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P r o c e d i a - S o c i a l a n d B e h a v i o r a l S c i e n c e s 8 2 ( 2 0 1 3 ) 4 6 1 – 4 6 5
1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Kobus Maree, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
doi: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.06.293
W
orld Conference on Psychology and Sociology 201
2
A
Stud
y
o
n th
e
Eff
ec
ti
ve
n
ess
o
f Emotional Focused Couple
Therapy on Intimacy of
C
ouple
s
A
zadeh
S
oltani a*,
J
avad Molazadeh
b
, M
o
hamma
d
Mahm
ood
ic,Samaneh Hosseini
d
a
M
.A in Clinical Psychology, Shiraz University, Iran
b
Assistant Professor of clinical psychology, Shiraz University, Iran
b
c
M
.A in Clinical Psychology, Shiraz University, Iran
M.A in Clinica l Psychology, Islamic Azad
ddd University, Science and research branch, fars, Iran
A
bs
tra
ct
I
n this study, the effectiveness of Emotional Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) on intimacy of couples was investigated. The
Q
uasi-experimental design with pr
e
-
t
est, post-
t
est and control group was
u
sed. Accordingly, 14 couples that had marital
c
onflicts were chosen from two counselling centre of the Shiraz city by screening. Couples were randomly assigned in two
g
roups, including an experimental (7 couples) and a control (7 couples) groups. All of t
h
e participants completed Intimac
y
Needs Questionnaire. After one week treatment sessions were executed on the experimental group. The experimental group
rece
i
ved
8-10 sessions of emotionally focused couple therapy that each session lasted two hours. One week aft
e
r th
e e
n
d o
f
t
reatment sessions, the participants completed the questionnaire agai
n
T-
t
est results of pr
e
-
t
est and post-
tes
t r
eve
al
ed
that
t
here is a significant difference between the two groups in intimacy. Further results (MANOVA) showed that EF
C
T increased
emotional, psychological, sexual, physical, relationship, temporal and intellectual intimacy, but there was no significant
difference between the two groups in social-
r
ecreational and spiritual intimacy. Authors concluded that EFCT increased
i
ntimacy in experimental group compared with the control group. 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Kobus Mare
e
,
University of Pretoria, South
A
fri
c
a.
Keywords: Emotional Focused Couple Therapy, Intimacy, Dimension of intimacy;
1. Intr
oduc
ti
o
n
Marriage is one of the most important human consist of two people with the talents and abilities and with
d
iff
e
r
e
nt n
eeds
an
d d
iff
e
r
e
nt int
e
r
es
t
s o
f th
e
v
arious characters
,
in a word. consist of different characteristics
(
Goldenberg & Goldenber
g
,
2002). T
h
e main reason for getting married is love life with a partner, satisfyin
g
em
o
ti
o
nal needs-
m
ental and increase happin ess and contentmen t
(
B
ornstein
&
Bo
r
n
s
t
e
i
n
, 1995). Creating and
m
aintaining satisfying intimate relationships and emotional, psychological needs during marriage is a skill and an
*
C
orresponding author:
A
zadeh
S
oltani . T
e
l
.:
+98-917-711-6360
E-
mail add
r
ess
:ailin2
00
4
60
@
yahoo.co
m
Avai lable onli ne a t www.sciencedirect.com
© 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer review under the responsibility of Prof. Dr. Kobus Maree, University of Pretoria, South Africa.
462 Azadeh Soltani et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 82 ( 2013 ) 461 – 465
art. In addition, mental health and primary health experiences needs to have logical skills and attitudes required
to perform specific tasks (Bagarozzi, 2001). An intimate marital relationship requires that couples learn to
communicate with each other and be different. In other word, intimacy, feeling of closeness support that the
couple have about each other and one of the most important needs of the couple and characteristic of a successful
and happy couples conflict arises when the couple are due to varying degree of autonomy and collaboration,
show different level of independence and solidarity that these different can be classified in a continuum from
mild conflict to severe conflict. Marital conflict is due to response to individual differences (Young & Long,
1998). Since the introduction of divorce and separation is marital conflict and if not controlled by a way to solve
this problem, marriage ends in divorce, psychologists and counselors should provide guideline for the prevention
and treatment should be sought.
There are several approaches for treatment of problems to intimacy and couples compatibility. One of these
approaches, emotional focused couples therapy (EFCT), a relatively short-term, structured approach that is
designed to run in 8 to 20 sessions. This treatment was presented in the early 1980, as a response to the lack of
reliable and coherent interference. That is more humanistic and less of a behavioral intervention. This treatment
was named Emotion-Focused in order to consider excitement as a major factor for the change. EFCT emphasizes
on excitement as a central factor in marital distress and marital therapy (Lavis-Sorokowski, 2003).
Johnson (2002), based on his clinical experience declared that dissatisfaction with relationships is the result of
failure of an attachment in a relation, that one of the couple or both, are seeking for a reliable support. Interest in
the relationship between husband and wife characterized mutually and full of love, so that both of them feel
intimacy and security (Johnson, Makinen & Millikin, 2001). Secured bonds can be identified by the assessment
of availability and accountability of partners. In fact it's because of these secured bonds that partners become able
to help each other through the managing of emotional turmoil (Johnson, 2004). Accessibility means that when
one of partners see that the other one shows signs of distress, be emotionally physically available for him or her.
Unaccountable and inaccessible means when one of the partners is in the mental and physical needs of the other
causes insecure attachment (Johnson & Whiffen, 1999). In this approach, the excitement has been demonstrated
as a complex concept, schemata and motor responses that shape the basis for understanding the new meaning of
experience and creation of meaning (Johnson & Greenberg, 1985). Johnson and Best (2001) say that "excitement
shows our inner understanding from orientation towards important issues and says our needs and desires. The
excitement is the main key for cognitions and a guide for creation of meaning. It also reflected the natural feeling
of self and another. Excitement is the key to quick and convincing way. Excitement is a communicator with
others in our internal states, especially in the context of attachment relationship, is very true. Excitement which is
the primary indication system organizes mutual reactions and tracks interactions between the two people."
In EFCT process, emotion is a device that is used by the therapist for couple change. Emotions give the
chance to person to express its internal aspects for anything outside itself. Expressions of emotions are the
relationships between internal and external experiences. Emotions need to be recognized and translated to
understandable messages and constructive actions (Greenberg & Paivio, 1997).
2. Method
2.1. Participants
Research method is quasi-experimental and pretest-posttest with control group was used. Accordingly, 14
couples (28 individuals) that had marital conflicts (was marked by Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS)) were chosen
from two counseling center of the Shiraz city by screening. Couples were randomly assigned in two groups,
including an experimental (7 couples) and a control (7 couples) groups. All of the participants completed
Intimacy Needs Questionnaire. After one week, treatment sessions were executed on the experimental group. The
experimental group received 8-10 sessions of emotionally focused couple therapy that each session lasted two
hours. One week after the end of treatment sessions, the participants completed the questionnaire again.
463
Azadeh Soltani et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 82 ( 2013 ) 461 – 465
2.2. Measures
2.2.1. Intimacy Needs Questionnaire (2006):
This questionnaire by Oliya (2006) and according to nine spheres of intimacy (emotional, psychological,
sexual, physical, relationship, temporal, intellectual, social-recreational and spiritual) is made that firstly was
introduced by Bagarozzi (2001). This questionnaire consists of 85 items and measures nine dimensions of
intimacy. Statements are rated on a scale of 1 (always) to 4 (never). Minimum score is 85 and maximum is 340.
The higher score in this questionnaire indicates greater marital intimacy. To evaluate the concurrent validity of
the test, the maker used the intimacy scale of Walker and Thompson. Correlation results between the two test was
0.92 (p<0.01). Cronbach alpha was used to determine the reliability that was equal to 0.98 and in the current
investigation alpha coefficient is equal to 0.97. In order to determine the validity of the test the researcher used
the factor analysis. The result shows that all dimensions explained the total variance that is totally 55.07 percent
of the total variance.
2.2.2. Intervention Method:
This treatment program is obtained specifically by using the book's practical guide to EFCT (Johnson, 2004).
Process of change in EFCT clearly depends on treatment processes and configuration problems that firstly raised
the couple to seek treatment. EFCT has 3 stages and 9 steps. In this part of the process and purpose of each step
is briefly described in table (1):
Table 1. Stages and Steps of Emotional Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT)
Stage I:
Disaster reduction cycle
Step1: describe the issues of conflict
Step2: id entifying the nega tive i nteraction cycle t hat keeps couple in distress and preve nting
secure link
Step3: accessing unknown emotions that are based interactive situations
Step4: re shaping probl em in terms of basic emotion s and atta chment need s
Stage II:
Interactive situations
change
Step5: increase identify needs and aspects of self that have been ignored
Step6: increase adoption of partner's experiences and new ways of interacting
Step7: facilitate the needs and demands and the emotional involvement
Stage III:
Merger & consolidation
Step8: fa cilita te the incidence of new solutions for old issues and proble ms
Step9: integration of new situations that couples have acquired about each other
3. Results
In order to assess the effectiveness of couple's therapy based on emotion, the intimacy of its dimension, with
using the difference between the pre-test post-test score of the experimental and control groups, independent t-
test and multivariate analysis of variance was used. The results are listed in following tables:
Table 2. results of the independent t-test for differential pre-test and post-test scores
Number
Average of
difference
Standard
deviation
t
df
Significance
level
Experimental group
14
30.33
21.52
5.17
26
0.001
Control group
14
2.64
5.31
464 Azadeh Soltani et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 82 ( 2013 ) 461 – 465
As seen in table 2 the mean differential scores has been presented which obtained in the pre-test and post-test
by two groups of control and experimental. Due to obtained t which is significant in p<0.001, we can conclude
that couples therapy based on emotion, has increased the couple's intimacy.
To evaluate the effectiveness of couple's therapy based on the dimension of emotional intimacy, first, the
difference between the scores of pre-test and past-test was computed in intimacy dimensions and then by
multivariate analysi
=0.07, F=22.01, p<0.001).
In pursuance reviews and the difference between intimacy factor and realize that in terms of which dimension
of intimacy between two groups, there is a significant difference. Separately analysis of variance was performed
in the text of MANOVA. The results of this analysis are given in the table 3:
Table 3: the resul ts of one-way ana lysis of variance in text of MANOVA
to compare intimacy dimension of subject of two groups
Dimension of
intimacy
Total
square
df
Mean
square
F
Significance
level
Emotional
131.53
1
131.53
11.76
0.002
Psychological
603.79
1
603.79
61.75
0.0001
Sexual
39.23
1
39.23
9.95
0.004
Physical
15.23
1
15.23
12.56
0.002
Spiritu al
16.69
1
16.69
2.51
0.126
Relationship
140.71
1
140.71
17.66
0.0001
Intellectual
59.08
1
59.08
6.90
0.01
Temporal
55.86
1
55.86
19.11
0.0001
Social-Recreational
14.77
1
14.77
6.07
0.021
According to table 3 it is seen that the difference between experimental and control groups in dimensions of
emotional, psychological, sexual, physical, relationship, temporal and intellectual intimacy is significant
(p<0.01), but there was no significant difference between the two groups in social-recreational and spiritual
intimacy.
4. Discussion
This research studies the effectiveness of emotional focused couple therapy on intimacy and its aspects. The
findings of this study show that "emotional focused couple therapy increases the level of marital intimacy". Also
"usage of emotional focused couple therapy increases the different dimension of marital intimacy such as
intimacy of emotional, psychological, sexual, physical, relationship, temporal and intellectual but doesn't increase
the social-recreational and spiritual intimacy of couple.
The results of some studies are same as the results of this study like: Dandeneau and Johnson (1994) that
studied intimacy and marital adjustment after performing two approaches of emotion focused couple therapy
(EFCT) and cognitive marital therapy (CMT). In this study, both groups EFCT and CMT presented higher post-
test scores significantly on the subscales of intimacy and marital adjustment compare to control group. However,
the results showed significant difference in favor of EFCT in scale of intimacy. While in the follow up period, the
mean adjustment and intimacy of EFCT was significantly higher than CMT. Also in the research which is done
by Denton, Burleson, Clark, Rodriguez & Hobbs (2002) from 40 couples who are participated in the pilot,
randomly separated to two groups of EFCT (22 couples) and waiting list group (18 couples). Therapy sessions
held over 8 weekly sessions. Comparing the results in couples which received EFCT compared to waiting list
465
Azadeh Soltani et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 82 ( 2013 ) 461 – 465
shows significantly the higher level of dyadic adjustment, positive emotions and personal assessment of intimacy
in relationship. The results of Bakter (2005) research showed that usage of EFCT can be useful in the treatment
of communicational problems. He studied on 30 couples who had trouble in making intimate relationships with
their partners. He found out that the lack of intimate relationships of wives with their husbands is because of their
failure to express emotions and feeling and also lack of knowledge and cognition of their own feelings. These
women always feel fear, embarrassment and shame in a friendly and close relationship with their husbands and
because of this reason; they had feeling of dissatisfaction from their husbands. So usage of EFCT for these
women could be effective in establishing intimate relationships with their spouses in compatibility with the
feeling and perceptions of them. According to EFCT efforts to make the couples responder emotionally and
physically to each other and encouragement of it for availability of a spouse in order to fulfill the physical and
psychological needs of each other (Johnson & Whiffen, 1999); by the use of this approach increase of intimacy
of couple is predictable.
According to previous research, except the research which is done by Johnson & Greenberg (1985) there was
not found any other research which had examined partially the dimensions of intimacy. In the study of Johnson &
Greenberg (1985), couples were measured based on marital adjustment scale, major complaints and intimacy in a
relationship. The results showed that there are significant differences between pre-test and post-test scores of the
groups. Also the 2 month follow up showed that couples of EFCT group were found better performance in
marital adjustment, intellectual intimacy and following the traditions compare to solution-focused group.
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