Project Thesis (D. Min.)--Denver Seminary, 2001. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-179).

The relationship "between touch "behavior, marital satisfaction, and touch expectation in stable marriages was explored. Subjects included couples, married a minimum of seven years, chosen at random from a community of middle-class families. Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale, Jourard's Body Accessibility Questionnaire, and a touch expectation question on the data sheet were utilized to measure each subject's level of marital satisfaction, touch behavior, and touch expectation. These instruments were hand delivered to each couple and returned by mail to the experimenter.

This study investigated the effects of extraversion and maintenance strategy choice on perceived relational satisfaction in marital dyads. Three research questions were addressed in this study. RQ #1 examined the relationship between extraversion and maintenance strategy preference. RQ #2 examined the various introvert/extravert (i/e) combinations to determine if satisfaction was reported higher or lower in any of the dyad combinations. RQ #3 investigated the correlation between maintenance strategy choice and satisfaction. Participants (71 married couples with diverse ages and lengths of marriage) were administered three measures for evaluation: a marital satisfaction measure, an i/e measure, and a maintenance strategy assessment. It was anticipated that individuals characterized by different degrees of extraversion would rely on different relational maintenance strategies to restore marital equity. Out of five groupings of relational maintenance strategies (assurances, positivity, reliance on social networks, openness, and sharing tasks), a statistically significant correlation was found to exist only between extraversion and reliance on social networks. The correlation suggests that the more extraverted a person is, the more he/she will attempt to use communication and disclosure techniques with common friends and family to help maintain the marital relationship. Within the context of reported marital satisfaction, no statistically significant differences were found to exist between any of the four marital pairings for i!e in marital dyads. This finding informs us that marital satisfaction, in and of itself, does not appear to have any significant relationship to the i/e dynamic. Finally, three of the maintenance strategies (positivity, networking, and assurances) were significantly correlated with marital satisfaction. The assurances strategy, in particular, was an especially strong correlate, revealing that couples who use assuring maintenance strategies in their communication report higher satisfaction in their marriages.

Research has indicated a relationship between overt marital conflict and childhood behavior problems (Porter & O'Leary, 1980). Overt marital conflict has been correlated with behavior disorders in boys, particularly conduct disorders. A similar relationship has not been found for girls, although findings have suggested that both boys and girls are equally accurate in their perceptions of parental conflict (Emery & O'Leary, 1982). Another potentially damaging but uninvestigated form of marital discord is covert conflict. ~he present study assessed whether children could discriminate between overt conflict, covert conflict, and problem solving styles of parental interaction. Age and sex differences were also assessed. Participants viewed videotapes depicting the three styles of parental interaction then responded to a questionnaire assessing the perception of parental conflict and its effects on children. Children consistently perceived greater conflict in the overt interaction than in the covert interaction, and greater conflict in both the overt and covert interactions than in the problem-solving interaction. Children also predicted that the overt and covert interactions would have similar negative effects for the child, while they viewed the child in the problem-solving interaction as being relatively unaffected. Sex differences were not obtained. This study indicates that children view covert conflict as harmful, and that they prefer a problem-solving style of interaction and perceive such a style as having less negative impact on the marital relationship and the child.

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of the microcounseling training model for the improvement of marital communication. The purposes of this study were (a) to assess the effects of microcounseling on the communication between married couples; (b) to determine whether the teaching of skills using microcounseling can have specific behavioral effects on the actions of individuals in training; (c) to assess whether this change has effects on sharing behavior of couples; (d) to determine whether skill training has any effect on marital adjustment of couples; and (e) to examine changes in meaning that training may cause. Based on statistical results it was concluded the microcounseling does not result in significant changes in marital communication. Neither does microcounseling bring about significant changes in marital adjustment or primary communication. Eleven of the semantic differential items did change significantly. It was nevertheless concluded that these changes were not enough to support the conclusion that great changes in meaning had occurred. It was concluded that from a time-cost standpoint, microcounseling is not an efficient way to train married couples' communication.

No description available.

Marital enrichment is a new professional area in the applied family field which surfaced in the early l960’s and has expanded rapidly throughout the United States. Many see this exciting advance as a significant resource for attempting to alleviate the major social problem of marital dysfunction. The underlying motivation for this research was to assess the effectiveness of marital enrichment (in particular, the Couples Communication Program Model) in producing change in the marital relationship within the framework of a number of perceived short-comings in the marital enrichment research literature. This research examined the experiential component of marital enrichment programs in an attempt to determine whether it is a necessary and effective change-producing element. Additionally, the issue of conventionalization was addressed as a possible contaminant of self-report measures which have been so widely employed in enrichment research. To assess durability of any possible change, a three-month follow-up study of all groups was conducted. Further, this research tested the utilization of trainer and spouse as additional sources of assessment rather than relying solely on an individual's self-report. To test the various hypotheses aggregated from the research literature, a pretest-posttest control group design with a 3-month follow-up was formulated consisting of two treatment groups (Group I: Experiential~didactic, Group II: Didactic) and a control group (no treatment). The dependent variables were scores on the following research instruments: 1. Marital Adjustment Test (Locke and Wallace, 1959) 2. Marital Communication Inventory (Bienvenu, 1970) 3. Marriage Potential Test (Mace and Mace, 1979) 4. Relationship Change Scale (Schlein, 1971) 5. Satisfaction Change Scale (Schlein, 1971) 6. Interpersonal Relationship Rating Scale (Hipple, 1972) Scores were recorded as couple differences obtained by subtracting the wife's score from the husband's score at each testing period. Independent variables were group membership and experimental stage (pretest, posttest, 3-month follow-up). An analysis of covariance model with conventionalization serving as the covariate was constructed and the statistical analysis was performed utilizing the General Linear Models (GLM) procedure of the Statistical Analysis System (SAS). The evidence accumulated in this study indicates that enrichment has no effect on participants as assessed by the dependent measurements. Future marital enrichment research should control for the conventionalization effect as well as closely scrutinize male/female sex differences. Further, future research assessments of marital enrichment should eliminate the use of the following self-report measures: 1. Marital Adjustment Test (Locke and Wallace, 1959) 2. Marital Communication Inventory (Bienvenu, 1970) 3. Satisfaction Change Scale (Schlein, 1971) 4. Relationship Change Scale (Schlein, 1971) Finally, the underlying assumption that marital enrichment produces change should be examined carefully and perhaps, if indicated, eliminated. / Ph. D.

by Nellie Chunhwa Hsu. / Questionnaires in Chinese. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 58-65). / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.iii / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iv / LIST OF TABLES --- p.v / Chapter CHAPTER I 一 --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter CHAPTER II 一 --- METHOD --- p.14 / Subjects --- p.14 / Instruments --- p.15 / Procedures --- p.19 / Chapter CHAPTER III 一 --- RESULTS --- p.21 / Factor Analyses --- p.21 / Reliability --- p.22 / Differences between husbands and wives on the variables --- p.23 / Intercorrelations --- p.23 / Multiple Regression Analyses --- p.27 / Analyses on Family Types of the Circumplex Model --- p.29 / Results of Analyses on Paired Coup1es --- p.30 / Chapter CHAPTER IV 一 --- DISCUSSION --- p.32 / FIGURES --- p.41 / TABLES --- p.43 / REFERENCES --- p.58 / APPENDIX --- p.67

This study investigated the effects of a home-based, audio cassette marriage enrichment course on marital communication and marital adjustment. The marriage enrichment course evaluated in this study consisted of two audio cassette tapes, each containing two sessions of approximately 45 minutes in length, and one work booklet. The course contained exercises emphasizing the development of communication skills, encouragement of self-disclosure, learning of empathy skills, and the setting of personal and mutual goals. The unique aspects of the course were the home-based setting in which the couples completed the program, and the self-enclosed audio cassette nature of the course.

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in Afrikaans and English / Hierdie proefskrif het ontstaan uit die behoefte aan 'n bruikbare huweliksvoorbereidingsprograrn wat op 'n teologiese praktykteorie gebaseer is. Die proefskrif word in die praktiese teologie gedoen waar die interaksie tussen teorie en praktyk met verwysing na die huwelik bestudeer is. Hieruit is 'n teologiese praktykteorie vir huweliksvoorbereiding opgestel. In die definiering van 'n program vir huweliksvoorbereiding moet die vraag gevra word waarvoor die paartjie voorberei moet word. 'n Ander wyse om die vraag te stel, is bloot dit: Wat is 'n huwelik? Die probleem is dat daar nie huweliksvoorbereidingsprogramme bestaan met 'n teologiese basis wat gebruik kan word in die voorbereiding van paartjies vir hul huwelik nie. Daar is heelwat programme wat met verskillende vraelyste en formules byvoorbeeld kommunikasie kan verbeter; maar daar is nie programme wat geformuleer is vanuit 'n teologie van die huwelik nie. 'n Definisie vir die huwelik is saamgestel uit die beoordeling van bestaande definisies en die analisering van huweliksmodelle en -vorms. Daarna is 'n definisie vir huweliksvoorbereiding geformuleer. Hierdie definisie is saamgestel uit 'n literatuurstudie en evaluering van bestaande definisies en omskrywings en 'n beoordeling van die geskiedenis van huweliksvoorbereiding in die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk. Die definisie vir huweliksvoorbereiding word in hoofstukke 4 en 5 verduidelik en in hoofstuk 6 word 'n teologiese praktykteorie geformuleer. In hoofstuk 7 word praktiese riglyne vir die implementering van die program gegee. In die definisie word die noodsaaklikheid van interaktiewe kommunikasie tussen pastor en paartjie verduidelik en die betrokkenheid van die pastor, die gemeente en die kerk by die aanbieding van huweliksvoorbereidingsprograrnme word beklemtoon. Verder plaas die definisie die huwelik binne vier teologiese konsepte, naamlik roeping (die paartjie moet geroepe wees om die ouerhuis te verlaat om in die huweliksverhouding bevestig te word); verbond (die begin van 'n nuwe verhouding); sakrament (die huwelik wat as kerk in die kleine moet funksioneer); en liefdesgemeenskap (die stimulering van die inherente groeipotensiaal van die paartjie). / This thesis originated from the need for a pragmatic pre-marital counselling program based on a theological theory of practice. The research was done in practical theology where the interaction between theological theory and praxis with regard to marital life was studied. Out of this work a theological theory of practice for pre-marital counselling and enrichment was formulated. In defining a program for pre-marital counselling the question is "What to prepare the couple for?'' In other words, the question "What is a marriage?" arises. The problem is that no premarital counselling program based on a sound theological theory of practice (theology of marriage) currently exists that can be used as a program to prepare couples for their marriage. A definition of marriage was compiled from existing definitions and formulations which were analyzed and evaluated in terms of models and forms of marriage. Thereafter a defintion for pre-marital counseling was developed. This defintion was compiled from a study of literature; an evaluating of existing definitions and formulations; and the history of pre-marital counselling in the Dutch Reformed Church. This definition is explained in chapter 4 and 5 in chapter 6 a theological theory of practice is formulated. In chapter 7 a program is presented with practical guidelines for implementation. In the definition the necessity of interaction between pastor and couple is explained as well as the need for the pastor, congregation and the church to participate in adininistering counselling programs. Finally, the definition places marriage in four theological concepts namely, vocation (the calling to leave home and enter a marrital relationship); covenant (commencing a new relationship); sacrament (the marriage as church personified); and community (stimulating the growth potential of the couple). / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / Th. D. (Praktiese Teologie)