Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 M.A. in Family Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran.
3 Associate Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Abstract
The attitude toward spouse’s emotion expression is one of the possible factors affecting intimacy. This study intended to compare the attitudes toward spouse’s emotion express among women with high and low level of intimacy. A qualitative approach with a descriptive phenomenological method was used in this study. The study population includes married women in Tehran 2021. Considering saturation principle and using a purposive sampling method, a sample of 20 individuals was selected. Data collection was done through semi-structured interviews and their analysis was done with the seven-step method of Colaizzi’s phenomenological analysis. Data analysis led to seven main themes in each group. The main themes extracted from the group of high emotional intimacy were: “comprehensive and positive perspective”, “flexibility”, “belief in the role of self-agency”, “necessity of facilitating conversations”, “necessity of determining common and private boundaries”, “necessity of regulating expressiveness” and “attitude dependent on emotion and its motivating factor”; The main themes extracted from the low emotional intimacy group included “negative and limited perspective”, “inflexibility”, “low self-confidence”, “role of rationality in managing emotion”, “non-expression of emotion as its absence”, “gender-related expectations” and “labels and expectations forming attitude”. Based on the results it seems that the differences in the attitudes of these two groups are often based on the degree of flexibility and realism towards spouse’s emotion expression and also considering one's own role in this regard.
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