Family Assessment Instruments, Family Environment Scale

Concluding comments should be brief, reassuring, and upbeat. Again expressing your respect for their choice to come in, your appreciation for their work, or noting events upcoming in the week can be good transitional termination talk.

FORMAL COUPLE AND FAMILY ASSESSMENT PROCEDURES Numerous couple and family assessment devices exist. It is beyond the purpose of this article to provide detailed descriptions of these devices. Therefore, instead of providing an exhaustive review of couple and family assessment procedures, we have listed some of the most popular instruments and procedures, along with their original references, in Table 12.1.

Interviewing Couples and Families Table 12.1. Couples and Family Assessment Instruments

Instrument and Citation General Description

Family Environment Scale The assumption underlying this measure is that environments, , Moos and Moos, 1986 such as families, have unique personalities that can be measured in much the same way as individual personality. Thus, the 90 item family environment scale seeks to measure the unique social climate within the family.

The Family Genogram, The family genogram is a procedure that enables therapists to McGoldrick and Gerson, graphically represent family structure. It is very popular among 1985 family therapists. The genogram is essentially a visual map of family relationships. It contains factual information such as names, ages, deaths, divorces, etc., as well as relationships.

Marital Satisfaction Inventory This instrument is a self report designed to assess marital in, D. Snyder, 1981 teraction and marital distress. It includes 11 subscales . The inventory should be completed by both partners and results are graphed on a single pro?le so that partner differences can be identi?ed, discussed, and addressed in counseling.