Effectiveness of Apologizing Effectively Intervention among Married Couples: Enhancing Communication Patterns, Tolerance for Disagreement and Marital Quality

This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of apologising effectively which was a positive psychology intervention for enhancing the Tolerance for Disagreement (TfD), Positive Communication Patterns (PCP) and marital quality, along with reducing Negative Communication Patterns (NCP) in married couples. For this purpose, married couples who had been married for a minimum of three years and had at least one child were selected by using purposive and snowball sampling. A pre-test/post-test experimental design was employed. Random assignment of married couples to a control group (husbands and wives) and an experimental group (husbands and wives) was done. Fourteen sessions of the apologising effectively technique were conducted with married couples. The Couple Communication Patterns Questionnaire, the Comprehensive Marital Satisfaction Scale and Tolerance for Disagreement Scale were administered at pre-test and post-test. The findings of the study suggest that post-test levels of TfD, PCP and marital quality were higher, while post-test levels of NCP were lower in married couples in the experimental group. These results highlight the feasibility of the Apologising Effectively intervention in married couples, which fosters a healthy marital relationship and emphasises an intervention-based study that would be of great value to couples therapists and marriage counsellors.