The comparison of the effects of schema therapy and meaning therapy on the level of schadenfreude in married men involved in extramarital relations

Lack of agreement in common life may sometimes results in divorce. The most important reasons of divorce were infidelity in marriage and extramarital affairs in recent years. Schadenfreude is a kind of emotion that is much seen in the married when one of the two spouses figures out the other spouse's extramarital involvement. Therefore, this study aims to compare the effect of schema therapy and meaning therapy on the level of schadenfreude in men with extramarital relations.

Materials: 

This study is of testing type with multi group pretest-posttest. The population includes all married men who consulted a psychologist in Tehran consulting office in 1399 that after the primary interview they were identify as disloyal men in their common lives. Among this 30 qualified volunteer people were randomly place in three 15-member groups including meaning therapy and emotional schema therapy and control group. Assessment tool was schadenfreude questionnaire (Smith et al 1996).

The results of data analysis indicated that schema therapy and meaning therapy play significant roles on schadenfreude reduction. On the other hand, the results of post-hoc show that in spite of a significant difference between control and test groups, no difference was report between therapeutic interventions in terms of having effect on schadenfreude.

Regarding to the results of finding's analysis, it is resulted that schema therapy and meaning therapy intervention sessions are effective in reducing schadenfreude in married men involved in extramarital relations.