Deck 1: The Evolution of Family Therapy

Question 1

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

A) pseudocomplementarity
B) pseudomutuality
C) pseudoharmony
D) pseudohostility

Answer 1

pseudomutuality

Question 2

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

A) they noticed when the patient got better, someone in the family got worse
B) they realized the family was footing the bill for treatment
C) they realized the family continued to influence the course of treatment anyway
D) A and C
E) none of these choices

Answer 2

A and C

Question 3

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.

A) unfreezing
B) social equilibrium
C) group process
D) field theory

Answer 3

unfreezing

Question 4

The first to apply group concepts to family treatment was

A) Murray Bowen
B) John Elderkin Bell
C) Virginia Satir
D) Carl Whitaker

Question 5

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.

A) undifferentiated
B) schizophrenogenic
C) reactive
D) symbiotic

Question 6

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

A) schizophrenogenesis
B) double bind
C) pseudohostility
D) none of these choices

Question 7

The only means to effectively escape a double bind is to

A) withdraw from the relationship
B) metacommunicate
C) quid pro quo
D) A and B

Question 8

According to Theodore Lidz, marital schism occurs when

A) one spouse with serious psychopathology dominates the other
B) there is a chronic failure of spouses to achieve role reciprocity
C) one spouse consistently engages in double-binding communication
D) there is a loss of autonomy due to a blurring of psychological boundaries between spouses

Question 9

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

A) emotional reactivity
B) quid pro quo
C) family homeostasis
D) A and C

Question 10

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.

A) Salvador Minuchin
B) Jay Haley
C) Murray Bowen
D) Carl Whitaker

Question 11

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

A) Murray Bowen
B) Nathan Ackerman
C) Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy
D) Virginia Satir

Question 12

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

A) family members are peers
B) families have a shared history
C) A and C
D) none of these choices

Question 13

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

A) triangles
B) family structure
C) group process
D) metacommunication

Question 14

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

A) homeostasis
B) the black box concept
C) paradox
D) complementarity

Question 15

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

A) it fails to consider the intrapsychic components of family problems
B) it fails to appreciate the need for hierarchy and structure
C) family members are released from their inhibitions
D) there is no problem with treating families like any other group

Question 16

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

A) reframe
B) complementarity
C) quid pro quo
D) double bind

Question 17

The goal of family group therapy was to

A) promote verbalization and understanding of unmet needs
B) promote individuation of family members
C) improve family relationships
D) all of these choices

Question 18

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

A) process/content
B) solutions/problems
C) the system/the individual
D) positive feedback loops/negative feedback loops

Question 19

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

A) Carl Whitaker
B) Lyman Wynne
C) Virginia Satir
D) Mara Selvini-Palazzoli

Question 20

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

A) complementary
B) unrealistic
C) competitive
D) symmetrical

Question 21

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

A) positive feedback
B) negative feedback
C) metacommunication
D) therapeutic double-binds

Question 22

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

A) positive feedback
B) negative feedback
C) homeostasis
D) therapeutic double-binds

Question 23

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.

A) semantic
B) pragmatic
C) paradoxical
D) command

Question 24

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using a systems metaphor to understand and treat families.

Question 25

In communications family therapy, resistance and symptoms were treated with a variety of paradoxical techniques, known as therapeutic double-binds. Define and give an illustration of a therapeutic double-bind. Why were they considered so powerful?

Question 26

Some argue that paradoxical instructions are insulting and should not be used. Others insist their use is necessary in order to successfully treat families. Take a position for or against the use of paradox and defend your perspective.

Question 27

Explain the etiology of schizophrenia from a communications theory perspective.

Question 28

What is the "black box" concept? How does it inform the goals for therapy according to the communications perspective?

Question 29

Discuss family group therapy's major contributions to the family therapy field. What were the major limitations that led to its eventual demise?

Question 30

Describe the double-bind theory of schizophrenia. Historically, why was the theory important? (How might the methods of operationalizing the double-bind phenomenon have affected its lack of empirical support? What methods of measurement could be used to capture the complexity in double bind communication and thus adequately test the validity of the phenomenon?)

Question 31

Listed below are a number of concepts and methods that have endured and continue to shape the field of family therapy. Choose any three; describe and give an example of each. How can each concept be used to enrich our understanding of families and guide our treatment interventions?
(a) double bind theory
(b) family homeostasis
(c) metacommunication
(d) complementarity
(e) process/content distinction

Question 32

What is a negative feedback loop and how or why is it initiated? Provide an example of a negative feedback loop based on a personal observation of a family interaction.

Question 33

How are family systems therapies different from traditional individual therapies?

Question 34

Some would argue that there is a radical divergence between family systems therapies and the more traditional psychotherapeutic approaches. Others would challenge this view, arguing that there are many points of similarity and that the differences are exaggerated. Take one position or the other and defend your stand.

Question 35

Choose two of the individuals below and describe how they helped to launch the family therapy movement. Be specific in discussing their contributions to the field.
(a) Gregory Bateson
(b) Theodore Lidz
(c) Milton Erickson
(d) Nathan Ackerman
(e) Murray Bowen
(f) Don Jackson
(g) Jay Haley
(h) Salvador Minuchin
(i) Virginia Satir
(j) Carl Whitaker

Question 36

How is group therapy similar to and different from family therapy?

Question 37

What was the positive impact of research on family dynamics and schizophrenia? What was its negative impact?