INVESTIGATION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTACHMENT STYLE AND SELF-ESTEEM WITH MARITAL SATISFACTION IN COUPLES OF HORMOZGAN UNIVERSITY

Transcription

1 INVESTIGATION THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ATTACHMENT STYLE AND SELF-ESTEEM WITH MARITAL SATISFACTION IN COUPLES OF HORMOZGAN UNIVERSITY ESMAEIL HASHEMI POOR PATKOOEI*; EGHBAL ZAREIE**; REZA FALLAH CHAI*** *Students, Hormozgan University, Hormozgan, Iran. **Associate Professor, Hormozgan University, Hormozgan, Iran. ***Associate Professor, Hormozgan University, Hormozgan, Iran. ABSTRACT The purpose of the study is investigation the relationship between attachment style and self-esteem and marital satisfaction in Couples of Hormozgan University. This study was a descriptive survey and the survey instrument was a questionnaire. Statistical society was all of Married students in Hormozgan University. Sample size (300 persons) determination is based on the Krejcie and Morgan table and simple random sampling method was used. After data collection, data analysis was performed with SPSS using correlation and regression tests. The results showed that there are significant relationship between attachment style and self-esteem with marital satisfaction. Key Words: Attachment style, Self-esteem, Marital satisfaction KEYWORDS: Attachment Style, Self-Esteem, Marital Satisfaction. Pinnacle Research Journals 104 INTRODUCTION One of the vital cases in the family is the quality of the relationship between the husband and wife or marital relationship. When the relationship between parents is good, some type of welfare dominate over the family, resulting in a better proficiency in the social life. One of the useful factors in making this process efficient whose result is the marital satisfaction is psychological subjects. Self-esteem is a psychological factor that has a significant task in the lives of people. For this, investigating the couples' self-esteem could have an increasing in marital satisfaction and better families' efficiency. The previous surveys revealed that the selfesteem is factor that is effective in the marital satisfaction (Cohen et al., 2009). Self-esteem is defined as the development of worthiness which the data within self-imagination has for a person and it comes from person opinions about all the properties and aspects presented in him. Self- imagination has a significant importance for spiritual safety experts because the person dream about his character to high degree determines his dream about surroundings, and

2 these two factors plan his action forms (Tamanai far et al, 2010). Self-esteem is the amount of reputation, approval, acceptance and merit that a person senses about him (Ghasemi et al., 2010). Feel of self valuation is a basic requirement to inner relief and is a requirement on which our life consent is depended hardly. The method in which adults think, sense, and interact in the environment of their fantastic relationships has been revealed to change with their attachment styles. Hazan and Shaver (1987) first investigated that attachment styles reflect important differences in adults mental display of romantic love. Safe attached married, dating, divorced, and widowed couples rated their romantic experiences as happy and relying, and strict being supportive and adopting of their partners. But, avoidantly attached adults explained their romantic experiences as determined by fears of sincerity. In addition, ambivalently attached adults determined their romantic experiences as obsessive, involving envy and extreme sexual tendency to their partners. Beyond differences in realizations of fanciful love, attachment styles have been linked to husbands and wives self-reported marital consent (Brennan and Shaver, 1995; Feeney, 1994, 1996; Feeney et al., 1994; Fuller and Fincham, 1995; Lussier et al., 1997). These studies have reported positive relationship between secure attachment and marital satisfaction and contrary relationship between insecure attachment styles and marital satisfaction for both married men and women. Due to the importance of the topic, the purpose of the study is investigation the relationship between attachment style and self-esteem and marital satisfaction in Couples of Hormozgan University. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Because the meaning of the marital satisfaction is a subject associated to the social and psychological base, the opinions about the family could be divided into three sections: the first section is related to sociological theories; the second section is related to social and psychological theories and the third section is about psychological theories regarding the family therapy. Pinnacle Research Journals 105 Yadalijamaloye et al. (2013) investigated relation of self-esteem and marital satisfaction between women. This study searches relation between self-esteem and marital satisfaction among women in Najafabad and Fuladshahr in Iran. The statistical sample was 757 women (381 respondents in Najafabad and 376 in Fuladshahr) who live together for at least 3 years after marriage. Results revealed that there is a significant relevance between age, marriage period and satisfaction. In addition, the level of marital satisfaction was higher about Fuladshahr women. Marital satisfaction was detected to be positively related with self-esteem in both locations, so that higher self-esteem was associated with greater satisfaction. Another result was that rate of marital satisfaction; number of children and period of the marriage were negatively related for women. Teimourpour et al (2012) studied the relationship between attachment styles and marital satisfaction in Iranian women. The data showed here were catch from a total of 192 married Iranian women who were choose via a random sampling method. For analyzing of gathered information, Pearson correlation coefficient and regression analysis were used. Results revealed

3 that there is a significant relationship between sexual tendency and secure attachment style, insecure avoidant attachment style, insecure-ambivalent attachment style, marital satisfaction and sex guilt. In addition, the relation between psychological confusion and marital dissatisfaction has been reported in married couples who experience a wide range of psychological difficulties. Among the important psychological disorders, depression has been investigated most extensively and has been revealed to have a strong relation with marital distress. In this regard, Gotlib and Whiffen (1989) revealed that community control couples reported significantly higher level of marital satisfaction than depressed, psychiatric inpatients and their spouses (Judge et al, 2012). METHODOLOGY The present study is a descriptive one. Theoretical bases of the study were collected by reputable sites, books and related articles. The information and data for hypothesis testing were gathered by questionnaire. In this study, three standard questionnaires were used for gathering data from statistical sample. Coopersmith self-steem inventory, Adult attachment test of Collins and Read and enrich marital satisfaction scale. Statistical society was all of Married students in Hormozgan University. Sample size (300 persons) determination is based on the Kerjesy and Morgan table and simple random sampling method was used. In this study, Validity and reliability of the questionnaire was approved. Validity of the questionnaire was accepted by expert opinion of university and reliability of that was calculated by Cronbach's alpha. Before completing the questionnaire by the participants, basic description of the study and its objectives as well as additional details about the questions presented to them. Enough time to complete the questionnaire was provided to participants. Write the name and characteristics of participants for the questionnaire was not compulsory, so they can fully express their opinions. After gathering information from the questionnaires, the data were analyzed and results are discussed with the findings of previous studies. All of data were analyzed by SPSS software. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Pinnacle Research Journals 106 Table 1 shows descriptive statistics of participants. As showed by the table, males with 54.6% are the maximum sex of participants. From education perspective, bachelor participants with 59.2% make the most and participants with job experience between years are highest in the group of job experience. TABLE 1: DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS OF PARTICIPANTS Statistics Sex Female Male % % Education Diploma Bachelor Masters or higher % % % Age Less than 30 years years Higher than 35 years % % %

4 Table 2 shows that there are significant correlation between marital satisfaction and attachment style (P<0.05). These results are similar to reports of Banse (2004) that reported significant relationship between Adult attachment and marital satisfaction. Feeney (1994) revealed that relationship factors mediated the association between attachment style and wives marital satisfaction. Also, Keelan et al (1998) revealed that, in a sample of college students, appearance of self-revelation mediated this association. Adults emotional expressiveness toward their partners (Feeney, 1999), controlling action and reaction within the marriage (Morrison et al. 1997), and coping tactics preferences in contrary to marital contradiction (Lussier et al., 1997) have also been reported to mediate or temperate the relation between attachment styles and marital satisfaction. Significantly, all of these factors are condition-specific and focus on adults operating solely in the environment of their love relationships. Secure attachment has been reported to be an internal resource associated with efficient coping and excellent mental well-being, whereas avoidant and ambivalent attachment may locate partners at a higher hazard for incorrect coping and psychological depression (Mikulincer and Florian, 1998). Agree with these reasoning, studies have revealed relation between adult attachment style and coping tactics, self-esteem, and psychological distress. TABLE 2: CORRELATION TEST BETWEEN MARITAL SATISFACTION AND ATTACHMENT STYLE Marital satisfaction Attachment style Correlation p-value participants 300 Pinnacle Research Journals 107 Table 3 shows that there are significant correlation between marital satisfaction and self-esteem (P<0.05). These results are similar to reports of Yadalijamaloye et al (2013) that investigated Relationships between self-esteem and marital satisfaction among women and reported significant relationship between marital satisfaction and self-esteem. TABLE 3: CORRELATION TEST BETWEEN MARITAL SATISFACTION AND SELF-ESTEEM Marital satisfaction Self-esteem Correlation p-value participants 300 Self-esteem has been between the most widely investigated personality meanings (Judge et al., 2002). In many reports self-esteem showed a negative relationship with depression high mental symptom levels and intensity and frequency of psychological confusion (Bednar and Peterson,

5 1995). Also, self-esteem revealed a positive correlation with well-being, satisfaction and mental health (Cheng and Furnham, 2003). Bednar & Peterson (1995) declared that partners with higher levels of self-esteem are likely to be able to face more successfully with risky events and learn from these experiences. So, they become more ready in a case of a threatening event which provides a chance for higher levels of self-esteem. Self-esteem and coping style are revealed to be positively connected which means that there is a negative relationship between avoidance and lower self-esteem. In contrary, actively coping with the threatening events and taking greater responsibility are related with more positive sensing of self (Bednar & Peterson, 1995). Self-esteem can influence how people act towards themselves and about others. There are few reports show a relationship between self-esteem and experiencing more satisfactory relationships (Thornton and Ryckman, 1991) and marriages (Roberts and Donahue, 1994). REFERENCES Ab al ghasemi, Sh., Moradi Doost, H., Keikhani, F., & Mohammad, M. (2010). The effects of problem solving and communicational skill on the students triumph and self-esteem, Contemporary psychological quarterly. Banse, R. (2004). Adult attachment and marital satisfaction: evidence for dyadic configuration effects. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21, Bednar, R.L. & Peterson, S.R. (1995). Self-esteem: Paradoxes and innovations in clinical theory and practice. Washington DC: American Psychological Association. Biabangard, Esmaeil (1995); The Methods of Enhancement of Self esteem in Children and Adolescents; Tehran: The Council of Parents and Educators(in Persian)& Byabangard, Esmail (1384). Methods to increase the self-esteem in the children and teenages. Tehran : The parents and teachers assembly Pinnacle Research Journals 108 Brennan, K. A., & Shaver, P. R. (1995). Dimensions of adult attachment, affect regulation, and romantic relationship functioning. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, Cheng, H., & Furnham, A. (2003). Personality, self- esteem, and demographic predictions of happiness and depression. Personality and Individual Differences, 34, Cohen, O., Geron, Y., & Farchi, A. (2009)."Marital quality and global well-being among older adult Israeli couples in enduring marriages". The American journal of family therapy.37: Collins V.L. & Read S.J. (1990). Adult attachment Working models an relationship quality in dating couples. Journal of personality and social psychology 58(4) Feeney, J. A. (1994). Attachment style, communication patterns and satisfaction across the life cycle of marriage. Personal Relationships, 1,

6 Feeney, J. A. (1999). Adult attachment, emotional control, and marital satisfaction. Personal Relationships, 6, Feeney, J. A., Noller, P., & Callan, V. J. (1994). Attachment style, communication and satisfaction in the early years of marriage. In K. Bartholomew & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships: Attachment processes in adulthood (Vol. 5, pp ). London: Jessica Kingsley. Fuller, T. L., & Fincham, F. D. (1995). Attachment style in married couples: Relation to current marital functioning, stability over time, and method of assessment. Personal Relationships, 2, Hazan, C., & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, Judge, T.A., Erez, A., Bono, J.E., & Thoresen, C.J. (2002). Are measures of self-esteem, locus of control, and generalized self-efficacy indicators of a common core construct? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(3), Keelan, J. P. R., Dion, K. K., & Dion, K. L. (1998). Attachment style and relationship satisfaction: Test of a self-disclosure explanation. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 30, Lussier, Y., Sabourin, S., & Turgeon, C. (1997). Coping strategies as moderators of the relationship between attachment and marital adjustment. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14, Mikulincer, M., & Florian, V. (1998). The relationship between adult attachment styles and emotional and cognitive reactions to stressful events. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (pp ). New York: Guilford. Pinnacle Research Journals 109 Morrison, T. L., Urquiza, A. J., & Goodlin-Jones, B. L. (1997). Attachment, perceptions of interaction, and relationship adjustment. Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, 14, publication. Roberts, B.W. & Donahue, E.M. (1994). One personality, multiple selves: Integrating personality and social roles. Journal of Personality, 62, Tamanai far, Mohammad reza ; Sedighi Arfai, Fariborz ; Salami, Fatemeh. (2010). The relationship of the exciting intelligence,self-imaginator and self-esteem with the academic achievement. The planning and studying quarterly in higher education. 56, Teimourpour, N., N, Moshtagh and A, Pourshahbaz The Relationship Between Attachment Styles, Marital Satisfaction and Sex Guilt with Sexual Desire in Iranian Women. Iranian Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol 1, No 1:18-28.

7 Thornton, B., & Ryckman, R.M. (1991). Relationship between physical attractiveness, physical effectiveness, and self- esteem: A cross-sectional analysis among adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 14, Yadalijamaloye, Z., E, Naseri., M, Shoshtari and M, Khaledian Relationships between self-esteem and marital satisfaction among women. Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, 2(3): Pinnacle Research Journals 110