Chapter 16: Group and Family Therapy

Test Bank

Multiple Choice

1. Which of the following approaches to psychotherapy has NOT been adapted for use with group therapy clients?

A. behavioral

B. psychodynamic

C. cognitive

D. all of the other listed choices have been adapted for use with groups

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. Most group therapies strongly emphasize ______, taking advantage of the fact that the group therapy experience is based on interacting with other people.

A. conflict resolution

B. interpersonal interaction

C. unconscious mental processes

D. identification of nonverbals

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. ______ has emerged as a leading figure in the interpersonal approach to group therapy.

A. Aaron Beck

B. Albert Ellis

C. Irvin Yalom

D. Donald Meichenbaum

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. According to Irvin Yalom, group therapy is most successful when group therapists ______.

A. approach it as a series of one-on-one interactions with clients

B. take advantage of the fact that clients will display their problematic tendencies toward other group members

C. limit the size of the group to four or fewer members

D. focus on the group members’ recollections of early childhood traumas

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Irvin Yalom’s approach to group psychotherapy has been labeled ______.

A. interpersonal

B. behavioral

C. solution-focused

D. narrative

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Medium

6. Irvin Yalom ______.

A. is a prominent researcher of family therapies

B. believes an individual’s disorder is a by-product of his disturbed way of getting along with other people

C. suggests the application of a medical model for treatment of family-based disorders

D. advocates for the application of cognitive techniques in marital therapy

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Medium

7. ______ is NOT 1 of the 11 therapeutic factors for group psychotherapy identified by Irvin Yalom.

A. Instillation of hope

B. Exposure to anxiety-provoking stimuli

C. Imitative behavior

D. Development of socializing techniques

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Therapeutic Factors in Group Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

8. ______ is NOT 1 of the 11 therapeutic factors for group psychotherapy identified by Irvin Yalom.

A. Catharsis

B. Interpersonal learning

C. International factors

D. Group cohesiveness

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Therapeutic Factors in Group Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

9. In group therapy, a client’s experience that “we’re all in the same boat” best describes the therapeutic factor labeled by Irvin Yalom as ______.

A. catharsis

B. interpersonal learning

C. imitative behavior

D. universality

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Universality

Difficulty Level: Easy

10. ______, feelings of interconnectedness among group members, plays the same role in group therapy that the therapeutic alliance plays in individual therapy.

A. Altruism

B. Group cohesiveness

C. Universality

D. Solution-talk

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Group Cohesiveness

Difficulty Level: Easy

11. According to Yalom, ______, or learning from in-group interpersonal experiences, is at the heart of group therapy.

A. universality

B. group cohesiveness

C. interpersonal learning

D. social reeducation

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Interpersonal Learning

Difficulty Level: Easy

12. In group therapy, the term social microcosm refers to the idea that ______.

A. group members often establish friendships and romantic relationships outside of the therapy setting

B. group members often have isolated lives and have allowed their social contacts to become infrequent, and these tendencies contribute to their psychological problems

C. the problems of most group members stem from antisocial tendencies, the exploration of which requires recollections of key early childhood events

D. the relationship tendencies that characterize clients’ problematic relationships in their personal lives will also characterize the relationships they form with fellow group members

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Social Microcosm

Difficulty Level: Medium

13. Group therapists are most likely to encourage clients to examine ______.

A. here-and-now relationships with fellow group members

B. illogical thoughts

C. reinforcements and punishments that represent contingencies for specific behaviors

D. the styles of parenting used by their parents

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The Here and Now

Difficulty Level: Medium

14. In group therapy, the group typically and ideally contains ______ members.

A. 3–5

B. 7–8

C. 12–15

D. 20–24

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Group Membership

Difficulty Level: Medium

15. Therapy groups may either be ______, allowing individual members to enter or leave at any time, or ______, requiring members to enter and finish therapy together.

A. open-enrollment; closed-enrollment

B. fluid-enrollment; static-enrollment

C. closed-enrollment; open-enrollment

D. static-enrollment; fluid-enrollment

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Group Membership

Difficulty Level: Medium

16. Stacy tries to enroll in a therapy group for individuals suffering from depression. However, when she contacts the group’s leader, she is informed that she will have to wait several weeks until a new series of group meetings begins. Individuals who wish to participate in the depression group, she learns, must attend from the very first session. This depression group is using ______.

A. open-enrollment

B. fluid-enrollment

C. closed-enrollment

D. static-enrollment

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Group Membership

Difficulty Level: Medium

17. Which of the following statements about group therapy is TRUE?

A. Extra-group socializing is encouraged by most group therapists.

B. Cotherapists must have the same therapy orientation in order to be effective.

C. Group members should be discouraged from extra-group socializing.

D. Group members may be asked to role-play as “mothers” and “fathers,” a technique called recapitulation of the family group.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Practical Issues in Group Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

18. Consider the developmental stages of therapy groups discussed in the textbook. In a substance abuse group, the members have become comfortable enough to compete with one another and jockey for status within the group. In which developmental stage is this therapy group?

A. first stage

B. second stage

C. third stage

D. fourth stage

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Developmental Stages of Therapy Groups

Difficulty Level: Hard

19. Which of the following statements about group therapy is TRUE?

A. One advantage of having cotherapists is the ability to foster recapitulation of the family group.

B. Extra-group socializing among group members poses little or no consequences.

C. Fellow group members are legally and ethically bound to maintain the confidentiality of information discussed during group sessions.

D. Group members who disclose information about fellow members can be fined.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Cotherapists

Difficulty Level: Medium

20. Which of the following statements best summarizes how well group therapy works?

A. Group therapy is largely inferior to individual therapy.

B. Group therapy is consistently superior to individual therapy.

C. Group therapy works about as well as individual therapy.

D. There is not yet enough group therapy research to determine how well it works.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: How Well Does It Work?

Difficulty Level: Medium

21. More than any other form of therapy, ______ therapy is characterized by a systems approach to understanding psychological problems.

A. group

B. family

C. behavioral

D. cognitive

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The System as the Problem

Difficulty Level: Medium

22. Regarding the causes of psychological problems, ______ therapists tend to endorse a linear model of causality, whereas ______ therapists tend to endorse a circular model of causality.

A. cognitive; humanistic

B. family; individual

C. behavioral; cognitive

D. individual; family

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: The System as the Problem

Difficulty Level: Medium

23. Although psychological symptoms may appear maladaptive, they are often in fact adaptive within the family environment of the individual. Family therapists refer to this idea as ______.

A. triangulation

B. the social microcosm

C. functionalism

D. interpersonal learning

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: The System as the Problem

Difficulty Level: Medium

24. As a family therapist, Dr. Langstrom talks to the family he is treating about their family comfort zone or “set point.” In family therapy terms, what Dr. Langstrom is really discussing is ______.

A. functionalism

B. communication patterns

C. circular causality

D. homeostasis

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: The System as the Problem

Difficulty Level: Medium

25. The genogram is an assessment technique used most often by ______ therapists.

A. behavioral

B. humanistic

C. group

D. family

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Assessment of Families

Difficulty Level: Medium

26. A ______ is a paper-and-pencil method of creating a family tree that incorporates detailed information about the relationships among family members.

A. histogram

B. genogram

C. histoplot

D. genoplot

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Assessment of Families

Difficulty Level: Easy

27. Which of the following is NOT one of the seven stages through which typical intact middle-class American families proceed?

A. leaving home

B. joining of families through marriage or union

C. launching children and moving on in midlife

D. resignation and acceptance of death

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Assessment of Families

Difficulty Level: Hard

28. Dr. Dobson suspects violence and abuse in the relationship of his newest couple’s therapy patients, Hugh and Julie. If he wishes to assess the situation using a method that is more structured and formal than a clinical interview, he is likely to administer the ______.

A. Domestic Abuse Checklist for Children (DACC)

B. Sampson’s Worthwhile Abuse Technique (SWAT)

C. At-Home Violence Metric (AVM)

D. Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS)

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Assessment of Families

Difficulty Level: Medium

29. The Rothberg family includes parents Mark and Tina and children David and Abigail. Mark and Tina take David to a clinical psychologist because “he is the cause of all problems in our family. If you fix him, everything will be great in our household.” If the psychologist takes a family therapy approach to treatment, he will consider the possibility that, in this situation, David is ______.

A. an identified patient

B. diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder

C. not Mark and Tina’s biological child

D. in significant competition with his schoolmates

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Assessment of Families

Difficulty Level: Medium

30. The notions of family structure, subsystems, and boundaries are important components of the type of family therapy practiced by ______.

A. Salvador Minuchin

B. Murray Bowen

C. Steve deShazer and Insoo Kim Berg

D. Irvin Yalom

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Family Structure

Difficulty Level: Hard

31. Lisa’s family is very, very close. In fact, the degree of emotional closeness they have with each other is so great that no member of the family is particularly independent. They always have to be around each other and do things together. From Minuchin’s perspective, this family is demonstrating ______.

A. disengagement

B. enmeshment

C. an undifferentiated ego mass

D. triangulation

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Family Structure

Difficulty Level: Hard

32. Two parents in conflict with one another each make efforts to recruit their child to their side in order to support their position in the conflict. According to family therapists, this exemplifies ______.

A. an undifferentiated ego mass

B. triangulation

C. extra-group socializing

D. linear causality

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Triangles

Difficulty Level: Medium

33. Exception questions, such as “When was this not a problem for you?” and “When was this not so bad?” and the formula-first session task, in which clients consider what aspects of their lives they want to remain the same, are important components of ______.

A. narrative therapy

B. humanistic therapy

C. solution-focused therapy

D. structural family therapy

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Solution-Focused Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

34. Using solution-focused therapy terms, the question “If your problem disappeared, how would your life be different?” is an example of a(n) ______ question.

A. exception

B. scaling

C. miracle

D. narrative

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Solution-Focused Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

35. A basic premise of ______ therapy is that by “editing” the “life stories” clients tell themselves; clients can improve their mental health.

A. solution-focused

B. narrative

C. structural family

D. group

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Narrative Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

36. ______ is a type of family therapy designed for adolescents with long-term behavioral and emotional problems that have resulted in trouble with the legal system.

A. Solution-focused therapy

B. Narrative therapy

C. Family structure therapy

D. Multisystemic family therapy

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Multisystemic Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

37. The Conflict Tactics Scale assesses ______.

A. depression

B. abuse and violence within families

C. cognitive confrontation

D. cognitive distortions

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Assessment of Families

Difficulty Level: Easy

38. When providing psychotherapy services to a family, ______.

A. information related to the psychologist by one family member is always kept in confidence from all other family members

B. the clinician must provide the family with a systems-based DSM diagnosis

C. the ground rules for confidentiality should be established with all family members during the initial consultation

D. psychologists are encouraged to assign an individual diagnosis to one of the family members to facilitate reimbursement from insurance companies

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Ethical Issues in Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

39. A therapist frequently asks clients these questions: “Are your problems present every hour of every day? When they are not so bad, what have you done to make them better?” These questions suggest that this therapist is most likely following which approach to therapy?

A. solution-focused

B. humanistic

C. interpersonal

D. metacognitive

Cognitive Domain: Application

Answer Location: Solution-Focused Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

Short Answer

1. Who is the leading figure in the interpersonal approach to group therapy?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Easy

2. List three of Yalom’s therapeutic factors for group psychotherapy.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Easy

3. Individual psychotherapists tend to explain psychological problems with ______ causality, whereas family therapists tend to explain psychological problems with ______ causality.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Easy

4. What is the name of the tool used to assess families that involves drawing a family tree and labeling the relationships between the individuals on the family tree?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Easy

5. Briefly, for what is the Conflict Tactics Scales (CTS) used?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Easy

6. When a family enters treatment, they often point out one family member whose symptoms are most obvious or problematic and identify him as the source of the family’s problems. This singled out family member is known as the ______.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Easy

7. What type of family therapy uses “solution-talk” and focuses almost exclusively on solutions?

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Easy

8. ______ therapy is designed for adolescents who have legal troubles that stem from long-term behavioral and emotional problems.

Cognitive Domain: Knowledge

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Easy

Essay

1. Explain Yalom’s corrective recapitulation of the primary family group.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Medium

2. Briefly describe each of McGoldrick, Carter, and Garcia-Preto’s (2011) seven family life cycle stages.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium

3. Compare and contrast open-enrollment groups and closed-enrollment groups as models of group therapy.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Medium

4. What do group therapists mean by the term social microcosm?

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: An Interpersonal Emphasis

Difficulty Level: Medium

5. Compare and contrast linear causality and circular causality.

Cognitive Domain: Comprehension

Answer Location: Family Therapy

Difficulty Level: Medium