normality" assumption which states that by their nature, humans are psychologically healthy, ACT assumes, rather, that psychological processes of a normal human mind are often destructive. The core conception of ACT is that psychological suffering is usually caused by experiential avoidance, cognitive entanglement, and resulting psychological rigidity that leads to a failure to take needed behavioral steps in accord with core values. As a simple way to summarize the model, ACT views the core of many problems to be due to the concepts represented in the acronym, FEAR: Fusion with your thoughts Evaluation of experience Avoidance of your experience Reason-giving for your behavior And the healthy alternative is to ACT: Accept your thoughts and emotions Choose a valued direction Take action Core principles ACT commonly employs six core principles to help clients develop psychological flexibility: Cognitive defusion: Learning methods to reduce the tendency to reify thoughts, images, emotions, and memories. Acceptance: Allowing unwanted private experiences (thoughts, feelings and urges) to come and go without struggling with them. Contact with the present moment: Awareness of the here and now, experienced with openness, interest, and receptiveness. (e.g., mindfulness) The observing self: Accessing a transcendent sense of self, a continuity of consciousness which is unchanging. Values: Discovering what is most important to oneself. Committed action: Setting goals according to values and carrying them out responsibly, in the service of a meaningful life. Correlational evidence has found that absence of psychological flexibility predicts many forms of psychopathology. A 2005 meta-analysis showed that the six ACT principles, on average, account for 16–29% of the variance in psychopathology (general mental health, depression, anxiety) at baseline, depending on the measure, using correlational methods. A 2012 meta-analysis of 68 laboratory-based studies on ACT components has also provided support for the link between psychological flexibility concepts and specific components. Research The website of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science states that there were over 900 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of ACT, over 300 meta-analyses/systematic reviews, and 60 mediational studies of the ACT literature as of May 2022. Organizations that have stated that acceptance and commitment therapy is empirically supported in certain areas or as a whole according to their standards include (as of March 2022): Society of Clinical Psychology (American Psychological Association/APA Division 12) World Health Organization UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Australian Psychological Society Netherlands Institute of Psychologists: Sections of Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation Netherlands National