The Effectiveness of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy on Self-Differentiation and Attachment Behavior in Couple Relationships in Women with Tendency to Marital Infidelity

Marital infidelity is a source of intense distress for personal and interpersonal couples life and destroyer their relationship. The purpose of this study was to effectiveness of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on self-differentiation and attachment behavior in couple relationships in women with tendency to marital infidelity.

This semi-experimental study was conducted with a pretest-posttest- follow-up 2 month design with control group. The statistical population of the present study was all married women with tendency to marital infidelity who referred to the psychological centers of in Tehran city in year 1401, using the convenience sampling method, 40 people were selected and randomly placed in two groups of 20 people. Data collection tools included attitudes toward infidelity scale, self-differentiation inventory and accessibility, responsiveness, and engagement scale. Then the experimental group received intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy for 9 weekly sessions for 90 minutes. but the control group received no intervention. Data analysis was performed using analysis of variance with repeated measures with SPSS-24.

The results of the study showed that of short-term dynamic psychotherapy in post-test had a significant effect on self-differentiation and attachment behavior in couple relationships and results in the follow-up phase also indicated the stable effectiveness of short-term dynamic psychotherapy in experimental group (P<0.05).

Based on the results of the present study, it can be said that short-term dynamic psychotherapy can be used as a treatment method on self-differentiation and attachment behavior in couple relationships in women with tendency to marital infidelity in counseling centers and psychological services.