Deck 8: Working With Families

Question 1

For people with substance-abuse problems, an approach to confrontation that has remained popular for several decades is the intervention. What is the purpose of intervention?

A) Have the client accept the need to enter treatment.
B) Have the client accept the approach being taken by the therapist.
C) Change the client's perception of his/her family members.
D) Change the client's evaluation of his/her circumstances.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Andrea, a member of a dysfunctional family dealing with her substance abuse, tends to avoid the extremes of emotions by thinking that everything happens for a reason and that we must stop resisting life changes. Which one of the dysfunctional communication styles that Virginia Satir has identified does she exhibit?

A) The placater
B) The blamer
C) The super-reasonable person
D) The irrelevant person

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following is the approach of a counselor applying the systems paradigm to family interactions?

A) The isolated unit should be corrected before considering transactional processes among the units that make up the system.
B) Know that the ongoing process is independent of feedback loops.
C) Homeostasis should be established before a deviating behavior of a unit is corrected.
D) Causes and effects are circular, rather than linear, and interventions into any part of the system affect the whole.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

The psychodynamic viewpoint as it is applied to family practice has been strongly affected by analytic therapy as it is applied to individuals and is therefore very different from systems thought.

Question 5

Across the stages of family change as members go through counseling, not all members reach points of readiness at the same time.

Question 6

Identify which of the following statements is true of the communication model as an approach to family therapy:

A) Rather than developing from a systems framework, the communication model adapted existing therapeutic models to family practice.
B) The paradoxical directive prescribes that a family member continues behavior that would be expected to be targeted for change.
C) Haley and Madanes are among the most vocal critics of the communication approach to family therapy.
D) If symptoms serve some purpose in the social context, they cannot be resolved through a focus on interpersonal relationships.

Question 7

What aspects of recovery does psychodynamic family therapy emphasize?

A) Analyzing the effects of individual pathologies on the family system, studying the family as a group of distinct personalities, and driving personal change through insight
B) Analyzing the effects of the dysfunctional family on individual members, highlighting society as constricting personal freedom, and not forcing or engineering personal change
C) Bringing unresolved conflicts to the surface, dealing with past experiences, and addressing both intrapsychic and interpersonal change
D) Bringing unresolved conflicts to the surface, dealing with past experiences, and addressing intrapsychic change rather than interpersonal change

Question 8

Caleb and Kathy are two preadolescent children who live with their father, a construction worker, and mother who had to give up her job because of her alcoholism. The family has decided to hide her alcoholism from people outside their home. Which of the following is likely to characterize their situation?

A) The delicate homeostasis of the family system is disrupted at high cost to the development and self-esteem of individual family members.
B) The delicate homeostasis of the family system is disrupted, but it clears the way for the development and self- esteem of individual family members.
C) The delicate homeostasis of the family system is maintained, thus minimizing the cost to the development and self-esteem of individual family members.
D) The delicate homeostasis of the family system is maintained but at high cost to the development and self- esteem of individual family members.

Question 9

What characterizes an enmeshed family system?

A) Absence of clear boundaries between its subsystems and by a complete lack of distance among family members
B) Presence of clear boundaries between its subsystems and by a complete lack of distance among family members
C) Absence of clear boundaries between its subsystems and by a distinct presence of distance among family members
D) Presence of clear boundaries between its subsystems and by a distinct presence of distance among family members

Question 10

Bowenian therapy is based on the concepts of differentiation, triangulation, and multigenerational transmission processes.

Question 11

Explain the Bowenian concept of differentiation of the self and how it may be used as a way of categorizing all people on a single continuum.

Question 12

A family systems therapist tends to view the substance-abusing individual simply as the identified symptom-bearer in the family, rather than as the primary focus of attention.

Question 13

Family members of Adam, a cocaine addict going through family therapy, are interrupting rigid patterns of interaction and moving away from accepting responsibility for others' behavior. What stage of therapy are they currently going through?

A) Reinforcement
B) Confrontation
C) Disengagement
D) Adjustment

Question 14

With the drinker present, the CRAFT therapist works with the family member to change the drinker's social environment in a way that removes inadvertent reinforcement for drinking and instead reinforces abstinence.

Question 15

Write a short note on CRAFT (community reinforcement and family training) as a viable alternative to either the confrontational intervention or the act of disengagement.

Question 16

In family counseling, what is generally said to be true as the family is taken through the stages of recovery?

A) Families also tend to move through the process of change in mostly unpredictable ways.
B) Growth and change can take place, whether or not the substance-abusing member takes part.
C) Systems interventions are most effective if they challenge the family's stage of readiness.
D) The focus should entirely be on helping the substance-abusing member alter his or her part in the ongoing pattern of interaction.

Question 17

Have BSFT (brief strategic family therapy) and MFT (multidimensional family therapy) been assessed as an evidence-based program?

A) No
B) Yes
C) No, only MFT has been thus assessed.
D) No, only BSFT has been thus assessed.