The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of Marital Expectation Training (MET) upon communication style and problem solving ability of marital couples. Couples were randomly assigned to either an experimental, comparison, or waiting list group; the final sample consisted of five couples (10 subjects) in each group. Those in the experimental group participated in MET, which is a structured marital enrichment program designed to provide conflict management skills training to couples. Those in the comparison group participated in a marital enrichment group devoid of skill training while couples on a waiting list received no treatment. / The research design was a pretest-posttest control group design. The instruments used were the Marital Communication Inventory (MCI), the Handling Problems Change Scale (HPCS), the Marital Interaction Coding System (MICS), and the Relationship Belief Inventory (RBI). Data analysis included analysis of covariance and the Scheffe test of multiple contrasts. / Results indicated that couples who participated in MET significantly differed at posttest from the comparison and waiting list couples on the HPCS and MICS measure of problem solving ability. No posttest differences were found between the three groups in the MCI, RBI, or MICS communication skills measure. It was concluded that MET appears to be effective in teaching problem solving skills to couples, but does not appear to have an immediate positive effect on couples' communication skills or beliefs about intimate relationships. Recommendations for further research are offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-02, Section: A, page: 0389. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_75037 |
| Contributors | PETY, JOHN ROBERT., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 144 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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