Glossary // Glossary term Clinical

Acceptance

In emotion regulation, a strategy of allowing emotions, thoughts and bodily sensations to be present without trying to change, suppress or escape them. It differs from reappraisal, which changes the meaning of a situation, and from resignation, because acceptance concerns internal experience rather than the circumstances that produce it. Acceptance is a central process in acceptance- and mindfulness-based therapies; meta-analytic work compares its neural correlates with those of reappraisal, and the two appear to rely on partly different networks.

Where the site uses it

Clinical perspectives: emotional processing, exposure and the lesson of debriefing
What clinical psychology learned about emotional release: emotional processing theory and exposure, the Cochrane evidence against single-session psychological debriefing, and meta-analyses of regulation strategies across psychopathology.
Relief is not resolution: reinforcement, avoidance and memory
Why a restorative experience can leave the underlying difficulty unchanged: negative reinforcement, experiential avoidance, acute mood effects of exercise, rumination and the peak-end rule.

Studies behind it

The works the definition rests on, with the level of evidence each was appraised at.

Hayes, S. C., Wilson, K. G., Gifford, E. V., Follette, V. M., & Strosahl, K. (1996). Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.64.6.1152

Level D Theory

Supports the claim that experiential avoidance was proposed as a process common to many psychological difficulties. A theoretical argument drawing on diverse research, not a direct test.
Hofmann, S. G., Sawyer, A. T., Witt, A. A., & Oh, D. (2010). The effect of mindfulness-based therapy on anxiety and depression: A meta-analytic review. doi:10.1037/a0018555

Level C Meta-analysis

Supports the claim of moderate pre-to-post reductions in anxiety and mood symptoms, larger in anxiety and mood disorders. Effect sizes are pre-post rather than against controls, so it is graded C.
Monachesi, B., Grecucci, A., Ahmadi Ghomroudi, P., & Messina, I. (2023). Comparing reappraisal and acceptance strategies to understand the neural architecture of emotion regulation: A meta-analytic approach. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1187092

Level A Meta-analysis

Supports the claim that reappraisal and acceptance share activity in left inferior frontal gyrus and insula but differ in other regions. Neural activation patterns do not show which strategy is more effective for a person.