Page 85 - EMCAPP-Journal No. 8

Christian Psychology alive

22“Wives, be subject (be submissive and ad- manner accepting the spouse’s input and offe-
apt yourselves) to your own husbands as (a ring your view without attempting to evalu-
service) to the Lord’. ate him/her. Please give your feedback to your
23”For the husband is the head of the wife as spouse on each suggestion stating what is pos-
Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the sible and what is not possible according to what
Saviour of His body”.
24 “As the church is subject to Christ, so let is practical in the relationship. Be careful not to
wives also be subject in everything to their just dismiss a suggestion without a convincing
husbands”. reason”.
25 “Husband, love your wives, as Christ loved
the church and gave Himself up for her, The process is thereafter repeated with the other
26 “So that He might sanctify her, having spouse. At the end of the session each couple is
cleansed her by the washing of water with the requested to write down all the roles they have
Word, agreed upon.
(The Amplified Bible)

Measuring instrument
After the teaching there is a 15 minutes break The ENRICH Couple Evaluation questionnaire
to allow the couples to reflect on the teachings was completed by each participant who atten-
and to refresh before the role negotiation sessi- ded the programme. The enrich Couple Eva-
on starts. The next session will begin with the luation questionnaire was developed as part of
briefing as to what is expected of them. the PREPARE/ENRICH programme. The pro-

gramme was first developed in 1978 by David
Role negotiation session Olson for premarital and married couples. The
After the couples have declared commitment inventories and programmes have high levels
to the role negotiation process, they will then of reliability, validity and clinical utility (Ol-
be separated and divided among the 4 facilita- son, D.H., & Olson, A.K., 1997). The question-
ting Psychologists. Each facilitator will start the naire contains eight questions of which three
role negotiation with her group in the following are closed-ended and five are open-ended. The
manner: three closed-ended questions measured the fol-
lowing: “the couples’ rating of the programme
“Now you are going to define the roles that will on a five point Likert-like scale ranging from
manifest love and submission in your relation- 1 as ‘the worst’ and 5 as ‘the best’; whether
ship. Each of you will be given a chance to sug- the couples found the programme worthwhile
gest the role your partner could play in order to or not and thirdly whether they would go for
show love/respect to you, but first each couple counselling in the future or not”, whilst the five
needs to decide who will start the negotiation open-ended questions explored the couples’ ex-
process”. periences of the programme. The probing que-
The following instructions are given to the stions included couples’ expectations from the
spouse chosen to start the process: “Please write programme; whether these expectations were
down a list of ways or suggestions that will make met; perceived benefits; and recommendations
you feel respected as a (husband) or loved as a to improve the programme.
(wife) in your relationship with your spouse.
Make your suggestions known to your spouse Sampling
one by one and motivate why they are impor- A randomly selected sample (n=31) of couples
tant to you as if you sell them to your spouse”. was derived from a population of couples at-
(To the listening spouse): “Whilst it is your tending a Pentecostal church in Pretoria Nor-
spouse’s chance to give suggestions, you are re- th, South Africa. The couples were then invited
quested to listen to your spouse by: firstly allo- to take part in a one-day marriage enrichment
wing him/her a chance to speak without inter- programme arranged by the researcher.
ruptions; summarizing his/her remarks before The participants were Africans of different lan-
responding; and then responding in a sensitive guage and ethnic groups in South Africa.

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