Examining the impact of a psycho-spiritual educational model of marriage enrichment on seminary couples: A pilot study
Subject
Marriage counseling--Religious aspects--Christianity.Marital psychotherapy.
Discipline--Religious aspects--Christianity.
Seminarians--Counseling of.
Description
This restricted item is available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary through the URI below.
Abstract
This dissertation examines the effectiveness of an educationally based model of marriage enrichment that integrates psychological thought with the joint practice of the spiritual disciplines. Chapter 1 presents a rationale for this research project, along with an overview of the research methodology.
Chapter 2 describes the state of marriage as it exists in society and in the church. It presents a theology of marriage based on Scripture, the history of the church, and contemporary Christian writers.
Chapter 3 provides an overview of select spiritual disciplines presented in the Marriage and Family Enrichment class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary during the fall of 2003. These disciplines include prayer, Bible study and scripture memorization, fasting, silence, and solitude.
Chapter 4 presents an overview of the research being performed by John Gottman at the University of Washington, and by the Center for Marital and Family Studies at the University of Denver. Chapter 4 also contrasts psychotherapeutic models of marriage enrichment with psychoeducational model of marriage enrichments.
Chapter 5 offers an overview of the Marriage and Family Enrichment class at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. This class served as the model for the psychoeducational model of marriage enrichment.
Chapter 6 presents both the pre-test and post-test results for the control and study group. This data was obtained from the self report inventories comprising the Christian Marriage Research Packet, as well as the T-MACC (Theological and Marital Analysis of Christian Couples).
Chapter 7 interprets the data presented in chapter 6 and offers a set of practical applications based on that data. It describes the research weaknesses involved in this pilot study, and offers a set of recommendations for future research.