Effectiveness of Behavioral Activation Group Therapy on Emotional Regulation Difficulties and Ego Strength in People with Major Depressive Disorder

Subject Areas : Thoughts and Behavior in Clinical Psychology

Romina Habibi ¹ , Ali Atlasroody ² , بهمن متین پور ³

1 - Department of Psychology, Allameh Tabatabai University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Tabriz university
3 - Clinical Psychology, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2020-06-19 Accepted : 2020-06-19 Published : 2019-12-22

Keywords: depression, Emotion, ego strength, Behavioral Activation Therapy,

Abstract :

In depression, the afflicted person is in risk of mental breakdown and his mental coherence is endangered. Two important psychological mechanism that seem to be important factors for susceptibility to depression and its continuity are emotional dysregulation and ego strength. This study aims to test the effectiveness of group behavioral activation on emotion dysregulation and ego strength in depressed people. for this purpose, in a quasi‐experimental research design with pretest, post-test and a control group, 30 patients were selected using convenience sampling method and placed randomly in experimental (n=15) or control group (n=15). Subjects in experimental group participated in eight 90 minutes sessions of behavioral activation and the control group waited for one month without receiving any intervention. Emotion dysregulation and ego strength of the subjects were measured before and after the intervention. Multivariable analyze of covariance indicated that when the effects of pretest are controlled, there is a significant difference between the two groups in terms of their average score on emotion dysregulation and ego strength variables. The results of this paper supports the effectiveness of group behavioral activation-based therapy on improving emotion regulation and ego strength.