The Effectiveness of Positive Psychotherapy on Marital Satisfaction, Love-Making Styles and Happiness among Couples

Love and marital satisfaction are factors which will undoubtedly affect the growth of individuals and families. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of positive psychotherapy on marital satisfaction, love-making styles and couples happiness.

This study was of semi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and control group. The statistical population of the study consisted of all couples referred to counseling centers in Tehran, among whom 60 people were selected by convenience sampling method and divided into two experimental and control groups, each including 30 participants. Data were collected via Enrich’s marital satisfaction questionnaire, Sternberg’s love-making styles questionnaire and Oxford’s Happiness questionnaire. Data analysis was done using descriptive statistics and covariance analysis by SPSS software version 22.

The mean (SD) age of the participants in the experimental group was 42.7 (4.8) years and 42 (4.55) in the control group. The mean (SD) score of marital satisfaction in the pre-test of the experimental group increased from 46.8 (4.3) to 51.2 (6.2) in the post-test (P<0.001), but the mean (SD) marital satisfaction scores in the control group did not differ in the pre-test and post-test. The love-making styles score in the pre-test group increased from 33.1 (3.9) to 37.2 (5.1) in the post-test, but the mean (SD) of the love-making styles did not differ in the pre-test and post-test. In addition, the mean (SD) happiness score in pre-test of the experimental group increased from 38.9 (3.1) to 44.5 (4.1) in post-test (P<0.001), but the mean (SD) of the score the happiness of the control group did not differ in pre-test and post-test.

The study showed that positive psychotherapy led to increased marital satisfaction, lovemaking styles and happiness among couples.