The helping process in couples during recovery from heart attack: A singlecase study

This single case study aimed to illustrate help-intended communication in c ouples, in particular how a husband and wife attempted to help each other w ith adjusting to the husband's recent myocardial infarction. The study empl oyed a semi-structured communication task to gather samples of the couple's helping interactions: the couple had two conversations in which they alter nated helper and discloser roles. Quantitative and qualitative data were ob tained from the couple and from expert raters (observers) about their persp ectives of the conversations. The observers' ratings and verbal response mo de patterns indicated that the conversations were characterized by low leve ls of empathy and exploration of feelings and relatively high levels of hel per disclosure and advice; overall, the observers found the conversations t o be somewhat unhelpful. In contrast, the couple rated the conversations mo re positively; the 'helpful events' they identified consisted of their part ner disclosing a new piece of information and giving advice. The results we re discussed in terms of the unique features of helping in close relationsh ips.