Marriage and Family Counseling - Flashcards

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The family theory of the etiology of schizophrenia which focused on disturbed patterns of communication was founded by Gregory Bateson, Theodore Lidz, and

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Lyman Wynne

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According to Theodore Lidz, marital schism occurs when

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there is a chronic failure of spouses to achieve role reciprocity

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Lyman Wynne's term for the facade of family harmony that characterized many schizophrenic families is

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pseudomutuality

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The Bateson group may be best remembered for the concepts of the double bind and

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metacommunication

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The techniques of structural family therapy fall into two general categories, joining and

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restructuring techniques

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Jackson's concept, ________, that families are units that resist change, became the defining metaphor of family therapy's first three decades.

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family homeostasis

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The tendency of families to resist change in order to maintain a steady state is known as

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homeostasis

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A relationship in which husband and wife both pursue careers and share housekeeping and childrearing responsibilities is

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symmetrical

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Kurt Lewin's idea of ________ can be seen in action in Minuchin's promotion of crises in family lunch sessions, Norman Paul's use of cross-confrontations, and Peggy Papp's family choreography.

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unfreezing

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Hospital clinicians began to acknowledge and include the family in an individual's treatment when

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A and C: they noticed when the patient got better, someone in the family got worse;they realized the family continued to influence the course of treatment anyway

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The group therapy model was not entirely appropriate for families for what reason?

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families have a shared history

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According to communications theory, healthy families are able to adapt to changing circumstances through use of

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positive feedback

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According to the text, one problem with treating families as though they were groups like any other group is that

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it fails to appreciate the need for hierarchy and structure

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The goal of family group therapy was to

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all of these choices : promote verbalization and understanding of unmet needs; promote individuation of family members; improve family relationships

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This family therapist's personal resolution of emotional reactivity in his family was as significant for his approach to family therapy as Freud's self-analysis was for psychoanalysis.

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Murray Bowen

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A conflict created when a person receives contradictory messages on different levels of abstraction in an important relationship, and cannot leave or comment is known as a

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double bind

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Group-oriented therapists promoted communication by concentrating on ________ rather than ________.

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process/content

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This family therapist believed in the existence of an interpersonal unconscious in every family.

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Nathan Ackerman

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Communications family therapists hypothesized that normal families can maintain integrity in the face of environmental vagaries through

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Negative feedback

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The only means to effectively escape a double bind is to

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A and B: withdraw from the relationship ; metacommunicate

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Frieda Fromm-Reichmann's concept, "________ mother," described a domineering, aggressive, rejecting, and insecure mother who was thought to provide the pathological parenting that produced schizophrenia.

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Schizophrenogenic

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Gregory Bateson and his colleagues at Palo Alto introduced this concept to describe the patterns of disturbed family communication which cause schizophrenia.

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double bind

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One of the major propositions put forth in Watzlawick et al.'s (1967) Pragmatics of Human Communication, was that all messages have a report and a ________ function.

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Command

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The first to apply group concepts to family treatment was

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John Elderkin Bell

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The privatization of family therapy training had what effect on the field?

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released from the economic constraints of academia, family therapy became a profitable enterprise

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With the exception of the feminist critique, what has been largely missing in family therapy has been an examination of

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all of these choices : cultural biases ; the society we are helping people fit into ; value systems

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The greatest conceptual influence on the early development of family therapy was

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systems theory

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Superficial change in a system which itself stays invariant is termed ________, while basic change in the structure of a system is called ________.

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first-order; second-order

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General systems theory, cybernetics, and social constructionism are ________ concepts.

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metapsychological

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Boundaries around the executive subsystem in the family are of particular importance because the family ________ is seen by structural therapists as crucial to the family's well-being.

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hierarchy

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The notions of complementarity, structuralism, and general systems theory are all embraced by which family theory?

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structural family therapy

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The stages of a family's life from separation from one's parents to marriage, having children, growing older, retirement, and finally death, are known as the

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family life cycle

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A balanced steady state of equilibrium is known as

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homeostasis

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The study of control processes in systems, particularly the analysis of the flow of information in closed systems, is known as

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cybernetics

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A biological model of living systems as whole entities which maintain themselves through continuous input and output from the environment, developed by Ludwig von Bertalanffy is known as

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general systems theory

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Which is not a concept of von Bertalanffy's general systems theory?

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"black box" metaphor

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The phrase, "where the id is, there the ego shall be," best fits which concept?

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differentiation of self

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Which phenomena are not a focus of cybernetics, as applied to families?

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family hierarchy

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The concept of the family life cycle was introduced to the field by

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Jay Haley

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Narrative therapy differs from solution-focused therapy in being more focused on ________ than ________.

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attitudes; behavior

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Constructivism first found its way into psychotherapy in the work of

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George Kelly

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A flight from a conflictual emotional attachment to one's parents is known as

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emotional cutoff

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From a Bowenian perspective, optimal development in the family occurs when all members are relatively differentiated, anxiety is low, and parents

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remain in emotional contact with their families of origin

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Unlike experiential therapists, Bowenians seek to ________ levels of anxiety in order to increase levels of differentiation of self in the family.

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decrease

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The central premise of Bowen theory is that unresolved ________ must be resolved before one can differentiate a mature, healthy personality.

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emotional reactivity to one's family of origin

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According to feminist Bowenians, ________ causes the most problems in American families.

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A and C: Patriarchy and emotional fusion

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The primary goal of Bowen family therapy is to

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increase the level of self-focus in family members

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Bowen's concept "differentiation of self" is most like, which of the following?

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ego strength

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By training family members in 3 areas--teaching differentiation, avoiding triangulation, and ________, Bowen therapists can enable a single individual to transform the whole network of his or her family system.

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reopening cut-off family relationships

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A Bowen therapist working with an individual family member in treatment is most likely to do which of the following?

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C and D: model how to take an "I-position"; work with a genogram

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An increase in chronic anxiety in the nuclear family system will tend to ________ less differentiated families, while it will ________ more highly differentiated families.

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cause an increase in symptoms in/be absorbed by

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In Bowen theory, the flight from a conflictual emotional attachment to one's parents is known as

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emotional cutoff

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This Bowenian concept describes the level of emotional "stuck-togetherness" or fusion in the family.

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lack of differentiation of self

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"Differentiated" individuals

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can balance their needs for closeness and autonomy

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________ is a prominent technique in Bowen therapy designed to clarify emotional processes involved in altering key triangles. The technique is used in order to help family members become aware of systems processes and recognize their own roles in them--it was first developed for use with emotional pursuers and distancers.

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relationship experiments

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Murray Bowen developed his ideas about family therapy while at the NIMH, studying ________ families. Based on his observations of these families' intense clinging interdependence, he concluded that a lack of differentiation was responsible for all family pathology.

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psychotic

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According to the principles of which Bowenian construct, simply teaching a mother better techniques for disciplining her son will fail, because the intervention ignores the problem that she is overinvolved with the boy as a result of her husband's emotional distance.

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triangles

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People tend to marry spouses at ________ levels of differentiation.

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similar

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According to Bowen, ________ are the smallest stable unit of human relations.

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triangles

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According to Bowen theory, more highly differentiated individuals will likely

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have parents who are well differentiated

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In Bowen theory, this is a process wherein the projection of varying degrees of immaturity to different children in the same family occurs. The child who is most involved in the family emerges with the lowest level of differentiation, and passes on problems to succeeding generations.

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multigenerational transmission process

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________ therapists believe there is no one model of health or normality for families, therefore, they refrain from imposing any such model on their clients.

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B and C: Milan; MRI

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The strategic and systemic therapies have been most directly influenced by the ideas of

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A and D: Gregory Bateson; Milton Erikson

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Though many schools of family therapy believe that the real problem in families is some form of underlying family pathology, ________ family therapists deny that underlying dynamics are the cause of symptomatic behavior.

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Strategic

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A conflict created when a person receives contradictory messages on different levels of abstraction is known as a

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double bind

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The Bateson group may be best remembered for the concepts of the double bind and

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meta communication

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Selvini Palazzoli's technique of ascribing helpful motives to family behavior in order to promote family cohesion and avoid resistance to therapy is known as

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positive connotation

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A paradoxical technique that forces a patient to either give up a symptom or admit that it is under voluntary control is known as

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prescribing the symptom

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Both strategic and Milan systemic therapies aim to achieve personality change through

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none of these choices

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Madanes categorizes family problems according to 4 basic intentions of family members involved in them. They are the desire to dominate and control, the desire to love and protect others, the desire to repent and forgive, and the desire to

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be loved

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The strategic technique of providing a new label for a family's description of behavior, in order to make it more amenable to therapeutic change; for example, describing someone as "lonely" rather than "depressed."

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reframing

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Jay Haley's approach incorporates a functionalist viewpoint with his Ericksonian and cybernetic influences, thus combining aspects of the ________ and ________ approaches into his style of treating families.

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structural/strategic

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Relabeling a family's description of behavior to make it more amenable to therapeutic change is called

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reframing

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All of these choices schools have for their goals of therapy both symptom resolution and transformation in the whole family system, except which?

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MRI

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Action and insight are the primary vehicles of change in family therapy. The ________ school emphasizes behavioral change and eschews insight as a medium for change.

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strategic

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A technique used by the Milan group that prescribes a specific act for family members to perform--it is designed to change the family system's rules.

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family ritual

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The idea that because the mind is so complex, it's better to study people's input and output (e.g., behavior and communication) than to speculate about what goes on in their minds is known as

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black box concept

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Basic change in the structure and functioning of a system is known in general systems theory as

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second-order change

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MRI therapists identify 3 categories of client solutions which tend to perpetuate or exacerbate their problems. They include attempting to solve something which isn't really a problem, taking action to solve a problem but doing so at the wrong level, and

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B and C: failing to take action, though action is necessary; denying that a problem exists

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The current form of Haley/Madanes therapy is called ________, and still involves giving directives based on therapist hypotheses, though shifting the focus away from the power elements of family hierarchy.

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Strategic humanism

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The use of ________ is designed to block or change dysfunctional behavior using indirect, seemingly illogical means.

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all of these choices: therapeutic double bind; paradox; directives

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A primary goal of communications family therapy was to

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interrupt dysfunctional feedback loops

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A method of interviewing developed by the Milan associates in which questions are asked to highlight differences among family members, is known as

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circular questioning

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The central intervention within the original Milan model consisted of either a ritual or a

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positive connotation

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The development and use of "pretend techniques," paradoxical interventions in which family members are asked to pretend to engage in symptomatic behavior, is associated with which strategic/systemic therapist?

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Cloe Madanes

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When parents are unable to resolve the conflicts between them, a common pattern is to continue to argue through the children. When father says mother is too permissive, she says he's too strict. He may in turn withdraw, and she responds to the child with excessive concern and devotion. The structural term which best describes the resulting family structure is

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a cross-generational coalition between mother and child

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________ is another method of modifying interactions, which structural therapists use to help family members employ more functional alternatives already in their repertoire of skills.

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shaping competence

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The goal in structural family therapy when working with enmeshed families is to

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differentiate individuals and subsystems by strengthening the boundaries around them

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Structural therapists attempt to alter the family's view of reality by

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realigning the boundaries between individuals and subsystems

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In order to discern a family's structure two things are necessary a theoretical system that explains structure and

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live observation

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Minuchin's term for psychological isolation that results from overly rigid boundaries around individuals and subsystems in a family is

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disengagement

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During which phase of structural family therapy does assessment occur?

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opening

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A family therapist who begins a session by greeting individual family members by name and asking for each person's view of the problem is demonstrating which strategy?

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joining

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An interaction stimulated in structural family therapy in order to observe and then change transactions which make up family structure is called

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an enactment

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Minuchin, Rosman, and Baker (1978) reported a 90% improvement rate in the results of their treatment study of structural family therapy in treating

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anorexia

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In order to highlight and modify interactions in the family, structural therapists use intensity to

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all of these choices: interrupt rigid patterns of conflict-avoidance; break families loose from their patterns of equilibrium; extend interactional sequences beyond the point where dysfunctional homeostasis is reinstated

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Structural family therapists use ________ to observe and then change transactions that make up family structure.

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enactments

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Disengaged subsystems are surrounded by ________ boundaries while ________ subsystems have ________ boundaries.

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rigid; enmeshed; diffuse

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"Unbalancing" involves

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taking sides

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When two people marry, they must learn to negotiate the nature of the boundary between them, as well as the boundary separating them from the outside. This structural requirement is known as

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accommodation

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Structuralists believe the family must first accept the therapist, in a process called ________, which allows the therapist to increase stress and unbalance the family homeostasis, thus opening the way for structural transformation in the family.

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joining

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Structural family therapists are ________, because they believe symptoms in one member are expressive of the entire family structure.

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functionalists

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The primary treatment goal of structural family therapy is to

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alter the family structure

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The goals of experiential family therapy would include

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increased personal integrity; greater freedom of choice; increased sensitivity to one's needs and feelings

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A non-verbal experiential technique, in which family members position themselves in a tableau that reveals significant aspects of their perceptions and feelings, is known as

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family sculpting

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The primary goals of family therapy included which of the following?

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enhanced sensitivity; greater freedom of choice; expanded emotional experiencing

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The goal of internal family systems therapy is to

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achieve self-leadership

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An essential role of an IFS therapist is to

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help family members notice when their parts have taken over

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Within experiential therapy, the ________ is believed to be the essential healing force in the psychotherapeutic process, whereby the therapist establishes caring, person-to-person relationships with each family member while modeling openness, honesty, and spontaneity.

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existential encounter

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An important concept in experiential family therapy--defined as the process of developing and fulfilling one's innate, positive potentialities.

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self-actualization

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The IFS therapist uses ________ or sense of when people are and are not leading with their Selves, to help family members maintain Self-leadership as they interact.

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a parts detector

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A collection of beliefs based on a distortion of historical reality and shared by all family members, which help shape the rules governing family functioning are known as

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family myths

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Experiential therapy differs from most systems approaches with respect to its emphasis on ________ versus techniques that specifically facilitate interaction.

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expanding experience

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Research on emotionally-focused couples therapy has shown that greater ________ on the part of spouses results in more productive sessions and better treatment outcomes.

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experiencing

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Carl Whitaker, like Murray Bowen, believes that personal growth (i.e., individuation) also requires

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family connectedness

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R.D. Laing's concept that many families distort their children's experience by denying or relabeling it is known as

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mystification

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Johnson and Greenberg have found that emotionally-focused couples therapy is more successful when the therapist first ________ and then ________, in that order.

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softens the attacking spouses stance; engages the withdrawn spouse

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Experiential family therapists believe ________ is/are the primary cause of dysfunction in families.

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unexpressed emotion

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Experiential therapists typically use ________ to help minimize countertransference responses to family members in session.

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co-therapists

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Unlike Bowenians, experiential therapists will ________ then behave in alternately provocative and supportive ways in order to help families learn to express honest emotion.

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raise the level of anxiety in the family

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The notion that the personality is subdivided has been proposed by Freud, the object relations theorists, and ________ theorists.

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internal family systems

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Experiential family therapy is designed to

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facilitate emotional experiencing in family members

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________ is considered more important by experiential therapists for healthy family functioning than either problem-solving skills or functional family structure.

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open, spontaneous experiencing

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Among experientialists, families are typically conceived of and treated as

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groups of individuals

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Internal family systems theorists use techniques such as ________ from structural family therapy to help people get their polarized parts to deal with each other while blocking the interference of other parts.

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boundary making

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The outcome of good object relations in infancy is the emergence of

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labidinal object constancy

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________ is an interactive process in which a subject perceives an object as containing elements of the subject's personality and evokes certain behaviors and feelings from the object that conform to these perceptions.

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projective identification

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The general goals of psychoanalytic family therapy include

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resolution of unconscious conflict; differentiation; separation-individuation

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Non-psychoanalytic family therapists locate problems between people; psychoanalytic family therapists identify problems ________ people

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within and between

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Unlike ________, psychoanalytic clinicians may not complete their assessment or arrive at a final diagnosis until the end of treatment.

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B and C: behaviorist and structuralists

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An emotional reaction, usually unconscious and often distorted, on the part of the therapist to a patient or family member in treatment is known as

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countertransference

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Along with the achievement of insight, the processes of "working through" and ________ are considered three specific processes that facilitate change in psychodynamic therapy.

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reintegrating split-off parts of the ego

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Psychoanalytic family therapy consists of four basic techniques listening, empathy, interpretation, and

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maintaining analytic neutrality

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Psychoanalytic family therapy achieves personality change and growth through the technique(s) of

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B and D: interpretation; "working through"

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According to object relations theory, both ________ and ________ will likely result in poor adult adjustment.

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inadequate separation-individuation; introjection of pathological objects

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According to psychoanalytic theory, marital choice is affected in part by the ________ phenomenon, in which the insecurely attached child grows up learning to hide their real needs and feelings to win approval.

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false self

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Psychoanalytic family therapists pay particular interest to childhood memories when

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they are re-enacted in the present, manifested as transference

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Psychoanalytic clinicians identify pathology in families as the result of ________, while structural family therapists locate dysfunction in the boundaries between subsystems.

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all of these choices: conflict; intrapsychic rigidity; developmental arrest

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According to self psychology, children are more likely to develop a secure and cohesive sense of self when parents provide sufficient opportunities for

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idealization

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Psychoanalytic family therapists use the technique of interpretation when confronted with ________ in family therapy, because it often takes the form of acting-out.

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resistance

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A process in psychoanalytic family therapy, by which insights are translated into new and more productive ways of behaving and interacting is known as

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working through

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According to psychoanalytic perspectives, one's choice of marital partner is based on

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one's desire to find someone with complementary needs who will fulfill one's unconscious fantasies

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A process whereby an infant begins to draw apart from the symbiotic bond with mother and develop autonomous functioning is known as

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separation-individuation

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The use of high-probability behavior to reinforce low-probability behavior is known as

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Premack principle

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Assessments conducted in behavioral marriage therapy are designed to evaluate couples on which of the following:

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their ability to discuss relationship problems; the manner in which reward and punishment are exchanged; skill at pinpointing relevant reinforcers in the relationship

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According to behaviorists, disturbed marital interactions result from

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low rates of positive reinforcement exchange

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A behavioral technique using to eliminate behavior by not reinforcing it is known as

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extinction

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Behavioral marital therapists prefer to use ________ to identify problems and understand their etiology.

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B and C: written questionnaires; direct observation

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The behavioral parent training model

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supports the parents' view that the child is the problem

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Behavioral assessment methods fall into each of the following categories

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clinical interview; observation; objective testing

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The assessment stage in the behavioral treatment of sexual dysfunction involves

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all of these choices: scheduling a medical examination to rule out organic problems; establishing goals for treatment; conducting extensive interviews to determine the nature of the dysfunction

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Systematic desensitization and assertive training are both examples of ________ techniques.

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respondent conditioning

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Three types of sexual dysfunction identified by Helen Singer Kaplan, which correspond to three stages of the sexual response include arousal disorders, orgasm disorders, and

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disorders of desire

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The major intent of behavioral exchange procedures is to help couples

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establish reinforcement reciprocity

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A major treatment strategy in behavioral couples therapy is to

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improve communication skills

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The most commonly used techniques in behavior therapy fall into which category?

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operant conditioning

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This behavioral technique uses a system of points or stars to reward children for successful behavior

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token economy

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Masters and Johnson tend to lump sexual problems into which category of problem

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anxiety

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Compliments are an example of

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positive reinforcement

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The goal-setting process in solution-focused therapy emphasizes

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not what clients want to stop doing but what they want to start doing

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Solution-focused therapists engage in problem talk

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long enough to make clients feel understood

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Solution-focused therapists use "scaling questions" to

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break change into small steps

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Solution-focused therapy was adapted from

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the MRI model

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Solution-focused therapy focuses primarily on

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cognition

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Solution-focused therapy draws heavily on

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constructivism

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This question, used by solution focused therapists, is intended to circumvent clients' global and unremitting perceptions of the problems and directs their attention to times in the past or present when they didn't have the problem

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exception questions

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Early in the development of solution focused therapy, all clients were given the same assignment, ________, in which clients are asked to observe what happens in their life/relationships that they want to continue.

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formula first-session task

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Steve de Shazer's term for someone who isn't willing to work at changing is

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complainant

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