Psy 409B 2/17/07

Charting Progress and Helping Out

Lester Papalii

 

 

Instructions for this activity are found at: www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy26/g26-oral1.htm 
Instructor: Dr. Leon James

 

Leon James (2007). Lecture Notes on the Unity Model of Marriage.  Section 6.  Online at:  http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy26/409b-g26-lecture-notes.htm

 

Coleman, Joshua (2005).  The Lazy Husband.  (New York: St. Martin’s Griffin). Reviewing Chapter 2: Creating Change Pages 25-48.

 

Part 1

 

Unity 6

I. Basic Ennead chart of interactions

  A.  Read from bottom up.

  B.  Nine succeeding phases for achieving unity in marriage

  C.  The unity phase cells 7,8,9 cannot be reached without first going through the dominance cells 1,2,3 and equity phase cells 4,5,6.

  D.  A couples interactions can occur in any of the nine zones depending upon the situation.

  E.  The chart is a matrix between the threefold self interactions and the three models of marriage.

 

II. Dominance Level

  A.  Zones 1,2,3

  B.  Characterized by the coercive treatment of the wife by the husband.

  C.  The man in this zone will not budge on any of the issues he defines as his prerogative as a man.

 

III. Equity Level

  A.  Zones 4,5,6

  B.  Characterized by negotiation between husband and wife rather than coercion.

  C.  When partners relate to each other through negotiation their intimacy focus is on the cognitive rather than on the sensorimotor or affective.

 

IV. Unity Level

  A.  Zones 7,8,9

  B.  Characterized by the wife's feminine intelligence being allowed by the man to lead his own masculine intelligence whenever they are encountering a significant difference with each other.

  C.  The husband must tell himself repeatedly that his wife’s way of thinking is different from his, and that he is going to follow her way instead of his way.

  D.  In eternity couples have one mind and one heart which means affective intimacy, cognitive intimacy, and sensorimotor intimacy.

 

The Lazy Husband

I.  Creating Changes in the lazy husband

  A.  The focus of this chapter is to provide a way for a wife to get her husband to help out more around the house as well as take care of their kids more.

  B.  The person who cares the most has the least bargaining power in the relationship.

  C.  If the woman wants more out of the relationship she must recognize what she has to offer as well as what her husband has to offer. 

  D.  Women care more because they are more concerned with housework as well as form more of an attachment to their children.

 

II. What the wife can do

  A.  If a wife wants her husband to do more she must convince her husband of its importance to her or its importance to the baby.

  B.  She must also persuade her husband that whatever other activity he is involved in is less important than attending to the baby at that moment.

 

III. The nine suggestions

  A.  Appeal to his sense of fair play: This assumes your husband has a sense of fair play and is willing to help out.

  B.  Suggest that changing his behavior will benefit him in some way.  If he helps out more their will be more time for her to spend with him.

  C.  Cash in on a favor.  A favor for a favor.

  D.  Show him how much you’re contributing

  E.  Disclose how unhappy you are with the current arrangement

  F.  Work with his priorities.  Focus on what’s important to him and use that against him

  G.  Consider eliminating some of the chores

  H.  Make trades

  I.  Improve your bargaining position by going back to work or increasing your attractiveness.

 

Part 2

How this content is viewed from the perspective of the lecture notes.

I viewed the ennead chart as a tool for the couple who is intent on achieving the unity phase of marriage.  I think that this chart would help a married couple chart their progress as well as recognize what they need to work on to make their marriage work.  This chart would also help the couple who are just starting to see what lies ahead of them in achieving unity.  The lazy husband chapter: creating change, I looked at as focusing upon the wife who is stuck in a dominance level marriage.  This chapter suggests a couple of ways that a wife can get her husband to do more.  In my opinion these suggestions do not approach the relationship on an affective level and are more focused upon the cognintive and sensorimotor interactions.  These suggestions by the author focus upon a give and take type of relationship between husband and wife and fail to see the deeper relationship that a husband and wife need. 

 

Related Links:

  1. http://www.drspock.com/discussion/message/0,1812,14097,00.html 

This webpage is a link to a question on a message board that a mother of two who is currently pregnant and needs some advice on how to deal with a lazy husband.  I found this page interesting because many people have responded to her question and provide some interesting comments.  This is related to what I just wrote my outline because the book the lazy husband particularly focuses on this type of problem.

 

  1. http://www.oaktreecounseling.com/Happiness%20Zones.htm 

The title of this webpage is happiness zones in marriage.  I picked this site because I was trying to find a chart that was similar to the ennead chart but came upon this list of 6 zones that the author feels are key areas to happiness in a marriage.  These areas that the author recommends are not as detailed as the ennead chart but I found it interesting to compare these zones to the ennead chart. 

 

  1. http://www.ard.net/Inspirational/Marriage_Stages/marriage_stages.shtml

The title of this webpage is marriage stages.  I picked this site because it provides the authors opinion on the stages that a married couple goes through.  This site offers four stages that occur in marriage.  This site is related to my outline in that it provides stages of marriage much like the ennead chart provides zones for marriage.  I found certain concepts that relate to the ennead chart in these stages but this page seems to focus more on the reasons why a couple would break up.

 

My Home Page:  http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409bs2007/papalii/papalii-home.htm

 

Class Home Page:  www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy26/classhome-g26.htm