Islamic lifestyle with a focus on health

Islamic lifestyle with a focus on health

The Role of Mental Pain, Experiential Avoidance and Forgiveness in Predicting Love Trauma Syndromes

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 PhD in Psychology, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
2 Professor, Department of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran
3 Master of general psychology, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, Isfahan Azad University (Khorasgan), Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
Background: love trauma syndromes cause major emotional problems and it is necessary for experts to investigate this issue comprehensively.
Aim: According to the research, this study sought to investigate the role of emotional pain variables, experiential avoidance, and forgiveness in predicting the occurrence of love trauma syndromes.
Method: This research is a descriptive-post event study using the Pearson correlation and regression methods. For this purpose, first, questionnaires on love trauma syndrome (1999), Heartland forgiveness scale (2005), mental pain (2003), and acceptance and action questionnaire (2004) were prepared for women aged 18 to 35 years in Isfahan who experienced love trauma in the last six months at most. The targeted form was sent, and 195 questionnaires were included in the analysis. People's scores in the love trauma syndrome questionnaire were considered as criteria variables and scores in mental pain, experiential avoidance, and forgiveness were considered variables predicting group membership. The results were analyzed by the diagnostic analysis method.
Result: The results indicate a significant diagnostic function that explains the variance of the groups formed (P> 0.05). The experiential avoidance scale (r=-0.77), the mental pain scale (r=-0.75), and the forgiveness scale finally have the highest predictive value in differentiating the two groups from each other (r=+0.44).
Conclusion: The results showed that people with the experience of love trauma syndrome in the scale of experiential avoidance and mental pain (loss of control, irreversibility, emotional overcrowding, self-estrangement, freezing, confusion, narcissistic injury, and social distance) and forgiveness variable (forgiveness for others and forgiveness for situations) can be distinguished without it. These results can be useful for mental health professionals who are somehow related to youth issues.
 
Keywords

1- Del Palacio-González A, Clark D. A, O’Sullivan L.F. Distress severity following a romantic breakup is associated with positive relationship memories among emerging adults. Emerging Adulthood. 2017; 5(4): 259-267.
2- Gilbert S. P, Sifers S. K. Bouncing back from a breakup: Attachment, time perspective, mental health, and romantic loss. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy. 2011;25(3): 295–310.
3- Meerwijk E.L, Ford J. M, Weiss S. J. Resting-state EEG delta power is associated with psychological pain in adults with a history of depression. Biological Psychology.2015; 105:106–114.
4- FranklV. E. Man’s Search for Meaning. New York, First Washington Square Press.1963.
5- Conejero I, Olié E, Calati R, Ducasse D, & Courtet P. Psychological pain, depression, and suicide: recent evidences and future directions. Current psychiatry reports. 2018; 20(5): 33.
6- Cáceda R, Duran D, Cortes E, Prendes-Alvare S, Moskovciak T, Harvey P. D, Nemeroff C. B. Impulsive choiceand psychological pain in acutelys uicidal depressed patients. Psychosomatic Medicine. 2014; 76 (6): 445–451.
7- Yasinski C, Hayes A. M, Ready C. B, Abel A, Görg N, Kuyken W. Processes of change in cognitive behavioral therapy for treatment-resistant depression: psychological flexibility, rumination, avoidance, and emotional processing. Psychotherapy Research. 2019; 1-15.
8- Gámez W, Chmielewski M, Kotov R, Ruggero C, Suzuki N, Watson D. The brief experiential avoidance questionnaire: development and initial validation. Psychological Assessment. 2014; 26(1):35-45
9- Hayes S. C, Levin M. E, Plumb-Vilardaga J, Villatte J. L, & Pistorello J. Acceptance and commitment therapy and contextual behavioral science: Examining the progress of a distinctive model of behavioral and cognitive therapy. Behavior therapy. 2013; 44(2): 180-198.
10- Kehtary L, Heshmati R, Pour Sharifi H.] Investigating Structural Pattern of Depression Based on Experiential Avoidance and Emotional Repression: The Mediating Role of Self-Compassion [. IJPCP 2018; 24 (3):284-297. (Persian).
11- Biglana A, Gaua J.G, BackenJones L, Hinds E, Rusby J.C, Cody C, Sprague J. The role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between family conflict and depression among early adolescents. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science. 2015; 4(1): 30-36.
12- Freedman S. R, Enright R. D. Forgiveness as an intervention goal with incest survivors. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology. 1996; 64(5): 983.
13- Flanagan K.S, Vanden Hoek K.K, Ranter J.M, Reich H.A. The potential of forgiveness as a response for coping with negative peer experiences. J Adolesc. 2012.
14- Thompson L.Y, Snyder C.R, Hoffman L, Michael S.T, Rasmussen H.N, Billings L.S, et al. Dispositional forgiveness of self, other, and situations. Journal of Personality.2005; 73:316–360.
15- Teeruthroy V. T, Bhowon U. Romantic relationships among young adults: An attachment perspective. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. 2012; 2(10): 145-155.
16- Karaminezhad Z, Sodani M, Mehrabizadeh honarmand M.] Effectiveness emotion focused therapy approach on cognitive emotion regulation on emotional breakdown girl students [. Yafte. 2017; 18 (4):79-86 (Persian).
17- Mesrabadi J. Application of inferential statistics in behavioral sciences. Tabriz: Tanin Danesh Publications. 2017; 477-8. [Persian].
18- Amiri F, Moslemifar M, Showani E, Panahi A. Effectiveness of forgiveness therapy in treatment of symptoms of depression, anxiety, and anger among female students with love Trauma Syndrome. Journal of Advanced Pharmacy Education & Research, Jan-Mar. 2020; 10(S1): 99.
19- Bond F.W, Hayes S.C, Baer R.A, Carpenter K.M, Guenole N, Orcutt H.K, Waltz T, Zettle R.D. Preliminary psychometric properties of the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II: a revised measure of psychological inflexibility and experiential avoidance. Behav Ther. 2011; 42(4): 676-688.
20- Abdi R, HajiShabani R.] The role of experiential avoidance, mindfulness and anxiety sensitivity as meta diagnostic factors in predicting symptoms of emotional disorders [CPAP. 2018; 17 (1): 203-212 (Persian).
21- Orbach I, Mikulincer M, Sirota P, Gilboa-Schectman E. Mental pain: A multidimensional operationalization and definition. Suicide Life, Treatment Behavior. 2013; 33(3): 219–30.
22- Karami J, Bagian M.J, Momeni Kh, Elahi A.] Measurement of mental pain: Psychometric properties and confirmatory factor analysis of multidimensional mental pain questionnaire (OMMP).] HPJ. 2017; 25 (7): 146-172(Persian)
23- Nameni E, Mohammad poor M, Noori J.] The effectiveness of emotion-focused group therapy on interpersonal forgiveness and hope in divorced women [. Journal of Counseling and Psychotherapy. 2016; 29(8): 57-78(Persian)
24- Akbari E, Khanjani z, Poursharifi H, Mahmoud-Alilou, M and Azimi Z.] Comparative Efficacy of Transactional Analysis Versus Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Pathological Symptoms of Emotional Breakdown in Students [Jcp. 2011; 4(3): 87-101(Persian).
25- Dehghani M. Efficacy of short-term anxiety modulating psychotherapy on love trauma syndromes. PhD thesis. field of clinical psychology. Tehran University of Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences. 2010 (Persian).
26- Mee S, Bunney B. G, Bunney W. E, Hetrick W, Potkin S. G, Reist C. Assessment of psychological pain in major depressive episodes. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2011; 45(11): 1504-1510.
27- Sailor J. L. A phenomenological study of falling out of romantic love. The Qualitative Report. 2013; 18: 1 -22.
28- Asayesh M. H, Qazinejad N, Bahonar F.] Explanation of the Emotional Reactions of Girls with Love Trauma Syndrome: A Qualitative Study [. Women and Family Educational Cultural Quarterly. 2019; 15(53): 125-154.
29- Kazan D, Calear A. L, Batterham P. J. A systematic review of controlled trials evaluating interventions following non-marital relationship separation. Journal of Relationships Research. 2017. 8.
30- Greenberg L. S. Emotion-focused therapy: Coaching clients to work through their feelings. Washington DC, American Psychological Association. 2015.
31- Worthington, E. L. Witvliet, C. V. O. Pietrini, P. & Miller, A. J. (2007). Forgiveness, health, and well-being: A review of evidence for emotional versus decisional forgiveness, dispositional forgivingness, and reduced unforgiveness. Journal of behavioral medicine, 30(4), 291-302.
32- Hall, J. H. & Fincham, F. D. (2005). Self-forgiveness: The stepchild of forgiveness research. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 24, 621–637.