Comparing the Effectiveness of Cognitive-Behavioral and Acceptance and Commitment Therapies on Emotional Regulation, and Excessive Responsibility of Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder

Abstract

The purpose of the present study is to examine and compare the efficacy of two therapeutic approaches of cognitive-behavioural and acceptance and commitment on improving the emotional regulation and excessive responsibility as the main symptoms of Obsessive–Compulsive Personality Disorder (OCPD). To achieve this goal, a quasi-experimental research method was used for pre-test, post-test with control group. The target population was 73 patients who were diagnosed with OCPD in 2017, of whom 45 were selected by targeted method and randomly assigned to two groups Experiments (therapeutic groups) and one control group (each group of 15 people). The research variables were evaluated based on difficulty of emotion regulating scale of Gratz and Roemer and the responsibility scale of the California Psychological Inventory in the pretest, posttest and follow up phases. The data obtained from variance analysis with repeated measures showed significant effect of both methods on each component of OCPD. Comparison of couples' paired groups by using Bonferroni test showed no significant difference between treatment groups. Therefore, it can be concluded that these treatments have no significant superiority despite the differences in stages and mechanisms. Meanwhile, a one-month follow-up to the results showed sustainability and strengthening.

Keywords

• cognitive-behavioral therapy
• aacceptance and commitment therapy
• emotion regulation
• excessive responsibility