Comparison of the Effectiveness of Schema-Focused and Life Style-Focused Group Training on Cognitive Insight Enhancement in Couples with Marital Dissatisfaction

Most interventions and therapeutic methods seek to enhance the couples’ self-awareness, or the so-called insight levels. The aims of this study were to investigate the effectiveness of schema-focused and life style-focused group training interventions on enhancement of cognitive insight in couples with marital dissatisfaction. After applying the inclusionary criteria (scoring lower than 40 in ENRICH questionnaire, having at least amid-school degree, being married for more than two years, having no history of separation or divorce) and the exclusionary criteria (history of mental disorder or inpatient, substance use, candidate for divorce)106 couples from among the clients of public and private counseling centers in Iran’s Khoi province were screened. Then 90 subjects (husbands and wives) were randomly assigned to two experimental groups of schema-focused training (N=30) and lifestyle-focused training (N=30) and one control group (N=30). The interventions consisted of 11 sessions (1.5 hour each) for the experimental groups; the control group did not receive any interventions and was placed on the waiting list. Immediately upon implementation of the interventions, posttests and one month later a follow up test were administered on all the three groups. Findings showed that both schema-focused and life style-focused interventions were effective on enhancement of cognitive insight. Also findings showed that self-reflection was influenced by both interventions but self-certainty was not influenced by either intervention.There is no significant difference between two interventions about effectiveness on enhancement of cognitive insight. Schema-focused and life style-focused group training interventions may be used as an effective, inexpensive, and easy method to administer interventions to enhance cognitive insight by family and couple counselors.