HKU 3 Minute Thesis Award, 2rd Runner-up (2011) / published_or_final_version / Psychology / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The purpose of this existential-phenomenological study was to investigate the meaning of a romantic love experience. Six adult co-researchers discussed their romantic love experience with the researcher. The co-researchers were asked to recall the time before, during, and after the love experience. Two interviews were conducted. The initial in-depth interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. The transcripts were analyzed according to the method outlined by Colaizzi (1978). Twenty-two themes were explicated from the transcripts. These were written into an exhaustive description of a romantic love experience. The essential structure of the experience was culled from the exhaustive description. The transcripts, the themes, the exhaustive description and the essential structure were validated by the co-researchers. The description of a romantic love experience is a starting point both for future research and for the development of appropriate counselling techniques to be used with clients who are romantic by disposition or by situation. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

No description available.

The aim of the study was to determine the influence/effect of discourses on love and marriage in the lives of people from their childhood uptil this day. Twelve people participated in the study. These participants were defined as being "white, Afrikaans speaking, married couples between 30 and 50 years of age, with or without children and belonging to a church in the RSA of the Reformed tradition". The study sought to discover how people respond to dominent and marginalised discourses on love and marriage and how they portray this in their marital relationship. A further objective was to reflect on some modernistic descriptions of discourses on love and marriage and the deconstruction thereof. Factors such as the marital relationship of the parents, peer groups, church dogma and theological interpretation, sex education at the time they grew up, culture, customs, etc. were related by each participant and contextualised within each life story. Interviews were conducted with each participant / Practical Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

M.A. / Of late there has been an accelerated impetus in the study of marriage and its associated issues. A veritable deluge of research articles are regularly devoted to the topic, for example Hatfield and Sprecher (1986); Fincham and Bradbury (1987); Dion and Dion (1993); Kamo (1993). There has also been some recent South African research on marriage and mate selection, particularly Crous and Pretorius (1994). New books appear with striking regularity while instruments to measure aspects of relationships are readily available. These include Hendrick and Hendrick's Love Attitude Scale, Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale, and Rubin's Love Scale (Tzeng, 1993). Relationships, love and marriage are becoming increasingly measurable and as more questions become answered, researchers are able to unravel some of the complexity within the field. Adams (1988) looks back at fifty years of family research to discover that it has become increasingly scientific despite dealing with so-called "soft" variables like adjustment and attitudes. When even more elusive constructs like satisfaction, contentment and love are introduced, social scientists find that the terrain might be uncomfortably abstract. However, it is anticipated that as this domain, once only the estate of poets and philosophers becomes steadily more understood, it will bear fruit by answering questions which can then be profitably applied in many couplecounselling situations. The concepts of mate selection, marriage and familial stability are at the heart of societal functioning. There are a myriad of variables that impact on these constructs, as is evident from Surra's (1990) decade review. Recent research has shed some light, albeit theoretical, on the reasons why two people form a marital dyad. Social scientists are thus slowly building a solid mass of knowledge relating to the entire process of how and why a couple eventually exist. This goes hand in hand with contemporary urgency, for the accelerating forces of career, sociological, psychological and economic pressures play havoc with older traditional values of stability and permanence in all these domains. Soaring divorce rates are only one symptom of couples and individuals buckling under these tremendous pressures. Clearly, whatever can be done to better understand the choices individuals make in forming marital dyads, can only be regarded as useful information. In the South African context, this type of research is similarly required. With the wealth of family and marriage research being done abroad, it is important to know if this information applies to South African couples. Thus the primary motivation for the study is to better understand the way South Africans love. Lee's (1976) treatise is widely accepted as a valuable model of love. To date no work appears to have been done using this model in South Africa. The aims of this study thus are: To determine if there is any relationship between the various lovestyles and marital satisfaction for a South African sample. To examine several contemporary models of love.

individuals who self-identify as sex addicts, unique health and social consequences are not well understood because of factors, such as stigma. It is important that the nursing community understand this phenomenon to address, understand, and provide sensitive and meaningful care. However, there is limited research on this topic. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of individuals who self-identify as sex addicts. Through snowball sampling, five men and five women between 27 to 45 years old, and older. participated in the phenomenological study. Meaning units and themes were revealed through the participants' experiences as follows: A Connecting with Others: 1. Reaching Out 2. Seeking Shared Understanding 3. Connecting with Your Higher Power B Managing Stigma: 1. Revealing Concealing C Integrating the Past for Recovery: 1. Reflecting Triggers 2. Overcoming Powerlessness. D Being Vigilant: 1. Intentional Refocusing 2. Living an Honest Life E Giving of Oneself: 1. Informing Others 2. Doing Service. The overall structure synthesized from the meaning units and themes was: "The lived experience of seeking health in recovery from sex addiction is dancing on the outer circle, connected to a community that understands fear, shame and the struggle to remain vigilant for pitfalls while intentionally refocusing on living an honest life of giving and receiving." Seeking health incorporates a holistic, community involved, multifaceted approach to recovery. Understanding how individuals seek health in recovery provides a framework to impart meaningful, sensitive nursing care. / by Lawren Mundy. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2013. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Research shows that the initial honeymoon phase of a marriage dissolves after some time and differences between the couple begin to hamper the harmony in the relationship. One of these differences is that attributed to gender. This study attempts to study these phases of the relationship. It approaches this issue from an inductive standpoint to counterbalance the deductive quality that pervades most literature in this field. A mixed qualitative and quantitative design was selected in a multiple case study format. An open style interview preceded and followed a Q-sorting exercise. Ten individuals (five couples) who have been married between five and ten years were studied. For several reasons, including the need to widen the cultural base of the research field, the study was conducted in Malta, a Mediterranean culture. The information provided by each participant (called coresearcher here to indicate the empowerment accorded to them in the research), was organized by re-casting it into a narrative form. The accuracy of the narrative was additionally validated by the respective co-researcher and an independent reviewer. The purpose was to construct individual and common stories of the marriage f r om the perspective of difference and harmony. Comparisons between individuals and gender revealed common factors, indicating the generic path of these relationships, and individual factors based on previous history, personality, gender and culture Individual life thanes, the dialectic pattern of relating, and phases i n the relationships were identified. Finally, the results were compared to previous research on love, relational development, gender differences, and attachment. The model of the dialectic was found to be a useful tool for understanding relationships and integrating research. Finally, the implications of this study on counselling, and possibilities for further research were discussed.

The aim of the study was to determine the influence/effect of discourses on love and marriage in the lives of people from their childhood uptil this day. Twelve people participated in the study. These participants were defined as being "white, Afrikaans speaking, married couples between 30 and 50 years of age, with or without children and belonging to a church in the RSA of the Reformed tradition". The study sought to discover how people respond to dominent and marginalised discourses on love and marriage and how they portray this in their marital relationship. A further objective was to reflect on some modernistic descriptions of discourses on love and marriage and the deconstruction thereof. Factors such as the marital relationship of the parents, peer groups, church dogma and theological interpretation, sex education at the time they grew up, culture, customs, etc. were related by each participant and contextualised within each life story. Interviews were conducted with each participant / Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology / M. Th. (Pastoral Therapy)

Research shows that the initial honeymoon phase of a marriage dissolves after some time and differences between the couple begin to hamper the harmony in the relationship. One of these differences is that attributed to gender. This study attempts to study these phases of the relationship. It approaches this issue from an inductive standpoint to counterbalance the deductive quality that pervades most literature in this field. A mixed qualitative and quantitative design was selected in a multiple case study format. An open style interview preceded and followed a Q-sorting exercise. Ten individuals (five couples) who have been married between five and ten years were studied. For several reasons, including the need to widen the cultural base of the research field, the study was conducted in Malta, a Mediterranean culture. The information provided by each participant (called coresearcher here to indicate the empowerment accorded to them in the research), was organized by re-casting it into a narrative form. The accuracy of the narrative was additionally validated by the respective co-researcher and an independent reviewer. The purpose was to construct individual and common stories of the marriage f r om the perspective of difference and harmony. Comparisons between individuals and gender revealed common factors, indicating the generic path of these relationships, and individual factors based on previous history, personality, gender and culture Individual life thanes, the dialectic pattern of relating, and phases i n the relationships were identified. Finally, the results were compared to previous research on love, relational development, gender differences, and attachment. The model of the dialectic was found to be a useful tool for understanding relationships and integrating research. Finally, the implications of this study on counselling, and possibilities for further research were discussed. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

This study considered the relationship between psychopathology and love. Agape love was defined as spontaneous and selfless love. The hypothesis tested was that people demonstrating psychopathology would make fewer positive responses to statements reflecting love than people free of psychopathology. The MMPI was utilized to measure the presence of psychopathology. The Atkinson A Scale (developed for this study) measured agape responses. Both these instruments were administered to 102 subjects in three groups: hospital patients, seminary students, and psychology students. Mean agape scores were subjected to a one-way analysis of variance, Significant difference among the group means was detected at the p <.05 level. A Scheffe test showed hospital patients' agape scores significantly lower than scores of seminary and psychology students. The initial hypothesis was confirmed,