Distressed relationships may be emotionally and economically costly to the couple, their families, and the community in which they reside. Given the current political endorsements, convenience, efficiency, capacity for prevention, and overall lower cost of psychoeducational workshops, they should be explored for efficacy. Are they providing the promoters and participants with a viable option? Is there a possibility to improve any part of these options for optimizing their effectiveness? Using a qualitative method in the Grounded Theory Tradition, this study explored the input of 14 participants who attended an eight-hour, one day, psychoeducational workshop. The workshop was based on a faithful presentation of Dr. John Gottman's couple's research. Attendees became "active participants" by agreeing to provide personal information about their relationships and offering their perspectives at scheduled intervals during the workshop. The participants were interviewed one month after the workshop to ascertain what, if anything, they had found to be useful about the workshop. Sampling was an opportunity sample open to couples ages 18 and over who were married or unmarried, having children or without children, and although only heterosexual couples responded, it was open to all sexual orientations. The findings obtained were triangulated consisting of written surveys from the participants, the researcher's field notes, and the participants' audio-taped post- intervention interviews. The following twelve themes emerged: 1) Communication, Acceptable; 2) Communication, Unacceptable; 3) Conflict, Resolved; 4) Conflict, Unresolved; 5) Connectedness; 6) Disconnectedness; 7) Family, Acceptable; 8) Family, Unacceptable; 9) Finances, Managed; 10) Finances, Unmanaged; 11) Planning, Acceptable; and 12) Planning, Unacceptable. Initially, the participants indicated that they were focused on improving their communication and conflict resolution skills, but their participation level and expressed interests in specific blocks of information appeared to change throughout the workshop day. The Gottman concepts which indicated higher participant interest were again indicated in the post-intervention interview responses. Post-intervention interview questions one through four were coded using the existing themes. The following ten themes emerged: 1) Communication, Acceptable; 2) Communication, Unacceptable; 3) Conflict, Resolved; 4) Conflict, Unresolved; 5) Connectedness; 6) Disconnectedness; 7) Family, Acceptable; 8) Family, Unacceptable; 9) Finances, Managed; and 10) Planning, Acceptable. The theme Connectedness was coded considerably more times than the others. Conflict Resolution and Communication, Acceptable were discussed by the participants very heavily along with Planning, Acceptable. Lastly, for post intervention interview question number five, the participants were asked to rank-order their answers to question three and four relative to their perceived usefulness. Their number one choices were coded using the existing themes and the findings in descending order of use were: 1) Connectedness; 2) Communication, Acceptable; and 3) Conflict, Resolved. This corroborated the findings of the final coding seen in the post-intervention interviews questions one through four. However, the final distribution of the participants' rank ordered answers to post-intervention interview question number five indicated a slight deviation in that the specific Gottman concept of Conflict Resolution was cited fourth overall as being useful. This shift in focus may have indicated that, although the participants had continuing concerns for coping with their relational communication skills and ability to resolve their conflicts, they were finding it important to look deeper for causal and resolution factors as well as prioritizing what may actually be important within their relationships. The interviews, written surveys, and field notes agreed: The participants found that the workshop was helpful because of the above factors and because they were developing and putting into action some of the workshop information. The high degree of participation after some blocks of workshop information was reflected in the participants' choices for useful Gottman concepts indicating a need for more research into the usefulness of participation in a workshop format. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of
Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / February 29, 2012. / Couples Counseling / Includes bibliographical references. / Robert E. Lee, Professor Directing Dissertation; David Gussak, University Representative; Christine A. Readdick, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_182780 |
| Contributors | Brand, Columbus Edward (authoraut), Lee, Robert E. (professor directing dissertation), Gussak, David (university representative), Readdick, Christine A. (committee member), Department of Family and Child Sciences (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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