Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• SLOAN, SADELL ZIMMERN

Titel

ASSESSING THE DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTIVENESS OF TWO ENRICHMENT FORMATS IN FACILITATING MARITAL INTIMACY AND ADJUSTMENT

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

1983

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• This study compared the effectiveness of two 6-hour enrichment workshop formats in facilitating intimacy and marital adjustment. Twenty-four volunteer Jewish couples were randomly assigned to two treatment conditions. Both the experimental and the control formats featured modules on selfhood and differentiation, and communication and negotiation skills. The major difference between the two groups was that experimental group couples were structured to share anger and hurt prior to negotiating. The sharing of hurt was hypothesized to be the essential feature of genotypic intimacy (i.e., the deepest level of self-disclosure). No significant differences were found between the two groups on any of the self-report measures of intimacy and marital adjustment administered 1 week before and 6 weeks after enrichment. Although a relationship between pretreatment levels of intimacy and marital adjustment was found, change in marital intimacy was not accompanied by a concurrent change in marital adjustment. Significant pre-post differences were found within the experimental group for intimacy and perceived ability to deal with relationship problems but not for marital adjustment. Only the pre-post difference in perceived ability to deal with relationship problems reached significance for the control group. No differences between husbands and wives were found in preenrichment levels of intimacy on the valid measures in this study, nor did they differ in their responses to the experimental workshop. Results suggest a trend toward an egalitarian model of emotional sharing among middle-class, college-educated couples. A series of developmental stages in intimacy facilitation was suggested to build upon the intimacy model originally proposed. Although it had originally been hypothesized that hurt feelings were synonymous with the deepest level (i.e., genotypic) of emotional sharing, it was suggested that the content of genotypic sharing may vary from person to person and may shift as couples progress through the life cycle. Suggestions for future research were based on limitations of this study, including weaknesses in the treatment package, time frame of the workshop, and timing of assessments.