4.2 Discussion of Findings
The discussion of the findings is organized around the research questions and
hypotheses for ease of reading and comprehension.
Finding revealed that they are significant relationship between perceiving emotions
and marital adjustment of couples in Cross River State. This implies that couples seek out
activities that make them happy and some of the major events of their life have led them to
evaluate what is important and not important and know when to speak about personal
problems to their spouse .Emotional perception allows people to respond with appropriate
emotional reactions to situations. Perception of emotions can be verbal or non-verbal.
Emotion perception describes the capacity to recognize, be aware of and the ability to
identify emotions in oneself and others this leads to marital stability. This finding agrees with
that of Parameswari (2016) who found that emotional intelligence has a significant influence
on the marital adjustment of women. The finding however disagrees with the work of Nasiri
Zarch, Marashi, Raji (2014) who found that significant relationships between components of
emotional intelligence (Stress management, adaptability and general mood) within each
region, except that one component (interpersonal) had no significant relationship with marital
satisfaction. The implication of this study is that before an individual can accurately report
their own emotional state they must be able to recognize different emotions and understand
what it means to be happy, sad, frightened or angry. The perception of emotions can help
give meaning to situations. If a spouse shows an angry emotional reaction, his or her partner
will be able to recognise the presence of anger, interpret what this expression means and what
might have triggered the anger. For example, if a spouse arrives at home in an angry state, his
partner could assume that he or she had an unpleasant time at work, or is ruminating on a
particularly irritating issue.
The second finding revealed that there is significant relationship between using
emotions and marital adjustment of couples in Cross River State. This implies that when
couples experience a positive emotion, they know how to make it last, when couples are in a
positive mood, solving problems is easy for them. Couples who have the ability to harness
emotions to facilitate various cognitive activities, such as thinking and problem solving. This
aids in judgment, recognizing that mood swings can lead to a consideration of alternative
viewpoint and understanding that a shift in emotional state and perspective can encourage
different kinds of marital problem solving. Using emotions put couples at an advantage for
solving problems in an adaptive manner in their marriage. This finding is in agreement with
the work of Muhammad, Iram and Khalid (2015) who found that emotional intelligence and
marital adjustment were positively correlated and significant. Males showed high marital
adjustment than females. The implication of this study is that emotionally intelligent couples
adjust easily on areas like making of new ideas and solving problems at home. Emotionally
intelligent couples can also recognize, understand their and others’ emotions and use
emotions to facilitate thinking, and can manage their emotions. Couples who are emotionally
intelligent are able to build life-long relationships. Emotional intelligence facilitates
recognizing one’s own motivations, feelings and desires which are important in effective
communication to a partner.
The third finding of the study showed that there is significant relationship between
expressing emotions and marital adjustment of couples in Cross River State. This implies that
emotional expressions conveyed by the face, voice, or body provide information that can
facilitate social interaction and make it more predictable and manageable. Thus, accurately
recognizing the type and intensity of others’ emotional states from their nonverbal
expressions is a precondition for understanding and adequately responding to their reactions,
thoughts and intentions. This finding agrees with that of Razmjouyi, Refahi, and Sohrabi
(2017) who found that perceptive positive and negative emotion has both direct and indirect
effects on the marital adjustment. The study concluded that positive emotion perception and
negative emotion perception have direct and indirect impacts on the marital adjustment
through the factor of assertiveness. This implies that spouses that express their emotions to
each other may affect their behavior toward each other. When a wife shows her appreciation
to her husband for something he did in relation to their marriage, it will consolidate the
behavior that is displayed and will cause her husband to display more positive behavior in the
future, thereby increases their marital adjustment. This will likewise positively develop her
spouse’s thoughts and perceptions regarding their marriage, and the value that the spouses
attribute to each other and the extent to which they share their feelings with each other will
increase
The fourth finding of the study showed that there are significant relationship between
understanding emotions and marital adjustment of couples in Cross River State. This implies
that true expression, recognition and evaluation of emotions have meaningful relationship
with couples’ reports on marriage contentment and satisfaction. Understanding the emotions
of the spouse and one’s own emotions is important in intimate relationships. Understanding
emotions is the powerful ability that helps in not only overcoming marital problems, if any,
but also in leading a happy married life. Understanding emotion is a great motivating force
throughout the span of human life, affecting aspirations, thoughts and actions of an
individual. This finding is in consonant with the work of Jamarun (2017) who found that
there is a meaningful relation between emotional quotient and marriage happiness. There also
exist a meaningful relation between the components of emotional quotient (empathy,
understanding emotions, self-control and social skills) and marriage happiness. This finding
is in consonant with the work of Tresa and Kishor (2012) who found that among all the subdomains of emotional intelligence, self-awareness was the single most predictor of perceived
marital adjustment of both husbands and wives. The implication of this study is that
understanding emotion is not only one of the effective determinants of marital adjustment,
but it also helps individual development. It means, in essence, controlling your emotions
rather than allowing your emotions to control you. It is a personality trait which is the result
of emotional development and the display of understanding emotions appropriate to one’s
chronological age.
The fifth finding of the study showed that there is significant relationship between
empathy and marital adjustment of couples in Cross River State. This implies that empathy is
a mode of coping that involves attempts to formulate an understanding of another person’s
feelings and thoughts. In stressful marriage, empathic responding may serve a myriad of
purposes, such as managing or preventing conflict, dealing with the distress of loved ones,
minimizing negative attributions or blaming others, and maintaining closeness and emotional
intimacy. This finding is in consonant with the work of Ortese and Tor-Anyiin (2008) which
showed that emotion management has significant effect on marital adjustment of couples; the
study further showed that social relationship skills had significant effect on marital
adjustment of couples. This finding is in consonant with the work of Jalil and Muazzam
(2013) that found a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and marital
adjustment in both groups. The comparison of two groups showed that fertile women’s
marital adjustment was better than infertile women. The implication of this study is that
empathic responding is an effort to understand another person and efforts to behaviorally
respond to the other person in stressful situation in a supportive, caring manner as a means to
defuse interpersonal stress and maintain the relationship. High levels of empathy will have a
positive relationship with marital adjustment. Empathy between couples means having the
ability to feel and understand the thoughts and emotions of the other partner. Having the
ability to listen to and relating to the partner’s feelings is very important and this has a great
impact on how the relationship works thereby affecting the levels of adjustment
The sixth finding shows that managing emotions has significant relationship with marital
adjustment of couples in Cross River State. This means that the ability to successfully
maintain, change or modify emotions, both in self and others contributes to relationship
stability and happiness. Couples capable of reframing negative interactions are higher in
marital satisfaction, too much and too little of negative emotions may be maladaptive in
interpersonal relationships. This finding agrees with that of Onyekuru and Ugwu (2017) who
found that emotional intelligence had positive and significant joint relationship with marital
stability. They also found that emotional competence, emotional maturity and emotional
sensitivity each had positive individual relationship with marital stability which was
significant for emotional maturity and emotional sensitivity but insignificant for emotional
competence. The findings also agrees with that of Arshad, Abbas and Mahmood (2015) who
found that emotional intelligence and marital adjustment were positively correlated and
significant. Males showed high marital adjustment than females and females were
emotionally intelligent than males. The implication of this study is that people with high
emotional intelligence know how to regulate their negative emotions and adjust to save their
relationships from being impacted by them. This also implies that people who are insightful,
empathetic and have awareness of their emotional needs may have greater desire to become
close to others and adjust when the need arise. Also, commitment in a relationship comes if
people share good cohesive bond based on trust and partner responsiveness which is effected
by emotional intelligence of the couple