Marriage Satisfaction Questionnaire(OUB), developed V.V. Stolin, T.L.Romanova, G.P.Butenko, designed for express diagnostics of the degree satisfaction - dissatisfaction with marriage, as well as degrees agreement - disagreementmarital satisfaction one or another social group.
The questionnaire is a one-dimensional scale consisting of 24 statements related to various areas: perceptions of yourself and your partner, opinions, assessments, attitudes, etc. Each statement has three possible answers:
- A-right,
- b- Hard to say,
- c- incorrect.
Test instructions
“Read each statement carefully and choose one of the three proposed answer options. Try to avoid intermediate answers like “hard to say,” “difficult to answer,” etc.
Test material
- When people live as close as they do in family life, they inevitably lose mutual understanding and acuity of perception of the other person:
- right,
- not sure,
- wrong.
- Your marital relationship brings you:
- rather anxiety and suffering,
- I find it difficult to answer
- rather joy and satisfaction.
- Relatives and friends evaluate your marriage:
- like a success,
- something in between
- like a failure.
- If you could, then:
- You would change a lot in the character of your spouse,
- Hard to say,
- You wouldn't change a thing.
- One of the problems of modern marriage is that everything gets boring, including sexual relations:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- When you compare your family life with the family life of your friends and acquaintances, it seems to you:
- that you are more unhappy than others,
- Hard to say,
- that you are happier than others.
- Life without family, without loved one- too much expensive price for complete independence:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- You believe that without you, the life of your spouse would be incomplete:
- yes, I think
- Hard to say,
- no, I don’t think so.
- Most people are deceived to some extent in their expectations about marriage:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- Only many different circumstances prevent you from thinking about divorce:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- If the time went back to when you got married, then my husband (wife) could become:
- anyone other than your current spouse,
- Hard to say,
- it is possible that it is the current spouse.
- You are proud that a person like your spouse is next to you:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- Unfortunately, your spouse's shortcomings often outweigh his positive qualities.
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- The main obstacles to a happy married life lie:
- most likely in the character of your spouse,
- Hard to say,
- rather, in yourself.
- Feelings with which you entered into marriage:
- intensified
- Hard to say,
- weakened.
- Marriage dulls creative possibilities person:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- We can say that your spouse has the following advantages that compensate for his shortcomings:
- agree,
- something in between
- I don't agree.
- Unfortunately, not everything is going well in your marriage with emotional support for each other:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- It seems to you that your spouse often does stupid things, speaks out of place, jokes inappropriately:
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
- Life in a family, as it seems to you, does not depend on your will
- right,
- Hard to say,
- wrong.
Methodology “Test Questionnaire of Marriage Satisfaction (MSS)”, V.V. Stolin, T.L. Romanova, G.P. Butenko
Table No. 11
Automatic calculation of Student's t-test
Purpose of Wilcoxon T-test
The criterion is used to compare indicators measured in two different conditions on the same sample of subjects.
It allows you to establish not only the direction of changes, but also their severity. With its help, we determine whether the shift in indicators in one direction is more intense than in another.
Description of the Wilcoxon T-test
This criterion is applicable in cases where the characteristics are measured on at least an order scale, and the shifts between the second and first measurements can also be ordered. To do this, they must vary sufficiently wide range. In principle, the Wilcoxon T test can be used in cases where the shifts take only three values: -1, 0 and +1, but then the T test is unlikely to add anything new to the conclusions that could be obtained with using the sign criterion. Now, if the shifts change, say, from -30 to +45, then it makes sense to rank them and then sum up the ranks.
The essence of the method is that we compare the severity of shifts in one and another direction in absolute value. To do this, we first rank all the absolute values of the shifts, and then sum the ranks. If the shifts are positive and negative side occur randomly, then the sums of the ranks of their absolute values will be approximately equal. If the intensity of the shift in one of the directions outweighs, then the sum of the ranks of the absolute values of the shifts in the opposite direction will be significantly lower than it could be with random changes.
We initially make the assumption that a typical shift will be a shift in the more frequently occurring direction, and an atypical or rare shift will be a shift in the less frequently occurring direction.
Hypotheses of the Wilcoxon T test
H 0: The intensity of shifts in the typical direction does not exceed the intensity of shifts in the atypical direction.
H 1: The intensity of shifts in the typical direction exceeds the intensity of shifts in the atypical direction.
Limitations in the use of the Wilcoxon T test
1. The minimum number of subjects who underwent measurements in two conditions is 5 people. Maximum amount subjects - 50 people, which is dictated by the upper limit of the available tables.
2. Zero shifts are excluded from consideration, and the number of observations n is reduced by the number of these zero shifts (provided that the “Take into account zero shift?” checkbox is not selected). You can get around this limitation (by checking the "Consider zero shift?" checkbox) by formulating hypotheses that include no change, for example: "The shift toward increasing values exceeds the shift toward decreasing values and the tendency for them to remain the same."
The consultative work carried out showed its effectiveness and reliability, since it was tested by additional methods, which confirmed the hypothesis we put forward.
Thus, we can conclude that the stated goal and objectives of our study were fulfilled.
family marital psychological
The purpose of the technique is to expressly diagnose the degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the marriage of each spouse, as well as the coincidence or discrepancy of the obtained assessments. The authors of this technique are V.V. Stolin, T.L. Romanova and G.P. Butenko (1984).
The questionnaire is based on the idea of marital satisfaction as a fairly stable emotional phenomenon, which includes, first of all, a feeling, a generalized emotion, a generalized experience, rather than a rational assessment of the success of a marriage according to certain parameters, which can manifest itself directly in the emotions that arise in various situations, and in various opinions, assessments, comparisons.
The proposed questionnaire can be used wherever express diagnostics of marital satisfaction is needed: when conducting scientific research in the field of family psychology, during psychoprophylactic examinations, when working with divorcees in registry offices and courts, as well as in the field of family counseling and psychotherapy. The Marriage Satisfaction Questionnaire can be successfully used to diagnose the crisis state of the marital subsystem at any stage life cycle families.
Description of the technique
The text of the methodology consists of 24 statements (the original version contained 29 statements), which can be reduced to the following six types:
1. Comparing your marriage with other marriages.
2. Assumption about assessing your own marriage from the outside.
3. Statement of certain feelings towards the spouse in the present or past.
4. The spouse’s own assessment of a number of parameters.
5. Setting to change the character of the spouse.
6. Opinion, positive or negative, regarding marriage in general.
Each statement has three possible answers: “true”, “hard to say”, “false” (or their semantic analogues). The statements contain both positive and negative characteristics of marriage and are worded in both positive and negative terms.
Completing the questionnaire takes no more than 10 minutes. The questions do not concern overly intimate facts and details.
Instructions:“Read each statement carefully and choose one of the three proposed answer options. Try to avoid intermediate answers like “hard to say,” “difficult to answer,” etc. Do the work as quickly as possible.”
Questionnaire text
1. When people live as close as they do in family life, they inevitably lose mutual understanding and acuity of perception of the other person:
b) not sure;
c) incorrect.
2. Your marital relationship brings you:
a) rather anxiety and suffering;
b) find it difficult to answer;
c) rather joy and satisfaction.
3. Relatives and friends evaluate your marriage:
a) as a success;
b) something in between;
c) as a failure.
4. If you could, then:
a) You would change a lot in the character of your spouse;
b) difficult to say;
c) You wouldn't change anything.
5. One of the problems of modern marriage is that everything becomes boring, including sexual relations:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
6. When you compare your family life with the family life of your friends and acquaintances, it seems to you:
a) that you are more unhappy than others;
b) difficult to say;
c) You are happier than others.
7. Life without a family, without a loved one is too high a price for complete independence:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
8. You believe that without you the life of your spouse would be incomplete:
a) yes, I think;
b) difficult to say;
c) no, I don’t think so.
9. Most people are to some extent deceived in their expectations about marriage:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
10. Only many different circumstances prevent you from thinking about divorce:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
11. If the time went back to when you got married, then your husband (wife) could be:
a) anyone, but not the current spouse;
b) difficult to say;
c) it is possible that it is the current spouse.
12. You are proud that a person like your spouse is next to you:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
13. Unfortunately, your spouse's shortcomings often outweigh his advantages:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
14. The main obstacles to a happy married life lie:
a) rather in the character of your spouse;
b) difficult to say;
c) rather in yourself.
15. Feelings with which you entered into marriage:
a) intensified;
b) difficult to say;
c) weakened.
16. Marriage dulls a person’s creative potential:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
17. We can say that your spouse has the following advantages that compensate for his shortcomings:
a) agree;
b) something in between;
c) no, I don’t agree.
18. Unfortunately, not everything is going well in your marriage with emotional support for each other:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
19. It seems to you that your spouse often does stupid things, speaks out of place, jokes inappropriately:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
20. Life in a family, as it seems to you, does not depend on your will: a) true;
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
21. Yours family relationships did not bring into life the order and organization that you expected:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
22. Those who believe that it is in the family that a person can least count on respect are wrong:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
23. As a rule, the company of your spouse gives you pleasure:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
24. To tell the truth, there is not and never has been a single bright moment in your married life:
b) difficult to say;
c) incorrect.
Note: In the version of the questionnaire for spouses who filed for divorce, statements No. 3, 10, 12, 18, 23 are formulated in the past tense.
Scales: measure of marital satisfaction
Purpose of the test
The Marriage Satisfaction Test Questionnaire (MSS), developed by V.V. Stolin, T.L. Romanova, G.P. Butenko, is intended for express diagnostics of the degree of satisfaction - dissatisfaction with marriage, as well as the degree of agreement - mismatch of marital satisfaction in one or another another social group.
The questionnaire is a one-dimensional scale consisting of 24 statements related to various areas: perceptions of oneself and a partner, opinions, assessments, attitudes, etc. Each statement has three possible answers:
Oh, that's right,
. b - hard to say
. c - incorrect.
Test instructions
“Read each statement carefully and choose one of the three proposed answer options. Try to avoid intermediate answers like “hard to say,” “difficult to answer,” etc.
Test
1. When people live as close as they do in family life, they inevitably lose mutual understanding and acuity of perception of the other person:
1. true,
2. not sure
3. incorrect.
2. Your marital relationship brings you:
1. rather anxiety and suffering,
2. I find it difficult to answer,
3. rather joy and satisfaction.
3. Relatives and friends evaluate your marriage:
1. as a success,
2. something in between
3. as a failure.
4. If you could, then:
1. You would change a lot in the character of your spouse,
2. it's hard to say
3. You wouldn't change anything.
5. One of the problems of modern marriage is that everything gets boring, including sexual relationships:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
6. When you compare your family life with the family life of your friends and acquaintances, it seems to you:
1. that you are more unhappy than others,
2. it's hard to say
3. that you are happier than others.
7. Life without a family, without a loved one is too high a price for complete independence:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
8. You believe that without you the life of your spouse would be incomplete:
1. yes, I think so
2. it's hard to say
3. no, I don’t think so.
9. Most people are deceived to some extent in their expectations about marriage:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
10. Only many different circumstances prevent you from thinking about divorce:
1. true,
2. I can’t say
3. incorrect.
11. If the time returned when you got married, then my husband (wife) could become:
1. anyone other than your current spouse,
2. it's hard to say
3. It is possible that it is the current spouse.
12. You are proud that a person like your spouse is next to you:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
13. Unfortunately, your spouse's shortcomings often outweigh his advantages.
1. true,
2. I find it difficult to say
3. incorrect.
14. The main obstacles to a happy married life lie:
1. most likely in the character of your spouse,
2. it's hard to say
3. rather, in yourself.
15. Feelings with which you entered into marriage:
1. intensified,
2. it's hard to say
3. weakened.
16. Marriage dulls a person’s creative potential:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
17. We can say that your spouse has the following advantages that compensate for his shortcomings:
1. I agree,
2. something in between
3. I don’t agree.
18. Unfortunately, not everything is going well in your marriage with emotional support for each other:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
19. It seems to you that your spouse often does stupid things, speaks out of place, jokes inappropriately:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
20. Family life, as it seems to you, does not depend on your will
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
21. Your family relationships did not bring the order and organization into your life that you expected:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
22. Those who believe that it is in the family that a person can least count on respect are wrong:
1. I agree,
2. it's hard to say
3. I don’t agree.
23. As a rule, the company of your spouse gives you pleasure:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
24. To tell the truth, there is not and has not been a single bright moment in your married life:
1. true,
2. it's hard to say
3. incorrect.
Processing and interpretation of test results
Key to the test
Questions: 1s, 2s, For, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7a, 8a, 9s, 10s, 11s, 12a, 13s, 14s, 15a, 16s, 17a, 18s, 19s, 20s, 21s, 22a, 23a, 24s.
Interpretation of test results
If the answer option chosen by the subjects (a or c) coincides with those given in the key, then 2 points are awarded; if intermediate (b) - then 1 point; for an answer that does not match those given - 0 points.
A high score indicates marital satisfaction.
0-16 points - absolutely dysfunctional families,
. 17-22 points - dysfunctional families,
. 23-26 points - rather dysfunctional families,
. 27-28 points - transitional families,
. 29-32 points - rather prosperous families,
. 33-38 points - prosperous families,
. 39-48 points - absolutely prosperous families.
Sources
Marriage Satisfaction Questionnaire, OMB// Psychological tests/ Ed. A.A. Karelina: In 2 volumes. – M., 2001. – T.2. P.173-179.Chapter from the book by I.V. Golovneva "Psychology of family relationships"
Marital compatibility is multifaceted. Most often, the following types of marital compatibility are distinguished:
Spiritual Compatibility appears as a coincidence, similarity life positions, value orientations, views on the world and your place in it, interests and motives social behavior. Spiritual conformity or discrepancy is most often clearly recognized by spouses. At harmonious relationships spouses this species compatibility, husband and wife show not only love, but also respect for each other, their relationship is characterized by high level mutual understanding on vital issues. The higher the educational and cultural level of the spouses, the more significant spiritual compatibility is for them. Therefore, in life, fairy tales about Cinderella and the handsome prince rarely end happily - the differences in cultural development and education of the spouses are too great.
Family-role compatibility spouses acquires special significance in our time, since ideas about the roles that spouses should perform in life together have become less strictly determined, so the ideas about what a “real husband” and a “real wife” should be like among those entering into marriage may differ sharply.
N.N. Obozov and A.N. Obozov distinguishes two aspects in family-role compatibility.
Firstly, this is the consistency of family values, especially in matters of why a family exists, what it should bring to people who get married.
Research by American psychologists has shown that one of the main and most important factors in the success of married life is the commitment of the husband and wife to the very institution of marriage, that is, the awareness of marriage and family lifestyle as a value. It is clear that more time, effort, and energy are devoted to the main family values, but if these important values for one of the spouses are not realized, then this causes dissatisfaction with family life in general.
Second side family-role compatibility - consistency of role ideas about the functions of husband and wife in the family. The spouses have to decide complex issue: who is responsible for what aspects of family life. One of the most obvious signs role inconsistency are conflicts around the distribution of family workload between spouses: the measure of each person’s participation in management household, in raising children, in providing financial support for the family, etc.
For family-role compatibility a huge impact are influenced by those patterns of behavior that were learned in the parental family. AND big mistake done by those young people who put off meeting the family of their future beloved or chosen one until the last moment. The relationship between parents, the way they distribute the family load, can tell a lot about the attitudes of the future husband or wife.
In addition to the patterns of the parental family, family-role compatibility is influenced by the significant environment, the occupation and work schedule of the spouses, their personal inclinations and preferences. Today role conflicts have become quite frequent and acute, since the economic realities of life in Ukraine have made adjustments to traditional family roles, and we will consider this problem in detail in the next chapter.
Psychological compatibility involves a positive interaction between the characters, temperaments, and personal and volitional characteristics of the spouses. Exactly psychological compatibility determines the general emotional background of the family. Features of character traits, temperaments, personal-volitional qualities can be harmoniously combined both when they are identical and when they are opposite. Often, viable partnerships are created by a man and a woman who complement each other in their temperaments. Data from psychologists real life confirm that incompatibility is most pronounced if both spouses have such negative traits character, such as selfishness, irresponsibility, consumer attitude towards people, laziness, indifference, etc.
If partners are psychologically disharmonious, this manifests itself in fatigue and irritation from each other, disruption of communication, and protracted conflicts. Typical statements about a partner in this case are: “What a difficult person,” “How can you be like that,” “I don’t understand him (her).”
Adaptation of spouses in terms of psychological adjustment to each other is quite difficult, since sometimes it requires a restructuring of personality, correction of its inherent individual traits. Therefore, hastily concluded marriages, after short period Dating is rarely sustainable. Future spouses should have time to establish deep psychological contacts and get to know each other more superficially. One of the most persistent illusions in people’s minds is “we’ll get married and I’ll re-educate him (her)!” Re-education of an adult is a very long and difficult process, and if we talk about changing character, established individual traits, it is generally unrealistic.
Therefore, spouses must enter into marriage “with their eyes open”, honestly answering the question: “Do I want and can I live with this person - as he is?” And depending on what the answer is, make a decision about marriage.
Harmony, matching the needs for intimate communication of one spouse with the capabilities of the other is the main meaning sexual compatibility. The consensus is that sexual compatibility is generally achievable. However, the inability to achieve it is a fairly common, although often hidden or unconscious, reason for family breakdown. It should be taken into account that sexual and emotional intimacy do not always accompany each other; one can give rise to the other, but this is not necessary. Marriages that are based only on sexual harmony are rarely successful, but those marriages where spouses experience sexual dissatisfaction are also unstable. According to A. Maslow, sexual intimacy brings true joy and satisfaction only in cases where the partners are emotionally close.
Talking about all these types family compatibility, we didn't say a word about love. But the paradox of love is that it is integral part at all levels of compatibility - after all, if it exists, then many problems can be solved much easier. Love between spouses is an integral part emotional background family life and contributes to a positive outlook of spouses and the stability of their psychological health.
So, do we need a family today with its difficulties, problems, crises? Probably, this question is similar to if we were asking about a child in adolescence - there are so many problems with him, do we need him? And the family, despite its historically quite respectable age, is in the same difficult problem period. And she needs help not only from the state, family and marriage specialists, but also from each of us. After all, many crisis phenomena in the life of a family are created by people themselves, not wanting to change, work on themselves, work together with other family members to solve those problems that they are quite capable of solving themselves.
After all, so far, despite all the critical remarks directed towards the family, no one has been able to come up with anything better.
Golovneva Irina Vladimirovna
Ph.D. psychol. sciences, professor
Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire(methodology - V.V. Stolin, T.L. Romanova, G.P. Butenko)
The degree of psychological satisfaction with marriage can be different.
The Marriage Satisfaction Questionnaire will give you indicative information about how you yourself assess the degree of well-being of your relationship with your spouse.
Instructions:
Read each statement carefully and choose one of the three proposed answer options.
When answering a question, you can choose one of the three proposed answers a), b) or c).
don’t waste time thinking, give the first natural answer that comes to your mind;
try to answer several questions per minute, then you will finish the work in about 7-8 minutes;
try to avoid intermediate, “vague” answers, unless it is really impossible to give a definite answer;
Don’t skip anything, be sure to answer all the questions in a row.
It may be difficult for you to relate some questions to yourself; try to give the most appropriate tentative answer. Don't try to make a favorable impression with your answers. Express your opinion freely
