IMAGO RELATIONSHIP AND EMOTIONALLY - FOCUSED THERAPIES ON DATING CHALLENGE AMONG WORKING CLASS MEDICAL PERSONNELS IN IMO STATE

Abstract

The study investigated imago and emotionally focused therapies on dating challenge among working class medical personnel in Imo State.  It adopted a quasi-experimental research design.  Three research questions and one hypothesis guided the study.  The population of the study comprised working class 24 medical personnel (males and Females who are in dating relationship, and since the population was manageable the researcher used all as the study population. They were drawn purposefully from Federal Medical Centre Owerri (FMC) based on their responses to the researchers' developed instrument titled: 'Dating Challenge Questionnaire' (DCQ). Two experts in the Department of Guidance and Counselling and one from Measurement and Evaluation validated the 20-items instrument used for the study. The stability of the instrument was determined using Person Product Moment Correlation and reliability index of 0.83 obtained. The internal consistency of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha method and reliability of 0.84 established. The researcher employed the services of two research assistants who assisted her in the administration and collection of the instrument. Collected data were analyzed using Mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while Analysis of covariance was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that imago therapy effectively reduced dating relationship challenges among working class medical personnel. It further revealed emotionally focused therapy as an effective tool in reducing dating relationship challenges and finally, that the two treatment packages   proved effective, however, emotionally focused therapies proved more effective than Imago therapy.  Based on the findings, the research recommends the use of both treatment packages in the reduction of dating relationship challenges and other similar challenges