Comparison of the effectiveness of group therapy for enriching marital relationships and forgiveness on the desire to compensate women involved in emotional divorce in Isfahan

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD student in Psychology, Department of Psychology, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran.

2 Department of Psychology, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran

3 Associate Professor, Depratment of Psychology, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran.

4 Department of Psychology, Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran.

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of group therapy for enriching marital relationships and forgiveness on the desire to compensate women involved in emotional divorce in Isfahan.
Methods: The method of the present study was quasi-experimental with pre-test, post-test design and follow-up with a control group. The statistical population of the study included all women with emotional divorce who referred to clinics under the support of Isfahan Welfare Organization in 2020-2021 to receive family counseling services. Using purposive sampling method, 60 women were selected as a sample and randomly divided into three groups of first experiment (n = 20), second experiment (n = 20) and control (n = 20). The experimental groups received Olson's (1999) marital relationship enrichment intervention in seven sessions and Enright's (2001) forgiveness intervention in nine sessions during two months. Gutman's emotional divorce questionnaire (1997) and Woodyat and Wenzel's (2013) willingness to compensate were used to collect data. The data were analyzed using variance analysis with repeated measurements. The data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance.
Results: The results showed that the intervention of marital relations enrichment is effective on the score of desire to compensate (F = 8.30, P = 0.001) and the intervention of forgiveness is effective on the score of desire to compensate (F = 6.15, P = 0.001) And this effect was stable in the follow-up phase. In connection with the comparison of the effectiveness of the intervention of marital relations enrichment and forgiveness, the results showed that the intervention of marital relations enrichment over time has more therapeutic stability compared to the teachings of forgiveness therapy.
Conclusion: Based on the results of this study, the interventions performed in counseling centers and family psychological services, courts and welfare organizations can be used.

Keywords

References

Bastani, S., Golzari, M., & Roshni, Sh. (2010). Emotional divorce: causes and mediating conditions. Review of Iran's Social Issues, 1(3): 25-36.
Baumeister, R. F., Stillwell, A. M., & Heatherton, T. F. (1994). Guilt: an interpersonal approach. Psychological Bulletin, 115(2), 243.
Beck, S. I. (2005). Efficacy of a forgiveness group intervention for aggressive victims. Unpublished Doctoral Dissetation, Capella University.
Bell, C. M., Davis, D. E., Griffin, B. J., Ashby, J. S., & Rice, K. G. (2017). The promotion of self-forgiveness, responsibility, and willingness to make reparations through a workbook intervention. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(6), 571-578.
Berger, R., & Hannah, M.T. (2013). Preventive approaches in couple’s therapy. Routledge.
Davis, C. A. (2015). An Evaluation of the Impact of a Couples Enrichment Program on Relationship Satisfaction, Communication, Conflict Resolution, and Forgiveness.
Enright, R. D. (2001). Forgiveness is a choice. Washington D. C.: American Psychological Association.
Fallesen, P. (2021). Decline in Rate of Divorce and Separation Filings in Denmark in 2020 Compared with Previous Years. Socius, 7. https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231211009991
Fehr, R. (2010). On the (un) intendend consequences of forgiveness: creativity after conflict. Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Maryland.
Isanejad, O., Ahmadi, A., Etamadi, O., & Ghadirpour, R. (2011). Investigating the effectiveness of relationship promotion on improving marital coping strategies. Behavioral Science Research, 9(1), 1-12.
Jalali, N., Heydari, H, Davodi, H, & Al-Yasin, S. A. (2019). Comparison of the effect of educational intervention based on emotion-oriented approach and Gutman's relationship enrichment approach on the marital conflict of a group of women in Khomein city. Cultural Psychology, 3(1), 41-62.
Joyce, M. L. K. (2020). Wellbeing and Marriage: Does Marriage Improve Mental Health?.
Keller, L., & Allemand, M. (2020). Personality and Divorce. Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences, 3608-3613.
Khodabakhshi Kolayi, A., Falafisi Nejad, M. R., & Sabouri, Z. (2019). Examining the rate and components of emotional divorce in married nurses of hospitals in Tehran. Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing, 5(3):47-39.
Kianipour, O., Mohsenzadeh, F., & Zahrakar, K. (2017). Evaluating the effectiveness of schema therapy and narrative therapy when each of them is combined with the marital enrichment program on the tendency to break the marital contract and marital satisfaction. Family Counseling and Psychotherapy, 7(2), 27-54.
Latifian, M., Arshi, M., Alipour, F & Ghaed Amini Haroni, Gh. (2016). Investigating the relationship between domestic violence and emotional divorce among married women in Tehran in 2016. Social Work Quarterly, 5(2):5-12.
Lavaf Pournuri, F., Zahrakar, K., & Azarhosh Fatideh, Z. (2014). Clarifying the effectiveness of the process-oriented forgiveness intervention in reducing the motives of revenge and avoidance of middle school male students. School Psychology, 3(2): 185-170.
McCullough, M. E., & Witvliet, C. V. (2002). The psychology of forgiveness. In C. R. Snyder & S. J. Lopez (Eds.), Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 446–458). Oxford University Press.
McCullough, M. E., Rachal, K. C., Sandage, S. J., Worthington, E. L., Jr., Brown, S. W. & Hight, T. L. (1998). Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships II: Theoretical elaboration and measurement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(6), 1586–1603.
Mousavi, F., & Rahiminejad, A. (2015). Comparing the interpersonal identity values of married men and women according to the emotional divorce status. Applied Psychological Research, 6(1): 11-23.
Olson, D. H. (1999). PREPARE/ENRICH program: Version 2000. Preventive approaches in couple's therapy, 196–216.
Rasheed, A., Amr, A., & Fahad, N. (2020). Investigating the Relationship between Emotional Divorce, Marital Expectations, and Self-Efficacy among Wives in Saudi Arabia. Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, 1-22.
Samavatian, H., Mousavi, S. M., & Nouri, A. (2019). The effectiveness of training on the quality of work life and enrichment of married life on the quality of work life and job satisfaction in working couples. Applied Counseling, 9(2), 115-132.
Song, M. J., Yu, L., &  Enright, R. D. (2020). Trauma and healing in the underserved populations of homelessness and corrections: Forgiveness Therapy as an added component to intervention.  Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 28(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2531
Turkizadeh, M., Haji Alizadeh, K., & Samavi, S. A. (2018). The effectiveness of self-forgiveness training based on book therapy on responsibility and willingness to compensate in students. Journal of Positive Psychology, 3(15): 57-70.
Vallejo, M. A., Vallejo-Slocker, L., Rivera, J., Offenbächer, M., Dezutter, J., & Toussaint, L. (2020). Self-forgiveness in fibromyalgia patients and its relationship with acceptance, catastrophising and coping. Clinical and experimental rheumatology, 38 Suppl 123(1), 79–85.
Wade, N. G., & Tittler, M. V. (2021). Forgiveness and group therapy: Current research and implications for group psychology research and practice. In C. D. Parks & G. A. Tasca (Eds.), The psychology of groups: The intersection of social psychology and psychotherapy research (pp. 207–230). American Psychological Association.  https://doi.org/10.1037/0000201-012
Woodyatt, L., & Wenzel, M. (2013). Self-forgiveness and restoration of an offender following an interpersonal transgression. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 32(2), 225–259. https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2013.32.2.225
Worthington, E. L., Griffin, B. J., & Wade, N. G. (2017). Group intervention to promote self-forgiveness. In Handbook of the psychology of self-forgiveness (pp. 179-192). Springer, Cham.
Worthington, E. L., Jr., Griffin, B. J., Lavelock, C. R., Wade, N. G., & Kulick, K. (2017). Forgiveness interventions and the prevention of poor health, hostile relationships, and societal hatred and violence. In M. Israelashvili & J. L. Romano (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of international prevention science (pp. 520–547). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316104453.023
Yu, L., Gambaro, M., Song, J. Y., Teslik, M., Song, M., Komoski, M. C., Wollner, B., & Enright, R. D. (2021). Forgiveness therapy in a maximum-security correctional institution: A randomized clinical trial. Clinical psychology & psychotherapy, 28(6), 1457–1471. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.2583
Záhorcová, L., Enright, R., & Halama, P. (2021). The Effectiveness of a Forgiveness Intervention on Mental Health in Bereaved Parents—A Pilot Study. OMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/00302228211024479

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 13 February 2022
  • Revise Date: 03 October 2022
  • Accept Date: 11 April 2023

Share

How to cite

Statistics