Comparison of the Effectiveness of Group Reality Therapy and Group Cognitive-Behavioral Hypnotherapy on Distress Tolerance and Marital Intimacy in Couples
Keywords:
Distress tolerance, marital intimacy, reality therapy, cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapy, couplesAbstract
The present study aimed to compare the effectiveness of group reality therapy and group cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapy on distress tolerance and marital intimacy in couples. This study employed a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a control group and a two-month follow-up. The statistical population included all couples aged 25 to 45 years who referred to Dr. Mehdi Pour-Asghar Psychology Clinic in Sari, Iran, during 2024–2025. The study sample consisted of 45 couples selected through purposive sampling based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria and randomly assigned equally to three groups using simple randomization. Data were collected using the Distress Tolerance Scale developed by Simons and Gaher (2005) and the Marital Intimacy Questionnaire developed by Bagarozzi (2001). The obtained data were analyzed using mixed repeated-measures analysis of variance in SPSS version 26. The results indicated a significant difference between the reality therapy experimental group and the cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapy experimental group in the scores of distress tolerance and marital intimacy (p < .01). Reality therapy produced greater changes in marital intimacy, whereas cognitive-behavioral hypnotherapy produced greater changes in couples’ distress tolerance. In addition, the difference between the posttest and follow-up stages was not significant, indicating the stability of the treatment effects. Therefore, both approaches compared in this study can be used to promote couples’ mental health.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Meysam Kord (Author); Mehdi Pourasghar; Asghar Norouzi (Author)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
