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Volume 15 - Articles-1404                   MEJDS (2025) 15: 125 | Back to browse issues page

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Panahifar S, Tavakoli Banizi M. Comparing the Effectiveness of Emotionally-Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Imago Therapy on Cognitive Flexibility and Self-control of Married Soldiers. MEJDS 2025; 15 (0) :125-125
URL: http://jdisabilstud.org/article-1-3443-en.html
Comparing the Effectiveness of Emotionally-Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Imago Therapy on Cognitive Flexibility and Self-control of Married Soldiers
Sajad Panahifar1 , Masoud Tavakoli Banizi *2
1- Assistant Professor, Imam Ali University, Tehran, Iran
2- Master's Degree in General Psychology, Imam Javad University of Yazd, Yazd, Iran
Abstract:   (1548 Views)

Abstract
Background & Objectives: Military service and the conscription system have involved a large part of Iranian society in the last century. Soldiers in military service face with many stressful factors, such as separation from family, support systems and loved ones, change in eating habits, restrictions on choice and freedom of action, high and imposed discipline, change of location, change in sleeping habits, performance anxiety in they face expectations, fear of establishing relationships with others, and inability to solve and deal with problems properly. Among the components that are related to mental health are cognitive flexibility, which means adapting to new situations, self-control, or self-restraint to obtain and then reprocess specific emotional responses. Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to create a link between thoughts, feelings and actions, and Imago therapy improves the mental and physical condition of people using mental imagery. therefore, The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of emotionally-focused therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy and imago therapy on cognitive flexibility and self-control of married soldiers.
Methods: The current research was a quasi-experimental type with a pretest-posttest design with a control group. the statistical population of the research included all the married soldiers of one of the barracks of the Tehran City armed forces in 2023. A total of 60 qualified volunteer soldiers were included in the study with available sampling method and were divided into 4 groups of 15 people (three experimental groups and one control group). The first experimental group received emotionally-focused therapy, the second experimental group received cognitive behavioral therapy, and the third experimental group received imago therapy in eight 50-minute sessions. But no intervention was provided for the control group. The inclusion criteria for participants in the study were as follows: having at least a middle school education, being married during the period of service, and providing full consent to participate in the research. The exclusion criteria included disrupting the flow of the sessions, such as irregular attendance, deviating from the main topic or digressing, being absent from more than two sessions during the training program, lack of cooperation, and failure to fulfill assigned duties and tasks. the tools of this research were the Cognitive Flexibility Inventory (Dennis & Vander Wal, 2010) and the Self-Control Scale (Tangney et al., 2004). For data analysis, SPSS software version 26 was used. At the descriptive level, the mean and standard deviation were calculated, and at the inferential level, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the Bonferroni post hoc test were applied at a significance level of 0.01 based on the alpha criterion.
Results: The results indicated that the effects of time, group, and the interaction between time and group on cognitive flexibility and self-control were significant (p<0.001). In the posttest and follow-up, significant differences were found between the emotionally-focused therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, and imago therapy groups compared to the control group for the variables of cognitive flexibility and self-control (p=0.001). No significant differences were observed between the imago therapy and emotionally-focused therapy groups, nor between the emotionally-focused therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy groups, in the posttest and follow-up for cognitive flexibility and self-control (p>0.01). However, in the posttest and follow-up for cognitive flexibility, a significant difference was found between the Imago therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy groups (p<0.01).
 Conclusion: Based on the research findings, imago therapy is more effective on improving cognitive flexibility compared to emotionally-focused therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy. As a result, imago therapy can be used as a preventive and improvement measure to increase the mental health of married soldiers.

Keywords: Cognitive flexibility, Self-control, Emotionally-focused therapy, Cognitive behavioral therapy, Imago therapy
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Type of Study: Original Research Article | Subject: Psychology
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