Running head: Marital Distress
Determining the Cause of Marital Distress
Tiffany Leisure
Dr. Griffith
Psyc 3210
13 April 2006
Introduction
When a couple makes the final commitment to get married, they usually do not anticipate the problems that will occur or the fights that they will have. If the couple is lucky, they will receive marriage counseling before their relationship becomes irresolvable. However, the growing divorce rates show that most couples do not receive such help. The purpose of these two diagnosis systems is to help marriage counselors determine the cause of marital distress so as to know a place to start when helping a couple work out their problems. When using these diagnosis systems more than one cause might be plausible, in that case the counselor should choose the problem that is most pertinent. Fixing the most pertinent problem may not solve all of the couple’s problems, but it is a place to start.
Diagnosis System 1: Communication
One way of viewing a couple’s problems is to look at how they are communicating. No matter what problem they may be dealing with, if either partner lacks appropriate communication skills, they will not be able to adequately solve the problem. Any discussion of any problem will leave tension and, many times, hurt feelings. There are four causes involved in this system:
|
Cause |
Description |
|
A. Dishonesty |
One or both partners are lying or hiding information |
|
B. Lack of assertion skills |
One or both partners handle conflict abusively or try to force his or her ideas on the other person. One or both partners handle conflict by being passive and/or agreeable in order to avoid conflict. |
|
C. Lack of intimacy |
One or both partners have trouble sharing his or her deeper thoughts and feelings. This may also include trouble in the couple’s physical relationship. |
|
D. Distrust |
One or both partners do not trust the other for one reason or another. |
The purpose of this system is to learn what communication problems the couple is having in order so as to help them learn how to better communicate. Although learning how a couple communicates and helping them communicate better can solve many of their problems, using this system does not allow the counselor to learn what problems the couple is having outside of their problems communicating.
Diagnosis System 2: Socioeconomic
When two people decide to get married they each come into the marriage with certain expectations about the marriage and about his or her partner. When these expectations are not met, there is tension within the marriage. This set of expectations is what is known as a social role. There is a certain set of rights and duties that are associated with the social role of being a husband or wife. For the purposes of this study, a social role is defined as a set of rights, duties, and expectations that are associated with a particular social position. Many times, social roles within marriage involve expectations about money and income, such as who is making it and who is spending it. Also, a low amount of income can affect the couple’s social status which can cause further distress on the couple. There are three causes involved in this system:
|
Cause |
Description |
|
A. Financial |
Arguments arise due to lack of money, loss of income, or disagreements on how to spend money. |
|
B. Social roles within the relationship |
Arguments arise due to one or partners not fulfilling the social role which the other partner expects of him or her. This could include abuse and sexual expectations. A social role is defined as a set of rights, duties, and expectations that are associated with a particular social position. |
|
C. Social roles outside of the relationship |
Arguments arise due to one or both partners fearing the disapproval of friends, family, or society in general because one or both partners are not fulfilling the proper social role. A social role is defined as a set of rights, duties, and expectations that are associated with a particular social position. |
The purpose of this system is to diagnose the cause of distress based on their social expectations of themselves and of each other. With this system the counselor is able to learn about what the couple is arguing about, but does not know how they are communicating their thoughts and feelings.
Method
To test the reliability of these diagnostic systems, ten diagnosticians were given to two systems as well as three case studies that they were to diagnose the cause of marital distress based upon the two systems. To test the validity, an expert was chosen do the same as the ten diagnosticians. The expert is a psychology professor who has been married for sixteen years.
The Case Studies
The following case studies are summaries of the interviews in Marital crisis and short-term counseling: a casebook by Freeman, D. (1982).
Case Study 1
Jim and Ellen Victor, ages 23 and 21 respectively, have been married for sixteen months. They had dated for a year before getting married. A month before the wedding they tried to have intercourse, but the attempt failed because the experience was extremely painful for her and he was unable to make penetration. During this time, both Jim and Ellen were afraid of what their parents would think of their attempt at premarital intercourse since both sets of parents Catholic. Even after sixteen months of marriage, intercourse was still painful. Their bad sex life led Ellen to have an affair. When Ellen told him about the affair, Jim would not express his anger to her. Instead, he insists that she was taken advantage of.
Case Study 2
Walter and June Peters, ages 33 and 28 respectively, have been married for five months. Prior to getting married, they had been living in the same apartment for three and a half years. With pressuring from her mother, June had insisted that they get married and threatened to leave him if they did not. June’s mother had always resented her dating Walter, especially since she has depended June for comfort after the death of June’s father. Eventually, June decided she wanted a life of her own so she suggested that they get an apartment together. After this, they had little contact with her mother because her mother disagreed with her decision. Recently, her mother has come back into the picture, insisting that they come to her house for Sunday dinners and they buy expensive things. Walter resents both of these ideas. This problem also leads to them having arguments about money. Walter believes Junes overspends; June believes Walter is too tight.
Case Study 3
Mr. and Mrs. Martin, ages 36 and 34 respectively, have been married for eleven years and have three children, ages 9, 7, and 2. Mr. Martin wants a separation; Mrs. Martin does not. Mr. Martin claims that he can not respect his wife, he can not talk to her, her interests are petty, and she always complains. Mrs. Martin claims that he always argues her down and tells her she does not have any brains. Mr. Martin interrupts and responds to her angrily. She reacts tense and frozen; she responds to him only quietly with a small voice. A year and a half ago, Mr. Martin and his friend decided to open a toy store, but it required that he moved. Mrs. Martin did not want to leave because she wanted to be near her family and, at the time, their youngest child was still a baby with recurrent colds. He claims that if she really loved him, she would have been willing to leave within a few months. Mr. Martin believes that he is doing all of this work for the betterment of his family and feels unappreciated.
The Results
The following tables show the results of the responses from each of the ten diagnosticians in when using the two systems to diagnose the three case studies.
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Case 1 |
|
System 1 |
|
|
|
|
System 2 |
|
|
|
Cause A |
Cause B |
Cause C |
Cause D |
|
Cause A |
Cause B |
Cause C |
|
1 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
2 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
3 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
x |
|
4 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
5 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
6 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
7 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
8 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
9 |
x |
|
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
10 |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
Case 2 |
|
System 1 |
|
|
|
|
System 2 |
|
|
|
Cause A |
Cause B |
Cause C |
Cause D |
|
Cause A |
Cause B |
Cause C |
|
1 |
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
2 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
x |
|
3 |
|
|
x |
|
|
x |
|
|
|
4 |
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
5 |
|
|
|
x |
|
x |
|
|
|
6 |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
7 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
x |
|
8 |
x |
|
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
9 |
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
10 |
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
Case 3 |
|
System 1 |
|
|
|
|
System 2 |
|
|
|
Cause A |
Cause B |
Cause C |
Cause D |
|
Cause A |
Cause B |
Cause C |
|
1 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
2 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
3 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
4 |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
x |
|
|
5 |
|
x |
|
|
|
x |
|
|
|
6 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
7 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
8 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
|
|
9 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
|
x |
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10 |
|
x |
|
|
|
|
x |
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The following table shows the tabulation of the diagnosticians’ responses. Also, the shaded boxes indicate the answer given by the expert.
|
|
|
Case 1 |
Case 2 |
Case 3 |
|
|
|
Dx 1 |
Cause A |
1 |
1 |
0 |
|
Reliability |
|
Cause B |
1 |
6 |
9 |
|
23/30 |
|
|
Cause C |
8 |
1 |
0 |
|
Validity |
|
|
Cause D |
0 |
2 |
1 |
|
19/30 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Dx 2 |
Cause A |
0 |
6 |
1 |
|
Reliability |
|
Cause B |
5 |
1 |
8 |
|
19/30 |
|
|
Cause C |
5 |
3 |
1 |
|
Validity |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
16/30 |
|
|
|
Reliability |
13/30 |
12/30 |
17/30 |
|
|
|
|
Validity |
13/30 |
5/30 |
17/30 |
|
|
Diagnosis System 1 yielded 77% reliability and 63% validity. Diagnosis System 2 yielded 63% reliability and 53% validity. Case Study 1 yielded 43% reliability and 43% validity. Case Study 2 yielded 40% reliability and 16% validity. Case Study 3 yielded 57% reliability and 57% validity.
Discussion
Determining the
most pertinent cause of marital distress is not always clear or easy. Both of these systems fail to clearly
diagnose the cause of marital distress, because the reliability and validity of
both diagnosis systems were found to be weak.
Both systems could have been improved if they relied more upon
measurable statistics. This study shows
that there are many dimensions to marital problems that must be accounted for
before a cause can be determined; measurable statistics would have helped account
for these dimensions.
Although the two systems were not as reliable or as valid as I would have liked, this assignment helped me to learn the difficulty of creating a diagnosis system. It gave me a better appreciation for the DSM-IV because, even with all its faults, it does a fairly decent job of diagnosing disorders. This assignment also helped me understand the concepts of reliability and validity better.
References
Freeman,
D. (1982). Marital crisis and short-term counseling: a casebook.