Over the years, cognitive dimensions have been effectively applied in understanding human behavior and therefore used as a major facet in solving related behavioral problems. This has been the case due their efficacy in extrapolating and interlinking the internal physiological dimensions of human development. According to Lundgren and Hayes (225-235), cognitive dimensions since their inception in mid 20th century have been used to generate a clear understanding of the internal stimulus that generated them.
It is worth noting that behavioral approach became a subject of contention as it came out that external indication of the human behavior was a final stage of a long chain of effects that preceded it inside the body. To add to that, it is true that the process is indeed very complex and also relies on external environment affecting it. Further center of controversy has been the uniqueness of the different individuals in their physiology which makes it hard to generalize particular behaviors portrayed by the individuals.
As a result, cognitive dimensions have been articulated through differing dimensions that view it differently to address varying human problems. Psychologists have effectively employed it to understands, diagnose, treat, and prevent mental disorders occurrences in the society. Though acceptance & commitment and meta-cognitive approaches share so much in common, they are also highly differentiated in various aspects of their operations.
It is in this respect that this paper seeks to explore acceptance & commitment therapy and meta-cognitive approaches of cognitive dimensions as applied in cognitive dimensions to address varying human behavioral problems. The paper therefore seeks to explore their differences and similarities in their approach and application at different stages. Tracing them from their theoretical derivation, the paper examines their effectiveness in addressing the different psychological problems.
To add to that, it seeks to establish the limitations incurred by each during their application and derives effective recommendations to enhance their better application with higher levels of efficiencies in the community. 2. Background of the approaches Following the refuted application of the behavioral therapy by mid 20th century, it became evident that there was need to apply a different system for enhancing better understanding and enhancing greater efficacy in the understanding and application of diagnostic systems of human psychology.
The development of Acceptance & commitment therapy and meta-cognitive approach took place almost simultaneously but in a differentiated systematic consideration as they assimilated very different views aimed at solving various mentally related problems. According to Wells (58-61), meta-cognition seeks to apply recent developments in mental understanding to effectively address mental health problems and is based on Wells and Mathews theory on generalized anxiety.
The approach has been applied with a wide backup of scientific evidence from different studies on mentally related aspects globally. On the basis of functional contexualism, acceptance and commitment therapy is applied as a major strategy to promote and increase psychological acceptance by the patient of the different situations.
Ladas-Gaskin (75-78) points out that the changing of the approach from comprehensive distancing to acceptance & commitment therapy was a sign of the intrinsic inculcation of the system to infer the necessary empirically based orientation of psychological interventions that were both holistic and conclusive. Ladas-Gaskin (84-86) continues to say that unlike the traditional behavioral therapy where people were taught on their behaviors and thoughts and how to control them, it seeks to infer better acceptance and embracing of their behavior to generate more vitality to their lives.