventions be considered as an effective intervention to improve the problem-solving styles of heart patients.