Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
کارشناسی ارشد مشاوره خانواده دانشگاه علامه طباطبایی
2
Associate Professor, Counseling Department, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran.
3
Assistant Professor, Counseling Department, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Allameh Tabatabaei University, Tehran, Iran.
Abstract
Conflict is an inevitable part of every intimate relationship, especially the couples’ relationship. The narrative that couples present about conflict is reflection of their worldview and attitude towards problems and plays an important role in how they deal with conflict. An appropriate therapeutic intervention to marital conflicts also requires critical attention to the dominant discourses in the narrative of conflicted couples. Therefore, the present research was conducted with the aim of qualitative investigation of the dominant discourses in the narrative of conflicted couples. The data was collected by purposeful sampling and semi-structured interviews with 26 couples. After analyzing the data using thematic analysis method, other-centered, self-centered, and situation-centered discourses were identified as the dominant discourses. The results showed that among the communication components of self, situation and other, most of the discourses are directed to the other, self and situation respectively. In the sense that in conflicted couples’ definition of conflict, among the external factors, the individual and the relationship are more important than the situation. In other-centered discourses, language is used as a tool for demanding and complaining about the spouse as the main focus of conflicts, and in self-centered discourses, language is used as a tool to abdicate one's responsibility and express domination, self-praise, and power. In situation-centered discourses, the function of language is to complain about stressful changes. As a result, the dominant discourses of conflicted couples tends to present a negative and unfavorable image of the spouse and the situation, and to ignore their role in conflicts. In general, the narrative of conflicted couples is full of problem-oriented language instead of solution-oriented language, and instead of an interactive definition of conflict, couples tend to present their individual definitions and adopt an I-centered or you-centered approach to problems.
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