Journal of Counseling Research

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The aim of this study was to determine the impact of forgiveness therapy program on marital conflicts and life quality of women referred to Arak Welfare Organization. For this purpose, among women whom gained the high scores (high then 25) in the marital conflict questionnaire (an available sample), a sample of 30 women was assigned randomly into two experimental and control groups. In order to test the research hypotheses, a semi-experimental pre-test and post-test design with the control group was used. The instruments of this study were SF36 life quality and ENRICH marital conflict questionnaires. Then the experimental group received ten 75-minute sessions of forgiveness therapy program, but the control group did not receive any treatment. The outcomes of T-test and MANOVA indicated that forgiveness therapy program was effectiveness on reducing marital conflicts and increasing women's life quality in general, and this effect was statistically meaningful at p&le.05.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the marital status, individual forgiveness, interpersonal forgiveness and quality of life between couples who were married for 1-2 and 3-10 years. Methods: The present study was of descriptive and causal-comparative type. To fulfill the purpose of this study, 60 couples (30 couples in each category) were selected based on available sampling from city of Khomein. Participants answered the Marital Status, Individual Forgiveness, Interpersonal Forgiveness, and Quality of Life Questionnaires. Data were analyzed by independent t-test. Results: The results showed that couples who had been married for 3 to 10 years gained higher scores in marital status, individual forgiveness, interpersonal forgiveness, and quality of life, compared tothose who were married for 1 to 3 years (P<0/01). Conclusion: The results of present study shows that the variables of marital status, individual and interpersonal forgiveness, , and quality of life seem to be positively affected by the duration of marriage, and so marriage and family counselors' awareness of these constructs is of importance.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to explain the relationship between self-differentiation and forgiveness with marital satisfaction based on the mediating role of religious orientation. Methods: The research method was descriptive-correlational and the statistical population included all married teachers working in the sixth and seventh grade in Tehran's 6th educational district, with a total of 4,080 people, among whom 28 schools and 304 volunteer teachers were randomly selected. To collect research data, the following tools were used:  Differentiation of Self Inventory by Skowron, E. A., & Schmitt (2003), Family Forgiveness Scale by Pollard, Anderson, Anderson & Jennings (1998), Religious Orientation Questionnaire by Allport & Ross (1967), and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale by Fournier, Olson & Druckman (1983) were used. After deleting 10 distorted questionnaires and 3 outliers, structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. Results: In this study, the direct path coefficient between internal religious orientation and marital satisfaction (P<0.01, β=0.337) was positive and significant at the 0.01 level. Indirect path coefficient between self-differentiation and marital satisfaction (β = 0.149, P <0.01) and indirect path coefficient between forgiveness and marital satisfaction (P <0.01, β = 0.129) were positive and significant at 0.01 level. Conclusion: Since internal religious orientation can be effective in improving relationships and marital satisfaction, it is suggested that in marital counseling, strengthening the religious beliefs of couples be used.

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This research investigates mediating role of relationship attributions and marital forgiveness on the relationship between neuroticism, attachment styles and marital satisfaction. Methods: The research method was descriptive-correlational and used path analysis. Total of 240 male and females were selected among all married males and females in Shahrekord city using purposive sampling method according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. They responded to Quality of Marital Index (Norton), Relationship Attribution Measurement (Fincham & Bradbury), the Neuroticism Subscale (Costa & McCrae), Behavioual Systems Questionnaire (Furman & Wehner), Experiences in Close Relationship (Wei & et al), and Interpersonal Forgiving in Close Relationships (McCullough, & et al.). Findings: The results showed that evaluated structural model had good fit. The relationship attributions, marital forgiveness, neuroticism, attachment styles directly affected the marital satisfaction (p<0.001); also indirect effect of attachment styles through relationship attributions and marital forgiveness on marital satisfaction (p<0.001). Finally, indirect effect of neuroticism of through only marital forgiveness on marital satisfaction. Conclusion: Family counselors and psychologists should help couples whose lives have faced difficulties because of and/or attachment styles (avoidance) to eliminate distorted cognitions and promote forgiveness among them.

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Introduction: Emotional or silent divorce is the most dangerous type of divorce. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of reality-based couple therapy and group forgiveness therapy on marital adjustment, emotional differentiation, and intimacy of divorced couples.
Materials and Methods: The research design of this study is semi-experimental and the type of design is multi-group pre-test and post-test. The statistical population is all married couples referred to Tabriz Andisheh Relief Centers and Allameh Amini for counseling. Purposeful sampling was performed based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria (year of marriage, age, education and emotional divorce), thus, 42 patients (21 couples) were randomly divided into three reality therapy groups. (8 sessions), forgiveness therapy (8 sessions) and control group were selected. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used to analyze the results and repeated measures test was used to evaluate the scores at follow-up.
Results: Findings indicated that despite the favorable effect of both therapies, reality therapy had more significant effect on adaptation variable than therapeutic forgiveness. Also, none of the above treatments had a significant effect on the differentiation variable, and only the reality therapy had a significant effect on the intimate variable.
Conclusion: Training the principles of reality therapy, informing the spouses about the severity of their needs and creating a sense of responsibility for the satisfaction of their needs can play an important role in establishing and improving intimate relationships and couple adjustment.