Comparison of the Effectiveness of Guttman's Cognitive-Systemic Couple Therapy and Mcmaster's Model on Marital Justice of Conflicting Couples

The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Guttmans’ cognitive-systemic couple therapy and McMaster model on marital justice in conflicting couples.

The research method was experimental with control group and random assignment. A total of 60 people (30 couples) were selected as a statistical sample by available sampling method from among conflicting couples referring to private counseling and psychology centers in areas 2 and 3 of Tehran. Couples were randomly assigned to three groups (two experimental groups and one control group). First, the pre-test of marital justice was performed on all three groups, then each of the experimental groups underwent training sessions of couple therapy based on Guttman theory and couple therapy based on McMaster theory for ten sessions. At the end of the training sessions, post-test was taken from all three groups. In order to evaluate the durability of the training, one month after the training, both experimental groups were retested.

The results showed that the difference between the mean of marital justice between the stages of pre-test and post-test (p <0.01) and follow-up (p <0.01) was significant. Which showed that the effect of Guttman cognitive couple therapy and Maxmaster model couple therapy on communication patterns of conflicting couples was stable.

The results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed that Guttmans’ systemic-cognitive couple therapy and McMaster model improved marital justice in conflicting couples.