Journal of Counseling Research

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Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of identity styles and personality factors in Predicting marital conflicts in couples. The population was 120 individual (60 male, 60 female) With purposive sampling. Instruments of this study were Berzonsky identity questionnaire, NEO short form and marital conflicts barati and sanaii. stepwise regression was used to analyze the data. The results showed that among the five factors of personality: adaptability, conscientiousness and neuroticism were able to significantly predict marital conflicts .Also the identity information among identity styles could predict marital conflicts. The research findings in prevention and treatment programs can be used to reduce marital conflicts.

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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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Aminnasab, z - Farahbakhsh,k Developing a stable professional identity, especially in counseling is a time-taking process. The goal of this study was to analyze the experiences of graduates in helping professions on the way of becoming professionals, so that the obtained data be used to clarify, in teaching, and for career supervision. The research method was qualitative in nature (phenomenological) with purposeful sampling. The sample population consisted of 23 counseling graduates with average of 4 years of working experience. The interviews were semi-structured in which the participants shared their experience of becoming professionals. Following data collection, coding and sentences related to their most important experiences (feelings of professional identity, expectations involved, counseling metaphors, and perspectives about rewards in counseling jobs) were drawn and analyzed. Responses showed indicated that participants seemed to be aware of profession's requirements and posses a sense of worth and effectiveness in the profession. Results of this study show the strengths, risks, and areas in need of growth in process of training counselors, which can be useful for academic programs in counseling.

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Babollah Bakhshipour Aim: The purpose of conducting this research was to study the relationship between humor styles and marital conflicts among married college students. Method: Descriptive and correlational research methodology was used. The statistical population comprised of all the married college students at Payam Noor University in Sari, Iran. Total of 314 married (183 female and 131 male) college students were selected in accordance with Krejcie & Morgan (1970) table, by multistage sampling. Participants completed the humor styles (Martin et al., 2003) and Marital Conflict Questionnaires (Sanaee, 1379). Results: Findings showed a negative significant correlation between adaptive humor styles (affiliative humor style r=-0.214 and self-enhancing humor style r=-0.116) and marital conflict. Also, no significant relationship was seen between maladaptive humor styles (aggressive humor style r=0/052 and self-defeating humor style r= 0/088) and marital conflict. Significance level is set at P<0/01 and P<0/05, while T-test showed significant difference between the two genders (P<0/000) when looking at maladaptive humor style (aggressive and self-defeating). Conclusion: There seems to be a negative correlation between adaptive humor styles and marital conflict and some marital conflict’s factors, and that there seemed to be no significant correlation between maladaptive humor styles and marital conflict and its factors. In addition, there was seen a significant difference between men and women in using different humor styles.

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Purpose: The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of couples therapy based on the ecological model in reducing marital conflicts and desire to divorce in couples. Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental study with control and treatment groups. The statistical population of this study consisted of all of the couples referred to State Welfare Organization in city of Markazi (Iran). The sample consisted of 30 couples who were randomly divided into two groups (15 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group). The data gathering tools in this study were marital conflict scale (Sanaee, 2012) and the Divorce Tendency Scale (Roswelt, Jonson &, Moro, 1986). Results: The results showed that couples therapy based on the ecological model has a meaningful positive effect on reducing marital conflicts and divorce tendency (p<0/05). Conclusion: Based on the findings, it can be concluded that interventions using ecological model is effective in reducing tendency for divorce.

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Purpose: Mental rumination is a strong predictor for depression. Depression can damage the marital relationship. Therefore, this study was aimed at investigating the consequences of rumination in women with marital conflicts. Methods: This research was carried out qualitatively using thematic analysis method. The sampling method was purposeful and continued until data saturation. The data was obtained from 15 married women who had marital conflicts. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were used. Results: After analyzing the data content, six main categories were obtained, including: symptoms of depression (physical pains, loss of energy, impatience, reduced desire to live, sleep problems and lack of motivation, and lower sexual desires), negative emotions (anger, sadness, hatred, sense of revenge, malice, and anxiety), impulsivity (aggression and lack of control over behavior), lowered efficiency (aggression to children, reduced association with children, and failing to do the household chores), getting caught up in negative association cycles (controversy, criticism, resentment towards spouse), and resentment towards others (reduced communication with others and withdrawal). Conclusion: When the conflict is not resolved, the process of mental rumination is activated in women which leads to consequences such as reduced efficacy in both individual and marital relationships, as well as depression. Depression leads to increased mental rumination and marital conflics.

 

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Aim: The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of emotional-focused couple therapy and imago relationship (Imago) Therapy on the marital conflicts of couples referring to counseling centers in Tehran city. Methods: Research method was a quasi–experimental with pre and post-test and o control group. The statistical population consisted of couples who had are to ten years of marriage experience and had at least one child. The sample included 30 couples who were selected by chance among couples volunteered to participate in this study and 10 couples randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, while each couple was considered as one unit for analysis. Sanaie and others (2008) revised marital conflicts (MCQR) questionnaire which has 54 items and assess decreased cooperation and sexual relationship, increased emotional reactions, increased children support, increased relationship with their own relatives, decreased relationship with spouse relatives and friends, separation of financial affairs, and decreased effective communication used to assess marital conflicts of couples. Data analysis was done by covariance analysis method. Findings: Emotional - focused couple therapy and Imago therapy decreased couples marital conflicts, but there was no meaningful difference in their effectiveness on couples marital conflicts. Conclusion: Both emotional–focused therapy and Imago therapy are effective in reducing couples marital conflicts and can be used to help couples with marital conflicts

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Aim: The purpose of this study was to extract the lived experiences of working couples from marital conflicts. Methods: This study was conducted with a qualitative approach using interpretive phenomenology. In this study, researchers interviewed 12 working couples with marital conflicts using purposeful sampling. Interviews were analyzed using interpretive phenomenology. Findings: Analyzing the data from the interviews led to the identification of the 14 main themes: financial conflict, inappropriate interactions in social media, lack of participation in house chores, ineffective communication, inability in reciprocal empathy and expression,  lack of time management,  conflict of roles and responsibilities, cognition vulnerability, adherence to gender stereotypes, inability to manage tasks at job and work environment, work-family conflict, power struggles, ultra-personal destructive factors and belief and ethical problems, 55 primary and 12 secondary themes in the lived experiences of working couples from marital conflicts. Conclusion: A dual-career family is a place where couples are more likely to enter into marital conflicts if they do not realize fairness in various areas of family and work. The results of the present study showed that the families of career couples may be a high-risk group in terms of conflict, and this factor indicates the need for a negotiating role in the relationship between this type of couple. This highlights the need for special couple therapy for these couples. The results of the present study also showed that ineffective communication, cognitive vulnerability, work-family interaction, financial conflict and lack of participation in home affairs, were the most common causes of marital conflict; so it is recommended that preventive and educational programs for couples include the abovementioned factors.

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Aim: Pathological jealousy toward spouse is one of the most common complaints of couples referring for couple therapy. The research aimed to study the effectiveness of integrated cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulnes on decreasing of marital conflict and anxiety in women withpathological jealousy toward spouse. Methods: For this purpose, a quasi-experimental pretest, posttest and follow up design with control group was used. The study sample included 34 women with Pathological jealousy who were selected through purposive sampling among women referredto counseling centers in Isfahan. The intervention method included10integrated sessions of cognitive-behaviorla therapy and mindfulness that was implemented for experimental group. In order to assess variables Marital Conflict Questionnaire (Barati & Sanayi, 2000) and State Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, et al., 1983) were used. The data analysis conducted by multivariate analysis of variance with pretest and control. Findings: The findings showed a significant decline in the mean scores of experimental group, both in anxiety and in marital conflict, in pretest and follow-up stages, but no tangible changes were observed in the control group scores. (p<0.0005). Conclusion: Thus, integration of cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness has been effective in reducing marital conflict and anxiety in women with pathological jealousy toward spouse, and could be used by couple therapists and other psychotherapists.

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Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effect of reality therapy and cognitive-behavioral training on empathy and self-control of women with marital conflicts. Methods: The design of the present study was a quasi-experimental with pre/post-test and follow-up, and included a control group. The statistical population of the study included all women with conflict with their husbands who referred to counseling centers in 7^th district of Tehran in 2020. Among them, 60 people were selected by purposeful sampling method and randomly divided into two experimental groups and a control group (twenty individuals in each group). Initially, all three groups underwent a pre-test, followed by 8 sessions of reality therapy for the first experimental group (Glasser, 2012) and 8 sessions of cognitive-behavioral training (Free, 1999) for the second experimental group. At the end, post-test was performed for all three groups and after three months, a follow-up test was performed to confirm the results. Data collection tools included the Sanai and Barati Marital Conflict Questionnaire, the Julif and Farrington Empathy Questionnaire, and the self-control Questionnaire of Tanji et al. Findings: The results of multivariate analysis of covariance showed that both reality group therapy and cognitive-behavioral training had a significant effect on empathy and self-control of women with marital conflict (P<0.01). cognitive-behavioral training has been more effective on self-control than reality group therapy. However, reality group therapy has been more effective on empathy than cognitive-behavioral training. Conclusion: Due to the effectiveness of both methods on research variables, the use of these trainings by psychologists and counselors in the psychological education program for people with marital conflict is recommended. Also, due to the greater impact of each training on one variable, it is suggested that paired training programs be adjusted based on these findings.