Comparison of the effectiveness of couple therapy based on acceptance and commitment and couple therapy based on guttman method on marital commitment

The severance of emotional bond between couples is the consequence of infidelity by one of them, which imposes a lot of psychological pressure and by creating negative emotions may lead to mutual infidelity or lack of marital commitment in the spouse affected by infidelity. Research background shows that couple therapy based on acceptance and commitment and couple therapy based on Guttman method are effective on the relationships of couples affected by infidelity; however, it is not yet clear which of these interventions can be most effective over time.

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of couple therapy based on acceptance and commitment and couple therapy based on Guttman method on marital commitment of women affected by infidelity.

The research method was quasi-experimental with pretest-posttest design and three months of follow-up. The statistical population of the study included all women affected by the infidelity of their husbands who referred to Ramsar Health Center from January 2021 to the end of May 2021. 45 people were selected by convenience sampling who randomly divided into two experimental groups and one control group (15 people in each group). The experimental groups each received 8 sessions of couple therapy based on acceptance and commitment (Dahl et al, 2014) and couple therapy based on Guttman (2008) method. The research instrument included the Marital Commitment Questionnaire (Adams and Jones, 1997). Data analysis was performed by mixed analysis of variance using SPSS-23 software.

In the post-test phase, both intervention methods had a significant effect on increasing the marital commitment of women affected by infidelity (P<0.01). In the follow-up phase, two interventions significantly increased marital commitment, but there was no statistically significant difference in marital commitment between the two approaches of couple therapy based on the Gutman method and couple therapy based on acceptance and commitment (P>0.01).

The results of this research showed that both approaches of couple therapy based on acceptance and commitment and couples therapy based on the Guttman method have improved the marital commitment of women affected by infidelity, and hence it can be said that the awareness and use of these two approaches in the direction of marital commitment and conflicts of injured couples Psychologists, couple therapists, and other professionals can help from infidelity.