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URL: http://ijpcp.iums.ac.ir/article-1-3036-en.html
2- Department of General Psychology, Faculty of Education & Psychology, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Isfahan, Iran. ,
1. Introduction
Premarital preparation course is a new approach to prevent and eliminate dissatisfaction with marriage, where couples learn how to have a successful and lasting matrimony. Accordingly, premarital counseling is an educational, therapeutic, and preventive method. Preventive approaches have two major goals: improving family life and preventing divorce. The theories and models proposed in the field of marriage clarifies that various factors affect the stability of marriage. One of the most important factors is the personality traits of couples. On the other hand, maintaining romantic and satisfying relationships requires the ability to recognize and express emotions. Emotional expressiveness refers to a facial movement, bodily behavior, or verbal expression that communicates an emotional state in a special and reliable way.
Previous studies suggest that emotional expression is associated with the individuals’ personality traits. One of the new topics in the field of typology in psychology, especially in Iran is the nine-personality types known as “enneagram”. It is a system consisting of nine personality types that addresses the strengths and weakness of each type and provides a global language that helps people better understand themselves and others. The enneagram diagram consists of a triangle and a hexagon enclosed within a circle. The combination of these elements creates nine points along the circle. Each of these nine points provides a strategy for interacting with the environment which affects personality and identifies nine distinct personality types (Figure 1).
The study of emotional expression in couples applying for marriage is important, theoretically and functionally, because our greater understanding of the personality traits that influences emotional expression can lead to a better understanding of this phenomenon, especially in the premarital phase. To the best of our knowledge, no enneagram-based interventional program has been developed to affect the emotional expression of couples. Thus, the present study is the first study aimed to develop an educational package based on enneagram types to affect the emotional expressiveness of couples preparing for marriage.
2. Methods
Study subjects
This quasi-experimental study was conducted on 30 couples in premarital phase selected using a convenience sampling technique and randomly assigned into intervention and control groups, after meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The inclusion criteria were: having a high school degree, not attending other premarital educational courses before entering the study, age 20-35 years, and no previous marriage and training. The exclusion criteria including: absent for more than two training session, being under both training and counseling, and having any mental disease that can prevent attending training sessions according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition (DSM-5) criteria diagnosed by a psychiatrist. The subjects in both groups completed the Emotional Expressiveness Questionnaire (EEQ) before the study, and 45 days after the end of intervention. The educational package was presented to the intervention group at ten 90-min sessions once a week. The control group received no information but was informed to receive the package later.
Developing the educational Package
The enneagram-based educational package was developed based on the study literature, the emotional expression predictors, and existing enneagram principles provided by experts in Iran and other countries. Then, the objectives, contents, and assignments were evaluated. By combining and matching techniques and the related emotional expression components including behaviors, attitudes and views, needs and desires, fears and concerns, and defense mechanisms, a guideline was formulated entitled “A guide to the enneagram with a focus on emotional expression”, aiming to affect the emotional expressiveness of marriage applicants. Then, it’s the initial packages were distributed among five premarital consultants with a PhD degree in premarital education, and were asked to rate the structure and content of each session based on a Likert scale. The final version was then confirmed after modifications. Then, the effect of the designed package on the emotional expressiveness of couples was assessed using ANCOVA.
3. Results
The results indicated that the designed enneagram-based intervention could significantly affect the emotional expressiveness of the study couples. There was a significant difference between the scores of intervention and control groups after intervention (P<0.05) (Table 1).
4. Discussion
The enneagram-based educational package could significantly affect the behaviors, attitudes and views, needs and desires, fears and concerns, defense mechanisms and, consequently, the emotional expressiveness of couples. These findings support the results of previous studies. Since the enneagram-based tasks continued after the end of intervention and the couples were supposed to perform them at home, it was observed that after 45 days the improvements were significantly continued, indicating the stable effect of the educational intervention. It is suggested that further studies should be conducted tp compare the effect of enneagram-based educational package on the emotional expressiveness of couples with the effect of other personality-related educational tools.
Ethical Considerations
Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study obtained its ethical approval from the Research Ethics Committee of Islamic Azad University of Khorasgan branch (Code: IR.IAU.KHUISF.REC.1397.058). The participants were informed about the study objectives and methods and were also assured of the confidentiality of their information. They were allowed to leave the study at any time.
Funding
This study was extracted from the PhD. thesis of the first author approved by the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Psychology & Educational Science, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Islamic Azad University.
Authors contributions
Conceptualization, data analysis, project administration: All authors; Methodology: Mohsen Golparvar, Farnaz Navabifar; Investigation, resources, initial draft preparation, editing and review: Farnaz Navabifar.
Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest.
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Received: 2019/07/27 | Accepted: 2020/01/12 | Published: 2020/04/1
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