The Effects of Adding Values to an Acceptance Intervention on Willingness to Engage in a Difficult Task

There is a relatively large body of evidence supporting acceptance as a treatment component. According to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) proponents, acceptance is done in the service of values (Hayes et al., 2011). This study aimed to examine the effects of adding a values component to an acceptance intervention on persistence in a frustrating task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: acceptance, acceptance plus values, and suppression. Following a mood induction, participants listened to a recording of their assigned coping strategy and were then asked to use this strategy during a frustrating computer task. No group differences were found on willingness to engage in the difficult task, which does not support the ACT proponents' assertion. There are a number of methodological limitations in this study related to the mood induction placement, interventions, persistence task, and sample that may have contributed to the null findings. Continued research in this area is needed to determine the impact of values as a treatment component, which has important clinical implications.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D. in Psychology

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Year dc:date.available

2012

Author dc:creator

• Flynn, Maureen Kathleen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kelly G. Wilson
• Marc Showalter
• John Young

• Acceptance
• Acceptance And Commitment Therapy
• Values
• Willingness
• Clinical Psychology

Repository record dc:identifier

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/107

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:egrove.olemiss.edu:etd-1106