Iranian dual career couples: processing conflicting issues using career counseling methods

Dual career couples on a daily basis have to work with one another to establish a balance between work and family. These couples have daily issues that constantly arise and cause conflict between the couples. Iranian dual career couples also face the same daily issues in balancing work and family life. But, for this particular population the collectivist cultural component in the Iranian culture intensifies these daily issues. This project is designed to assist second generation Iranian dual career couples in working through three particular issues that dual career couples face on a daily basis. These issues include: gender roles, lack of communication skills, and values within social and economic class statues. As a collectivist culture the Iranian culture plays an important role in identifying gender roles between males and females. The Iranian culture also influences the way people communicate. Based on cultural components, Iranians tend to talk in a way that is unclear to listeners. They tend to fear saying exactly what they mean. These communication barriers lead to unresolved conflict between Iranian dual career couples. And finally within the Iranian culture, social and economic class has become a value embedded in the daily values of the Iranian dual career couple. Understanding to what extent social and economic class status influences their life and their values will allow Iranian dual career couples to understand how to balance is issue within their daily values. This project is designed in a way to allow couples to look at the roles they play, understand how they communicate, and be able to evaluate their values and conflict resolution styles. By using assessments and career counseling activities and theories, couples will have a better understanding of each other and ways of going about in solving conflicting issues that arise on a daily basis.