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Does it Pay to Pay Attention?
Published in Adam Gledhill, Dale Forsdyke, The Psychology of Sports Injury, 2021
Psychological flexibility refers to a willingness to remain in contact with undesirable internal experience in the service of one's values or important goals (Bond et al., 2011). It encompasses several processes that take place over time and is most prominent in an individual's ability to adapt to the fluctuating demands in situations, reconfigure mental resources, shift their perspective and balance desires, needs and life domains (Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010). The six core processes of psychological flexibility (known as the ‘hexaflex’; Hayes et al., 1999) are acceptance, cognitive diffusion, self as context, being present, values and committed action. Conversely, an absence of psychological flexibility is characterized by experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, attachment to conceptualized self, dominance of conceptualized past and weak self-knowledge, lack of clarity with values and inactivity, impulsivity and avoidance (Harris, 2009). A lack of psychological flexibility could be important in injury rehabilitation as the associated avoidant behaviour can serve to exacerbate the very situation that the avoidance was there to protect against. Consider the example of a sprinter with a troublesome, recurrent hamstring injury not attending a scheduled rehabilitation appointment because they woke feeling some re-injury anxiety or a heightened sense of tension, or pain perception. They didn't attend the session, because they didn't want to make things worse. However, by avoiding the rehabilitation session, inherently they increase the chances of making the situation worse further down the line.
Implications for pain management
Published in Stephen Buetow, Rethinking Pain in Person-Centred Health Care, 2020
To help persons move like camels through unwanted pain (Chapter 8), clinicians can coach them to bear the load. This coaching requires clinical interventions, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, which may include mindfulness methods and other skills training for psychological flexibility.37 Present-moment acceptance of pain that cannot be eliminated is encouraged to help persons defuse unhelpful thoughts. Going beyond reducing negative affective states, other approaches look to develop positive affect,38 for example, through the pleasure of gratitude as a virtue that focuses identity on blessings rather than burdens.39 Persons then have an expanded repertoire with which to build skills and resources to integrate pain into their life.40 For example, they can clarify and set challenging but achievable goals around activities valued for their ability to enrich the quality of life and maximize personal potential.41 As individuals or in groups such as a sports team, these persons can pursue these goals to stimulate adherence to committed action for patterned behaviour change. In turn, to inform care choices for unwanted pain, they may learn from the experience of persons who choose to move into pain.
Integrating acceptance and commitment therapy into stammering therapy
Published in Trudy Stewart, Stammering Resources for Adults and Teenagers, 2020
Rachel Everard, Carolyn Cheasman
At its heart, ACT is a mindfulness-based approach designed to develop psychological flexibility, the ability to take mindful, values-guided action. Psychological flexibility can also be described as resilience. Kashdan and Rotterberg (2010) define psychological flexibility as the measure of how a person: Adapts to fluctuating situational demandsReconfigures mental resourcesShifts perspectiveBalances competing desires, needs and life domains.
A Preliminary Investigation into the Factor Structure of Two Psychological Flexibility Measures in a Sample of Community-Dwelling Older Adults
Published in Clinical Gerontologist, 2023
Jenna L. Adamowicz, Emily B. K. Thomas, Ti Hsu, Natalie L. Denburg, Anne I. Roche
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a transdiagnostic psychotherapy which facilitates behavioral change by increasing psychological flexibility (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 2011). Psychological flexibility, or the ability to engage in values-based actions with present moment awareness, despite the presence of internal struggles (e.g., thoughts or physical sensations) (Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006), is comprised of three core processes that have been identified as key tenets to guide case conceptualization and promote overall psychological flexibility: openness, awareness, and engagement (Strosahl, Robinson, & Gustavsson, 2012). Openness is willingness to experience one’s emotions, thoughts, physical sensations, memories, and urges (even when unpleasant), in the pursuit of personal values. Awareness is mindful attention to one’s experiences, behaviors, and functions of behavior. Engagement is connection with and the pursuit of personal values through consistent and flexible behaviors over time.
Flexibility as a Mediator between Personality and Well-Being in Older and Younger Adults: Findings from Questionnaire Data and a Behavioral Task
Published in Experimental Aging Research, 2020
Priska Steenhaut, Gina Rossi, Ineke Demeyer, Rudi De Raedt
In the first part of the study, we largely succeeded to replicate results of a previous study, demonstrating that the relationship between personality traits and general well-being runs through psychological flexibility in both younger and older adults. Results of the second part of the study indicate that there are no indirect effects with an experimental task measuring flexibility in the relationships between personality and well-being. Nevertheless, these results may be indicative to focus on enhancing psychological flexibility to increase well-being. Validated treatments in both age groups, such as Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT; Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999) or mindfulness, already exist and could thus be easily implemented to improve psychological flexibility, and consequently well-being. Future research should further explore whether the used method has an influence on the results and whether choice or other forms of flexibility as operationalized by an experimental task would have influences on temporary mood states, and might be used as short-term strategy to enhance well-being.
Mental training in group settings: Intervention protocols of a mindfulness and acceptance-based and a psychological skills training program
Published in Journal of Sport Psychology in Action, 2020
Philipp Röthlin, Daniel Birrer
Following the principles of ACT, the goal of the MAI program was to teach athletes psychological flexibility. This key term of ACT means the “ability to act effectively and in accordance with personal values, in the presence of interfering thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations” (Wicksell, Olsson, & Hayes, 2010, p. 1059.e1). Mindfulness processes are essential to foster psychological flexibility. In ACT, mindfulness is taught and promoted via three seperate processes: (1) present moment attention (i.e., being able to focus on present moment experience), (2) defusion (i.e., being able to perceive and distance oneself from inner states), and (3) acceptance (i.e., being able to accept and endure unpleasant states). These three processes correspond to three of the six core processes of ACT. While in ACT all six core processes are applied to strengthen psychological flexibility, in our MAI program, we almost exclusively used mindfulness (via the three mentioned processes). A fourth core process of ACT, value clarification, was treated to a small extent in the fourth workshop.