Effectiveness of Schema Therapy on Intolerance of Uncertainty, Guilt, and Procrastination in Individuals with Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Symptoms
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Objective: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of schema therapy on intolerance of uncertainty, guilt, and procrastination in individuals with obsessive-compulsive personality symptoms.
Methods and Materials: This quasi-experimental study used a pretest–posttest control-group design. The statistical population consisted of individuals with obsessive-compulsive personality symptoms who were referred to counseling, psychotherapy, or psychiatric centers in Isfahan during the spring of 2025. Thirty participants were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to an experimental group and a control group. Data were collected using the Intolerance of Uncertainty Questionnaire, the Guilt Inventory, and the Tuckman Procrastination Scale. The experimental group received 10 sessions of group schema therapy based on Young’s schema therapy protocol, whereas the control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using multivariate and univariate analyses of covariance in SPSS.
Findings: The results showed that schema therapy significantly reduced the components of intolerance of uncertainty, including self-referential implications (F = 35.79, p = 0.001, η² = 0.579) and unfairness (F = 75.33, p = 0.001, η² = 0.743). It also significantly reduced the components of guilt, including guilt trait (F = 18.90, p = 0.001, η² = 0.430), guilt state (F = 31.62, p = 0.001, η² = 0.558), and moral standards (F = 58.21, p = 0.001, η² = 0.700). However, schema therapy did not have a significant effect on procrastination (F = 0.08, p = 0.782, η² = 0.003).
Conclusion: Schema therapy was effective in reducing intolerance of uncertainty and guilt in individuals with obsessive-compulsive personality symptoms, but it was not effective in reducing procrastination.
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