The Effect of Solution-Focused Brief Psychotherapy on Distress Tolerance, Decision-Making Styles and Social Adjustment in M.S Patients of Sari City

Subject Areas : Journal of Excellence in counseling and psychotherapy

Farhang Fereydoni ¹ , Mehrdad Sabet ²

1 - PhD student in Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Kish International Branch.
2 - PhD in Psychometrics, Faculty of Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Roodehen Branch, Iran

Received: 2021-10-10 Accepted : 2021-11-17 Published : 2021-11-22

Keywords: social adjustment, Multiple Sclerosis, Distress Tolerance, decision-making styles, Solution-Focused Brief Psychotherapy,

Abstract :

Purpose: Multiple sclerosis or MS causes a decrease in positive psychological characteristics, and one of the treatment methods to improve psychological characteristics is solution-focused brief psychotherapy. As a result, the present study was conducted with the aim of determine the effect of solution-focused brief psychotherapy on distress tolerance, decision-making styles and social adjustment in M.S patients of Sari city.Methodology: The present study was a semi-experimental with pre-test and post-test design with a control group. The research population was M.S patients of member of the Multiple Sclerosis Association of Sari city in 2020 year. Number of 30 people of them were selected by stratified random sampling with using gender ratio and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (15 people in each group). The experimental group received 5 sessions of 40 minutes the solution-focused brief psychotherapy and the control group did not receive any training. Data were collected with using the distress tolerance scale (Simons and Gaher, 2005), decision-making styles questionnaire (Scott and Bruce, 1995) and social adjustment questionnaire (Weissman and Bothwell, 1976) and were analyzed by univariate and multivariate analysis of covariance methods in SPSS-19 software.Findings: The results showed that solution-focused brief psychotherapy led to promoted distress tolerance, increased rational decision-making style and decreased intuitive, spontaneous, avoidant and dependent decision-making styles and improved social adjustment in M.S patients (P˂0.01).Conclusion: The results indicated the effect of solution-focused brief psychotherapy on improving distress tolerance, decision-making styles and social adjustment in M.S patients. Therefore, the use of this treatment method seems necessary to improve psychological characteristics, especially distress tolerance, decision-making styles and social adjustment.

References:

Akyol EY, Bacanli F. (2019). Building a solution-focused career counselling strategy for career Indecision. Australian Journal of Career Development; 28(1): 73-79.

Asadzadeh N, Makvandi B, Askari P, Pasha R, Naderi F. (2019). The effectiveness of reality therapy on social adjustment, psychological well-being and self-criticism of generalized anxiety disorder referring to Ahvaz psychological clinics. Journal of Psychological Achievements; 26(2): 159-178.

Ates B. (2016). The effect of solution-focused brief group counseling upon the perceived social competences of teenagers. Journal of Education and Training Studies; 4(7): 28-36.

Azizi A, Ghasemi S. (2017). Comparison the effectiveness of solution-focused therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy on depression and quality of life in divorced women. Culture Counseling; 8(29): 207-236.

Babaei Kafaki H, Moafi M, Golestani R, Bekineh F, Seyyed Ebrahimi SMH. (2017). The effect of short-term solution focused therapy on distress tolerance and social adjustment of patients with MS in sari. American Journal of Applied Psychology; 6(6): 147-152.

Bilgin O. (2020). A review on solution focused brief therapy studies in Turkey. International Journal of Psychology and Educational Studies; 7(3): 164-177.

Carrick H, Randle-Phillips C. (2018). Solution-focused approaches in the context of people with intellectual disabilities: A critical review. Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities; 11(1): 30-53.

Corradi D, Levrau F. (2021). Social adjustment and dynamics of segregation in higher education – Scrutinising the role of open-mindedness and empathy. International Journal of Intercultural Relations; 84: 12-26.

Correa-Fernandez V, McNeel MM, Sandoval JR, Tavakoli N, Kahambwe JK, Kim H. (2020). Acceptance and action questionnaire II: Measurement invariance and associations with distress tolerance among an ethnically diverse university sample. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science; 17: 1-9.

Fujita Y, Kaneto M. (2020). The effect of solution-focused approach to support decision making for persons with disabilities. Open Journal of Social Sciences; 8(1): 272-281.

Gambetti E, Giusberti F. (2019). Personality, decision-making styles and investments. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics; 80: 14-24.

Knowles LM, Phillips KM, Herring TE, Alschuler KN, Jensen MP, Turner AP, Ehde DM. (2021). Pain intensity and pain interference in people with progressive multiple sclerosis compared with people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; 102(10): 1959-1964.

Ma J. (2017). Cooperative activity as mediation in the social adjustment of Chinese international students. Journal of International Students; 7(3): 856-875.

Martinez MC, Cedillo IG, Aranda BDE. (2016). Adherence to nutritional therapy: Intervention based on motivational interviewing and brief solution-focused therapy. Revista Mexicana de Trastornos Alimentarios; 7(1): 32-39.

Molton IR, Koelmel E, Curran M, Von Geldern G, Ordway A, Alschuler KN. (2019). Pilot intervention to promote tolerance for uncertainty in early multiple sclerosis. Rehabilitation Psychology; 64(3): 339-350.

Pouramiri M, Azimian M, Akbarfahimi N, Pishyareh E, Hossienzadeh S. (2019). Investigating the relationship between individual and clinical characteristics and executive dysfunction of multiple sclerosis individuals. Archives of Rehabilitation; 20(2): 114-123.

Rette DN, Arnold MS, McDonald EM, Hoptman MJ, Collins KA, Iosifescu DV. (2021). Influences on childhood depressive symptoms: The effects of trauma and distress tolerance across age and sex groups. Journal of Affective Disorders; 283: 373-376.

Rowhany NS, Seyed Mousavi M, Gorji M, Samimi Z. (2019). Comparison of the effect of distress tolerance and social phobia on the rate of student use virtual social networks. Quarterly Journal of Information and Communication Technology in Educational Sciences; 9(35): 33-53.

Rumrill PD, Roessler R, Li J, Bishop M, Inge KJ. (2019). Correlates of perceived job performance among employed adults with multiple sclerosis. Rehabilitation Research, Policy, and Education; 33(1): 76-90.

Saad G, Sejean R, Greengross G, Cherkas L. (2020). Are identical twins more similar in their decision-making styles than their fraternal counterparts? Journal of Business Research; 120: 638-643.

Scott SG, Bruce RA. (1995). Decision-making style: The development and assessment of a new measure. Educational and Psychological Measurement; 55(5): 818-831.

Shahi Z, Ojinejad AR. (2014). Effectiveness of training methods solution focused therapy to increase girl's adolescence social adjustment and resolve crisis’s identity. Quarterly Journal of Women & Society; 5(17): 21-40.

Simons JS, Gaher RM. (2005). The distress tolerance scale: Development and validation of a self-report measure. Motivation and Emotion; 29(2): 83-102.

Sitindaon FR, Widyana R. (2020). Investigation of solution focused-brief counseling's effect on reducing the stress levels of college students. Jurnal Konseling dan Pendidikan; 8(3): 117-122.

Upadhyay D. (2021). Consideration of future consequences and decision-making patterns as determinants of conflict management styles. IIMB Management Review; 33(1): 5-14.

Veilleux JC. (2019). The relationship between distress tolerance and cigarette smoking: A systematic review and synthesis. Clinical Psychology Review; 71: 78-89.

Visser LA, De Mul M, Redekop WK. (2021). Innovative medical technology and the treatment decision-making process in multiple sclerosis: A focus group study to examine patient perspectives. Patient Preference and Adherence; 15: 927-937.

Weissman MM, Bothwell S. (1976). Assessment of social adjustment by patient self-report. Archives of General Psychiatry; 33(9): 1111-1115.

Yang CC, Lee Y. (2020). Interactants and activities on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter: Associations between social media use and social adjustment to college. Applied Developmental Science; 24(1): 62-78.

Yang CC, Robinson A. (2018). Not necessarily detrimental: Two social comparison orientations and their associations with social media use and college social adjustment. Computers in Human Behavior; 84: 49-57.

Yu E, Adams-Clark A, Riehm A, Frank C, Susukida R, Pinto M, et al. (2021). Perspectives on illness-related stigma and electronically sharing psychiatric health information by people with multiple sclerosis. Journal of Affective Disorders; 282: 840-845.

Zandi P, Moradi J. (2019). Prediction of decision-making style of physical education managers based on psychological hardiness and coping strategies. Knowledge & Research in Applied Psychology; 20(3): 91-100. [Link]