Comparison of the Effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) on Cognitive Distortions and Emotion Regulation in Women with Social Anxiety Disorder

Seyede Shahrbano  Shafie Nezhad; Hossein Bigdeli; Nasser   Sobhi Gharamaleki

doi:10.61838/kman.hp.psynexus.4892

Authors

Seyede Shahrbano Shafie Nezhad Department of Psychology, CT.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0009-0000-0140-294X
Hossein Bigdeli Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, ET.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. Corresponding Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1800-8946
Nasser Sobhi Gharamaleki Department of Psychology, Allameh Tabataba'i university, Tehran, Iran Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2254-5282

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.61838/kman.hp.psynexus.4892

Keywords:

Social anxiety disorder, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy, Cognitive distortion, Emotion regulation

Abstract

The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) on cognitive distortions and emotion regulation in women diagnosed with social anxiety disorder. This study employed a quasi-experimental design with a non-equivalent control group, including pretest, posttest, and follow-up phases. The statistical population consisted of women aged 20–30 years with a clinical diagnosis of social anxiety disorder in District 22 of Tehran. Sixty participants were selected through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to three groups: ACT (n = 20), EFT (n = 20), and a control group (n = 20). The ACT and EFT interventions were delivered in eight 90-minute group sessions based on standardized protocols. Data were collected using the Social Anxiety Questionnaire, the Cognitive Distortions Questionnaire, and the Emotion Regulation Scale. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) and Bonferroni post-hoc tests were used to analyze the data while controlling for pretest scores. The results of MANCOVA indicated a significant main effect of group on all components of cognitive distortions and emotion regulation (p < .001), with large effect sizes. Post-hoc analyses revealed that both ACT and EFT were significantly more effective than the control group in reducing cognitive distortions and improving emotion regulation. Comparative analyses showed that ACT was significantly more effective in reducing overall cognitive distortions, whereas EFT demonstrated significantly greater improvements in overall emotion regulation. These effects remained stable at the follow-up assessment. Both ACT and EFT are effective interventions for women with social anxiety disorder; however, they demonstrate differential strengths, with ACT showing greater efficacy in reducing cognitive distortions and EFT exhibiting superior effects on emotion regulation, highlighting the importance of mechanism-based treatment selection.

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