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SECURE TEST BANK
Mastering Competencies in Family Therapy
Chapter 5: Structural Family Therapy
1. According to the author of the text, structural family therapists map which of the
following?
a. The road home
b. Family structure
c. Happiness
d. Mental health
2. After assessing the family structure, what is the goal for structural therapists?
a. Make the family’s boundaries more rigid to promote a better structure.
b. Realign the system’s boundaries and hierarchy.
c. Repair the emotional damage by encouraging more diffuse boundaries.
d. Introduce a new pattern of behavior to promote a “new dance” for the system.
3. Boundaries are rules for managing physical and psychological distance between family
members, and defining the regulation of closeness, distance, hierarchy, and family roles.
Which of the following is the best definition for a clear boundary?
a. Families with overly diffuse boundaries do not make a clear distinction between
members, creating a strong sense of mutuality and connection at the expense of
individual autonomy.
b. Autonomy and independence are emphasized at the expense of emotional
connection, creating isolation that may be more emotional than physical.
c. Boundaries allow for close emotional contact with others while simultaneously
allowing each person to maintain a sense of identity and differentiation.
d. None of the above.
4. Which of the following is the best definition for disengaged or rigid boundaries?
a. There is not a clear distinction between members, creating a strong sense of
mutuality and connection at the expense of individual autonomy.
b. Autonomy and independence are emphasized at the expense of emotional
connection, creating isolation that may be more emotional than physical.
c. Boundaries allow for close emotional contact with others while simultaneously
allowing each person to maintain a sense of identity and differentiation.
d. None of the above.
5. When working with enmeshed and diffused boundaries, a structural therapist will
primarily see which of the following in the family’s interactions?
a. Family members insisting on high levels of protectiveness or appearing to be over
concerned
b. Significant freedom for most family members to do as they please
c. Few demands for — or expressions of — family loyalty and commitment
d. Family member’s lack of reaction and few repercussions, even to problems
6. Minuchin preferred __________ to talking about interactions because often people
describe themselves as one way but behave quite differently. This allowed Minuchin to
see the family in action.
a. reframes
b. boundaries
c. enactments
d. one-way mirrors
7. Enactments allow the structural therapist to do each of the following EXCEPT?
a. To discover the family’s rules and assumptions
b. To develop a hypothesis that maps the family’s boundaries
c. To closely monitor content and process
d. To discount the family’s strengths and resources
8. Minuchin describes three main phases of structural therapy. What are they?
a. Joining the family, mapping the structure, and transforming the structure
b. Boundary-making, establishing hierarchy, and creating subsystems
c. Joining the family, boundary-making, and creating subsystems
d. Mapping the structure, family reenactment, and processing outcome
9. When a structural family therapist joins the family system, they are doing which of the
following?
a. Becoming member of the family
b. Agreeing with the family
c. Accommodating the family’s style
d. Processing the family’s problems
10. The process of joining refers to which of the following?
a. The process after the work in therapy has been achieved and the family is
“joined” together in their new patterns
b. The therapist illustrating a sense of openness to the roles of the family system.
c. Something the family must do in order to show they are ready for therapy
d. The therapist demonstrating adapting to the rhythm and style of the family.
11. Structural therapists strive to cultivate therapeutic spontaneity. What is this referring to?
a. The therapist doing as they please with their clients
b. The therapist “flying by the seat of their pants” when working with clients
c. The therapist flowing naturally and authentically in a variety of contexts and
situations
d. The therapist avoiding being natural in clinical situations
12. According to Minuchin, therapists must use themselves to relate to the family, varying
from being highly involved to professionally detached. Which of the following words
best fits with this description?
a. Rigid
b. Selfless
c. Permeable
d. Flexible
13. Structural family therapists examine the relationship between the symptom and the
family system. What does family as ineffectual challenger of the symptom refer to?
a. The family is aggressive and attempts to challenge the symptomatic member.
b. The family is assertive and challenges members in order to maintain homeostasis.
c. The family is passive, failing to challenge the symptomatic member.
d. The symptom performs a regulatory function in maintaining the family structure.
14. Minuchin conceptualized a family as a single system that also had multiple subsystems.
Some subsystems can be found in almost every family. Which of the following would
NOT be considered a subsystem?
a. Couple
b. Parents
c. Sibling
d. Pets
15. Which of the following best defines a cross-generational coalition?
a. The children form an alliance against the parents.
b. A subsystem is formed between a parent and child against the other parent.
c. A subsystem is formed between members of one generation against members of
another (i.e., grandparents vs. children).
d. A conflict is formed between the parents in the upbringing of their child.
16. Claudia, a structural family therapist, is working with a family in therapy. At one point in
the session, she hears mom tell her son, “Don’t tell your dad and step–dad about this.”
The therapist is observing what?
a. Covert coalition
b. Overt coalition
c. Triangle coalition
d. Hierarchical coalition
17. When parents set rules that are developmentally too strict and unrealistic with
consequences that are too severe, this is considered what kind of hierarchy?
a. Effective
b. Insufficient
c. Excessive
d. All of the above
18. The parents of a 13-year-old girl allow their daughter to have a cell phone. They put in
place certain rules for its use such as her homework must be done before using it, and it
must be turned off by 9:00 p.m. This could be considered an example of what type of
parental hierarchy?
a. Effective
b. Insufficient
c. Excessive
d. All of the above
19. It is not uncommon for an insufficient parental hierarchy to lead to which of the
following outcomes?
a. Disengaged family boundaries
b. Enmeshed family boundaries
c. Appropriate family boundaries
d. Invested family boundaries
20. The over/underfunctioner, the good/bad child, the understanding/strict parent, the
logical/emotional partner, and so forth are examples of what type of patterns?
a. Symmetrical
b. Asymmetrical
c. Complementary
d. Adaptable
21. At each state of __________, family members need to negotiate boundaries to support
individual member’s growth needs. It is when families do not do this that problems occur.
a. personality development
b. psychosexual development
c. family development
d. faith development
22. All of the following are examples of structural goals EXCEPT?
a. Establishing clear boundaries between subsystems
b. Promoting development and growth of the individual and the family
c. Distinguishing between the marital/couple subsystem and the parental subsystem
d. Repenting for an injustice and forgiving
23. Reframing from a structural viewpoint is seen as:
a. a way to highlight complementary relationships in the family and often involves
removing blame from one person and spreading it evenly.
b. piecing together each member’s description of the problem and reframing it so
that the broader systemic dynamic is revealed.
c. a way of viewing a problem to determine how much each individual contributes
to the conflict and then finding an agreeable solution.
d. Both A and B.
24. When a structural therapist asks family members to changes seats, has separate sessions
with individuals or subsystems, or asks one member of the family to remain silent during
an interaction, the therapist might be doing what kind of intervention?
a. Boundary making
b. Challenging the family’s worldview
c. Reframing
d. Unbalancing
25. Alexis, a structural family therapist, had been working with a volatile couple in family
therapy for a few months. During one session, she verbally questioned the assumption of
the couple that it “is better for the children if we stayed married” to determine whether
that belief was having the effect the couple thought it should. What intervention was
Alexis using?
a. Boundary making
b. Challenging the family’s worldview
c. Reframing
d. Unbalancing
26. Occasionally, when a structural therapist is having extreme difficulty realigning a
hierarchy in a family, or when a particular family member is being scapegoated, the
therapist might use which of the following interventions?
a. Boundary making
b. Challenging the family’s worldview
c. Reframing
d. Unbalancing
27. Intensity is an intervention best described by which of the following statements?
a. It is a technique in which the therapist “turns up the heat” by using his or her tone
of voice, pacing and word choice to break through a barrier.
b. It is a technique in which the therapist and the client hypothesize a “worst-case
scenario,” therefore allowing the client to manage their own anxiety more
effectively.
c. It is a technique in which the clients reenact the problem to a heightened degree,
therefore highlighting the family interactional patterns.
d. It is a technique in which the therapist allows the family to discuss what they
would do in a hypothetical situation, therefore realigning the boundaries in the
system.
28. Making compliments and shaping competence are used by a structural therapist in order
to do which of the following?
a. Make therapy more enjoyable to clients
b. Augment and reinforce the family’s natural positive interaction patterns and
strengths
c. Encourage the client about the progress that they are making in their own self
discovery
d. Help the family function in therapy
29. Mikayla and Jenna have been married for six years. They have recently decided to try
therapy because they find they argue incessantly and are drifting apart emotionally. They
are no longer able to spend quality time together without fighting, and both would rather
spend time with friends or by themselves than with each other. They state that their
arguments tend to follow the same theme time after time, regardless of what they are
fighting about. Mikayla sees Jenna as “overly emotional” and states that she always
breaks down during their fights. Jenna states that Mikayla never tries to understand her,
that she can’t share her emotions and that she’d rather be “logical” all the time. From a
structural viewpoint, how might you describe this relationship pattern?
a. The boundaries within their relationship are too diffuse.
b. The boundaries are rigid, and the couple doesn’t want to change.
c. Complementary — their roles have become rigidly polarized.
d. Symmetrical — each partner tries to match the other’s role.
30. Based on the previous vignette, Harold, the structural family therapist working with
Mikayla and Jenna, takes into account that all behavior has reciprocal antecedents and
describes their pattern of interaction like this: M affects J’s response, which then affects
M’s response, ad infinitum. Harold is doing which of the following?
a. He is reframing the complementary relationship and removing blame from one
person and describing how each person contributes to the problem dynamic.
b. He is boundary making to help the couple strengthen diffuse boundaries.
c. He is challenging the couple’s assumptions by overtly questioning whether they
are actually having the effect the couple anticipated.
d. He is using crisis induction by bringing the symptom into the room.
31. Which of the following statements about using structural family therapy with diverse
populations is TRUE?
a. The structural family therapy model was developed to attend to the dynamics and
needs of diverse families, especially those families with children having
difficulties.
b. Structural family therapy employs an active and engaged approach with which the
therapist often takes an expert stance in relation to the family, an approach that
often fits with the values of traditional cultures.
c. Both A and B are correct.
d. Neither A nor B are correct.
32. Brief strategic family therapy, a model that draws on structural and strategic therapies to
address drug abuse problems with African-American and Hispanic populations, all of the
following are principles of intervention EXCEPT?
a. Joining to connect with the family system
b. Enactments to assess family functioning
c. Reframing to promote caring and concern in the family
d. Paradox to get family members to do something different
33. Ecosystemic structural family therapy (ESFT), an empirically supported adaptation of
structural family therapy, was developed to treat which population?
a. Children and adolescents with severe emotional or behavioral problems and their
families within the context of their communities
b. Adolescents with substance problems and their families within the context of their
communities
c. Couples with one member who is severely depressed and their extended families
within the context of their communities
d. Young adult men and women with severe eating disorders and their families
within the context of their communities