belittles him. The therapist's intervention is to give the wife homework in which she is to
only say positive things to her husband and abstain from any negative comments. When she
appears to be negative or belittling to her husband he is to put his hand up and say "Stop". A
feminist therapist would be critical of the above technique because it:
A: Gives the husband more power
B: Appears to be hierarchical
C: Is therapist driven
D: All of the above
ANSWER
D: All of the above
Feminists draw techniques from other schools of family therapy such as the Narrative ap-
proach, with a sensitivity to those that are especially empowering and client driven. In this
case, the therapist would work together to question imbalances of power between mem-
bers and the effects these imbalances have on all family members. A feminist therapist
might then work with the couple to develop new stories using a collaborative approach.
All of the following are considered communication theorists EXCEPT:
A: Watzlawick
B: Satir
C: White
D: Haley
ANSWER
C: White
White focused on meaning where communication therapists focused on behavior.
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,Jose and Maria bring their son, Joe, to counseling because of poor academic performance
and behavior.
A: externalize the problem
B: rearrange family members to imply alliance shifts.
C: use genogram construction to help the family identify family-of-origins patterns con-
sciously.
D: coach the family on improving its problem-solving skills
ANSWER
D: Coach the family on improving its problem solving skills.
The strategic family therapist defines the focus of treatment as the family and its interactive
process, paying particular attention to the family's process of problem solving.
During the process of treatment, Mr. Medieros recognizes how he was victimized by his par-
ents, and that past generations were also victimized by their parents. In recognizing this he
began to see his parents less as monsters and more as struggling human beings, themselves
acting out invisible loyalties. Therefore, he was able to block the trans-generational pattern
of destructive entitlement and allowed the positive transmission of relational resources. The
process by which he earned entitlement by dealing with his own issues with his own parents
is called:
A: A family projection process
B: relational ethics
C: societal regression
D: exoneration
ANSWER
D: exoneration
Exoneration is a process by which the therapist attempts to help the client see the positive
intent and inter-generational loyalty issues that motivate the behavior of members of previ-
ous generations.
Harmonious relationships are more difficult to achieve for gay and lesbian couples because:
A: they are more inherently pathological than straight couples
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,B: of shame
C: our society presents them with far more obstacles
D: they have more individual problems.
ANSWER
C: our society presents them with far more obstacles
Mary feels threatened by the arrival of her baby sister so she pouts and becomes tempera-
mental. When Mary acts out this way, her father thinks she is regressing and tries to get her
to act her age by punishing and criticizing her. Father's harshness confirms Mary's belief that
her sister is displacing her. The therapist suggests that when Mary behaves this way, the fa-
ther should ignore her. If this suggestion worked, it would be a good example of:
A: positive feedback
B: first-order change
C: second-order change
D: negative feedback
ANSWER
B: first order change
when only the behaviors or interactions when a system change, this is first order change, as
opposed to second order change, where the rule governing the behavior must change.
A Milan-Systemic therapist would define the purpose of circular questioning as:
A: Learning more about differences in family members' perceptions of their relationships.
B: expanding on the notion of a reframe.
C: disrupting the multiple interactional sequences existing in the family.
D: an individualized prescription of an action or series of actions designed to alter the fami-
ly's roles.
ANSWER
A: Learning more about differences in family members' perceptions of their relationships.
Circular questioning is a series of questions asked of one family member about another or
about the relationships within the family. Other answers can be eliminated as follows: Dis-
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, rupting the multiple interactional sequences - invariant prescription; Expanding on the no-
tion of a reframe - positive connotation; Individualized prescription of an action - rituals.
A couple comes to therapy because their three-year-old daughter is "out of control". During
the session the wife begins complaining that her husband is never homes and she is left to
deal with her daughter's behavior.
An initial goal that a Structural Family Therapist working with this family might set is to:
A: inquire about inter-generational themes.
B: help the couple function together as a cohesive executive subsystem
C: hypothesize as to why the daughter is so "out of control".
D: look for disabling international sequences.
ANSWER
B: help the couple function together as a cohesive executive subsystem.
Minuchin believes that the most important of all the general goals for families is the creation
of an effective hierarchical structure. Inquiring about intergenerational themes is Trans-gen-
erational, look for disabling interactional sequences is Strategic, and hypothesize as to why
the daughter is so "out of control" is Milan systemic.
According to the communication theorists, the content aspects of communication is known
as:
A: metacommunication.
B: report
C: request
D: an analogical message
ANSWER
C: report
All communications have a report and command elements. The report element refers to the
content, while the command element refers to the relationship between the sender and re-
ceiver. Meta-communication is communication about communication. This term usually re-
fers to the covert, nonverbal message that gives additional meaning to an overt, verbal mes-
sage.
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