REALITY THERAPY AS A TECHNIQUE OF STRESS MANAGEMENT AMONG NIGERIAN MARRIED WOMEN
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Family is the basic social unit of the society. It is made up of a group of people that reside together and are related by blood or adoption. According to
Anyakoha and Eluwa (2010), family is a group of persons united by ties of marriage or blood (ancestry) and having one or more children of their own or
adopted and one times characterized by common residence and economic cooperation. The universality of the family is not in a uniform pattern because it
varies in types. Ibia (2006), categorized family into monogamous and polygamous family. According to the author, monogamous family is a family pattern that
is made up of a husband, a wife and their children while polygamous family consists of one man and more than one wife. The man may or may not live under
the same roof with the wives and exercises control over them and the entire household. There is also the extended family which consists of the couple, their
children, grand parents, siblings, uncles, aunties, nieces, nephews, etc (Groiler, 2006). Irrespective of the type, families constitute the corner stone of the
society and key institution that provides customs, strategies, relationships and behavioural patterns in societies (McGregor, 2009). The family according to
McGregor performs multifaceted roles in the society. These include: Emotional care and physical maintenance of group members and relative, addition of
new members through procreation or adoption as well as fostering, socialization and education of children into adult roles and responsibilities, social control
of members by setting boundaries, disciplining, mentoring and protection of family members against all forms of violence, production, consumption,
exchange and distribution of goods and services and maintenance of family morale and motivation to ensure task performance both within the family and in
other groups (McGregor, 2009). The roles played by the family in societal development is championed by the spouses who constitute the heads of families.
Spouses are two adults male and female 1 xi 14 that are legally married and maintain a socially approved sexual relationship (Ikulayo, 1999). They are
husband and wife who are joined together religiously or by law and tradition. Husband and wife (spouse) normally work together to meet the needs of the
family and carry out various functions to continuously meet the needs of the members. In their sorts to meet these needs, spouses are one confronted
with various forms of challenges that make enormous demands on them. In the process of responding to the demands, spouses experience various forms of
pressures, frustrations, tensions and anxieties which give rise to stress. Reality therapy (RT) is an approach to psychotherapy and counseling Developed by William Glasser in the 1960s, RT diers from conventional psychiatry, psychoanalysis and medical model schools of psychotherapy in that it focuses on what Classer calls psychiatry’s three Rs: realism, responsibility, and right-and-wrong, rather than symptoms of mental disorders.
Reality therapy maintains that the individual is supering from a socially universal human condition rather than a mental illness. It is in the unsuccessful attainment of basic needs that a person’s behavior moves away from the norm which may be caused by stress. Since fulfilling essential needs is part of a person’s present life, reality therapy does not concern itself with a client’s past.
