This paper examines the stress response of married Korean students who study in America from the perspective of the Mental Research Institute(MRI)concept "attempted solution." Korean graduate student couples face many difficulties in their attempt to ...
This paper examines the stress response of married Korean students who study in America from the perspective of the Mental Research Institute(MRI)concept "attempted solution." Korean graduate student couples face many difficulties in their attempt to adjust American society due to the language barrier, cultural conflicts, status inconsistency, and changing role differentiation. These experiences cause many psychosocial problems and marital conflicts. Two cases exemplify application of MRI interactional family therapy. This paper attempted to apply the concepts of complementary relationship, symmetrical relationship, reframing, first-order change, and second-order change to two Korean student couples with problems of marital relationship in America.
It is assumed that the four principles for second-order change can be fitted to Korean student couples if the therapist took into consideration about Korean characteristics. In dealing with Korean student couples it is very important to define clearly the problem and the concrete change to be performed with flexibility. Therefore, it is thought that MRI interactional family therapy is good approach to apply Korean student couples with marital problems.