| This study investigated the relationship of Houston's (1982, 1987, 1997) model of guided imagery combined with music (GI/CM), focusing on the Adlerian goals of cooperation, equality and social interest (Adler, 1956, 1978, 1979, 1998), to strengthen couples' relationships. Relationship strength was measured by scores on the expectations/satisfaction, communication, conflict resolution, leisure, role relationship, couple closeness, and couple flexibility scales of the PREPARE/ENRICH Inventory (Olson, Fournier & Druckman, 1996a, 1996b). An experimental pretest/posttest with comparison group design was utilized.;Twenty-nine couples completed this study. Seventeen couples were recruited from a University setting, and 12 from a Unity church. Participant couples were first matched based on the status of their relationship (dating vs. married or living together for two years or more), then randomly assigned to either the experimental (N = 17) or the comparison group (N = 12). The GI/CM treatment consisted of four GI/CM sessions (one session per week, one hour per session). The comparison group received no treatment.;Data analysis included descriptive and inferential statistics. Analyses of covariance were employed. The posttest scores of the PREPARE/ENRICH Inventory (Olson et al., 1996a, 1996b) served as the dependent variable. The independent variable was the treatment. The pretest served as the covariate. An a priori level of statistical significance of .05 was employed. Due to an interaction on the PREPARE/ENRICH Inventory (Olson et al., 1996a, 1996b) scale of couples closeness, an analysis of variance was conducted. Finally, four couples participated in brief interviews that were used to supplement the collected data. Further analyses of this study included determining the effect of elevated scores, couples not attending to the GI/CM sessions (sleeping), and dating couples versus couples who were married or had lived together two or more years.;Statistical significance was not found. Due to the small sample size, effect size was calculated. Thresholds of .10, .25, and .40 were used to identify small, medium and large amounts of practical importance respectively. Examination of Cohen's f indicated that a small amount of practical importance was found for the couple flexibility scale (Cohen's f = .128) of couples experiencing the GI/CM treatment. A medium amount of practical importance was found for married/living together couples on the scales of expectations/satisfaction (Cohen's f = .33), communication (Cohen's f = .32), conflict resolution (Cohen's f = .35), and couple flexibility (Cohen's f = .28). These results indicate that the GI/CM treatment did have an effect, although this effect was not of statistical significance. Further research is suggested. |
