Recruiting

ACT & CBT

Sponsor:

Utah State University

Code:

NCT06057740

Conditions

Perfectionism

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Interventions

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

Study Details

Brief summary:

The goal of this clinical trial is to test self-help books for adults with perfectionism. The main questions it aims to answer are:

1. Are the self-help books (ACT and CBT) effective, compared to a waitlist control condition?
2. What are the processes of change for perfectionism in ACT vs. CBT bibliotherapy?
3. Do the self-help books (ACT and CBT) affect change in general distress, well-being, and affect?
4. Is bibliotherapy an acceptable and feasible intervention for perfectionism?

Participants will be randomized into either the ACT self-help condition, CBT self-help condition, or waitlist control condition:

1. Participants in both intervention conditions will be asked to read the respective self-help book over the course of 10 weeks and complete 4 surveys over 3.5 months.
2. Participants in the waitlist condition will be asked to complete 4 surveys over 3.5 months, and will receive access to both self-help books once the study is complete.

Conditions

Perfectionism

Study ID

NCT06057740

Start date

Sep 12, 2023

Status verified date

Sep, 2023

Completion date

Sep 1, 2025

Anticipated

Primary completion date

Sep 1, 2025

Anticipated

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

Sex: All

Age: 18+

Healthy Volunteers: Not accepted

Inclusion Criteria:

  • an adult (18 years and older) student at the university
  • the ability to understand and read English
  • access to the university's online library resources
  • endorse high perfectionism (29 or more on the concerns over mistakes Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Subscale)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • N/A

Study Design

Enrollment

120 participants

Anticipated

Allocation

Randomized

Intervention Model

Parallel Assignment

Primary purpose

Treatment

Interventions and Outcome Measures

Arms

experimental: ACT Bibliotherapy

Participants will read 10 chapters (140 pages) of The Anxious Perfectionist by Clarissa Ong and Michael Twohig over the course of 10 weeks.

experimental: CBT Bibliotherapy

Participants will read 8 chapters (149 pages) of When Perfect Isn't Good Enough by Martin Antony over the course of 10 weeks.

no intervention: Waitlist Control

Waitlist condition; assessment only

Interventions

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)

ACT is a psychological intervention that aims to improve psychological flexibility, the ability to hold thoughts and emotions lightly in a given context and pursue valued ends (Hayes et al., 1999; Twohig \& Levin, 2017).

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

CBT is a psychological intervention which targets cognitions and behaviors in attempt to change emotions.

Primary outcome measure

  • Frost Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-Brief (FMPS-Brief) [ Time Frame: 14 weeks ]

Central Contacts and Locations

Locations

Utah State University

Recruiting

Logan, Utah, United States, 84321

Contacts

Michael P Twohig, PhD

435-265-8933michael.twohig@usu.edu

Emily M Bowers, BS

385-501-3270emily.bowers@usu.edu

Principal Investigator:

Michael P Twohig, PhD

More Information

Sponsor

Utah State University

Last update posted

Sep 28, 2023

Last verified

Sep, 2023

Keywords

  • Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
  • Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
  • Bibliotherapy

Trial information was received from ClinicalTrials.gov and was last updated on 2026-09-09. This information was provided to ClinicalTrials.gov by Utah State University on 2023-09-28.