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#1

COUPLES’ PROCESS OF HEALING FROM INFIDELITY WHILE IN THERAPY

Staples, J. (2012). Couples' process of healing from infidelity while in therapy. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.

Only three couples

participated in the study.

All of the couples reported characteristics of respect, patience, and validation of

their feelings and experience as beneficial interpersonal experiences with their therapists.

The purpose of the

proposed study was to investigate the client’s perspective of the process for healing from

infidelity. Additionally, the proposed study looked to qualitatively assess and amalgamate

participants’ experience of the healing process for infidelity. Themes and relationships

among these themes were identified using open, axial, and selective coding processes.

As explained by Anfara, Brown, and Mangione (2002), ensuring rigor of qualitative research happens when the research team’s actions of triangulation,

development of themes, and relationships between data sources and research questions are clearly articulated in the research report.

Two major differences arose in the results for the current study compared to Bird

et al.’s study (2007). First, Bird et al., (2007) describe the healing experience as a threephase

process with sub-processes within each phase. Although they acknowledge their

results presentation as a linear process being less accurate to a “circular, reciprocal

process” (p. 10), the varied experiences of the couples participating in the current study

suggest a circular process The second major difference was the description of forgiveness, that

forgiveness, like trust, is a gradual experience that occurs throughout therapy and even

after.

The implications of phenomenology’s assumptions are

1) the interpretation and perception of someone’s experience is important; and 2) the only

way for one to know or understand the experience of another is to experience, as closely

as possible, the phenomenon itself. Thus, arriving at a proximal experience of the

phenomenon itself is essential and methodologically occurs through participant

observation or in-depth interviews (Patton, 2002).

#2 Faith and Unfaithfulness:

Can Praying for Your Partner Reduce Infidelity?

Fincham, F., Lambert, N., & Beach, S. (2012). "Faith and unfaithfulness: Can praying for your partner reduce infidelity?": Correction to Fincham, Lambert, and Beach (2010). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(4), 594.

Twenty-three individuals from a large public

university situated in a semiurban setting in the Southeast participated

in the study for extra credit. They ranged in age from 18

years to 32 years, with a median age of 19 years, and they were

instructed to answer all questions about their romantic partner.

Only participants that reported being comfortable with prayer were

invited to participate in the study, and all others were informed of

an alternative extra credit opportunity.

The purpose of this control condition

was to examine the hypothesis that posttest differences in

infidelity were due to increased frequency of prayer, priming a

secure attachment figure, or to priming an external audience (God)

thereby decreasing negative behavior. We hypothesized that praying

specifically for the well-being of one’s partner would uniquely

contribute to the dependent variables above and beyond typical

prayer.

Given that we requested participants

in the prayer condition to pray for positive things for their

romantic partner, the goal of this control condition was to help rule

out the alternative hypothesis that it was simply the frequency of

positive thoughts people had toward their partner while they

prayed that caused any between-groups differences on follow-up

measures (cf. Tesser et al., 1995).

Our hypothesis

gained support as results revealed higher observer reports of

commitment among those in the prayer for partner condition

than among those in the positive-thought condition

controlling for initial self-reported relationship satisfaction. These

results suggest that the effect of praying for one’s partner on one’s

commitment is apparent even to objective observers

The practical implications

of the findings are necessarily limited to persons who

already believe in a supreme being and engage in prayer. Although

it is an empirical question; it seems likely that prayer would not

have similar effects for those who do not hold such beliefs and understudied in the area of close relationships and in psychology

more generally.

#3 Transformative Processes in Marriage:

An Analysis of Emerging Trends

Fincham, F., Stanley, S., & Beach, S. (2007). Transformative Processes in Marriage: An Analysis of Emerging Trends. Journal of Marriage and Family, 69(2), 275-292.

Evidence of a discontinuity in marital

satisfaction scores such that approximately 20%

of a community sample experienced marriage in

a way that was qualitatively, not merely quantitatively,

different from their peers.

A level of forgiveness in married Couples

may produce a continuing alternation between

values of relationship dissolution potential or

perhaps the emergence of a steady-state value

that exceeds the point needed to overcome external

constraints and initiate separation or divorce

One conclusion to be drawn from this research

is that positive behaviors are essential for a correct

characterization of the role of conflict in marital

outcomes, suggesting that marital outcomes are

not a simple linear function of marital conflict

In examining the exemplars

we now turn to forgiveness, commitment,

sacrifice, and sanctification one can see the

influence of social psychology

This framework captures insights from several

models and builds upon them (e.g., Gottman,

1994; Karney & Bradbury, 1995) by suggesting

that even couples with good marital skills may

fall victim to destructive marital patterns if they

do not have methods for self-repair.

The processes such as

forgiveness or commitment are themselves subject

to the effects of perturbations from outside

or inside the marital dyadic system, it is important

to consider the extent to which they are

themselves regulated by broader systems of

meaning. If these broader systems have sufficient

potency that they can help reset or regulate

the key dyadic relationship parameters that

control marital homeostasis, understanding their

role will be crucial in mapping out the functional

system that results in marital success or

failure.

As our brief review of the construct

of sanctification indicated, individuals often have

deep connections to particular systems of meaning

that in turn have implications for potential

control and influence variables such as commitment,

sacrifice, and forgiveness.

#4 THE ROLE OF TRAIT FORGIVENESS AND

RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION IN EPISODIC

FORGIVENESS

ALLEMAND, M., AMBERG, I., ZIMPRICH, D., & FINCHAM, F. (2007). The role of trait forgiveness and relationship satisfaction in episodic forgiveness. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 26(2), 199-217.

Participants (N = 180; 51 males and 129 females) were students (38.3%) and non–students (61.7%) recruited from courses at University of Zurich and through flyers posted on campus.

Personality characteristics constitute enduring individual and also interpersonal vulnerabilities and protective factors (e.g., neuroticism, negative childhood experiences, coping capacities or skills, general assumptions about relationships, attribution styles).

our results show that trait forgiveness interacts with relationship satisfaction in predicting epi-sodic forgiveness; high trait forgiveness is related to high episodic for-givenness in satisfied relationships but is related to low episodic forgiveness in dissatisfied relationships. Such findings show that the construct of forgiveness has the potential to enhance our understanding of close relationships.

Participants filled out ets of materials comprising a relationship satisfaction questionnaire, a trait forgiveness questionnaire, an interper-sonal transgression recall sheet, and an episodic forgiveness questionnaire (Relationship Satisfaction, Trait Forgiveness, Episodic Forgiveness,

In support of our first hypothesis, the results indicated that the disposition to respond to transgressions in a forgiving manner was related to higher scores in episodic forgiveness in the context of a real–life inter-personal hurt.

This phenomenon has two important implications in the present con-text. First, it provides a plausible third variable explanation for any asso-ciation found between the two measures of forgiveness. It is therefore important to demonstrate that any association between trait forgiveness and episodic forgiveness in relationships is independent of relationship satisfaction. Second, it is possible that the association between trait and episodic forgiveness varies as a function of level of satisfaction such that at low levels of satisfaction trait forgiveness is related to episodic for-giveness whereas at high levels trait forgiveness, and episodic forgive-ness are unrelated

#5 Marital Quality, Forgiveness, Empathy, and Rumination:

A Longitudinal Analysis

Paleari, F., Regalia, C., & Fincham, F. (2005). Marital Quality, Forgiveness, Empathy, and Rumination: A Longitudinal Analysis. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(3), 368-378.

As a part of a larger longitudinal study, 198 married couples were recruited from north Italy.

Focusing on a college student sample, only McCullough, Rachal, et al. has analyzed forgiveness in relation both to preoffense and postoffense closeness.

In the present study, we examined the concurrent and longitudinal relationships among relevant sociocogni-tive variables (emotional empathy and rumination), relational variables (marital quality), and forgiveness.

Couples participated in the study at two time points separated by a 6-month interval. Paired t tests indicated that spouses who provided data for both phases of the study (119 husbands and 124 wives) did not differ from those who provided data for the first phase only in terms of demographics or any of the variables investigated

The findings are consistent with previous results showing that emotional empathy is a better predictor of forgiveness in husbands than in wives, whereas cognitive factors, such as attributions for the marital offense, are more predictive of forgiveness in wives than in husbands (Fincham et al., 2002).

Notwithstanding these concerns, our study helps ad-vance understanding of marital forgiveness and its corre-lates in several ways. Besides confirming previous cross-sectional results, linking marital forgiveness to relational and sociocognitive variables, it is among the first to con-sider the stability of forgiveness across different events within marriage and the potential reciprocal causal influence between forgiveness and marital quality over time.

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