Exam 12: Improving Relationships

Katie gets mad at Adam because he has forgotten to pay an important bill. When she brings up the problem, he doesn't say much and begins to sulk. Katie backs down and says she'll take care of the problem. Then she changes the subject and begins to tell him funny stories about her bad day at work, which he finds amusing and eventually the two of them are laughing while they make fun of her inept co-worker. According to a systems perspective, what is the ÒruleÓ underlying their relationship dynamic?

The main goal of an object relations therapist is to help couples:

In object relations terms, what is introjective identification?

2.Explain why couples who often wait a long time before seeking help for a struggling relationship make couples therapy challenging for practitioners.

Which of the following statements about outcome research assessing couples therapy is accurate?

How are emotionally focused and integrative behavioral couples therapy similar?

In a study described in the text, Halford, Sanders, and Behrens (2001) examined the effectiveness of a self-regulation version of the Self-Regulatory Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program (Self-PREP) for couples at low and high risk for marital distress. Couples either received Self-PREP or a placebo control condition. What is an accurate description of the results of this study?

According to the text, which is the most common theoretical model that couples therapists use?

According to a systems perspective, what is required for couples to make improvements in their relationship?

Reframing is to ________ as relabeling is to ________.

According to couples therapists (summarized in the text), one of the most common problems they see in therapy is ________, and one of the least common problems is ________.

From a cognitive-behavioral perspective, many processes determine how we interpret the words and behaviors of others. These processes include:

Which of the following couples therapy models focuses on having couples engage in empathic joining and tolerance building for resolving differences?

If you wanted to conduct an effectiveness study of integrative behavioral couples therapy, what would you do?

You're reading your newsfeed on Facebook when you notice an ad on the side of the web page. The ad reads, ÒAbout half of all marriages end in divorceÑdo you sometimes worry about your marriage? Click here and visit Dr.ÊVivian TangÊat the Marriage Checkup Clinic to see if your relationship is on the right track.Ó This program is an example of:

After 23 years of marriage, Kayla and Fred have decided to seek marital therapy. Their satisfaction with their marriage has decreased over time, to the point where both are feeling quite unhappy. They hardly talk to each other except to argue about the children or finances, and neither can remember when they last had sex. Based on material presented in the chapter about improving relationships, which of Kayla and Fred's problems would a couples therapist find most difficult to treat?

In the language of object relations couples therapy, an object is:

Empathic joining is to ________ as unified detachment is to ________.

A ________ prevention is undertaken before relationship problems get worse, whereas a ________ prevention is undertaken before it's too late to treat relationship problems.

3.You are an aide to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and your first job is to prepare a brief on specific interventions to strengthen marriages. What three points will you include in your brief?