Values in ACT

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) focuses on improving a person’s ability to live a fulfilling meaningful life along with all the discomfort of life’s challenges.

‘Values work’ in ACT helps in building and maintaining a psychologically flexible behaviour. ‘Values’ are chosen concepts linked to meaningful actions that coordinate with long term behaviour.

ACT distinguishes Goals and values in that, values are hierarchically related to goals, but can never be completed. While acting in a loving way with partner is a value, marriage is a goal expressing this value.

EO or Establishing Operation is a concept of human values. When a person says I value my mentor or I value honesty, the statement refers to the effectiveness of the mentor or the virtue of honesty as a reinforcer to the behaviour of the person saying it.

In ACT, clinically, the clients are encouraged to examine what matters to them in different domains of life. When values are expressed in terms of goals like promotion or under aversive control terms like tension free life, etc, ACT helps them to identify the values which transcend these goals. Committed action towards value directed behaviour across time and different contexts is followed up with.

Values identification helps acceptance of difficult and distressing experiences in life proven by higher pain tolerance. Value clarification has helped in buffering stress response to a stressor and in motivating to bring about long lasting behaviour changes.

Several studies on ACT interventions have proved that pain acceptance and value based response to life bring improved outcomes.

It has thus been made clear that targeting ‘values’ in ACT interventions can increase the quality of life, decrease suffering and add a sense of purpose and meaning to a person’s life which would remain with him or her long after the therapy.

Dahl, J. Valuing in ACT. (2015). Current Opinion in Psychology 2:43–46