1- Islamic Azad University
Abstract: (17 Views)
Background and Objective: Breast cancer is a type of cancer that begins in the breast. Cancer begins when cell growth becomes out of control. Breast cancer cells usually form a tumor that is usually seen on an X-ray or felt as a lump. It is important to understand that most breast lumps are benign and not cancerous or malignant. Noncancerous breast tumors grow abnormally but do not spread outside the breast. They are not life-threatening, but some benign breast lumps increase the risk of breast cancer in women. Expressing emotions plays a key role in the release of negative emotions caused by chronic diseases, including cancer, and helps a person manage the experience of negative emotions. Also, anger rumination is a strong predictor of decreased mental health in people with breast cancer. Accordingly, it is important to use psychological interventions that help women with breast cancer to release their emotions. Breast cancer is also associated with decreased psychological flexibility in women. Psychological flexibility, while helping people to better manage unexpected situations, helps them learn new things, easily replace old information in their minds with new learning, and discard old learning. Appropriate and timely intervention will prevent and treat many future injuries and will allow women with breast cancer to return to their normal individual and family lives. The goal of narrative therapy is to help the individual to be able to vent an overwhelming and difficult problem. In fact, the individual learns that every problem is actually a false justification and blame that they tell themselves in the form of a story and believe it. The present study was conducted to investigate the effectiveness of narrative therapy on anger rumination and psychological flexibility in women with breast cancer.
Methods: The research method was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design with a follow-up phase. The statistical population was all women with breast cancer referring to Arad Hospital in Tehran who had received a diagnosis of breast cancer from a specialist between 1402 and 1403. Among them, 32 eligible women with breast cancer were included in the study through voluntary sampling and were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (16 people in each group). The experimental group underwent group narrative therapy in 8 sessions, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were collected using the Anger Rumination Scale (Sakodolski, 2001) and Psychological Flexibility Scale (Dennis and VanderWaal, 2010) in three stages: before the treatment, after the treatment, and three months after the treatment, and then analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS version 26 statistical software. The significance level of the tests was set at 0.05.
Results: The findings showed that before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the mean (standard deviation) of anger rumination scores of the two experimental groups (71.33+1.12) and the control (50.78+1.52) and between the mean (standard deviation) of psychological flexibility scores of the two experimental groups (67.40+1.17) and the control (76.37+1.28) (P<0.005). However, after the intervention, a significant difference was observed between the mean (standard deviation) of anger rumination scores in the intervention group (36.60+1.04) and the control group (83.31+1.70) and the mean (standard deviation) of psychological flexibility scores in the intervention group (78.53+1.66) and the control group (68.25+1.09) (P<0.005). In other words, the results of the analysis of variance with repeated measures showed that the effect of narrative therapy on anger rumination and psychological flexibility (p<0.05) was significant. Also, in the three-month follow-up period, narrative therapy maintained its effect on the anger rumination variable in the participants of the experimental group, while in the three-month follow-up period, the effect of narrative therapy was not maintained in the psychological flexibility variable in the participants.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the use of non-pharmacological narrative therapy intervention is effective in reducing anger rumination and increasing psychological flexibility in women with breast cancer and improves their psychological problems; therefore, the use of narrative therapy programs in treatment and counseling centers for women with breast cancer is recommended, and this treatment can be used to reduce anger rumination and increase psychological flexibility.
Methods: The research method was a quasi-experimental study with a pre-test and post-test design with a follow-up phase. The statistical population was all women with breast cancer referring to Arad Hospital in Tehran who had received a diagnosis of breast cancer from a specialist between 1402 and 1403. Among them, 32 eligible women with breast cancer were included in the study through voluntary sampling and were randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups (16 people in each group). The experimental group underwent group narrative therapy in 8 sessions, and the control group did not receive any intervention. Data were collected using the Anger Rumination Scale (Sakodolski, 2001) and Psychological Flexibility Scale (Dennis and VanderWaal, 2010) in three stages: before the treatment, after the treatment, and three months after the treatment, and then analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance in SPSS version 26 statistical software. The significance level of the tests was set at 0.05.
Results: The findings showed that before the intervention, there was no significant difference between the mean (standard deviation) of anger rumination scores of the two experimental groups (71.33+1.12) and the control (50.78+1.52) and between the mean (standard deviation) of psychological flexibility scores of the two experimental groups (67.40+1.17) and the control (76.37+1.28) (P<0.005). However, after the intervention, a significant difference was observed between the mean (standard deviation) of anger rumination scores in the intervention group (36.60+1.04) and the control group (83.31+1.70) and the mean (standard deviation) of psychological flexibility scores in the intervention group (78.53+1.66) and the control group (68.25+1.09) (P<0.005). In other words, the results of the analysis of variance with repeated measures showed that the effect of narrative therapy on anger rumination and psychological flexibility (p<0.05) was significant. Also, in the three-month follow-up period, narrative therapy maintained its effect on the anger rumination variable in the participants of the experimental group, while in the three-month follow-up period, the effect of narrative therapy was not maintained in the psychological flexibility variable in the participants.
Conclusion: According to the results of the study, the use of non-pharmacological narrative therapy intervention is effective in reducing anger rumination and increasing psychological flexibility in women with breast cancer and improves their psychological problems; therefore, the use of narrative therapy programs in treatment and counseling centers for women with breast cancer is recommended, and this treatment can be used to reduce anger rumination and increase psychological flexibility.
Type of Study: Original Research Article |
Subject:
Psychology
Send email to the article author
| Rights and permissions | |
 |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |