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A randomized controlled trial of acceptance and commitment therapy for clinical perfectionism
- Source :
- Psychology Faculty Publications
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2019.
-
Abstract
- Clinical perfectionism is characterized by imposing excessively high standards on oneself and experiencing severe distress when standards are not met. It has been found to contribute to the development and maintenance of various clinical presentations including anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, and eating disorders. The present study tested the efficacy of ten weekly individual sessions of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) relative to a waitlist control on clinical perfectionism and global outcomes among 53 individuals with clinical perfectionism. ACT is a process-based therapy that targets maladaptive underlying processes (e.g., rigid adherence to unrealistic high standards) rather than symptom topography (e.g., anxiety, depression). Participants completed assessments at pretreatment, posttreatment, and one-month follow-up. Results indicated compared to the waitlist condition, the ACT condition led to greater improvements in clinical perfectionism as well as outcomes related to wellbeing, functional impairment, distress, and processes of change. Our study suggests targeting core dysfunctional processes (i.e., clinical perfectionism) rather than symptom topography with treatments like ACT is feasible and efficacious, supporting a shift from symptom-focused to process-based care. We also note potential weaknesses in our treatment protocol and study methodology that should be addressed in future research. Study limitations included a small sample size and high dropout rate (35.7%).
- Subjects :
- 050103 clinical psychology
Dysfunctional family
medicine.disease_cause
Acceptance and commitment therapy
law.invention
03 medical and health sciences
0302 clinical medicine
Randomized controlled trial
law
medicine
0501 psychology and cognitive sciences
Educational Psychology
05 social sciences
Perfectionism (psychology)
clinical perfectionism
medicine.disease
self-compassion
030227 psychiatry
acceptance and commitment therapy
Psychiatry and Mental health
Clinical Psychology
Distress
Eating disorders
randomized controlled trial
Anxiety
medicine.symptom
Psychology
psychological inflexibility
Self-compassion
Clinical psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 22113649
- Volume :
- 22
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....da9d2e0231a5abf4da570bd47dba164e