Deck 5: How to Amplify What Clients Want: the Miracle Question

Question 1

First and foremost, well-formed goals are:

A) important to the client.
B) defined in interactional terms.
C) defined with situational features.
D) defined as a beginning step rather than an end result.

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Well-formed goals involve the client specifying the absence of something undesirable rather than the presence of something desirable.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The miracle question is best asked slowly, dramatically, and with many follow-up questions which include the phrase: "What will be different ....?"

Answer 3

True

Question 4

A client first used the word "miracle" in a goal-formulation conversation with Insoo Kim Berg and gave the practitioners at BFTC the idea of asking the miracle question.

Question 5

The "miracle question" is used mainly to:

A) develop well-formed goals.
B) uncover exceptions.
C) help the client to cope with overwhelming circumstances.
D) measure client progress.

Question 6

In meeting with several members of a family, the practitioner invites the family members to work toward a joint definition of goals and a joint solution.

Question 7

It is usually more useful to clients to work with them at defining what will be different when their problems are solved before working on how they might make that happen.

Question 8

Which of the following better fits the characteristics of well-formed goals?

A) "Having a happy marriage"
B) "Asking ones spouse to go out for dinner next Tuesday evening"
C) "Not getting irritated with ones spouse when she is late in coming home from her job"
D) "Losing 70 pounds"

Question 9

It is best for the interviewer to ask clients to describe their goals as an end state or final result of their efforts, rather than as a beginning ste

Question 10

The miracle question is useful for all of the following reasons except:

A) it gives clients permission to think about the widest range of possibilities.
B) it focuses the client on the future, not the past.
C) it takes the client's focus away from current problems.
D) it builds on exceptions

Question 11

Solution building cannot be used with clients who are isolated or live alone because the worker cannot meaningfully ask relationship questions which focus on the client's interactional context.

Question 12

Well-formed goals are those which first of all are defined within the client's frame of reference--not the practitioner's.

Question 13

Relationship questions are used to help clients expand their goal definitions.

Question 14

In the Williams family case, Albert

Question 15

Ah Yan often first responded to Peter's goal-formulation questions by saying, "I don't know."

Question 16

Ah Yan indicated that leaving her husband was a part of her "miracle picture."

Question 17

Goals should be described by clients in concrete, measurable terms instead of in vague and general terms.

Question 18

For young children, the word miracle may be too abstract to be useful; it is better to substitute words such as magic wand, gold dust, and magic.